Questions to Answer Before Planting a Church

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Asking (and answering) the right questions will help you get started in the right direction. There are a lot of helpful questions to ask before planting a church. It’s important to count the cost before launching into such a challenging and rewarding ministry.

As I train church planters, I help them to focus first on the mission of making disciples and forming disciplemaking communities. The key is to start making disciples first — before you focus on starting worship services. I emphasize this here because there are a lot of questions to answer about where and when and how you will gather for public worship. Those questions come after you’ve focused on when and where and how you will make disciples.

The following questions flow out of The Multiplication Workshop. Church planters should work together with their church planting team to develop answers to questions like these before launching out to plant a church. This list isn’t exhaustive by any means, but it’s a great place to start…

What is the mission of Jesus?
What is our part in Jesus’ mission?
What missional habits will we practice together?
How will we function as missionaries where we live, work and play?
What do we need to stop doing to better align with Jesus’ mission?
Where is our Circle of Accountability?
What is unique about our community (i.e., mission field)?
What are our primary missional activities? How will we meet needs?
What is one issue in our context that we would like to impact in the next 5-10 years?
How will we make disciples? What is our disciplemaking engine?
How will we form disciplemaking communities?
How will we gather publicly? (not where or when – but how)
How will we train disciplemaking trainers?
What kind of leaders will we develop? How will we raise up leaders?
What will God do? If we live out our values, serve our city, and accomplish these plans, what will God do in 5 years?

Taking the time to work through these questions (and others like them) will provide focus to your church planting efforts. The Multiplication Workshop is a great training opportunity to prepare you and your team to take the necessary steps forward and get started on the right foot.

Working with a qualified coach can help you develop your plan and move you further faster. If you’d like to find a coach – check out Missional Challenge Coaching.