What type of emotional toll can planting a church take on the planter?
Pat asks a great question.
The simple answer is a great toll. Those who have planted will tell you that starting a new church is one of the most difficult tasks a person can undertake. It requires a great deal of thought, discipline, prayer, and effort. As you might expect, the work is hard and at times the results are few. There is typically a season in life of the new church where you are literally, daily walking on the edge of success or failure. This roller coaster ride certainly has an effect on the planter, his family and the core team committed to starting the church.
Now, having said all that, let’s look at this from another angle. I once heard a man say that anything worth doing in life was going to require hard work and sacrifice. What a true statement.
People who start a new business, invent a new product or do something to make our world a better place will seldom, if ever, tell you it was easy or that it did not require sacrifice. They will also tell you that it was well worth enduring the struggle to see it to fruition.
So it is with church planting. The sacrifice is great, but the reward is greater. Frankly, if we are thinking about planting churches from God’s perspective, the difficulty of the work, the struggle and the sacrifice should bring us to the place where we were meant to be all along… Going to our Creator, our God, and asking Him in faith for the strength we need to accomplish what he has called us to do…to start churches that change the cultural fabric of the communities they are placed in.
outside the gate 
It does take a heavy toll and there are lots of temptations to despair and fear and anxiety along the way. But Anthony, you said it well. Most things worth doing, especially in God’s kingdom require sacrifice. At the same time I hope and trust Christ Community can offer the kind of support that, while not making it easy, will much make it less lonely and much more likely, humanly speaking to succeed.