Article
Church Planting Beatitudes: Valuing What Jesus Values
How will you count success? By the size of the crowd, or by the slow fruit of repentance and holiness?
And, dressed in sneakers, when he saw the crowds, he entered the rented auditorium and stood up. His core team came to him, he switched on the projectors, and he began to teach them.
Blessed are the self-sufficient, for they will launch with confidence, vision, strength and little need of prayer.
Blessed are those who never stop to mourn, for setbacks and failures only slow the movement down and reveal weakness.
Blessed are the bold and brash, for they will gather the biggest crowds and the strongest teams and loudest voices.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for growth, for they will be filled with metrics, funding, and Instagram stories.
Blessed are the ruthless with their teams, for they will squeeze every ounce of energy in service of the vision.
Blessed are the pragmatic in heart, for they can cut corners, compromise, and still call it “fruitfulness.”
Blessed are the competitive, for they will outshine every other church in the neighbourhood.
Blessed are those who avoid opposition, for they will never risk losing their support base.
Blessed are those who are celebrated at conferences, for theirs is the kingdom of platforms and podcasts.
The Kingdom Nobody Saw Coming
When Jesus begins His sermon in Matthew 5, we expect a roar, not a whisper. After the genealogy of kings, the voice from heaven at baptism, the victory over the devil, and the prophecies fulfilled, we anticipate a manifesto of triumph. Instead, He gives us a charter of weakness: not tactics but character, not blueprints for world domination but rather, beatitudes.
The Beatitudes fall softly, like morning mist, sketching a kingdom that begins within each and every one of us and works its way outward. Here, our King blesses the overlooked, brings dignity to the dependent, and calls weakness “strength.”
Why We Drift to Externals
Church-planting culture often celebrates what can be posted, measured, and tracked. Launch Sundays are photographed, growth charts are plotted, #hashtags celebrate baptisms, and funding reports measure momentum. And numbers do matter—each person represents an image-bearer. But so often, when externals are enthroned, internals are eclipsed.
We end up curating an image more carefully than cultivating personal integrity, pushing harder in public while withering in private. Outwardly impressive structures may lack the inward life to withstand pressure. Ministries can look strong yet hollow, successful yet shallow.
What Jesus Actually Blesses
Notice how Jesus begins: blessing the poor in spirit, not the self-assured. Those who mourn, not the relentlessly upbeat. The meek, not the domineering. The hungry-for-righteousness, not the hungry-for-growth. He blesses the merciful, the pure in heart, the peaceable, and the persecuted.
These don’t fit well on flyers, websites, or vision papers. They reveal an internal posture. They are qualities of soul, not strategies of scale. Yet, dear planter, this is the soil of real fruitfulness: confessed weakness instead of projected strength, mercy instead of muscle, peace instead of posturing.
The Narrow Path of Dependence
For planters, this cuts both ways: it is sobering, and it is freeing. We’re not tasked to expand God’s kingdom by force of charisma, ingenuity, or stamina. The Beatitudes themselves describe a valley-shaped path where neediness becomes the very ground for grace.
It isn’t flashy. It won’t trend. But it reflects Christ—and paradoxically, it sustains the kind of ministry that lasts. Character undergirds competence; humility guards power; grace carries the planter further than effort ever could.
Holding Internals and Externals Together
Of course, this doesn’t erase planning, strategy, or activity. Churches don’t plant themselves. Teams must be gathered, funds must be raised, spaces must be found, and services must be planned. But Jesus insists that the inner life fuels the outer work. Externals without internals are like a tall oak, looking healthy, but on closer inspection, eaten hollow from within. And when the next storm comes, we know how the story goes.
Dream boldly. Plan wisely. But never at the cost of the heart.
A Word to Planters
So dear planter, how will you (or do you) count success? By the size of the crowd, or by the slow fruit of repentance and holiness? By applause at conferences, or by the quiet dependence of a team that leans on Christ, and one another, together? By visible growth alone, or by unseen grace at work in hidden corners?
The Beatitudes are not aspirational extras; they are baseline Christianity. They are the normal day-to-day matters of following Jesus.
If the Shepherd-King began His public teaching here—with humility, mercy, purity, peace—what right do His under-shepherds have to start anywhere else?
