Church Planting Mistakes – The One Thing I Would Do Differently

For nearly 10 years we pastored a church of homeless people in Waikiki, Hawaii.  

As I look back, there’s one thing I would do differently.  

Let me explain our story first….

We were traveling around the world breaking bricks for Jesus and preaching the Gospel.  (We did strength demonstrations, which brought crowds, which allowed us to preach.)

God then called us to church plant in Hawaii of all places.  

So we spent around 18 months interning at a church and then launched out to plant a church in Waikiki.  

The first thing I did when we arrived was go on a 40-day fast to pray.  It was during this fast that we were lead to focus on working with the homeless.  

And off we went, finding the homeless people, serving them and trying to get them to be a part of the church.  

In hind sight, this is what I would do differently:  I would spend the first year solely focusing on building a team, a community.  

You see this over and over again in the book of Acts, they would go out in teams and they would create communities. 

“They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” Acts 16:31

True discipleship always happens in community.  

In fact, your new identity is affirmed and re-affirmed by the community you surround yourself with.  They become your “We”.

Instead of going it alone, I would have gone after growing a strong inner core of people who had the same values as us.  They would have become our “We” and I think that would have made the biggest difference in bringing hope and healing to the street people we worked with.  

I think this is why the church is compared to a “body” with many parts. We need different people, with different sets of gifting, working together with the same sets of values to really see movements sparked around the world.  

If you were just starting, how would you go about gathering a community? 

How To Multiply Disciples Quickly

How To Multiply Disciples Quickly