.webp)
Planting a church is a profoundly sacred and weighty act. You are stepping into the 2,000-year story of Jesus’ Church, which He promised to build when He said, “On this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Matthew 16:18).
Pause and consider that. The Church belongs to Jesus. He loves her deeply. He protects her. He leads her. Planting a church is not merely an entrepreneurial venture or a ministry project; it’s a divine partnership with Christ Himself as He continues His mission through His people.
This calling should humble us, thrill us, and sober us. We are not starting our church. We are stepping into His car, and He’s asking us to drive, but His kids are in the passenger seats. That is quite a weighty responsibility.
As you start to move closer to this reality, let’s walk through some different steps that will help you prepare for the start of the church by the end of this.
If you try to plant a church in your own strength, it will fail. Before moving forward with any practical steps towards starting a church, this truth needs to be deeply present in your mind and heart. It can’t be about you and what you are capable of. This church has to be birthed from a place of dependence and humility before the Lord.
Paul intentionally held back from being the focal point, from being an impressive leader (1 Cor 1:14-15), from teaching eloquently (v. 17), and using any other means of trying to build in the flesh. He didn’t want to empty the cross of its power (v. 17) and he wanted the church’s faith to “not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Cor 2:5).
How committed are you to this church being built in the fullness of God’s power rather than your own wisdom? And if that is a commitment in your life, how is it being displayed in your prayer life?
Before strategy, before meetings, before naming or branding, comes surrender. The planter’s heart must be settled: “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1).
This stage is about deep dependence. It involves extended times in prayer and fasting, listening more than speaking, and asking, “Lord, what’s on Your heart for this church?” Write down what you hear. Here is a list of things you should be seeking the Lord for:
As you are praying through these and other things, here are some helpful practical steps to consider for creating healthy rhythms of prayer going forward:
There’s a subtle danger in church planting, especially in the house church movement, to become isolated and operate as a lone pioneer. It’s easy to think, “I’ll just do my own thing at home; I don’t need anyone else.” But that’s not how the Body of Christ works.
God designed His Church to be interconnected, not independent. Jesus prayed, “that they may be one, as We are one… so that the world may believe” (John 17:21). It took some of us a while in San Francisco to be humbled enough to see our need for the body of Christ around us, to realize that God wasn’t intending to use only our church to move in our community.
Church planting requires humility. Without it, you will try to build your own kingdom rather than Jesus’.
You must resist the maverick spirit and choose connection instead. That means intentionally building bridges with other local pastors, churches, and networks — even those who don’t look exactly like your expression of church.
The Kingdom of God is bigger than your living room.
Ask yourself:
That last question is a really important one. Not enough church planters are thinking about covering, accountability, and support. The type of person who is bold enough to plant a church is often the same type who overestimates his own abilities and strength. There’s danger here, and it will lead to great damage.
Humility will lead to a desire for elder covering. The ideal situation in planting a church is to be sent and covered; have you meaningfully sought this? What elder-qualified men are you submitted to and accountable to?
Before you plant, you should be pursuing this so that you are not on your own. As discussed earlier, it is important to have relationships with leaders and pastors in your area, but this is something that goes deeper into relationship commitment and responsibility for one another.
Most church planters naturally think organizationally — structure, name, services, systems, gatherings. Like the Field of Dreams quote, “If you build it, they will come”, we tend to think that if we create an impressive church experience with great programs, preaching, music, etc. that people will come. We think that the programs or organization is what will cultivate family, but the New Testament church didn’t operate that way. Jesus didn’t operate that way. It started with relationships, with preaching the good news to people, and then with shared life and love in community.
Once love and family were established, the need to organize emerged naturally from that. This is how we encourage you to approach church planting. Focus on building loving relationships, sharing Jesus, and inviting people into your life. If the Lord is with you in that and family starts forming, then some organization in the form of a church will become the natural outflow to meet the desire for commitment, rhythms of connection, etc.
You shouldn’t build a structure and hope people come; you should build relationships and let the structure form around them.
That means your first job is to get out among people. Find pathways for connecting with new people. Volunteer in the community. Walk the streets. Meet your neighbors. Listen to stories. Eat meals with people. Serve. Become a known and trusted presence in your community.
This will take time, but it is time well invested. Jesus spent a lot of time out in the community, bumping into people, available as needs arose and opportunities were created. We need to do likewise.
And as you do this, pray. Pray for divine appointments. The most fruitful relationships often aren’t the ones we strategize into being, but the ones God places right in front of us.
Ask yourself:
When love grows, structure becomes necessary. The organization exists to support the relationships, not the other way around.
If you focus on planting churches, you may or may not make disciples. But if you focus on making disciples, you will inevitably need to plant churches.
This stage builds directly on the last. You’ve hopefully built many relationships, hosted a lot of people in your home, and identified some with whom you are supposed to go deeper. Now is the time to begin investing intentionally in those people. Don’t rush to form a public gathering. Focus on deep discipleship relationships.
Ask God, “Who are the two or three people You want me to pour into right now?” Meet regularly with them. Open the Scriptures together. Pray. Model what it means to follow Jesus. Share your heart for what God’s stirring in you. This is how churches are born — through discipled lives multiplying.
You might begin with a simple gathering: a meal, a prayer night, or a Bible study in your home. As you walk with them, hopefully you will start to see the next steps developing naturally.
Remember: you’re not recruiting attenders; you’re forming disciples. And disciples, when they gather, become the church.
One thing to be mindful of in this step: It should not be our goal to pull anyone from other churches. Remember, we deeply value the unity of the church and supporting other leaders in our area. We also honor the importance of local elders and the call for people to submit to their spiritual authority.
Therefore, we want to be very careful about starting to disciple people from other churches. It would be similar to me trying to parent someone else’s child. Sometimes it may be necessary, but it should be done very carefully and with intentional conversations with the pastor of the other church.
It’s beautiful that meaningful discipleship relationships are forming. You’re getting close to the point of starting the church. But before the church starts, you need to have clarity on the vision. Clarity is what helps a church walk in unity and direction over the long haul. Without it, people will eventually pull in different directions and confusion will set in. This is the time to slow down and define a few things.
If I were to join your church, I would want to know more about what the church believes and stands for in several areas. This isn’t about creating slick language or branding; it’s about being faithful and intentional with what God has entrusted to you.
We Are Church has done work in defining each of the following areas. If you don’t have these detailed already, we recommend starting with what We Are Church has done (or another church that you trust) and developing from there. In planting a church, we don’t want to try to, on our own, recreate everything. There will be gaps and mistakes in that process. It’s much better to build off of work others have done.
Here is We Are Church’s Covenant, which will go into all of the following areas: https://www.wearechurch.com/we-are-church-covenant
It’s important to be clear on what you believe and why. You don’t need to write a systematic theology, but you do need to know the core convictions from Scripture that should not be compromised on. This is the goal of a statement of faith. With so much compromise and shifting away from long standings obvious understandings of the Scriptures, we need to be clear on what is most important. Ask:
You don’t want people guessing what you believe. You also don’t want to start a church that’s doctrinally unclear or reactionary. Study. Pray. Discuss with trusted leaders.
How would you articulate the vision of this church? Vision answers the questions:
It should flow out of your burden and calling — not just a good idea. What do you sense God is asking you to build or embody in your city?
It’s great to utilize resources/vision from other churches, but what are the specific things that you have most heavily from God leading you to and how can you articulate that vision to people as they come around?
A clear vision will help you discern who should be part of the team, what to say yes to, and what to say no to. It also keeps the focus on Jesus’ mission rather than personal ambition or preference.
What are the values of this church?
We Are Church has six values you can find on the website. These were created to explicitly state what is most important for us as a church based on our reading of Scripture. Are your values the same, or different?
Values are the heartbeat — the culture-defining principles that guide how you live out your vision. They describe who you are becoming together. They are the points that the leaders of the church will come back to over and over again to refocus on what is most important.
If you haven’t already, take time to pray and write these out. Start simple. Don’t just think about what sounds good — think about what you actually want to be true of your community in daily life. Unless you have deeply thought-through convictions behind your values, our recommendation would be to start with ours, knowing they can be refined as you go.
What are the practices of this church?
We Are Church has five practices. These get into very tangible decisions about how you will live out the vision and values. Before you take the next step, it’s critical to come to a conviction on specific rhythms and structures that reflect those beliefs.
For example:
Practices turn beliefs into habits. They anchor a church in real life, not just ideals. Start with simplicity — a small set of clear, repeatable rhythms that keep Jesus at the center. Over time, those practices can mature and adapt as the church grows.
Before launching, you should be able to clearly express:
This doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, the simpler and clearer you are, the healthier your start will be. Clarity builds trust. It allows people to join with confidence, knowing what they’re a part of and where you’re going together.
Take your time in this phase. Pray through it. Seek wise counsel. Don’t rush to “go public” until these things are anchored. You’re not just starting a church — you’re shaping a spiritual family, and families thrive when everyone knows who they are and what they’re about.
Eventually, relationships mature, discipleship deepens, and it becomes clear: God is forming a church. As you have invested in people and cast vision for what God has put on your heart, there are multiple people expressing a desire to join this church when it starts.
A sign that it is time to plant is that gathering together is now almost necessary for the furthering of these relationships. You’ve connected with different people, but they don’t know each other very well. It’s time for intentional rhythms and the beginning of the church.
Hopefully along the way you have been leaning on different church leaders for wisdom and guidance. Before officially starting, hopefully you are hearing from them that they think it’s good. Hopefully you’ve also been leaning on the Lord and direction from Him, and getting confirmation from Him. But sometimes we can deceive ourselves, and leaning on other trusted believers for discernment is important.
As you start, this is where intentional rhythms begin. It’s not about programs, but patterns that embody your values and vision. These rhythms set culture.
Before launching, write out what your first 2–3 months will look like. Identify:
Be prayerful and slow. Invite those journeying with you to seek the Lord about whether they’re truly called to this. Avoid drawing people away from other churches. The goal is not transfer growth — it’s Kingdom expansion. The goal should never be to weaken other churches in order to strengthen ours.
Set the tone early. Teach what the church is and is not. This isn’t a social club or casual hangout — it’s a spiritual family devoted to Jesus’ mission. This is where you start with the vision, values, and practices established in the previous step.
As you begin implementing rhythms — prayer, the Word, community, and mission — remember: the church is always relational before it’s organizational, always dependent before it’s strategic, always about Jesus before it’s about you.
Planting a small, simple church is not about building something flashy or fast. It’s about being faithful to Jesus, listening to His Spirit, and loving people deeply.
If you stay anchored in prayer, humility, relationships, disciple-making, and Spirit-led rhythms, the church you plant won’t just start — it will last. Similarly essential in this is fighting the tendency to carry everything by yourself. Invite others to support you outside of the church and inside.
With the church started, the work is really beginning. How can you continue seek guidance, wisdom, accountability, etc. going forward?
More Content
Here are a few more articles from the We Are Church community.
Looking for something specific? We've organized a few helpful resources by topic.
