I saw this yesterday on Cass Midgley’s Facebook profile. Cass’s friend Jim is a church planter whose perspective on church planting and spiritual development has changed over the years.

Cass has given me permission to reprint a portion of his article. Check it out below:

If Jim Were Planting A Church Today

Setting the Stage

I have planted two churches. One has developed into a very healthy attractional church, the other a cutting edge missional church. I worked much harder than I needed to and focused much of my energy attempting to achieve the wrong things. I would trade anyone anytime to be able to plant a church today in comparison with 30 years ago. Now I have other things to do but I want to help others who are interested in this work have more fun, achieve better (and more interesting) goals and survive the psycho- spiritual battlefield one encounters in this work.

30 things I would do differently

  1. Have a career in an unrelated field – like music, teaching, marketing or my own business
  2. Realize that if money were removed from ministry most pastors would quit.
  3. Accept some money from my spiritual community out of principle.
  4. Gather people around serving others instead of knowing more.
  5. Be happy with leading 5-10 people and knowing them personally.
  6. Serve my spiritual community by making connections for them in our local community.
  7. Introduce people to Jesus in the context of serving others.

If these intrigue you, stop by Cass Midgley’s Facebook profile to find the other 23 things Jim would do differently.

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