Ed Stetzer of LifeWay Research shared his major church planting mistakes at Catalyst’s third lab. Here is what he said:

All too often church planters run gung-ho into church planting like they’re storming the beaches of Normandy but then get mowed down. I share mistakes, so that hopefully you can avoid them.

I knew that I needed to make some change in my life. People never change until the pain of staying the same grows greater than the pain of change.

ED’S BIG 7 CHURCH PLANTING MISTAKES

1. Forgetting the mission.
   Our motivations can naturally be mixed. We often focus on our own agenda rather than God’s agenda. You should want to plant a great church because of who God is rather than to prove something about yourself to others. God intervenes when we make it about our minds and our power and our glory. If at the end of the day, you could have done it without God, then God isn’t in it. The goal is God’s glory. You can’t become distracted by the tools.
2. Being married to a model.
   If you are more excited by the “how” than the “who,” then you are being distracted. I must be sure that I do not fall in love with someone else’s ministry model and mission. If you listen to other churches’ success stories, you can become distracted by the model. Ministry pornography is an unrealistic depiction of something that you never going to have that distracts you from what you are supposed to do. The “how” of church planting is in many ways determined by the “who,” “when,” and “where” of culture. Too many church planters plant a church in their head and not in their communities. If you aren’t asking “how” you should plant, you have a problem.
3. Not taking care of yourself.
   (1) First and foremost, you need to take care of yourself physically. If you don’t take care of yourself, then you will not be able to properly prioritize God in your life. Don’t tell yourself that you will take care of your body after you… plant that church… write that book… whatever. My job first and foremost, is to be the type of Christ follower, husband, and father God wants me to be, and if I am not taking care of myself, then I will never be able to be who God wants me to be.
   (2) You also need to take care of yourself spiritually. The personality type that plants churches is not consistent with the same personality type that is great at walking with God.Your people need more a pastor who has been with God than an entrepreneur that is full of ideas.
   (3) And you need to take care of your family. Your family will be with you in the end, but often the people you start a church with are not the ones you finish a church with.
4. Arrogance.
   I was too sarcastic and didn’t listen well. There are different reasons people are arrogant, but my arrogance was from trying to desperately prove myself to others. I needed to realize that my Father in heaven is already pleased with me. Unfortunately, my needs got in the way. Churches whose pastors have a weekly mentor pastor churches that are twice as large as churches whose pastors are without mentors.
5. Not taking believers deeper.
   People who are yearning for maturity are longing for what Christ followers need. But I made the mistake of thinking their quest to go deeper was not aligning with the church’s mission to reach people. If your vision doesn’t take people deeper spiritually, then you have a bad vision. You don’t want to take pride in what God calls a problem. Christians wanting to grow deeper are not you enemies but your partners.
6. Ignoring hidden agendas.
   Every person in your church has a vision for your church, and it is not the same as your vision for the church. Often the people you start with go away, and the people who stay try to hijack the vision a year later.
7. Afraid of finances.
   Part of why I was afraid of finances is because of the popular mindset of the time that said that talking about finances would offend seekers. Talking about money is fine… just don’t talk about money in a creepy way.

What your church needs is a godly and God-directed church planter. Anything else is not his agenda but yours. Anything else is too much about you and not enough about Jesus.