A few weeks ago I read a thought-provoking blog entitled 50 Lessons Learned in Ministry. It was written by a fellow church planter’s wife whose blog I follow. As I read her 50 lessons learned I could identify with each one. I actually saved the email with her post and it is still in my inbox. I had been thinking about writing a similar blog with some of the lessons I have learned personally in this new season of church planting. I have been in the ministry for 22 years and have learned many things along the way, but church planting is a whole new ballgame. It is similar in many respects but it definitely has many new and different challenges.
My husband has his own blog as well and we had been talking recently about needing to get busy writing new posts for our blogs. I struggle with taking the time to actually sit down and write out the myriad of thoughts that go through my mind daily. I always think about blog topics but rarely slow down long enough to get my thoughts written out. So I looked at my inbox earlier and realized my husband had written a blog today called Lessons I am Learning as a Church Planter. I couldn’t believe he beat me to it! His post was really good too, by the way. Well, I decided to write my own lessons learned anyway. So here are my top 10 lessons learned as a church planter’s wife.
1. Church planting is hard, but it is also fun and exciting.
2. I am the pastor to the Pastor. My family is my primary ministry, and I can’t lose sight of that in all the busyness.
3. A pastor is a servant. It is not a glamorous job, but it is a rewarding job.
4. No matter how far I’ve come in my walk with the Lord, I still have a long way to go.
5. People will disappoint me, but I can’t allow my disappointment with people to affect my ministry to them.
6. Church planting has stretched my faith. I lean more on the Lord now than I ever have before.
7. Criticism comes with the territory. I have to learn to take it in stride and not let it cripple me.
8. Spiritual warfare is real and the Enemy will do all he can to take us down when we are building the Kingdom of God.
9. It takes time to grow a church. It won’t happen in a few weeks or months.
10. I can’t do ministry in my own strength. I must rely on God’s sufficiency and not my own.
TriciaHudson.com 
Tricia, I want to encourage you and Todd on number seven. It takes a very spiritually healthy person to handle criticism from other Christians when you are in a leadership position. I am finding that there is the “oppose you at every turn” kind; the “take your points to a weird and unrelated place” kind; and last but not least the “you will only hear from me if you step on my toes” kind. But Jesus loves them and, from a distance, I see you and Todd wanting to be just like Jesus. Building a Spirit Led church is going in a direction that counter-cultural to church culture. The body NEEDS people like you and Todd who are willing to push back against the church culture and just follow the Spirit. The Charismatic culture NEEDS people like this as well. I am more and more impressed with how much the Spirit values patients in those that really, truly seek Him. He has immeasurable power. Patients is key to the Spirit working through you in power. The Spirit may let you fail many times when you are doing JUST AS HE WANTS before success comes. The Spirit let John Wimber teach on healing and had him pray for people for a year before he saw ANYONE healed.
Stay broken… stay humble… stay desperate for Him… Blessings…