The 3 Traits of a Successful Church Planter

Special thanks to Church Multiplication Network for writing this post. On September 15, 2019, they’re celebrating National Church Planting Day—if you’re planting a church, check out their free resources to see how they can help.

At the Church Multiplication Network (CMN), we’ve spent the last decade helping new church plants around the United States, and we’ve learned a lot about why and how church plants flourish. 

To help you prepare your church plant, we’re sharing the top three traits we see in successful church plants. 

3 Traits of Successful Church Planters

1.   They are resourceful.

Church planters are entrepreneurial. They have the ability to gather resources for the new plant, and more importantly, they have the vision for what resources are necessary in the first place. Financial support is a given, but church planters can’t forget about the need for human resources, equipment, or a facility to meet in—and the most successful planters fulfill these needs in efficient, innovative ways like launching church as a portable location, sharing space with another church, and using free materials from platforms like Open Network. Successful church planters also find support from church planting organizations that offer strategies, partnerships, and funding options. Bottom line: there are many ways to overcome the resource-barrier to church planting, and the most successful church plants leverage every resource available.

2.    They invest in training. 

Another element we see in healthy church planters is the value they place on learning and developing. A God-given dream to plant a church is just the start of the adventure—you must develop skills in yourself and in others to set the church up for  long-term sustainability and success. The good news? There are far more opportunities today for church planting teams to receive training than there were 30 years ago. Today there are several major conferences and training events around the U.S. dedicated to equipping and training church planters; and, with the free CMN training videos on Open, you can start learning immediately—like now. View videos on “Fundraising Before You Plant”, “Marketing Pieces for Launch”, and “Creating Discipleship Systems.”

3.    They value support.

In our experience, jumping into a new community cold and attempting to start a church doesn’t work.

Instead, a church plant is healthiest when its leaders have multiple layers of support. This includes a core team and intentional coaching relationships with other seasoned church planters who can relate and provide experiential wisdom. Often, the insights needed to solve a problem are just a phone call away, and planting a church with the support of coaches, mentors, network leaders, and peers helps to combat loneliness and guard against burnout. 

If you’re not naturally gifted in these areas, we at CMN would love to help you learn how to plant a strong church—we equip and fund church planters and help you network with other leaders. We also host trainings at our Launch Events as well as at our annual CMN Conference. If you or someone you know is interested in church planting, visit iwantoplantachurch.com or our resources on Life.Church Open Network to get started.