Dealing with Loss and Disappointment in Church Planting

Church planters are principally change agents. Leith Anderson writes: “Some persons and organizations try to control change; we call them proactive. They want to be the change agents; they want to initiate. Their numbers are few, their failures are many (my emphasis), and their impact can be enormous. Prophets, reformers, and missionaries are all proactive change agents. They see the way things are and envision the way things could be. They attempt to create a new order which no one else may want” (Dying for Change, p. 140).How do we emotionally and practically deal with disappointment as church planters? If we do not learn to respond well to loss and disappointment in our church planting ministries we will, in all probability, not survive them.