Church Planting Churches

by Duncan and Kate Smith

05 February, 2019

The Lord has put it on our heart to plant 1000 Churches in our lifetime. 

Are you planting churches or are you planting church planting churches?

When I first asked John if I could go plant a Church. He said no seven times. Between ask six and ask seven he said “I hope you are really not going to plant a church, Duncan.” I hope you realize you are called to stadiums.” I said “Well, I understand why you are feeling that, I honour and respect you feeling that. I know your heart is really good, but I really just want to plant a church.” “I’ve got some good news for you John, I don’t want to plant a church.” John said “well, that’s great!” ”I want to plant a church planting church that plants a 1,000 churches!” On the eighth time he finally said, “Go down to Raleigh and prove me wrong.”

That’s always a sign of great leadership. That you hold your people lightly enough that even if you don’t necessarily agree with their next move, you still let them go. If you’ve got longevity with them, which he had with Kate and me, 8 years, there comes a time where you've got to let them go and let God show them that he’s either with them or not. Be willing to hold your people lightly, even your best people. Whatever you sow, you reap. 

As I was talking to Banning, I remembered what the Lord asked me before we planted the church. “I want you to ask me, Duncan, how big I purposed this church that you're going to plant in Raleigh to be.” God said, “At the end, I want you to believe me for 10,000 people. Do not despise the days of small beginnings.” I realize that there was such wisdom in God saying that to us because we’ve never settled at any of the growth stages. We’ve never taken our foot off the accelerator pedal. Because the ultimate goal numerically is way down the road from where we are. Have you asked God that question for your church? Have you asked God how big do you want this church to be?

Babies Cannot Reproduce Babies | Growing Up

Babies cannot reproduce babies. Only teenagers and adults can give birth to babies. If we are going to be a church planting movement, we need every church to realize their place in God is that they are going to be a church planting church. In order for that to happen, every church has to grow up. We have to grow up numerically and we have to grow up in stature, in our leadership.  Big people will result in big churches, and big churches have the greatest chance of creating big families. You’ve got to make it your goal that God would make you big enough as leaders with big enough people for you to be able to plant one if not two churches in the next decade out of your own church. It takes quite a lengthy time to grow people ready enough to plant a church. There are people who are sitting latently in our congregations in our church family who God is working on, getting them ready, growing them up, healing their hearts, filling them with courage, teaching them how to die, because God could only resurrect a dead body. There is so much in the process. 

Some of you are going to have such momentum with this that you are literally going to plant out of your own church every couple of years and I’m really excited about that. So just set your hearts on growing numerically and growing in maturity big people.

How We Grow Big People and People in Maturity

Where There Is No Vision, the People Perish | We Need to be Visionaries 

We must be visionary leaders. Without a vision the people perish. We need to be a people of vision. Our vision needs to be God’s vision. We need to spend time in prayer asking vision for our lives and our church. We should never be ashamed to articulate it regularly and we must never apologize for wanting people in our world that we influence to catch hold of God’s vision in their own lives. What I mean by that is, we want to create a realm where everybody can thrive and understand God’s vision, purpose, and calling for each of their lives. Otherwise you can end up in the situation where Big People are just scattered left right and centre doing all sorts of incredible things, but they don’t put their hands to the plow to fulfil the vision God’s given them to do as a community together. 

Don’t be afraid of whatever God’s given you. Once they understand your vision big as it is, they'll begin to share with you their vision and you can begin to work with them to see how they can fulfill their vision within your world but at the same time, they get the joy of fulfilling the big family vision all together with each one playing their part. You don't just want to get people in a situation where they are so conscious of their own vision but they have no idea of your vision and the family vision for the church. Neither do you want to create a scenario where your vision is so important they never really discover their own vision and they actually feel quite frustrated. They feel frustrated because they never really feel like there is room for them to find a place for their God given calling or vision in your world. People may either leave if they feel your vision is too little or they may feel too constrained in it, or they may feel their vision is too big. We need articulate vision and it needs to be God’s vision not just for you but for the entire church and it needs to be a big enough umbrella vision that anyone in the church can find fulfillment following that vision by discovering God’s calling and vision for their lives. 

Delegating Authority and Developing People

The best thing that you can do is delegate authority and develop the people you delegate authority too. To do that you need to stay in the bigness of God and stay out of the smallness of man. that includes your own smallness. It includes the smallness most definitely of your own ego. Keep your ego small. It includes the smallness of your own issues of fear, pride, and insecurity. Fear, pride, and insecurity are the number one things that will make you a wonderful bottle neck in your church. Because you will start to organize your church in a way that will keep your fear and pride in tact, to keep you from feeling insecure. Keepings you from all your worst fears coming to pass. For example, when you know somebody is very good at something and you fear to give it to them because you know when you give it to them they are going to excel at it. Everyone is going to see they are excellent. You are going to organize your world in a way to make sure they actually never do that again. Have you ever been in a situation where you give someone an opportunity to preach on the platform and they do incredibly well then everyone starts saying things like “oh my gosh, they were so incredible you need to get them preaching more, we need to see them preaching more.” And you’re sitting there thinking “oh my gosh, I feel terrible by implication. One thing I’m going to not do is never put them back on that platform.” It’s Saul’s killed his thousands and David’s killed his 10,000’s syndrome. 

The opposite is to stay “Oh wow, I’m glad you’ve enjoyed them and yes we will seek to give them opportunities along with others, for them to be able to preach again. So thrilled that you’ve loved that, and that is actually what we want. To raise up as many preachers as possible.”

Ultimately we start off as the biggest leader in a group of people. Then we want to end up as the smallest person in a group of really really big people that God has raised up from being small to big in your world. Go in the opposite spirit. If you ever feel that sense of “Oh my goodness, that person is going to do really well, and if they do then I’m going to lose my place.” Take those thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ. And then go in the opposite spirit and get right behind them and celebrate them. Do whatever it takes to help them become a success in the very thing that is your worst nightmare.

Having Brave Coversations | Correction, Direction, and Affirmation

If you are going to delegate and grow big people, you’re going to have to be prepared to have some brave conversations with them. Because it doesn’t always go well immediately the biggest temptation is to take what you delegated away from them. Again that is one of the worst things you can do. You do not want to release people, get them going, they make a mistake, and on their first or second mistake you pull the rug out from under their feet and you take it all back for yourself. I know it sounds like common sense, but you’d be surprised at how we do that over and over again. When we do it the most is when somebody comes along and hands us a loaded gun when we’ve just delegated and asked someone to do something. They hand us loaded gun and says shoot this person with the bullets I’m giving you. In other words, someone comes along and says ”You’re not going to believe what this person’s just done, they’ve just blasted through correcting somebody and they lost their temper.”

I go straight to that person I’ve delegated too or just released into leadership and I confront them, and take away their authority and put them back into place where they were. All because somebody told me a story I didn't really check or corroborate. Take a step back and think it through, investigate fully, find out the facts, and determine in your heart to not fire the person but help to develop them in what you just gave on the journey, and take the long term approach. Bring correction and affirmation and give them the opportunity to develop them. You’re not just delegating you’re developing. 

If you keep doing that over and over again in microwaves and microwaves, and you keep making room for people I promise you that ultimately you will develop big people. Those big people will help you grow big churches and big departments who will help you do big things with God. Those people will help you end up being a movement of church planting churches. Also it is counterintuitive. You often think, no one can do it as well as you do, so you keep doing it. For a period of time there is more risk for you to delegate and give it to other people. Overtime, of you developing and phone calls and meetings and maybe even it looking bad on you, but ultimately you will go further as a team than you trying to be a one man or woman show. 

Pyramid to an Arrow

Take every pyramid where you’re at the top and everyone is under you, turn it to  the side so that you’re out front, the people are at the top, and you're moving so they can follow you. Where are they going to move? They will move to the current spot you currently occupy. Keep delegating, keep giving especially to those people you are most threatened with. Pray for people that threaten you the most. Pray for them and pray that God would always surround you with people bigger than you. You will be a success and you will grow big people.