Church Planting in the Face of Personal Challenges

Episode 795

Host Ed Stetzer meets with church planters Adam Muhtaseb and Richard Pope to discuss their best practices when it comes to facing hardship while leading a new church plant. Here’s why rest, repentance, and reliance on God and His people are essential for planters as they seek to lead others to Christ’s truth amidst life’s greatest difficulties.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

  • Ways to impactfully communicate hardship to your congregation
  • The power of simple gospel prayer within biblical community
  • Why sabbath is essential for church planters today
  • The role God’s sovereignty plays into your calling as a leader in the church
  • How God can use all things—even terminal diagnoses—for the furtherance of His gospel to the world

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Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches):

Successful church planting is a series of successfully resolved crises because there’s always a crisis and something that’s falling apart. — Ed Stetzer

Embrace strategic failure, knowing that God is still working when you can’t crush it this week. Once I recognized and got to a place of peace with that, it enabled me to rest and sabbath a little bit more. — Adam Muhtaseb

Suffering gives us a weird opportunity to show grace, love, kindness, and mercy. When you show and allow people into your suffering, keeping the gospel forefront, it’s a teaching moment for your church. — Richard Pope

God can do more in six days than you can do in seven, and He wants you to do six. — Adam Muhtaseb

Obedience and faithfulness to the Lord is always more fruitful than doing things our way. — Richard Pope


Published January 11, 2024

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