How do you know if you’re called to plant or pastor a church? Crossway hosted a Church Planting Panel at The Gospel Coalition back in April 2011. Dave Harvey shares some thoughts on calling.
Highlight: At 6:58 he brings up some “diagnostic” questions he’d ask a potential church planter or pastor:
- Are you godly?
- Would the people around you say that you have a passion for God?
- How’d your home? Your marriage? Your family? Your kids? (Invite him and others to examine).
- Can you preach?
- Do you love the lost?
- Can you shepherd people around you? Do you lead and do you care?
- Is there an external confirmation to your internal call?
As a single woman, I would like to see some resources for women who are interested in getting involved in church plants. Something that is not specifically focused on being a pastor’s wife would be good (although, just for the record, I wouldn’t be opposed to that has a future option either).
I know there are resources available for single women going into foreign missions, and my denomination provides helpful training materials for women’s ministry in mature churches that are very helpful. I would be interested in learning about what an effective women’s role in a church plant might look like, given some of the unique circumstances present in a church planting setting.
Any recommendations? Thanks!
Comment by Deb — July 5, 2011 @ 8:42 am
Hi Deb,
That’s a great question! Off hand, I don’t know of any books that speak directly to the role of single women in church planting specifically. That said, I may reach out to Carolyn McCulley to ask her to write up a guest post on the topic. She may have some content on the role of single women in ministry in general. She blogs at http://solofemininity.blogs.com/.
Comment by Angie Cheatham — July 5, 2011 @ 9:19 am
Since Scripture warns against women ruling over men in a church setting, it would be difficult for a single women to become a church planter due leadership being such an important part, but that doesn’t mean you can’t fulfill just as important secondary roles involved in starting a new place of meeting for believers. Perhaps you could try to find a mission focused group or organization and find an area of need that could be fulfilled through your service. I think a great “model” for church planting is a husband and wife working together- they are able to build up and edify one another in times of discouragement (which will no doubt occur in an area without a community of believers). The wife is able to support her husband in his evangelistic efforts and also provides him with a great deal of spiritual accountability. Hope this helps…
In Christ,
Forrest Barfield
Comment by Forrest Barfield — July 5, 2011 @ 4:08 pm
My brother and best friend are both on a church planting team in the Northeast right now, so I have quite a few close friends that I see and interact with on this topic.
Forrest, I think your comment only further highlights the lack of consideration for women’s ministry within the overall church planting community.
The counsel goes as such:
1 – You have to be a man to be a church planter. (Okay, but she asked about getting involved in a church plant, not being a church planter).
2 – You can help with unimportant things like cupcakes and decorations, since you’re a girl. (Not helpful.)
3 – If you can get married to a church planter, then you can have a real role and make a substantial contribution to the church planting effort. (If you’re not married, then sorry, can’t help you.)
The pastor of my brother’s church plant is much more proactive in getting women involved with the work of the church, such as Titus 2 mandates.
They have prayer teams and evangelism and discipleship teams that are based on Sovereign Grace’s model (See: Why Small Groups?) The purpose is for the women’s small groups is to have accountability, to apply the Word of God that the pastor preaches to their lives, to initiate acts of service together in community, to fellowship with one another, to pray for the work of the church, to pray for the unsaved people around them to whom they are witnessing and invite them.
The church planting pastor has said that the work of these small groups has been vital to their church growth thus far. (An important note to reiterate is that the women’s small groups are conducted under the headship of the pastor and his deacons.)
Angie – I think that would be awesome if Carolyn did an article to talk about some of the roles women may be able take to help the church planting effort, especially if they feel gifted to work in that type of missional setting.
Comment by Jerry Adams — July 6, 2011 @ 7:40 am
Thanks Jerry, that’s insightful for sure. We’ll see what Carolyn says as I’d love to see a more thorough response as well.
Comment by Angie Cheatham — July 6, 2011 @ 10:24 am