Feels Like The Second Time: Expectations

A year ago we launched Verve, which is the second new church I’ve started.  I thought it may be interesting for some of you if I shared a few of the things I’ve noticed about starting a church for the second time.  So here’s the first:

If you’re first church was “successful” there’s a tendency for you, and everyone else, to assume that you will see the same results the second time.  This can be dangerous as it can create unreasonable expectations.  It can also lead to bad decision making.  Like, “Well, we know we’ll be this size by this time, so let’s start with a staff of this many…”

The problem is that success once does not mean success twice.  There are so many factors that go into how a new church does – the readiness of the area, the fit of the planter with the people in that area, the attention the new church can garner, the resources available, etc.  So you may have the same guy leading in both plants, but if those other factors diverge there can be vastly different results.

Check out Vault, Verve’s conference on church planting.