Sean Benesh's Blog, page 12

Who Says You Can't Launch a Startup in the Middle of a Pandemic?

Life is always about possibilities and opportunities, isn’t it? It’s also about our ability to adapt and be flexibile. COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerability of many industries … from new churches to cafes. While we couldn’t forecast a pandemic, the good news is we now have even a better ability to launch a new startup in...

Mainstream or Fringe: We Need Voices from the Margins

I’m not embarrassed to admit this, but for the most part years ago I stopped reading books related to ministry, and in particular church planting. I say “rarely” because once in a while I do, but I mostly I steer away. Then the follow up question is why? Too often there’s little new or newsworthy out there. It’s kind of l...

Spoiler Alert: Most Church Planters Are Not Very Entrepreneurial

The longer I work alongside and interact with church planters the clearer the divide is between those who’re entrepreneurial and those who think they are. While it assumed that all church planters are entrepreneurial by nature because they’re starting a church seemingly from scratch … that simply isn’t true. So what does ...

Church Planters Are All Going After the Same 5 Percent Market Share ... WHY?

The American church has been planting new churches at an unprecedented clip. While there’s much to celebrate in that, unfortunately the parallel storyline isn’t such good news. We’ve made little to no impact. At all. Why? Because somewhere along the way church planters, whether in the city or the burbs or small towns, hav...

You Will Be Misunderstood

The longer I teach cohorts and meet with church planters the clearer I see the unfortunate games that we play in ministry. In particular, one of the games that I often see played out is related to geography. Call it geography Bingo, geography Chutes and Ladders, or whatever. The rules of this game are simple … they go lik...

Calling All Misfits

Some call them misfits, I call them intrepid adventurers. Either way they’re misunderstood and even maligned. You see, to swim upstream of conventional ministry or church planting wisdom is immediately met with tension. “You can’t plant that way.” “You’re supposed to do it like that.” But what if that isn’t you? What if f...

The Mythology of Calling

What exactly is a calling? What does it look like on a practical and everyday level? How do we know? Is it a feeling? A hunch? Intuition? A burning bush moment where God meets us face-to-face? These are easy questions to ask. What is difficult is precisely how to answer them. Not only that, but we hear and see all kinds o...

Introducing Through Barren Wastelands

Over the last few years my writing has taken a turn. I began my journey writing for a more academic audience. That has continued to change and evolve … just as I have. Even though I’m more involved and invested in academia than ever before I find that when it comes to writing I want to push farther into defining my own st...

Most Church Planters Will Need a Career Outside Their Church

When we throw our lot into planting a church, we never … or rarely … think of doing anything other than planting a church. In other words, we assume that we’ll simply and seamlessly transition from planting a new church to then pastoring this growing church full time. However, for the majority of planters that day never c...

Rethinking Church Planting Funding ... No Job, No Funding

I am fortunate to be a friend and confidant to many church planters. I am regularly in text communication, having conversations via social media, or meeting face-to-face over a Cuban sandwich. I cherish these conversations. More importantly, I value these relationships.

Maybe it’s because I lead Intrepid where my focus is ...