Over one hundred people responded to the invitation at a denominational conference to become church planters. They were prayed for, commissioned and sent home inspired. Any denominational leader would celebrate a response like that.

The tragedy? Very few ever planted a church.

Unfortunately, that story isn’t unique. Variations of it have been repeated in conversations I have had with denominational leaders and church planting leaders across Australia.

So what went wrong? At the risk of using terminology that doesn’t seem very spiritual, there wasn’t a system in place to turn well intended decisions and sentiments into action.

Components In A System That Works!

Church planting doesn’t happen simply because people feel called. It happens because a healthy system turns calling into action. Putting in place a system that will see churches planted is not rocket science. It just requires intentionality.

The ministries that consistently see healthy new churches emerge understand a simple principle: Church planting rarely happens by accident. Healthy church planting is usually the outcome of a healthy system.

A system doesn’t remove the work of the Holy Spirit. Instead it creates a pathway that helps people respond faithfully to God’s call. It provides clarity, accountability, encouragement and support from the first conversation through to the launch of a new church and beyond.

The goal isn’t simply to launch one church. Healthy systems produce churches that produce churches. Every step in the pathway should prepare future planters who will one day repeat the journey themselves.

It would be great to see every denomination, network and church planting ministry have a simple system that includes the following ten steps.

1.Identify

Capture the details of people who express an interest in church planting. If people are not identified, they cannot be intentionally developed.

2.Connect

Stay in regular relational contact. Someone needs to own the relationship, pray with them, answer questions and keep the conversation alive.

3.Discern

Help people prayerfully determine whether God is calling them to plant a church and what that calling looks like.

4.Assess

Evaluate character, gifting, leadership capacity, disciple-making experience and readiness so development can be tailored appropriately.

5.Develop

Provide formation through coaching, mentoring, training and practical ministry experience. The goal is to develop leaders, not simply transfer information.

6.Apprentice

Give future planters the opportunity to serve alongside an experienced planter so they learn by doing.

7.Prepare

Develop the vision, strategy, team, finances, governance and launch plan needed for a healthy beginning.

8.Launch

Commission and release the planter with the support of the wider church or denomination rather than expecting them to succeed alone.

9.Coach

Continue walking alongside the planter through regular coaching. This provides encouragement, accountability and wisdom during the critical early years.

10.Multiply

From day one, help the new church identify and develop future leaders and future church planters so the cycle begins again.

The System Must Be Relational

The most effective systems are deeply relational. Coaching should not be an optional extra but an essential component that ties the entire journey together. A coach helps maintain momentum, asks the hard questions, celebrates progress and provides accountability when challenges arise.

Research conducted by the Association for Talent Development (USA) has found that accountability is the primary driver for achieving what a person decides to do. According to their research on goal setting, a person dramatically increases their likelihood of success based on how they commit to their objectives.

The research found that commitment grows stronger as accountability increases:

• 10% – Having a vague idea or goal.
• 25% – Consciously deciding that they will do it.
• 40% – Deciding when they will do it.
• 50% – Planning how they will do it.
• 65% – Committing to someone else that they will do it.
• 95% – Having a specific, ongoing accountability appointment with the person they committed to

The message from this research is simple. If we want people to do what they decide to do, relational accountability as part of a system is key. Knowing this, I reflect on how many people over the years made a decision after an inspiring church message, and then didn’t carry through to do as they had decided. Relational accountability would likely have brought about a different result.

The Bottom Line

If in Australia we want to see significantly more healthy churches planted and multiplication take off, we will need more than inspiring conferences and excellent training resources. Inspiration may awaken a calling and training may increase competence, but only a healthy, intentional system consistently produces church planters who plant churches that plant churches.

If we genuinely want to see multiplication across Australia, perhaps the question isn’t, “Where have all the church planters gone?” Perhaps the better question is, “What system do we have to help them become church planters who will raise more planters?”