I don’t know. But I know that those who’re in it for the long run have a better chance.
While a student in California, I had the opportunity to learn Tennis at our college. The instructor taught us about “follow through” when hitting the ball. The idea was that if you retract the racquet soon after it engages the ball, you’ll have less power and control over the ball. But if you follow through, you’ll have better aim and the ball will move more powerfully.
Some church planters start with a time limit. “I’ll try this for five years.” Others take an extension. “Ok, I’ll do two more years.”
But “follow through” implies that you continue till the goal is reached, regardless of the cost. I know, it’s easy for me to say. Yet I realize this may not be the singular reason for failure.
People have taken various steps in the process of planting. They have moved into the town they’re reaching. Some purchased a home, got a job, put the kids in school there, and some even purchased a burial plot in that community (for themselves). So, the “investment” is not small. Let’s follow through to complete what we started.
Read the entire series: Why do some church plants fail?

1. Trail of failures
2. Persist in the process
3. Stick to your values
4. Continually share the Good News
5. Seek out training
6. Find fellowship
7. Become a voracious reader
8. Ask questions
9. Leave a trail of influences
10. Learn from criticism
11. Learn from your mistakes
12. Constantly raise up leaders
13. Be in it for the long run

–     – –

• Join the conversation. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
• Click here for more resources.

Ideas are many, and opinions are even more diverse. But we must learn to choose what is good and right.
“For the ear tests words
as the palate tastes food.
Let us choose what is right;
let us know among ourselves
what is good” (Job 34:2-3).
It is our responsibility to test, taste, and choose what is right and good. According to the situations of people, they will formulate opinions about God. Their pain and struggles will cause them to doubt or even reject God.
Some say that God doesn’t care. He Created the world and just let it go. We just have to figure things out as we go along. Others say God is active and concerned about all that we face.
Test what you hear, taste it like food, and choose what is right and good.
–     – –

• Join the conversation. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
• Click here for more resources.

Think of the billions who currently live in this world and so many who have passed on before us. Each generation comes and goes. For a small number of people, their memory continues in the history books. But for most people, their memory may only remain for a few generations of their descendants, but that also dies out.
So, what in the world is the value of your existence? After you’re gone, you’ll be completely forgotten in a few years. Your memory may only live on for one or two generations. Do you have any significance other than to live and to die?
First, you have a unique contribution to make. That contribution is initially in your immediate and extended family. Your love, care, and any other means of expression is a contribution. That contribution also extends to the community around you. Your contribution is unique and valuable.
Second, you have a unique place in the heart of God. He is the one who knit you together in your mother’s womb. His love for you began even prior to that when he thought of you before the earth was created. You have the opportunity to love him and to live in relationship to him. That’s your greatest value.
–     – –

• Join the conversation. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
• Click here for more resources.

It’s not easy. Understanding God can be a challenge. We are often plagued by our own feelings of brokenness and we see things from that perspective. It is the perspective of the broken. We see God from that skewed perspective.

“For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it” (Job 33:14).

God’s ways are diverse. He speaks to us from different angles to help us understand. He wants us to understand. He has our best interest in mind. But we fail to see it.
We’ve seen plenty of dishonest, abusive people, and we somehow misunderstood God from that vantage point. We think he is like that.
Relax. Listen. God is speaking. Through each event in life, he is speaking.
–     – –

• Join the conversation. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
• Click here for more resources.

There is a lot of respect for people with a high level of ability. Those who excel in their skills much beyond others rightfully earn respect.
Even if they are lacking in character, their ability earns them respect. Shall we say ability supersedes character? Lack of character is ignored in light of great ability.
This may be due to the high value we give to performance. This may be the case for actors, athletes, politicians, doctors, and preachers. If their performance is exceptional, their lack of character is ignored.
I wonder how society would be if character was the point of entry for those who “perform” various public tasks with high visibility?
There has to be another way.
–     – –

• Join the conversation. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
• Click here for more resources.

Job’s friends tried their best to find fault with him. After all, they were here to help. They felt they needed to find a solution.
All three of his friends finally give up since Job held on to his stance that he was innocent. They had no more to say. They had said plenty, trying to “impose” guilt on Job because of his sufferings.
Then, a young man named Elihu speaks up and wants to put in his share of words to the whole situation. He says:

“I also will answer with my share; I also will declare my opinion” (Job 32:17).

In all this, God remains silent and observes. He allows us to speak our share of words and wisdom. You’ll hear a lot of voices all around you. Don’t be troubled. God is yet to speak out on the matter.
–     – –

• Join the conversation. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
• Click here for more resources.

This argument can begin with the abortion issue. If the child is only considered a person after birth, then abortion would be correct. Otherwise, that should be a crime and considered as murder.
But even after birth, when should a child be considered a person? Of course, we consider them a person from birth but do we treat them like an individual? When dealing with adults, we handle them with a certain level of respect for their individuality. But with children, we have a tendency to think that “they’re just kids.”
They are an individual just as all adults are. Children deserve to be treated and respected for their personhood, individuality, and their humanness.
–     – –

• Join the conversation. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
• Click here for more resources.

How could it come to this? You’ve done nothing of such high magnitude to deserve what you’re going through. In fact, you’ve done good all your life. You have been kind to those who suffer. You’ve done everything you know to do good.
But life turned sour. Situations turned for the worse. The unexpected happened. And now you are in shock over the events of your life.
This is the exact place in life that Job has come. He responds:
“Here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Oh, that I had the indictment written by my adversary! Surely I would carry it on my shoulder: I would bind it on me as a crown; I would give him an account of all my steps: like a prince I would approach him” (Job 31:35-37).
But there was nothing he could do because God seemed like his adversary. So he waited – and trusted in God!
–     – –

• Join the conversation. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
• Click here for more resources.

But we often get hung up with our own stuff. Our day to day tasks burden us to the point where we can’t even pay attention to the next generation. Thus we become incapable of showing the way.
It is our task to give the next generation a head start by preparing them and pointing the way to their future. Without this, they may end up taking an extra ten years or more to get a grip on how they need to move forward.
Learn to be a mentor or coach to the younger generation. But first, you’ve got to learn to listen to their dreams and their passions. Identify those things that make them tick and get them moving.
The next step is to help them see the big picture of the world and where they fit in. How do their dreams fit into the overall flow of what’s happening? Once they get that, things become clearer, and they are ready to move forward.
But this doesn’t happen overnight. The vision unfolds gradually as they experience life. Your task is to be there for them as a coach and as a cheerleader.
–     – –

• Join the conversation. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
• Click here for more resources.

But they’re turned against you. You are now on the lowest rung of the ladder. Can’t go any further down. At one time you were further ahead than everyone else. Now they’re so much further up that you can’t even see them anymore.
When Job was at his lowest, he cried out to God – and there was silence. He felt as if God was looking at him in his misery, but with no response.
“God has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand and you only look at me” (Job 30:19-20).
In spite of all this, Job remains faithful. He knew that God sees. He notices Job’s misery is not out of God’s sight.
–     – –

• Join the conversation. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
• Click here for more resources.