I write this from Washington state as I participate in board meetings for Multiply (our denomination’s missions agency). The board has been processing some potential strategic shifts in how Multiply interacts with and serves its missionaries and international partners around the world. One of the challenges of thinking through change and making ministry plans is that you never know what the Lord has in store, and how circumstances beyond your control will change your plans. For example, one board member has served as a leader of a Bible college, and he shared the story of a new program they were going to offer at their school. They prayed at length about the new program, consulted all the necessary parties, made wise choices with the best knowledge available, and determined that launching a new program would be of great benefit to their school. Then, soon after they launched their program, the government offered essentially the same program for free at other schools. It tanked their program overnight, and months of planning yielded no fruit. They could not have seen that coming. That’s life, sadly. We can bathe our planning in prayer and act wisely and make the correct decisions, but sometimes the unexpected comes along and sinks our plans. This is why, in ministry, we cannot promise “success.” We can only seek to be faithful, and leave the results up the Lord. He must provide the increase. I want that idea to be in our heads especially as we think about church planting. Some of the hesitation regarding church planting comes down to the fear of “what if it doesn’t work?” We must be honest – we cannot promise it will. We cannot guarantee success. But we have to be convinced that the potential of a new church is worth the effort and risk. We have to be convinced that a “failed” church plant is not as big a failure as not even seeking to plant at all. The biggest failure would be to ignore God’s commission to His church to make more disciples (and thereby churches). As for results, we leave those to the Lord – and go to Him in dependent prayer.