In the classic movie What About Bob the psychologist character played by Richard Dreyfuss tells Bob to take, "Baby steps, baby steps..." To all the church planters and guys tired of the status quo out there my advice is BABY STEPS.
What I mean is it can seem so overwhelming as a church planter when you see all these things around you that need to get done or be improved. You see how your service needs to be more excellent, you see how your children's ministry just doesn't stack up to those "big" churches in town, you see your blah rented facility... THEN you hear from one of the great church leaders out there of a mega church that you need to do this and to do that (Not that I am bashing them, I soak up everything they say!). It can leave you feeling discouraged and down right depressed by your little attempt at doing church and how terrible of a leader you must be. How do I know? I feel that all the time!
So take a little advice from Bob... Baby steps! Don't try to tackle the whole beast at once. You are going to have to be OK with mediocrity for a while if you want to make it in the church planting game. You can't have perfect music, perfect programming, perfect children's ministry, perfect hospitality, or perfect facilities in the first few years. Just can't be done. BUT, what you can have is one great area of your church. You can be knocking something out of the park even as a little baby church plant. More than likely you kind of do something really great naturally already. Maybe it's because of your gifts or because of a great volunteer. But right now you are doing something really well. Start with that.
THEN, focus your attention on another area of your church that you can improve on. You might spend 3 months working on just that one area! But, take a little baby step each week and before you know it you will have two really excellent parts of your church. Then take another baby step, and another, and another.
Here is the crazy thing I am learning going into our second year of this plant. It never stops! Something always needs improving. And, it can seem just as overwhelming years into it as in the beginning. The longer you go the more you will have to break these baby steps down. You might have to take baby steps within just one ministry if it is really big.
Look at what Scripture says: "The prudent give thought to their steps" Proverbs 14:15
Baby steps, baby steps, calculated baby steps.
