New Churches Podcast | Season 1 | Episode 676

Minoring on the Majors

Clint Clifton & Adam Muhtaseb

Episode 676: The ministry demands of church planting can weigh heavily on a pastor, with the result that he finds himself “minoring on the majors.” Clint Clifton discusses with Adam Muhtaseb and Nathan Knight the challenge of properly allocating time and energy to ministry priorities that put a church plant on the strongest foundation possible.

In This Episode, You’ll Discover:

  • Ways planters often misallocate their time when beginning the church planting journey
  • The importance of equipping over “doing”
  • Why it’s critical to give more than lip service to prayer
  • The top priorities a church planter should focus on
  • How a church planter’s role shifts over time from missionary work to shepherding

Helpful Resources:

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Sharable Quotes (#NewChurches):

One of the advantages – and maybe even a disadvantage – of being a church planter having the opportunity to shape your own schedule and priorities. Any time I’m frustrated, I only have myself to blame. @ClintJClifton

Taking on outside ministry opportunities sucks your energy away from the the work God has called you to in the first three years. You should be laser-focused on multiplying and equipping leaders the first two years. @Adam_Muhtaseb

Planters plan too much and pray too little. Planters plan too much and pray too little. More time should be spent hearing from Christ before they plan him out of stuff. @NathanKnightDC

You should not be doing. You should be training other people to do so you can multiply and scale the ministry. @Adam_Muhtaseb

I’m not a great preacher and I’m comfortable with that. When I recognized there was a more fruitful preacher in our congregation, I quickly put him in that seat. @ClintJClifton

If you want to be a pastor, you should definitely be a pastor. Just do it at an existing church. But if you want to plant church, you need to be catalytic, a missionary. @Adam_Muhtaseb

Sometimes giving up on church planting has to do with a misallocation of energies and attention in the church planting journey. @ClintJClifton

Published on June 21, 2022

About the Podcast

New Churches Podcast

The New Churches podcast offers practical answers to your real ministry questions. We aren’t going to provide lofty pie-in-the-sky theories. Instead, we are going to help you in your real ministry context, with your real thoughts, questions, and issues.

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Meet the Authors

Clint Clifton

Clint Clifton passed away on January 12, 2023, as a result of a small plane crash. Clint and his wife, Jennifer, had been married since 2000 and have five children. He completed a B.A. from The Baptist College of Florida and an M.A. from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. Clint founded Pillar Church in Dumfries, Virginia, in 2005. He oversaw the fruitful church planting efforts of Pillar Church and served as Senior Director of Resource and Research Strategy for the North American Mission Board.

More Resources from Clint

Adam Muhtaseb

Adam Muhtaseb is the founding pastor of Redemption City Church in Baltimore, Maryland, and an M.Div. graduate of  Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He and his wife, Sherrie, have three sons, Aiden, Judah, and Micah.

More Resources from Adam