Are we ensuring the church’s and the gospels reproducibility with our ministry methods? One of the best books on church planting over the past few years is Ben Arment’s Church in the Making: What Makes or Breaks a New Church Before It Starts. Born out of real life experience, and not the kind that usually sells books, his insights are well worth reading. Looking back through this weekend and found this great list of barriers to reproducing churches. Take a look. Great reminders:

1. Pride. Reproducing ourselves requires humility. In a world where pastors strive to keep up with one another’s successes, it’s rare to find an example of the kind of humility it takes to multiply leaders.
2. Personality. By putting personality ahead of purpose, we make our churches difficult to reproduce, let alone sustain.
3. Professionalism. The church can only reproduce itself when the barriers to leadership are sufficiently reduced for ordinary, unprofessional ministers.
4. Excellence in Ministry. excellence is often a substitute for authentic and relational ministry. Also, quality at its highest levels is almost impossible to reproduce.
5. Personal Legacy. Trying to become a great leader can get in the way of a reproducible church. Trouble comes when we try to create our own personal legacies rather than letting God do it.