The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
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The Healthy Church Staff Podcast
Why Church Plants Can Be More Dysfunctional Than Legacy Churches
Church plants, despite their vibrant vision and promise of fresh starts, often recreate the same dysfunctional patterns they aimed to escape. This honest look at church planting reveals why passionate vision without healthy structure leads many new churches to repeat old mistakes.
• Church plants frequently begin as reactions rather than strategies, defining themselves by what they're not
• Lack of accountability systems creates vulnerability when guardrails are needed most
• Culture is assumed rather than intentionally built, leading to drift when challenges arise
• When the founding pastor becomes the brand, the church becomes dangerously dependent on one personality
• Burnout happens faster than expected due to performance pressure, financial stress, and emotional weight
• Sustainability requires balancing passion with accountability from the beginning
• Church planters and revitalization pastors face some of the most difficult roles in ministry
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They were tired of bureaucracy, fed up with all the stale tradition and ready to build something fresh and spirit-led. But somewhere between the dream and the team, dysfunction crept in. In this episode of the Healthy Church Staff Podcast, we're going to expose why I think some church plants, despite their vibrant vision, end up repeating the very same mistakes that they swore they'd avoid. Hi there, my name is Todd Rhodes and I am one of the co-founders over at Chemistry Staffing and I am your host right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Well, one of the most dysfunctional church in your town is the one that just launched. Now, I know that might sound harsh, but hear me out here. Church plants are supposed to be the fresh start. You know the new thing that God is doing, and oftentimes they are. But what happens when passionate vision just isn't matched with healthy structure and when charisma maybe outpaces accountability? Stick around. Today we're going to be talking about the dysfunctions of church plants and some dysfunctions that a lot of times we don't see until it's too late. All right, well, let's start here. Church plants often start as reactions, not strategies. Now, not always, not always, but a lot of times. If you look at a church plant's vision statement. A lot of times it comes down to we're not like them, we're not like the other churches in town. We wanted to do something new and too many church plants kind of begin out of frustration, not out of calling. I mean, they're birthed kind of in a rebellion against a toxic board, a stuck denomination. Maybe you're a micromanaging senior pastor and while that pain is real, that can't be your only blueprint. You can't build health by reacting to unhealth. Vision has to be proactive, not just anti-something. I think that accounts for a lot of the things that we're experiencing in our country right now, particularly in the area of politics. But just like everything bleeds into everything else and I think we see this in the church at times as well Also, in many church plants there's kind of this lack of accountability that's baked in really early, I mean, and not by intention most of the time.
Speaker 1:I mean most church plants start lean and that's fine, but without any kind of built-in systems of accountability. Whatever guardrails there were put in place, those tend to disappear fast. I mean, many church plants don't have an elder board when they start. Some don't have a denominational structure, some don't even have mentors, no HR, and the lead planter often has total control over just about everything, and, honestly, that is a recipe for burnout, for bullying, or maybe both. Not always, not always. But the irony, the big churches that they left often had accountability. They just didn't use it. Well, that's maybe why some of the problems happened at the last church.
Speaker 1:In church plants, that accountability often doesn't exist at all, not always. I don't want you to hear me say, todd, you're saying always, not always. I'm just saying some church plants have great structure, great accountability. A lot of church plants, though, are really loose on that, and part of that is because culture is just kind of assumed, not built. I mean everybody's kind of in church plant mode, right, everybody's on fire for the Lord until somebody gets sidelined or burned out, and passion really fuels the early days of a church plant, but that passion isn't culture, and the passion can't last forever. Culture, on the other hand, is what happens when things go sideways, when there's tension and when somebody screws up, and without intentional rhythms of team communication and feedback loops and spiritual formation and emotional maturity, that culture can drift really, really fast. Matter of fact, it can drift faster on a church plant than it can in an established church, and, a lot of times nobody notices until it's too late.
Speaker 1:And then another reason why some church plants become dysfunctional pretty early on is because if you're not careful, that planter whoever the planter is can become the brand. I mean most church plants. In most church plants the founding pastor is the vision. I mean the founding pastor is the preacher, he's the decision maker, she's the fundraiser, the culture setter. That's really really great until it's not. Because when the church becomes the personality, the whole thing, when the church planter becomes personality, I should say the whole thing collapses if that personality burns up or blows up or just moves on. So the best church plants really try their best and this is hard, you said the done, I know, but the best church plants try their best to decentralize leadership early, before the leader becomes irreplaceable.
Speaker 1:And then the last reason I'm going to leave with you today as to why sometimes church plants become dysfunctional pretty early is because burnout happens faster than you think. The pressure to perform, to grow, to be financially independent, to prove yourself, man, it is intense. And a lot of times church planters are bivocational on top of that. I mean they're working long hours and they're just carrying enormous emotional weight. And then you add in some young families and unstable income and the constant push to scale and you've got a real cocktail of just quiet exhaustion. So burnout isn't failure, but it's a sign that you're building something that's unsustainable. So here's the bottom line. Here's the real talk, friends, just because it's new doesn't mean it's healthy, and just because it's growing doesn't mean it's built to last.
Speaker 1:If you're part of a church plant or you're thinking about launching one, build in those guardrails now. Prioritize your soul, care wounds that you have set up systems and refuse to repeat those same dysfunctions that made you want to start a new church in the very first place. Passion is powerful, but accountability is what makes it sustainable. I hope this has been helpful for you today and given you maybe a little bit of a different perspective on church plants.
Speaker 1:I am a fan of church planting and I've often said I'm an old worship guy. I've often said that I thought that being a worship pastor at least back when I was a worship pastor wouldn't go through all the worship wars was probably one of the most difficult roles in a church. But I think a revitalization pastor or a church planter those are the two most stressful, hardest roles in the church. So if you're a church planter, I want to encourage you as you plant your church. Maybe you haven't launched yet, maybe you're a year or two years in, but make sure that you build in this accountability, because if you don't have the accountability, if you don't have the guardrails, man, it's going to be really, really easy for you to burn out, and we've seen some flame out and it's just not pretty.
Speaker 1:All right, if you'd like to have a conversation about this, I'd love to hear from you. You can reach out to me anytime. Podcast at chemistrystaffcom. All right, I hope that you have a great day. We're back here again tomorrow, right here on the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. Hope you have a great day.
