Are you planning to start a church? Whether it's going to be a new independent ministry or a church missional planting by a fellowship, you'll need special guidance through the complex legal and business aspects. If you're going to successfully spread the message of Christ through your community, you must also keep your house in good order. You can be a missionary in more ways than one. Show people that you and your spiritual family have a solid foundation in the Word, and also that you approach everything with diligence and attention to detail... for the glory of God.

One important step in a successful church missional planting is the selection of spiritual leaders. And among the qualities you may want in a leader, are the concern for doing all things excellent. That doesn't mean they should be task masters or perfectionists. It simply means they don't overlook important matters and let legal and business matters slide, under the guise of focusing primarily on the ministry side of things. A good leader will enlist the help of others who can assist in the areas that the leader is not strong in. And does anyone really know a church leader who has a particular strength in handling complex legal and business matters. Not likely.

A successful church missional planting will carefully handle any matter that, if left undone, can come back to do some serious damage. We are called to be stewards. And that means stewards of everything under our charge. Ministers are more like shepherds. It takes a particular kind of individual to competently handle everything else. In many ways, an effective guide to a church missional planting will begin with non-ecclesiastical (or, uniquely church-related) matters. That is because of the dearth of excellent, reliable resources that exist for how to handle matters other than ministry and outreach.