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The wise wisdom of Philip Nation, co-pastor with Ed Stetzer at Lake Ridge Church in Northern Georgia. (Copied directly from an email. Emphasis mine.):

In March of 2005, Ed Stetzer, Travis Vaughn, and Philip Nation began the groundwork for planting Lake Ridge Church.  Since then, they launched, celebrated their first anniversary, and commissioned Travis to plant a simple church in the same harvest field but among a different strain of wheat.
Not too long ago, a friend who trains church planters asked me, “What do these guys need to know that we are not telling them?”  I said that he needed to tell them 3 things:

1.  Church planting is hard.

2.  Church planting is very hard.

3.  Church planting is the hardest thing you will ever do.

Now having said that with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek, we all know that it really is true.  As planters (Philip’s first time and Ed’s umpteenth time), you must recognize the emotional and spiritual battles to be faced and prepare yourself accordingly.  Here are three ideas to help you along the journey.
First, know that there is only one way to prepare yourself for success and rejection: Enjoy your own salvation.  In Luke 10:20, Christ has sent out the 72 workers, told them to pray for more workers in the harvest field, and given heavenly wisdom for ministry.  After they return with reports of the spiritual authority they enjoyed, he said “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” If you leverage your feeling of self-worth and “am I a success?” mentality off of the exterior results, eventually, you will find yourself in the pit.  Instead, continue to keep your salvation as the centerpiece of joy in your life.  Remember that God called you to intimacy with him long before he called you to plant a church.  And, that after your church planting days are over, he will still be calling you to intimacy.  This will anchor you in a joy that is infectious and makes evangelism, outreach, and missionary living much easier than you will expect.
Second, be determined to connect to a learning community of peers. By the grace of God, I became involved with a group of planters shortly after we began the work to start Lake Ridge Church.  There are 10 of us connected to the group and we have committed to doing a few things together.  First and foremost is to retreat for 3 days together every six months.  For each retreat, we commit to studying a book of the Bible and reading a spiritual formation book (last time it was Colossians and The Great Omission by Dallas Willard).  We do a lot of preparation but very little planning.  It is a time to laugh, cry, pray, and discuss God’s revelation in his Word without preachiness and pretension.  There are no scheduled sermons or prayer times.  We simply meet and allow ministry to occur naturally to one another.  It takes time and finances, but is worthwhile.  We also stay in contact through CoachNet.org for purposes of prayer, accountability, and encouragement.  Finally, some of us have committed to recording our “tribal story” in print.  It is foolish to learn from our own journey and not pass the lessons along to others.  This band of brothers has become indispensable to the journey and we are actively seeking others who would want to learn to do the same.  Currently, each one in the group (including myself) is seeking to begin peer networks among like-minded missional leaders in our regions of ministry.
Thirdly, we team planted Lake Ridge Church for many reasons, but a specific one is accountability.  The spiritual discipline of submission is relatively lost today and needs to be recaptured.  The recent events in Ted Haggard’s life is only a public illustration of what we all know to be an all to common experience in the church.  We intentionally came in expressing permission to be questioned about core devotional, family, and ministry issues.  Ephesians 5:21 stands as an unwavering command for us to submit to one another in order to honor Christ.  In a church plant environment, this is a necessary practice for the leaders so that good work will be done and sin might be averted.  After all, many planters have an Alpha Male – Big Dog – Uber Man personality that needs to be kept in check. 
The work of planting Lake Ridge Church has been fun, challenging, exasperating and exhilarating.  I hope that your journey will be fraught with the same dangers and filled with the same joy.

Matt Payne has just gotten underway with the public launch of the church he has planted, Church! at Bethany. He has had quite an experience so far, with his equipment trailer being stolen last week before a service! Of course, God used it for good, giving Church! at Bethany
great news coverage and actually restoring the equipment lost. What a great story, you can read and see more at Matt’s blog, Connecting the Unconnected. But here’s his church planting wisdom tidbits:

• Build a Great Team. Pray every day that God would send you people that complement your gift mix to be a part of your launch team. Even the Lone Ranger had a Tonto. Recruit them by casting the vision about what God is doing instead of making a hard sell. Let God call them as much as He has called you so when you tick them off they will be more likely to stay. A great team will allow ministry to be done even while you are at home with your family or on vacation. A great team will reproduce leaders and make disciples. Spend significant time with your team!! Pray and plan and play with them.

• Know your Target. Buy the demographic data and live in the area. Determine who you will best reach and develop basic plan to reach them. Don’t over-program!! Spend significant time hanging around them. Join the groups they have joined. Love them, don’t treat them as a project. Pray for them every single day!

• Be Flexible/Adaptable. Things will not go the way you think they will go. That’s ok. God is up to something. He’ll let you in on it when He’s ready. Pray every day for the strength to handle whatever situations might come up.

Matt really knows that last one. Great stuff from Matt. Thanks! Up next? Who knows?

Michael Foster is the planting pastor of Seven Hills Church, a church that has yet to publicly launch in Cincinnati, OH. So what does Michael have to say?

• Protect and strengthen your marriage/family. The biggest area ignored in all church planting books, seminars/conferences and church planting networks/denominations is marriage/family. Let this all-important verse sink in, “He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? (1 Timothy 3:4-5)” Church planting will put your marriage/family through a white hot heat that you have never felt before. All the weakness and faults in your marriage/family will be amplified ten times over. This will be a good sanctifying, albeit painful, experience for your marriage/family if you don’t let it destroy you. A few steps I’d take are 1) Make sure your wife has a friend outside the church that she can confide in about everything and I mean everything that she is going through 2) Date your wife and do what it takes to keep the sex life hot, steamy, and frequent. 3) Set a work schedule that includes hours of work and a day off so you family knows when they can spend time with you. Remember if you lose your marriage/family, you lose your pastorate. They are your first priority.

• Surround yourself with wise counselors. Take to heart the following two passages from Proverbs: “For by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory” (24:6) and “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment” (18:1). You need to surround yourself with counselors. You need to seek out both “fathers” and “brothers.” A father is an older counselor that has been through the fire and can pastor you with his wisdom. A brother is a person close to you in age and maturity who can relate to your struggle in the “now sense” and can challenge/encourage you in the battle. You should seek counselors from within your network/denomination and without.

• Don’t sacrifice the long term for the short term (aka take your time). It is true that the fields are ready for the harvest but that in no ways should be used as an excuse to rush things. Take time to understand your context, develop relational networks, and properly develop a leadership base. In regards to leadership, you will be tempted to be guilty of, “being hasty in the laying on of hands” (1 Tim 5:22) but remember the easiest way to fire a person is to never hire them.

Great stuff from Mr. Foster. You can check out more of his thoughts at his blog, The Gaslight Gospel. Tomorrow? Unexpected Church Planting Wisdom.