Principles for Peek Performance Planters

I want to share three dynamic principles that if they are in your plant, they will provide pavement for the potholes. You will never cover all of them, but you don’t have to be disrupted by them.

Principle #1 - It Is Never Too Late to Start Over Again!

Some people say, “Oh, things will never change in my situation”, but in God’s time it is never too late to start over. The Apostle Paul learned this from his own experience. He had persecuted the Christians. He was into rules, legalism, and rigidity and in the ninth chapter of the book of Acts we are told that he had a vision of God that changed him forever into a follower of Jesus Christ and he started over!

Let me be quick to say that you may not need a new place to plant a church. God may want you to start over right where we are! God may be calling you to start over in the plant you are birthing. Listen, this may be the time when you need to start over right where you are!

Principle #2 - When we start over we never really start completely over!

God seems to build into our lives all of the hurts, all of the issues, all the pain of the past, all of that is part of who we are now, everything we’ve ever done, all of the times when we’ve blown it and weaves all we are and all that we have been into who we are today. So you see, when we start over, we don’t start completely over. God takes all our experiences and uses them I believe to make us stronger. As a church planter do not be ashamed to admit that you have made mistakes.

I responded to a question in a large church planting conference I was speaking to a few years ago when a young planter asked: “how did you come to be a successful church planter?” I responded, “Three simple words, make good decisions!” The planter continued and asked, “How did you learn to make good decisions?” I responded, “one word, experience”. Well, where do you get experience, two words, bad decisions!

We never start completely over because God takes everything we’ve ever learned and creates us into a new person through it all. Have you ever realized that most of us do not get wisdom at the age of 21? You do not get wisdom at 25 or 30. To get wisdom you have to start over again and again and you often go through the school of hard knocks, to get wisdom you have to strike out two, three or four times.

Principle #3 - In God’s providence if we offer hearts and minds to our Almighty God then, when we start over there are always wonderful surprises awaiting us.

In 1899 a man named Charles Duell was the Secretary for The Department of Patents, and he urged President McKinley to close the Department of Patents in 1899. McKinley said, “Why should I do that?” And, Charles Duell said, and I quote, “because everything that can be invented has been invented. It’s a true story.

WITH GOD THERE ARE WONDERFUL SURPRISES. Just say your prayers and watch how God may work! Did you hear what happened to the Apostle Paul when he was in prison?

The whole Praetorian Guard was talking about his imprisonment! The Praetorian Guard was the division of guards that guarded the emperor – 10,000 of them. They were the crème of the crop. When they had served between 12 and 16 years they finally became Roman Citizens. Isn’t it interesting that one of the Praetorian guards was chained to Paul’s wrist? He was under house arrest, he was not in prison as we might think of it and this guard is chained to guard all the time and as people came to the house and visited Paul and talk with Paul, and Paul prayed with them the guard had to listen to it all. And the guard member changed every few hours and if you had wanted a strategy to change the Roman Empire you couldn’t have come up with a better strategy. He was converting them one by one! And God is full of wonderful surprises. Sometimes you think you are at a dead end, but have faith.... God is full of surprises!