EDITORIAL
Forward Leading | Mark DeYmaz
I can assure you that planting a church is not for the faint of heart. From my own experience I can tell you it’s not so much the initial planting of a church that is difficult—although it is challenging. What’s more problematic, complicated and exhausting is all that comes post-launch that will drain you physically, mentally and emotionally.
The daily responsibilities of:
• articulating vision, chasing dreams and pursuing mission
• raising, saving and leveraging money
• growing, developing and maturing the organization
• recruiting, equipping and keeping staff or volunteers on your team
• navigating challenges, overcoming obstacles and sustaining momentum
• determining objectives, launching ministries and achieving results
• maintaining your health, leading your family and battling your humanity
While there are no “silver bullets,” there are at least four foundations upon which every successful church plant has been established.
1. Passion (Calling)
Behind every successful church plant is a church planter who can articulate a clear and compelling story of his or her calling: a distinct moment in time, after months or even years of seeking God’s will through prayer, personal and professional reflection, and conversations with others, when such things converged in an invitation from God to plant a church. As when a man asks a woman to marry him, in that moment the question becomes, “Will you join me?”
2. Prayer (Commitment)
Of course, successful church planters recognize their dependence on God and are committed to ongoing prayer. But that’s not what I have in mind here. Returning to the analogy of a proposal, just because a man invites a woman to marry him doesn’t mean she’ll accept. So, too, it is between God and a church planter. Successful church planters remember the moment they put the ring on in a prayer of commitment, one he or she regularly recalls in order not to quit.
3. Patience (Courage)
You have heard it said that within three years a successful church plant will be self-sustaining, that is, that tithes and offerings should by then cover the budget. Yet this fails to recognize the true definition of sustainability, which otherwise describes an organization’s ability to be maintained at a certain rate or level. Tithes and offerings may at one moment in time pay the bills. But what happens when a large donor leaves, when a school doubles the rent, when the new church plant faces rising costs for goods and services? More accurately, planters should expect that it will take the church 7–10 years to get from financial survival to stability and another 7–10 years to get from stability to sustainability. In the meantime, be faithful, remain hopeful, and don’t compare yourself to others.
4. Persistence (Conviction)
In college, my psychology professor told our class, “An earned Ph.D. doesn’t mean someone is smart; it means they stayed in school and paid their dues.” Similarly, successful church planters are those who stay at it and refuse to quit on themselves, their vision or their God.
Fueled by the passion of a calling, having committed themselves in prayer, and by playing a long game of patience and persistence, successful church planters establish effective churches by walking in a manner worthy of the purpose to which they’ve been called.
Join Mark DeYmaz and some 1,500 other ministry leaders at Mosaix’ 6th National Conference, November 11–13, 2025, in Dallas, Texas. Visit MosaixConference.com to learn more.