A growing number of pastors who have taken on the assignment of starting a church never expected to be church planters. However, with God's leading, these second-career leaders embraced their calling into the specialized ministry of church planting.

In the last several years, there has been a shift in the type of people who attend my training seminars on how to successfully launch a new church. While the crowd used to be made up of primarily 20-somethings in skinny jeans, lately there have been many more 40- and 50-something professionals in attendance, most who had already had a measure of success in the business world.

Second-career church planting has become a positive trend, with good reason. Many careers—whether corporate, nonprofit or military—offer an invaluable training ground for potential church planters.

Those who are considering stepping out of their current profession to start a church often find that the skills they've developed and honed throughout their careers are sure to help them excel. Still, these skills are not enough on their own. No matter what the new pastor's experience has been or why it might make him a good church planter, he shouldn't move ahead until he is sure of one thing—that God is the one calling him to this new endeavor.

The majority of church starts fail within the first year because the majority of church planters start churches without a clear calling from God. In order to plant a successful church, the church planter must know that he knows that God is calling him to do it. Thriving churches have always been, and will always be, built on a base of personal calling, not personal choice. The church planter must know for certain that God has called him to step out of his current career and start a church. Moving forward without God's leading is ill advised at the very least.

When I counsel engaged couples, I often try to talk them out of getting married. Why? I want to make sure God is the one behind the impending union. Otherwise, disaster will follow. While calling off an engagement is painful, it's much easier than calling off a marriage. Stopping before the mistake is made will prevent a lot of future heartache.

So it is with the calling to start a church. If I can talk the church planter out of starting a church, it will hurt a little now, but it's going to save him, his family and the people around him a lot of hurt in the future. And if he is truly called by God to start a church, I won't be able to talk him out of it.

Each church planter must consider the question: Do you know for certain that God has called you to start a new church? Understanding some sources of improper calling may be helpful as the church planter reflects on his answer. There are, of course, dozens of sources of improper calling, but these are the ones that I see pop up most frequently:

• Unemployment
• Anger or resentment toward another pastor
• Feeling unhappy with one's current career track
• Having a parent or grandparent who started a church
• Ego
• Subscribing to the "in" thing to do

In addition to these improper sources of "calling," the church planter must keep in mind that the call to ministry is not necessarily the call to start a church. He may be called to serve in an existing church or to work in a ministry-related organization. He may be called to preach. In fact, he may have discovered that he has the potential to be the greatest preacher since Billy Graham, but still not be called to start a new church. The call to church planting is incredibly specific. Church planters must be careful not to confuse it with the other opportunities God may be bringing his way.

If the potential church planter thinks he may have allowed misguided emotion or a confused line of reasoning to lead him to the idea of starting a new church, he would be wise to turn back now, spend some time with God and seek the advice of a mentor who knows him and can help him gain some perspective. He must not act on a hunch or think that because he feels "pretty sure," he should be planting a church. He has to be completely sure. The Lord clearly admonishes those who forge ahead without a calling:

"See, I am against those who prophesy false dreams, says the Lord, and recount them and cause My people to err by their lies and reckless boasting. Yet I sent them not nor commanded them. Therefore they shall not profit this people at all, says the Lord" (Jer. 23:32).

The first year of a new church is not easy. While there undoubtedly will be times of uncertainty, knowing for sure that the church planter is called to the task at hand is what will keep him moving forward. Often, that assurance is the only thing he has to stand on, so clarifying the church-planting calling is essential.

Here are some of the ways the potential church planter can recognize a proper calling:

• Prayer and Bible study. God calls, and confirms His call, through prayer and Bible study. People who are called often feel God confirming His calling every time they pray or read the Bible.
• Surprise. A surprise calling happens more often than the ministry-minded believer may think. Ministry may have never factored into our own plans for our lives, when (Surprise!) God intercepts them and puts the believer on a new path. This surprise calling leads to a 180-degree turn in career and life focus.
• Holy discontent. While resentment toward an existing church or pastor can be a source of improper calling, a proper calling will often carry with it a sense of holy discontent. The person with holy discontent is not focused on problems within a specific ministry but rather has a heart to improve the overall level of ministry in a particular community. It can also show up as the nagging realization that he has been ignoring God's plan and that he won't find fulfillment until he surrenders to His will to start a church.
• Burden for the unchurched. A proper call is always accompanied by the desire to reach the unchurched. If the goal of the potential church planter is to change the Christians he knows, he is most assuredly not called to start a new church. However, if he has a passion to reach people who don't know God, he may be hearing a true call.
• Godly counsel. A proper call will be accompanied by confirmation from those around the believer aspiring to become a church planter. He must seek out other ministry leaders, tell them what God is doing in his life and prayerfully assess their response.

Church planters must make the effort to discern their call, so let's break down the four calls of a church planter.

Four Calls of the Church Planter

1) The Call to Start a Church: If the church planter has been called to step out of his career and start a church, he can be assured of two things. First, the calling will be undeniable. Second, God will equip him to do the new work. When He chooses, He also empowers. The new church planter may struggle with feelings of inadequacy, which, while normal, have no place in the heart of a man or woman called to God's purposes. The church planter must not allow fear to derail all that God wants to do in this new chapter of life. The church planter can have full confidence that He will provide everything needed to succeed.

2) The Call to Understand Your Spouse's Call: If the new church planter is married, God will not call him without confirming the call in his spouse. He must be intentional about sharing what God is doing in his heart with the partner the Lord has given him. It's important for the church planter to listen earnestly to what God is doing in his spouse's heart. Starting a church can be difficult on a marriage. Open, honest communication throughout the process is crucial. Church planters must keep these points in mind:

• The timing of the church planter's call may not match the timing of his spouse's call. If the church planter's call comes first, he must not push, but rather be patient and allow God to speak to his spouse in His own timing. Just as God called these two special people together in marriage, He will call them together to start a church. If one forges ahead without the other, not only is he acting outside of God's will for their marriage, but he is also putting their future church in jeopardy. On the other hand, if the spouse's call comes before the church planter receives the call, the church planter must realize that God may be using his spouse to gently (or not so gently) move him forward into God's plan.
• The intensity of the church planter's call may not match the intensity of his spouse's call. While sometimes both spouses receive an intense call to start a church together, it's not uncommon for one to be led to take on a more supportive role. The church planter should not assume that his spouse is not in sync with him because their levels of passion are not equal. The goal is to confirm mutual calling, not mutual intensity.
• The church planter must make sure his spouse is fully involved and committed. If not, it's time to slow down and not make any decisions without listening to the spouse's point of view. Before acting on the new thing to which God is calling, the church planter must check, recheck and ask his spouse's friend to check that the spouse is also on board. The call to marriage always takes precedence over the church planter's call to start a church.

3) Your Call to a Place. If the new church planter already knows where he is called to start a church, he must think about how God has formed him for that place. What life experiences has he had that will help him relate to the community? How has God already been working in him to get him ready for this assignment? If he is not yet sure where he should start a new church, these questions may help him clarify this part of his calling:

• Has God called you to leave your current home? The church planter may already be in the place to which he is called.
• Are you passionate about a particular area of the country/world? If God has put a passion in the church planter for a specific place, he must carefully examine the possibility that He could be calling him there, but he must be careful not to confuse passion with personal preference.

If he isn't yet sure where God wants him to start a new church, it's time to hit the pause button and figure it out. He must do some research, talk with other church leaders, pray with his spouse and study examples from Scripture. When he lands on the place to which he is called, God will confirm it in his heart.

4) Your Call to a People. The church planter will likely be called to reach those who are most like him. Everything from his age to his race to his previous life and career experience will help determine whom God is calling the church planter to influence. By being called to church planting as a second career, the church planter is already positioned by God to connect with people in a unique way. If he has lived his faith during his first career, he has a track record to challenge others like him to do the same. If he and his spouse have already raised a Christian family, they can attract and speak into the lives of younger families.

As a rule, the church planter will be best able to reach people who are about 10 years younger to those who are just a few years older. The church planter will relate best to others who come from a similar cultural background. While some rare church planters are called to minister to people very different from them, God will likely place the church planter in the midst of a people group who can relate to him on many conscious and subconscious levels.

When I was called to start The Journey Church in New York City, I wrestled with the fact that the city is so ethnically and economically diverse. As I prayed about the specific people to whom God was calling me, He gave me something of a revelation.

While there was no shortage of New York churches focused on the poor and the disadvantaged, there were virtually no churches equipped to reach the city's young professionals. Not only did God place a burning passion in my heart for the young professionals of Manhattan, He also showed me that they were the people He had designed me to be able to relate to most effectively.

God gave me a desire to reach the very people I was most equipped to reach, based on the gifts and experiences with which He had blessed me. As the new church planter seeks clarity about whom he is called to minister to, God will give him the same kind of desire. God will cause his heart to break for the people He wants the church planter to impact.

Characteristics of a Call

As a final step of clarification, the church planter must evaluate his calling in light of the biblical characteristics of a godly calling. He can do so by asking himself these questions:

• Is your calling clear? As Paul taught, God is not the author of confusion but of peace (1 Cor. 14:33).
• Has your calling been confirmed by others? When the church planter is called to start a church, he will see confirmation from those around him.
• Are you humbled by the call? Humility is the proper response to a true calling. If the call is not bigger than the person, it may be from the church planter himself and not from God.
• Have you acted on your call? When God truly calls a church planter, he will be incapable of ignoring His voice. "And He said to them, 'Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.' They immediately left their nets and followed Him" (Matt. 4:19-20).

Now, the church planter must ask himself again: Do I know for certain that God has called me to start a church? This must be nailed down. When was he called? What were the circumstances surrounding the call? How did it match up with the sources of proper calling? Does he recognize the four specific calls in his calling? How? How does his call measure up to the biblical characteristics of a call? What is the emerging vision God is giving him with this call?

As the potential church planter thinks about his answers to these questions, I would encourage him to start keeping a church-planting journal and write in ink. Once the church planter starts moving forward, he'll want to look back on his confirmed calling again and again.

Answering the Call

The call to ministry is the call to prepare. Here are some ways the church planter can begin preparing for his new path:

Prepare to lead: No matter what kind of leadership abilities a person brings from his previous career, starting a church will stretch the new pastor in ways he never imagined. If the church planter already has leadership experience, it will prove invaluable. As a second-career church planter, he has the benefit of using his previous experience to his advantage in many ways. Not only will this experience help him attract funding for his new church, it will also lend an element of credibility to the overall endeavor.

If the church planter's previous career didn't leave him with much leadership experience, this is his opportunity to train himself as a leader. God will graciously supply church planter needs with what he needs as he does his part to learn and grow. He must study everything he can get his hands on in the areas of entrepreneurship, innovation, staff management, delegation, marketing and accounting. His continual prayer should be, "God, make me the leader I need to be to lead this church into the future."

Prepare to teach: The ability to teach well and the ability to start a successful church go hand in hand. Even if the church planter is naturally gifted in the area of teaching or has teaching experience, he must continue to strengthen this skill. He must get himself ready to teach in a way that will directly benefit the people he is called to reach. This may mean a departure from the teaching style he has used in the past or has become accustomed to in other churches.

As a church starter, he will be teaching constantly. Beyond teaching in worship services, he will teach his vision for the church to its early core group. He will teach his plan to potential funding partners. He will teach his strategy to the community. He will teach his systems to laity. He will teach himself what it means to lead a growing church. The day may even come when he will be called on to teach other second-career church planters how to do what he has done. The church planter must take care to hone his teaching skills. Strong teachers build strong churches.

Prepare to depend on God: Just as the church planter's leadership and teaching ability will be stretched, so will his faith. Starting a church from scratch is definitely a faith venture. At every turn, God teaches the church planter new things and takes him into deeper dependence on Him. As his dependence on God grows, so will his church.

Responding to God's voice often means the church planter will be led to step beyond his comfort zone into the great unknown. The call to leave the profession he has spent years mastering to start a church is the call to an all-out, faith-intensive adventure. Once again, the church planter must ask himself: Are you certain God has called you to start a new church? If he can answer, "Absolutely yes!" then let the adventure begin!  

Nelson Searcy is founding pastor of The Journey Church in New York City. He has helped thousands of first- and second-career church planters launch healthy churches. Along with 12 other books, he is the author of Launch: Starting a New Church from Scratch (Baker Books). He is also founder of churchleaderinsights.com, where church planters can find free helpful resources.

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