Though we had people who attended regularly and who were positive about the ministry of the church, that’s where the commitment of many ended. We needed a few more couples or families, committed to throwing in their weight 100%—with the mindset that they would give themselves to the plant, no matter what.

A pastor friend told me that planting a church would be the hardest thing I ever attempted. Wise words. But closing a church is tougher. I guess it’s like a divorce; or perhaps like switching off the life support system of a loved one. It’s brutal. Terribly disappointing. Profoundly sad. It comes with a sense of deep loss, a sense of failure. Everything about it feels so wrong.

But we acknowledge that in all of this is the sovereignty of God. In this sense, it wasn’t a failure at all. And if we’re willing to learn, God teaches us in many ways. So here are a few lessons:

The Context of Our Church Plant

Historically, East London, South Africa, is a very well churched city. But today it’s 3rd or 4th generation stuff. Nominalism is entrenched, there seems to be very little robust, biblically faithful, vibrant faith. There are some faithful gospel teaching churches. However they are few and far between.

The spiritual landscape is strewn with superficial and shallow therapeutic, feel-good stuff. False teaching is rife. We are the home of TBN Africa, while every other health and wealth sect thrives here. Zionism and AICs are hugely influential. Syncretism abounds. There are several varsity and college campuses in the city, but no decent student ministry among them. All of these were good motivations for a church plant.

We had meetings and conversations with other local pastors and church leaders about our desires to plant a new church. They were in favour of our plans.

We started meeting as a very small house group in late 2013. This grew slowly, and in 2015 we began meeting in public space. We consider this time as the actual beginning of Grace Bible Church in East London.

The Factors That Contributed to Our Failure

1. Unresolved Ministry Baggage

I probably carried baggage with me from my previous ministry context. We did not start as a result of a church split, or anything scandalous. But I did leave a previous church as the result of an unworkable and unhappy situation.

As a starting group, we evaluated our attitudes honestly. We wanted to stay far away from being a group of disgruntled Christians, planting as a reaction. Regarding my previous troubled experience, I tried to learn the lessons, work through my attitudes, seek grace to move on, and make a clean “emotional” break with the past. But it wasn’t as clean as I’d hoped.

Lesson: Check yourself for lingering emotional and heart baggage before embarking on planting a church—or any other ministry, for that matter. Deep heart surgery is required here.

2. Isolation

Because we didn’t plant out of an existing church, or within a denomination, we were isolated. Having no local church to support, advise, and encourage us was difficult. We did join a church planting network. And that was invaluable. It gave us credibility, some excellent church planting training, and some great relationships. And we appreciated some good relationships with local pastors. But we lacked committed, consistent, local input into our church. This means we lacked sufficient prayer support, funds, and accountability. As leaders we lacked fellowship and encouragement. This was a serious drawback.

Lesson: Churches plant churches. There needs to be a committed, local support system.

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