Being a local church pastor is one of the hardest, most demanding jobs in America today. According to a recent study—done BEFORE Covid—50% of pastors won’t make it past five years in ministry. Think about that. Half of all new pastors won’t make it beyond five years in their ministry career! And more, clergy jobs are among the professions with the highest turnover rates!
If those numbers are not foreboding enough, consider this; according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as reported by Fundera, approximately 20% of small businesses fail within the first year. By the end of the second year, 30% of businesses will have failed. By the end of the fifth year, about half will have failed. And by the end of the decade, only 30% of businesses will remain: a 70% failure rate.
Wondering what new business has to do with local church ministry? Well, what do you get when you combine a local church pastor and a small business entrepreneur? A church planter!
Perhaps you can get a sense of the obstacles and impediments facing most any church planter today. Yet, being a local church pastor and entrepreneur does not even begin to describe the full duties and responsibilities of a new church planter. According to a study done by the Center for Vocational Ministry at Azusa Pacific University, pastors need to be proficient in sixty-five different competencies to do their job well!
It is no wonder why countless church planters end up burnt-out and disillusioned from trying to do what is in all honesty next-to-impossible. In the face of such dire statistics and insurmountable obstacles, author Tim Morey has nine questions for the prospective church planter to consider so that they can plant a church without losing their soul.
For anyone who as ever considered starting a church, leading a church through revitalization, or even whether or not to enter pastoral ministry, these are questions you need to consider beforehand—lest it cost you your soul!
Tim Morey is the author of Planting a Church Without Losing Your Soul: Nine Questions for the Spiritually Formed Pastor. Tim is founding and lead pastor at Life Covenant Church in Torrance, California. He serves as a church planting coach for the Evangelical Covenant Church and as an adjunct professor at Fuller Theological Seminary.
