The first question most pastors ask when starting a ministry is, "How do I handle all the legal and business tasks effectively?" And also, "Where do I go to get that information?"

It's no secret that Christian leaders have encountered so many difficulties when starting a ministry because of the lack of authoritative guidance out there. And yet, starting a ministry or a church is one of the most amazing undertakings they will ever experience. After all, a church or ministry in a community represents the "institution" (if you will) by which God has determined the world will be saved. Obviously, salvation is through faith in Christ. But God wants us to live and breath in his one church and enjoy His grace.

The good news is that authoritative resources are finally here. But the larger question is whether new church leaders can be effectively prepared to protect the church from the many risks and uncertainties that exist in the world. All nonprofits are characterized by risk and uncertainty to some extent. But churches are of particular concern because they are all about people. And people are where almost any dispute or controversy will begin.

Grasping the usual risks and uncertainties inherent in starting a ministry, and recognizing them when they rear their ugly heads, is essential for a church to succeed in today's litigious society. Here are just a few of the risks and uncertainties to keep a particularly keen eye out for:

First, the children's ministry. We all learned a few alarming things from the recent investigations by Dateline's Chris Hanson into the habits of online predators. Perhaps the most alarming thing we learned is that a potential child molester cannot be predicted. We saw men who worked in the ministry and younger men who proclaimed Christ being paraded through court because they had arranged a liaison with a young boy or girl to do unspeakable things. They will certainly try to make their way into your children's ministry if you don't have the necessary safeguards in place.

Second, church finances. When starting a ministry, it's important to carefully choose who will be a steward over all of its finances. Most people are well-meaning and even known perpetrators will tell us that they never foresaw what they eventually did. The problem with the financial oversight of some churches is that too many stewards are isolated in their work. When one has the sense of lax oversight and feels the power of having a fiefdom, however small, that's a recipe for abuse.

And third, pastoral counseling. One can never be too careful about protecting ministers from others as well as themselves. On the one hand you have the cases where ministers have abused their counseling role and engaged in inappropriate relationships with counselees. On the other hand, you have counselees who are inclined to trap a well-meaning pastor. And if that's not bad enough, you can throw in the problems that arise with when pastoral counselor have to deal with mental or emotional illness in their counselees and their pastoral counseling expertise is taken to its limits. Appropriate referrals at the right time can prevent many a lawsuit after the fact.

And as if starting a ministry is not hard enough already, you have to wade through many non-authoritative resources out there on how to start a Christian church. Fortunately, you now have Building On Faith: Everything You Need To Know About Starting Your Own Church. It's the gold standard in use today nationwide by Christian church start-ups. And it was written by a devoted Christian and church law expert. You own it to yourself and you ministry to take a closer look.