Planting Churches for the Wrong Reasons
Is it possible to be starting churches, and yet be doing it for the wrong reasons? Paul talked about those who were preaching the gospel with the motives of jealousy, rivalry or selfish ambition (Philippians 1:15-18). While he could rejoice that the gospel was preached, obviously God, who judges the heart, was not pleased.
What would some possible wrong motives be for starting new churches?
• Church planting is “where it’s at!” It is the hot topic in Christianity, and the ministry model everyone is talking about. Anyone can be a pastor, what’s so big about that? I want to plant a church.
• I know pastors that have started a church and pastored it all their lives. They are great men of God – everyone looks up to them.
• I don’t want to inherit somebody else’s problems. If I go to an established church there will be so much history to overcome. I’ll have to live with the consequences of all the things other pastors have done wrong.
• If I start my own church, I can run the church the way I think it should be run and nobody else will be telling me it should be different. I started the church and set it up the “right” way … if they don’t agree, they can go somewhere else.
• When I told the Pastor how I thought he should be doing things, he said “If you don’t like it, you can start you own church” …. so I did.
• Other churches are not doing a good job. There are lots of churches in the area, but they are not effective. We need to show them how it’s done.
• People in our community need to have worship options. There is plenty of room for a variety of ministry styles in our town.
• Pastor “X’s” church is growing, but it’s just because they have a great music program. I’m a better preacher than he is any day. I know a lot of people in the church that are unhappy – they deserve better than that.
• I don’t work well with others – whenever I’ve tried, things have not worked well. It will be better for me to start out on my own.
• I just want to do my own thing. I’m not happy with the way any of the other churches are “Doing ministry”. I want a chance to put my ideas into practice.
Yes, these kinds of statements are heard far too often. Even when they are not expressed, the thoughts are sometimes there.
What are some of the right motives found in God’s word?
• Love for God and our neighbors (Luke 10:25-37).
• Desire for God to be glorified (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 3:21).
• Obedience to His command (Mark 16:15).
• Burden for lost souls (John 4:35-38).
• The needs of people I have won to Christ and am discipling (Acts 14:21-23).
• Desire to reach the people on the other side of town (Mark 1:38).
• Passion to multiply instead of just getting bigger (Acts 9:31).
Most of us would affirm that we are serving with these right motives. The problem is, some of the wrong motives can subtly be there as well. If we are honest, we would have to admit that some of these wrong motives are present. Do we feel good when “our” church grows and is doing well? Yes, of course we praise God and give glory to Him – right motives are there. But it seems that somewhere down in our Adamic nature, there is always a little bit of pride at the same time. Like the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit, it’s not usually just all one or the other – both are generally present.
As we are doing the right things, we must always be aware that fleshly motives can creep in. May God give us grace to constantly search our hearts (Psalm 139:23-24), lest being lifted up with pride, we fall into the same condemnation as the Devil (1 Timothy 3:6).
Let us be careful how we build (1 Corinthians 3:10-15)!