How long do you think it would take each of your core team members to become good friends with five to ten people? …. I’ve asked this question all over the world, literally, and everyone comes back with approximately the same time: two years! …. Sadly, most church plant funding models provide too much up-front funding and then phase it out to nothing just about the time a good new church pioneer has gotten his or her legs about them as a missionary …. We just seem to always want a quick fix. There’s no easy way to say this. The negative or disinterested perception of the church by those outside will not change quickly …. We have to be patient as any good missionary community would be.
Hugh Halter & Matt Smay, AND: The Gathered and Scattered Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), 57
In the Storyline 