Church Planter Mentoring: Tending to Those Who Tend
Using a childhood gardening lesson, this article highlights the unique pressures church planters face once the early excitement fades. Three experienced leaders—Earl Ferguson, Mont Mitchell, and Brent Foulke—intentionally come alongside planters to pray, ask hard questions, and provide encouragement and permission to take faithful risks.
- Church planting can take a personal, professional, and familial toll on planters—and on the young churches they lead.
- Intentional mentoring offers prayer, accountability, perspective, and partnership when the work gets hard.
- Support for church plants should include not only funding, but also personal presence and encouragement.
By Brian Lowery
When I was very young, I tried my hand at gardening. My parents “rented” a little plot of land behind a row of houses down the street from us. We would load our station wagon with whatever tools we needed, and off we went with visions of sweet corn and vine-ripened tomatoes dancing in our heads.
At first I was thrilled. There was nothing more exhilarating than seeing a splash of green in a spot that was once ruddy, clotted dirt. I did whatever I could to get the little plants reaching even higher out of the ground.
But then the work got a little harder. After the initial high wore off, I saw the plants as nothing more than needy younger siblings, craving special attention that was frustratingly draining. This was work, and I was tired.
I often think about the many church plants scattered across the North American landscape. Are they stretching and straining upward in a staggering burst of growth? Are they withered and wanting? And what of the planters themselves? How are they feeling once the temporary high has worn away? Who is tending those who tend—the faithful few with muddied knees and sweating brows?
I know three men who also ask these questions and who are actually doing something about their concerns. You’ll spot them climbing into cars with a handful of tools—a worn Bible and a collection of life experiences—to tend to those who tend and maybe even sprinkle a little water on the plants themselves.
Realizing Potential
Consider Earl Ferguson. Some who are a little older are content to live off the fruit of the land, but Earl is still rummaging around in the garden. When he’s not busy preaching in the clubhouse of an adult retirement community in suburban Chicago, he’s fretting about the conditions of the many plants around him. On a regular basis, in partnership with the Chicago District Evangelistic Association (a church-planting organization in the Chicagoland and northern Indiana areas), Earl meets with six younger church planters. As he puts it, he’s simply trying to seek God alongside of them while encouraging them to realize their kingdom potential.
Ferguson is convinced it’s never been harder to plant a church in the Chicago area. The toll can be devastating, with the planters suffering on personal, professional, and familial levels. Tragically, the plants suffer right along with them.
That’s why Earl intentionally tends to those who tend. When the high wears off, the weeding gets old, and the planter is tired of the sun scorching his shoulders, Ferguson is there to whisper a prayer or two (both in their presence and in absence).
He’s there to ask the probing, necessary questions (in fact, he routinely asks them eight critical questions, starting with the ever-positive, “Tell me—where are you winning?”).
He’s there to remind them of past victories and help them stand after the defeats (swapping stories, as war buddies sometimes do).
He’s there.
Proverbs 27:17 speaks of iron sharpening iron. And just as a trusted tool hones another and the earth is richer for it, the longer Earl is there, the more joy he has as he sees steadier hands on the plow.
Straining Upward
Earl isn’t the only one tending to those who tend. He’s joined by Mont Mitchell, senior pastor at Westbrook Christian Church (Bolingbrook, Illinois).
Because our families were very close, I grew up with Mont as a personal hero. We would drive down to his home in Robinson, Illinois, and climb trees and swim in his pond. It’s always fascinated me that the Mitchell family owned a greenhouse. It’s little wonder Mont is so tender toward anything first straining upward from the ground.
In partnership with Stadia East, a church-planting organization that stretches across the United States, Mont intentionally reaches out to younger church planters. “The road is rocky, steep, and narrow,” Mont stresses, “and the ‘audacity of ministry’ (as Oswald Chambers puts it) demands a helping hand and an encouraging word now and then.”
He fully recognizes that when he was a young church planter, he wouldn’t have survived without someone coming alongside and stoking the fires in his heart. So you’ll find Mont on the phone with a church planter who’s in the early stages of planting seeds in Georgia. Because Mont loves multiethnic worship, he mentors cross-culturally whenever he gets the chance. You’ll even find him faithfully reaching out to a young man who is planting a church in Mont’s own stomping grounds—the Plainfield/Bolingbrook area.
“Sure there’s a tinge of competition,” Mont confesses, “but I told myself, Get over it.”
After all, the harvest is plentiful. Sixteen different nations are represented in Mont’s neck of the woods. There’s no room for competition—only partnership in tilling the fields.
Stirring Encouragement
Finally, there’s Brent Foulke, who serves as a mentor for several church-planting organizations, including the Orchard Group, Central Illinois Evangelistic Association, and Florida Church Planters.
Like the apostle Paul (Romans 1:13), Brent stirs a mutual encouragement of faith that will bring about a great harvest. Just like Earl and Mont, he comes alongside a single church planter or an entire leadership team and shares whatever he can to help them accomplish the goals God has impressed upon their hearts.
Brent spends a lot of time doing one of two things with whomever he mentors. Half the time, he shares his own stories from ministry. “I can explain why some things don’t work, why others might work better, and most of all, how faithful God is in all circumstances,” Brent says. “Sometimes, I think my role is similar to that of a bumblebee, pollinating flowers by sharing life-giving material from other blossoms.”
The other half of his time is spent doling out permission. Most planters are a little fearful to try something that doesn’t have a proven track record—even if their idea perfectly fits their sociological setting. “The urgency of our mission is too great to settle for cookie-cutter approaches,” he says. So sometimes Brent simply encourages a little risk, gently pushing the planter to “dig a little over there” and watch what wild things happen.
I thank God for these three men, intentionally tending to the faithful few with muddied knees and sweaty brows.
I even wonder if we ought to join them in their ministry. They would certainly welcome the help. All three stressed that perhaps it’s not enough to just throw money at a young plant; throw yourself alongside too.
Who knows—perhaps we’d see even more splashes of green in spots that were once nothing more than ruddy, clotted dirt.
Brian Lowery is a freelance writer and speaker living in the suburbs of Chicago. He is associate editor with preachingtoday.com, from Christianity Today, International.
