Why Some Established Pastors Oppose Church Plants

As most church planter’s know, the most direct discouragement and opposition to a church start comes from the pastors in the community of the new church. This is a bewildering experience because the planter mistakenly assumes that pastors would be the most excited about new works endeavoring to reach more people. But this is rarely the case.

It is important for us to ask why this happens, because it is easy for us planters to become those same pastors that opposed us when we started. We often become what we hate. And we need to also be able to show mercy to those pastors so that we don't see them as our enemy.

Ignorance Is Not Bliss

First many pastors of established churches don’t think church planting is necessary because their church is THERE also trying to reach the community. They simply don’t see that the scale of the unchurched in their city is beyond what any one church can do. They see the addition of a new church as a subtraction from their influence. But I believe something deeper is going on the life of a pastor than just ignorance.

Ego Threat

Many pastors are deeply insecure about the potential success of the new church start. Pastor’s are experts in making excuses about why their church is the way it is. And if the new church start comes in and reaches people that the established church doesn’t reach, the pastor’s excuses are shattered, exposing the problem is not the community, but the way the established church is led. We think, “if this new church comes in and is successful, and we are not successful, what does this prove about me?” And so the pastor would rather oppose then be exposed.

But pastors, by the grace of God, need to be able to learn from the new churches, and vice versa, so the unbelievers of the community would be meaningfully engaged.