My heart goes out to pastors who have been called to pioneer new churches.  In talking to several such pastors recently it seems that the pressure from supporting organizations to focus on numbers and statistics is unreal.  Recently Ed Stetzer released some statistics that were a relief to some involved in church planting because they flew in the face of commonly held beliefs. 

In his article Church Planting Survivability and Health, Stetzer challenges the often repeated claim that 80% of church plants fail in the first year.  Stetzer has good news for church planters in every denomination.  Look at the following chart:                       

                                                                
 

The number of churches that survived the first year in this study was 98% with 68% surviving four years later.  Pretty good news for some. 

I know that as a church our goal is to survive.  We want to be found doing the work of Christ not only a year later but many years later.  None of us go into planting a church thinking, “We are going to fail.”  Nor do we wish to be among the 2% that cease to exist in the first year.  I am not saying that we shouldn’t be aware of the factors that worked in the churches that ‘made it’ past the first, second, third, and fourth years either.   

My concern is that we emphasize the survivability statistics and the processes and forget Who it is that causes these churches to survive.  I was reading Acts this week and was reminded of what Gamaliel said before the Council in Acts 5 when Stephen and the apostles had been jailed for proclaiming Christ.  He stood up in the Sanhedrin and reminded them they should not harm the apostles, “For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.  But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” 

If our purpose and activity is from God and certainly if we are planting a church we should be sure that we are proceeding under God’s direction, then we need not fear survivability.  We will be unstoppable because our God is unstoppable.  It is when our processes and our dependence on statistics get in the way that we are in danger of failing.  I know that there are practical things that have to be attended to when planting a church.  I am not naïve.  However, when our focus is on the practical we are risking the very survivability we are focusing upon.