Plant Better

For most pastors, growth is more steady than explosive, and your preaching is good, but not podcastable. But even if you don’t have those things, your ministry can still have a lot of life if you will lean into developing leaders. Your leadership development plan should roll off your brain as clearly as your next sermon series. In this episode Hunter Beaumont, Lead Pastor of Fellowship Denver, shares his thoughts on why leadership development should be right up with church planters’ other top priorities.

Most upper/middle-class Americans are living their lives to avoid having to interact with poor people who don’t speak their language. Christians too are apathetic, and even when they try to take the parable of the Good Samaritan seriously, they often go about things in ways that aren’t helpful. In this episode, author Mike McKinley talks about his newest book, Church in Hard Places, and why the church needs to do more than ladle soup. Other books by Mike McKinley: Church Planting Is for Wimps Am I Really a Christian?

Austin Stone has some unique leadership structures in place. They emphasize plurality of leadership, having both a Lead Pastor and a Pastor of Preaching. Kevin Peck is that lead pastor and our guest today. Listen in as Kevin discusses how The Austin Stone is relentlessly focused on making disciples, and how everything they choose to do in the church trickles down from that.

There’s a world of opportunity to build a brand on various social media—why shouldn’t churches take advantage? Listen in as Joe Peña from Relentless Church in Las Vegas shares the success his church has found in a single year by taking advantage of community hashtags, Facebook ad tools, Periscope, and more.

The gospel is everything: saving, sanctifying, and carrying our entire ministries. It’s non-negotiable, really, when it comes to church planting priorities. But how to make sure it’s at the center of your church? That’s the topic of discussion today with Brad Andrews, Pastor of Preaching and Vision at Mercyview in Tulsa.

It’s always helpful to clearly schedule the most important things in your week. For pastors, this means asking yourself how much time you’ll devote to sermon prep, leadership development, and the vision of your church. Ryan Prater from Cross Community Church in Katy, TX shared how he divides his own week in those three areas. His schedule will help you think through yours.

When church planters have more dreams than money, how should they respond? Aaron Stern, Lead Pastor of Mill City Church in Fort Collins, CO, gave us two answers: patience and priorities. Hear what patience looks like even in the face of pressing needs, and how faith is sometimes simply waiting. (The book Aaron forgot the title of was Essentialism by Greg McKeown.)

A plant team delivering 20,000 door hangers by hand because finances were low… A new church running its services out of a club… Jason Parrish from The Well in Salt Lake City has seen a lot of deficiencies in ministry turned into blessings. Hear why Jason defines ministry GAPs as “Glorious Amounts of Potential.”

It’s one thing to give someone a responsibility at your church, and another to equip them to do it. Hear how Kevin Campbell and the other pastors at Elevate Church in San Diego use a unique volunteer system to raise up a “dream team” of servants.

Brad Borowski has been lead pastor of D3 Church in Winnemucca, NV for a year and a half, but the church officially joined the Acts 29 network only within the last few weeks of this recording. Listen in to hear Brad talk about what that long A29 assessment process was like—and why his church wouldn’t have made it without help from larger organizations.

About 46% of people will discredit a website (and thus an organization) if the design of the website is poor (per Stanford Technology Lab). If that’s the case, your church’s website needs to count. Brady Shearer, who runs the Pro Church Podcast, joins the guys to talk about church website design (including the one cardinal sin every church site seems to be guilty of).

At the end of the day, the goal of a church is to bring people into relationship with God. If we’re just trying to build a crowd or bolster ourselves, we’re doing it for the wrong reasons. In this episode, James and Kenny talk with Aaron Jayne, Pastor of Coastline Church in Carlsbad, CA. Aaron’s passionate about not missing the spiritual side of church planting, and he shared how uses fasting and prayer to that end.

It’s easy for church planters to give their time to people who want to join their church—but it’s often so much harder to give that same time to God in prayer. This episode’s guest is Josh Bueno from Winners Church in Sacramento. Hear Josh chronicle his prayer life and explain why God’s response to prayer is a lot like a phenomenon that farmers see every day.

If the people at your church aren’t invested, they could care less whether it grows and flourishes. The question then is, How do make a clear path for them to get involved? Today’s guest is Shaun Nepstad, Founding Pastor of The Fellowship Church in Antioch, CA. In this episode, he tells the story of how his churched surged from survival to true growth.

Almost immediately after moving to Denver, Brandon Washington realized that a church that would thrive in Dallas—his former home—would not survive in his new city. Gentrification, multiple cultures, and a specific history are only some of the ways in which communities can be unique from another. In planting The Embassy Church, Brandon learned to navigate the uniqueness of his church’s community.

One of a church planter’s nightmares is getting to the day of launch and doing everything themselves. To avoid that nightmare, you need a team. And to build a team, you can use everyone’s favorite source of anything—the Internet. Listen in to hear Danny Schulz from Sun City Church in Spokane Valley, WA share the three most effective online strategies he used to recruit a launch team.

One of the biggest mistakes in church planting is hiring any warm body just because you need help. Instead, you want a hiring process where the best fit gets the job. In this episode you’ll hear Jim Essian, lead pastor at The Paradox Church in downtown Ft. Worth, tell you the first role you should hire and explain whether or not you should hire within your church.

Up until about his church has about 200 attenders, a pastor can power through with passion or talent. But if he wants to grow beyond that, he’s going to need some help. In this episode, Michael Lukaszewski, Founder and CEO of Church Fuel, shares some practical tips for numerical church growth . . . and gives a bold message to those who say church numbers don’t matter.

Dr. Steve Bezner, Senior Pastor at Houston Northwest Church, was Matt Chandler’s college roommate—so he’s qualified to talk about dealing with envy. Steve recently wrote an article on the subject, but in this episode you’ll hear his story straight from the mouth: how he bought into his own hype, felt the cancer of jealousy grow, and eventually, by God’s grace, came to understand that Jesus is enough, period.

Overcoming the odds is something church planters do daily—especially in a town like Los Angeles. In today’s episode, Casey Bombacie talks about overcoming the American siren song, figuring out if church planting is your promised land, and learning what true blessing is.

Bryan Barley moved to Denver from North Carolina to start The Summit Church. His goal was to join the community instead of showing it how to “do things right.” Listen in to hear how Bryan and his team settled into an existing neighborhood and put down permanent roots in order to serve it.

Kingdom work is accomplished not just in lifetimes, but in days as well. In this episode, Dan Freng from Calvary Littleton in Colorado gives an inside look at how he sets the pace for his church day to day—from missional living, to sermon prep, to answering emails.

What qualities describe most pastors? Wild guess: you probably didn’t think “organized.” Listen in to hear James talk with Doug Serven about his book The Organized Pastor in one of our most practical episodes yet.

Young, hip churches are all the rage in church planting, but they’re not right for every city’s context. David Ritchie from Redeemer Christian Church in Amarillo, TX joins the guys to talk about how his multi-generational church is far better than any he had envisioned.

You could always be doing more as a church planter. And the toughest part? They’re all good things you could be doing. In this episode, Ricky Jones from RiverOaks Presbyterian Church in Tulsa, OK explains why friendship is so vital to ministry, yet so low on pastors’ priority lists.

There’s a good chance that you love everything about being a church planter—except fundraising. Casey Cease can definitely tell you what not to do. Casey is a lead pastor who’s been there, made the mistakes, and learned a ton about how to do fundraising right. Listen in to hear what to do—and not do—in your fundraising.

Establishing a vision is the primary task of the church planter. The problem is, everyone who walks through your door has their own vision of how things should go. If you’re not upfront about yours in the beginning, things could get ugly. Brian Bowman from Valley Life Church in Phoenix has a lot of wisdom to share on that dilemma. Listen in to hear how to define, and then defend, your vision.

“Cold planting” is planting a church without a sending network or partner church. For Fathom Church in Littleton, CO, it worked. But would they recommend it to any new church planter? Chris Martin, pastor at Fathom Church, answers that question in this episode.

A lot pastors aren’t great managers. Sure, you have to do a lot of things you’re not great at when you plant a church, but if you have the right team, your giftings should complement each other. Listen in to hear Matt Patrick from The Well in Boulder, CO talk about how having a team is both harder and easier—and ultimately better—than going it alone.

Church planters tend to prepare for everything except recruiting. But people don’t just show up to new churches out of the blue. In this episode, the guys talk with Dusty Thompson from Redeemer Church in Lubbock, TX. Dusty has a big heart for church planters and some great advice on how they can draw people to their churches.

Who are the people you should have in your inner circle as you plant a church? What should they be like? Tory Mayo planted The Well in Austin, TX with a core team that moved neighborhoods to go on mission. Hear how he’s built a strong foundational team and what he would do differently if he did it all again.

Our hope rests in one of three places: the world, religion, or the gospel. But only one of them leads to freedom instead of slavery. That’s the subject of Hope-Shifting, a book by Jim Applegate from Redeemer Church in Modesto, CA. Listen in to hear his take on what “gospel-centered” really means.

It seems like a contradiction: you can’t understand until you know nothing. Yet, that’s a reality church planters have to embrace in order to lead well. In this episode, James and Kenny talk with Jake Chambers from Red Door, a church in San Diego, about approaching planting from a place of knowing nothing. Once you do that, you open yourself up to the outside help you need.

Jon Wolfinger is the lead pastor at Lumen Deo in Prescott, AZ—but he also oversees maintenance and facilities for a medical center. Because of his experience, Jon has a great perspective on bi-vocational ministry. In this episode, he explains that knowing whether it’s right for you comes down to this question: Is bi-vocational ministry a barrier or a bridge to church planting?

How much pressure do you put on your own sermons? If the answer is “too much,” you may find yourself perpetually exhausted. Listen in as Brian Hope from Mission Church in Walla Walla, WA packs a ton of wisdom about preaching into one episode. Topics include taking the “long-haul” approach to preaching, finding your own voice, letting the text be your guide, and how to prep.

In the past, some churches have been guilty of extracting from their people without giving much in return. As a result, many churches today don’t ask for anything. Can church membership, done right, be a solution to those extremes? That’s the topic of discussion in this episode, featuring Allen Duty from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, TX.

Around the 5-7 year mark in the life of a church, there is an alarming tendency towards apathy. All it takes is a little less worship, and a little loss of hope, to find the spirit of apathy everywhere in your life. In this episode, Timothy Stewart from Reflect Church in Elk Grove, CA talks about his recent chapter of apathy and how a simple revelation turned it all around earlier this year.

There are a lot of great reasons to plant a church—but also plenty of reasons not to. In this episode, James and Kenny talk with Joel Webbon from The Response Church in San Diego about the tendency of young men to plant churches to gain approval or prove themselves, and to plant as a reaction rather than a call.

In general, Millennials have no patience for “holy” pastors. If you aren’t appropriately transparent, they’ll sniff it out right away. That’s Chuck Ryor’s central philosophy for reaching the “used-to-go-to-church” population around Prism Church in Pasadena, CA. Hear Chuck’s wisdom on how much to share from the stage and, more importantly, why you should share it in the first place.

With the new year approaching, you have a choice: plan your year ahead of time or scramble week-to-week. Justin Fordinal from BridgePoint Community Church in Cypress, TX bought himself a six-foot dry-erase calendar from neuyear.net. He’s using it to plan out his entire 2016. Listen in to hear how following his lead can save you a ton of headaches.

Mark South from Origin Church in Roseville, CA talks with the Kenny & James about “vision vs. anti-vision” in church planting motivations. One is God-given and comes from love; the other comes from rivalry and a “hero complex.” Mark also asked five awesome questions to help planters assess their church planting motivations:

True gospel-centrality, and the right approach to leadership, can breathe life into a church. Jay Mathis was the lone pastor of a small church in Waco, but when he put a mantle of leadership on other men, trusting them to share in his control, the church turned a corner. Today’s episode points to the power of a living, relevant gospel in the life of Grace Church, Waco.

What happens when you’re a church planter who doesn’t know he’s a church planter? After the church’s founding pastor left to plant another church, Chris Rich was suddenly in the position of lead pastor at Damascus Road Church in Marysville, WA.  Hear how Chris had to change his view of the church from “established” to “replanted.”

The typical church planter is tenacious, zealous, and energetic. These qualities help get the church off the ground—but they also lead to burnout. In this episode, James and Kenny talk to Danny Braga, lead pastor of Taproot Church in Burien, WA. Listen in to hear how Danny handled a personal and spiritual collapse that brought his faith to the brink and back again.

What is Plant Better? We're glad you asked. In this first episode, James & Kenny explain why they launched the show, the format of each episode, and 3 reasons church planters should listen. You'll also learn how you can access the private Facebook community that Kenny & James created to supplement the podcast.