Church Planter should be Cathedral Thinkers

The launch can be seen is successive steps
Most church plants seem to fail not because of the model but because of poor leadership.

In every movement or successful church plant lies the understand of ‘big picture’ leadership or seeing beyond the launch.

1. Identify & confirm a passionate sense of calling

2. Master the discipline of leading yourself
3. Identify the needs of your community & develop an intentional strategy to meet them

4. Cast a clear and compelling vision for your church plant
5. Lead from a bold faith that takes prayerful risks
6. Evaluate your values & integrate them into the DNA of your church
7. Effectively raise & manage money
8. Be intentional about discipleship & leadership development
9. Develop measurable systems & structures to fulfil your vision
10. Identify key leaders to execute the vision
11. Think strategically & execute for results

12. Persevere through difficulty in order to get to the next level 

The Three Stonecutters

One day a traveller, walking along a lane, came across 3 stonecutters working in a quarry. Each was busy cutting a block of stone. Interested to find out what they were working on, he asked the first stonecutter what he was doing. “I am cutting a stone!” Still no wiser the traveller turned to the second stonecutter and asked him what he was doing. “I am cutting this block of stone to make sure that it’s square, and its dimensions are uniform, so that it will fit exactly in its place in a wall.” A bit closer to finding out what the stonecutters were working on but still unclear, the traveller turned to the third stonecutter. He seemed to be the happiest of the three and when asked what he was doing replied: “I am building a cathedral.”

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This story beautifully illustrates a key leadership quality - seeing the bigger picture. All

three stonecutters were doing the same thing, but each gave a very different answer.

Each knew how to do his job but what was it that set the third stonecutter apart? Perhaps:

• Knowing not just how and what to do, but knowing why.

• Viewing the whole and not just its parts.

• Seeing a vision, a sense of the bigger picture.

• Having the ability to see significance in work, beyond the obvious.

• Understanding that a legacy will live on, whether in the stone of a cathedral, or in the impact made on other people.

In Drucker’s version, when asked what they were doing, the first stonecutter replied: “I am making a living”.

The second kept on hammering while he said:
“I am doing the best job of stone cutting in the entire country.”

The third stonecutter, when asked the same question said:

“I am building a cathedral.”

“Cathedrals are incredible testaments to human endeavour. It is not only their grandeur or splendour, but the thought that they often took more than fifty years to build.

Those who designed them, those who first worked on them, knew for certain that they would never see them finished.

They knew only that they were creating something glorious which would stand for centuries, long after their own names had been forgotten.....

We may not need any more cathedrals but we do need cathedral thinkers, people who can think beyond their own lifetimes.”

This is our time to think, plan and pray for bigger and greater. We must limit ourselves to the here and now but rather to the bigger picture and beyond the launch.

What does that look like on the ground?

1. What style of church are you seeking to plant
2. What will be the strengths
3. What will the church be known for

“I am Building a Cathedral”

Demonstrating his own leadership quality, Peter Drucker told a different version of this

story, going beyond the obvious in drawing out its lessons.

As Peter Senge has put it: the responsibility of a leader is not just to share a vision

but to build a shared vision.

We Need Cathedral Thinkers

These questions help you to see the ‘bigger picture’ and its cathedral thinkers that not only inspire others to build but they build others up also.

The bible itself speaks of cathedral thinkers? We are all building a kingdom that is beyond our launch. His Kingdom, we pray for it, preach it and build it, until he comes and brings a new city.