In this episode of Church Planters Ask Podcast, host Danny Parmelee answers the question “Who Should I Be on the Lookout for that Might Destroy the Church Plant?” with the help of guest Steve Treichler!
Here’s a few highlights from this episode:
“Even if you do the very best job of filtering [wolves] out in the beginning, they’re still going to come. And especially if your church is new in a community where there hasn’t been a lot of new churches… believe me, it’s like a magnet for a lot of these [wolves]. Get around a seasoned leader and church planter who is further down the road than you and can help you to walk through these things.”
“Of course we aren’t going to agree [with our team] on everything… heck, I don’t even agree with myself a year ago on some things! But Scripture has allowed us to have humble but firm leadership in the church… and submission means ‘this isn’t exactly my preference, but for the sake of the Kingdom- for the sake of the community- I will lay down preference.’.. You cannot live in community without constantly laying down preference.”
“Create a culture where you’re working through conflict, one-on-one… if you follow the pattern of Matthew 18, Facebook would be the very LAST, nuclear bomb option…”
“We live in a rage culture. Everything is turned up to 11. It is our job as leaders to create a culture where we are going to say ‘the rest of the world does that… not so with us.’ We need to have civil discussions with each other… no name calling. You start to create that culture, and “wolves” realize it is not a safe place for them, and they’re going to scatter.”
Steve Treichler is the Founding and Senior Pastor of Hope Community Church in downtown Minneapolis. Steve serves as the Upper Midwest Director of Church Planting for Acts29. He is also the Director of Mission1618, a church planting network to reach the upper Midwest with biblically faithful and culturally relevant new churches. He has been involved in training hundreds of leaders for over 25 years in the Minneapolis area and started the Leadership Development Institute (LDI) at Hope Community in 2000.
