3 Essential Steps to Clarify Your Church Planting Vision
By Ben Connelly
Seasoned church planters understand that extensive preparation is required long before a public launch. This article outlines three essential steps to clarify your church planting vision before you announce a date or recruit a launch team.
Step 1: Craft a Vision.
“There’s a good chance your church will gather on Sundays, right?” I recently asked a planter. He scoffed, “Of course.” When I asked why, he stared back blankly. “Well, that is what churches do, isn’t it?” he finally stammered. This exchange highlights a frequently overlooked element of the process: the need to craft a vision for your church that defines every aspect of its mission and ministry.
What is the specific purpose of your Sunday gatherings, and how does your weekly content help fulfill that goal? Why will you engage children and teens in the specific ways you propose? Understanding how these decisions affect your mission field and your people is vital. Addressing these questions for every ministry area helps create a healthy culture that supports your long-term vision.
DANGER: If you skip the step of crafting your vision, you will miss a vital piece of what God has for you and the church he’s building through you. On one hand, if you do things just because they’re familiar, or “because that’s what churches do, isn’t it?” you miss the function behind the form. On the other hand, if the idea of your church remains merely a vague and nebulous concept in your mind, you’ll have a hard time when you move into step two—you won’t have a clear, compelling vision to call people to join.
Step 2: Cast Your Vision.
Church planters are an excited bunch. And rightly so; our church would have a hard time sending out a planter who wasn’t excited about the calling God had for him, and the church he was planting. But two of the best words I heard as we planted The City Church were “slow down.” Those words have proved fruitful in too many situations to count—but as they relate to vision, they meant, “Take a few months to cast your vision—before you start a core team—to help as many people as you can see what God is doing.”
