The panel discussion from the third session of Plant, our church-planting conference, featured Mark Dever, Darrin Patrick, Jeff Purswell, and Tim Witmer, and was moderated by C.J. Mahaney.

Panel discussion 2: The importance of preaching

Download (right-click and select “Save link as” or “Save target as”)

Here’s what was asked:

• Why is preaching so important in a church plant?
• How should the priority of preaching be reflected in a church planter’s weekly schedule?
• A church planter, because of his many responsibilities, might find it easy to postpone his preaching preparation to the final day or moments. Do you have any practical counsel for someone who finds that the pattern in his life?
• Take us through a normal week: what’s your preaching preparation process like?
• Let’s say you’re going to start a church this Sunday. What book of the Bible do you begin teaching from? Why?
• How would you counsel men who find themselves transitioning from a large, attentive, responsive congregation to addressing 30 people, ten of whom are children, at the outset of a church plant? What would you say to them about the temptations they’ll encounter? How would you encourage them?
• How would a church planter obtain evaluation of his preaching?
• A church planter can be particularly tempted to discouragement as he’s laboring week after week and there doesn’t seem to be significant growth, while he’s hearing reports of other churches that seem to be expanding quickly and significantly. Talk to us about your familiarity with that temptation after you’ve preached, and how you take your soul to task.