Church Planters Need Teammates

 

Hello my brother, hello my sister, my name is Dean Davis and this is Multiply, a podcast to provide a word of encouragement for village church planters.

We have a saying in English; it goes like this: “It’s lonely at the top.”  We say, “It’s lonely at the top” when we see a leader who is struggling to make hard decisions and take difficult action.  At that point, many times his friends, co-workers, and associates leave the leader at the top alone to struggle to make a decision or confirm a plan.

We say, “It’s lonely at the top” when a leader is faced with a hundred small challenges that followers bring to the leader.  The leader gets tired and frustrated and feels like the weight of the world is on his shoulders.  If Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law had been a modern English speaker, when He saw Moses trying to be the judge for millions of disputes between the children of Israel, he might have said to Moses, “Son, it’s lonely at the top.”

You are a village church planter.  Church members, new believers, and the families you relate to in the village look to you as a leader.  You may feel at times, “It’s lonely at the top.”

The Apostle Paul was a church planter too.  When he wrote letters to the churches he had started and that his disciples started, he often told about the challenges he faced and the interpersonal conflicts he tried to help resolve.  But Paul found a way to avoid the loneliness that top leaders often struggle with.  Paul found a way to be with trusted colleagues, and so can you.

Here’s the thing.  Church planting is hard work, so church planters need teammates.  When Paul wrote to the church at Colossae, he was in prison.  I’ve visited prisons many times.  Prisons can be very, very lonely places.  But listen to what Paul, the imprisoned church planter said at the end of his letter to the Colossians, starting at chapter 4, verse 10:

My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.) Jesus, who is called Justus, also sends greetings. These are the only Jews among my co-workers for the kingdom of God, and they have proved a comfort to me. 12 Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured. 13 I vouch for him that he is working hard for you and for those at Laodicea and Hierapolis. 14 Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings. 15 Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.

Church planters need teammates. The burdens of church planting are too big to carry alone.  Church planters need trusted friends who believe in them, pray for them, support them and gently challenge them from time to time.  When I started planting churches among the Saraguros, I was a part of a team. Tom and Susan, my wife Gail, Pedro, and Anna were teammates who prayed for me, encouraged me, gently challenged me, and believed in me.  If it weren’t for their faithful friendship and support, I would not be speaking to you today about church planting.  The church planter Paul needed teammates, I need teammates, and you do too.  Don’t let it get lonely at the top, strengthen the bond of trust with those who believe in you and your church multiplication vision.

This has been Multiply, a podcast to provide a word of encouragement for village church planters.

If you have found this message to be helpful, please forward it to fellow church planters and disciple-makers who may need encouragement.  Feel free to share it on What’s App, Facebook, and other platforms you use to connect with others.

Be encouraged, God is with us!                                           EC-07

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