I would be curious to hear how you are partnering with your community to transform it with the gospel. What is your church doing to make your community a better place?
 

Are you part of a coaching network or relationship? How had it helped you? How has it advanced your minstry?

2. The network immediately knows what has brought it together and engages quickly.  
 (A passion is common and serves as concrete to hold the group together.)

3. The network has a serious sense of the Spiritual.
 (The participants are aware of the presence of God in their relationships and purposes.  This guides the group into a more serious level of expectation and bonding.)

4. The network has participants who maintain similar levels of commitment.
 (The healthiest networks I have had the pleasure of belonging to have had no “drivers” – one who makes everything happen or “slackers” – those who are just along for the ride.  EVERYONE contributes.)

5. The network works “smart”.
 (It finds ways to maximize time committed to guarantee intrinsic value; ex. - might meet occasionally, but connect often electronically, by phone, etc.)

6. The network produces practical, realizable results.
 (Most participants could tell you “on the spot” what makes the network a thing of value for their work and ministry; what one “gem” they took away from the last gathering.)

7. The network knows when it has outlived its usefulness.
 (At that point the network must decide to make adjustments, reinvent itself or cease to exist.)
 

The incarnation of Christ is a great example from scripture for us to gain an understanding of contextualization.  Jesus, the only son of God, became flesh – fully embraced Jewish culture and customs, spoke the language, looked like his neighbors – to the extent that most people he encountered could not tell that he was from somewhere else. His use of parables allowed him to communicate truth in a way that made sense to his audience. Jesus’ example not only challenges us to pursue the contextualizing of the gospel – it demands it.

The Apostle Paul provides us another example from scripture. Whether he was in Antioch, Athens or Lystra Paul communicated the gospel in a way that made sense to his audience. In Antioch he preached in the synagogue. In Lystra it was in a public venue while in Athens it was a meeting of the Areopagus Council. In Antioch he quoted form the Hebrew scriptures. In Lystra he used the local religious background as a starting point while in Athens it was Greek philosophers and poets.

Every believer, missionary and church communicates the gospel in a way that makes sense to the hearer.  It is a never ending process.  Cultures and societies change. New people from a wide variety of places move into their communities. Although contextualizing the gospel is critical, it is not an easy thing to do. There isn’t a real clear process or formula, but there is much to be learned from examples in scripture. We can learn from our current and past missionaries. All of our efforts to communicate the gospel clearly will be simply that - efforts - unless we seek wisdom and power from our Heavenly Father.

Check out Joe Beckler’s story. He talks about how he identified strategic learning zones in Durango, Colorado to aid him in his quest to contextualize the gospel.

We would love to hear your story. What are you doing to identify ways to communicate the gospel with clarity?  How is it working? What challenges are you facing as you seek to contextualize the gospel?
 

For the ranking, Gallup asked the question, “Is religion an important part of your daily life?” The rankings were based on the percentage of each states’ adult (18 and older) population that answered in the affirmative. Al Mohler, in his blog, states:

“What are we to make of this?  Well, a closer look at the question Gallup asked reveals the limits of the data.  The people Gallup interviewed were asked: "Is religion an important part of your daily life?"  There was no definition of "religion" offered, and certainly no test of doctrinal understanding or commitment.  The responses from the Bible Belt surely include those generated by cultural Christianity.  In the South, being "raised right" includes knowing how you are supposed to respond to a question like that posed by Gallup.”

The question for those serving in the local church: How does the religiosity of your community impact your strategy for contextualizing the gospel? What have you found to be effective? The Missional Network, and our readers, would welcome an opportunity to hear your story. Be sure to identify the state you serve in and whether you serve in a rural, small town, suburban or urban context.

Today, I can clearly see the errors of my ways as a young pastor. I understand that my context, and not some mega-church model or conference (and certainly not my personal preferences), should have determined our format and methodology. I now see we should have been biblically faithful while allowing our context to help shape our methods for reaching our community with the gospel. I now see the value of contextualization. 

The world has moved in next door. We within the church planting community now speak of cultures instead of culture. Not only are we ethnically diverse, we find diversity within people groups themselves. People speak of living in a post-modern—post-Christian—society. We (the church) are accused of being irrelevant and intolerant. People are moving into urban centers and expressing their spirituality in a variety of ways. Some say they are rejecting the church and not Jesus. Technology is rapidly changing the world in which we live and how we connect with one another. The world as I—maybe even we—know it, no longer exists.

The challenge before church planters is this: How do we, people of God, effectively communicate the unchanging gospel in an ever-changing landscape? Too often, we have either been too late or have done too little in response to societal changes. On occasion, we have been reactive instead of being proactive. Some have accused many of our church planters of going too far, of watering down or even changing the gospel in an effort to be contextual. Many of our edgier leaders have accused the traditional church of becoming a fortress, rebuking the culture while seeking to maintain the status quo. I would contend that we must maintain a healthy balance between being missional while maintaining our biblical Christian faith (see Jude 3). We must be biblically faithful while being contextually appropriate—anchored to Christ, geared to the times.  

Dean Flemming says, “Contextualization has to do with how the gospel revealed in Scripture authentically comes to life in each new cultural, social, religious and historical setting … Every church in every particular place and time must learn to do theology in a way that makes sense to its audience while challenging it at the deepest level.”   Contextualization is more than a change in music, dress code, and furniture. Changes are not made because something works somewhere else, in another church, or in another city. A desire to be contextual is driven by a passion to make disciples among all peoples and, therefore, requires an understanding of the language, values, societal rhythms, and worldviews of the people you are seeking to reach.

As the people of God, we are commanded to make disciples of all nations—among all peoples. To do so, we should be guided by solid missiological principles, remain biblically faithful, and be culturally relevant. The following is a selection of principles to guide your effort to be contextual.

First, think mission, not church. We are commanded by God to gather people from every tribe and every tongue for God’s worship and glory. As a young pastor, I knew this, but to be honest, my intent may have been to build a great church. Deep inside me I may have wanted to be successful, to pastor a large church that affirmed my abilities. Today, my driving passion is to see all peoples come to Christ and live for God’s glory. I now see that because of the diversity in North America and in individual communities, no one church can be all things to all people. I see the importance of being driven by God’s mission and to have a heart for my city, not necessarily for the growth of a local church.

Second, continually seek to understand the context in which you serve. Build relationships, networking with the unchurched in order to understand their culture and share Christ. Learn to listen. Conduct demographic and psychographic research on your community, but understand that this alone is not adequate. Connect with business leaders in your community in an effort to identify trends. Read everything you can on culture and understanding your context. Finally, conduct intentional surveys with the unchurched in an effort to inform your strategies and direct your own culture. In all you do, continually ask the Father, “Where are You at work? What do You want to accomplish in this community? What barriers exist that hinder or stop people from hearing and understanding the gospel?”

Third, understand the culture of your church and your own personal preferences. Many church planters have moved into an area with their strategy prematurely in place without conducting on-site research or without determining if they personally were a fit for the area. People, like churches, have cultural preferences. And yes, there is a culture inside the church. The question is this, “Which culture do we prefer? Does it fit our community or the people group we are seeking to reach with the gospel?”  We should be committed to developing a church culture and adapting personal preferences that serve the culture in which we are living without compromising biblical distinctives.    

Fourth, send Christ-followers into the harvest to engage people. The radically unchurched are not seeking us out. Examine the apostle Paul’s use of teams and help your members focus their energy on networking for evangelism, starting small groups which might become churches, and raising up leaders from within the harvest. At the heart of this activity will be a commitment to making disciple-making disciples. Consider moving your evangelism equipping from a total emphasis upon harvesting to one that includes an increased understanding and practice of sowing the gospel. Help your people see that the process of sowing the gospel is slow, messy, and basically non-measurable. It requires that Christ-followers have a right relationship with God while building relationships with people in the harvest.

Finally, discern what the Holy Spirit is saying. God is working outside of the church building in some magnificent ways. He is gathering people from all over the world to live in your community. Some are very receptive to the gospel. What is God doing in your community? What trends are developing? What “surprises” have occurred in your mission field?

This urges us to ask, “What does God want to do in light of these changes? What new churches are needed? What new ministries need to be started? Does every person in your community have a church pursuing them in their heart language? As God reveals Himself in your community, what new thing is He showing you in His word? What new insights do you have? How are they impacting the work of your church?” The challenge to us, just like the apostle Paul, is to maintain a healthy strategy while being open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. 

Being culturally appropriate while remaining biblically faithful is imperative in the mission of the Church. The diversity of our context and our commitment to making disciples demands we understand ourselves, and then the context in which we serve. A healthy tension exists between being biblically faithful and culturally relevant.  Depend upon the Holy Spirit to guide your desire to remove barriers and build bridges to your community. See the tension as a gift from God, something to be celebrated, for with it comes a new and exciting opportunity to glorify God and fulfill His mission in our communities.

What practical ways has your church contextualized ministry, that has proven to increase effectiveness in making disciples in your community?

Imagine the woman at the well (John 4) encounter in today’s society. Or, maybe Nicodemus (John 3) and his private encounter with Christ. How would the conversations flow? How might Jesus convey these eternal, life changing, spiritual truths in a modern day context? Would He still use “the water of life” to illustrate spiritual thirst and “born again” for spiritual rebirth? I am not sure which medium He would use, but I am sure of this, He would use them. He would not recoil or be fearful of them. He would take the most normal, mundane, ordinary things of life in the 21st century and illustrate to the depths of our souls, deep spiritual truth that would leave us challenged and forever changed.

So, how can we, part of the body of Christ, do this as individuals or as a church. How can we engage in dialogues and invite our community to relate in a forum which may be outside of our norm, yet fits a Biblically accurate picture of how Christ would communicate? I do not have a complete answer, but I believe we must think outside of our normal paradigm of church and increase our awareness of the necessity to communicate in relevant venues.

In any context of ministry, as a good missionary, we must consider the language, culture, customs and icons of the people or community to best consider how to communicate unchanging truths in relevant ways. The goal is to COMMUNICATE, not just talk at people. (That’s another blog). It must be our desire to see truth impact lives and influence change for eternity. We must take the concepts of “salt and light” and the commandments of “love God and love others fully” to whole new levels.  I know Jesus would be doing this...I'm not fully sure how, but I am working on figuring out how to do it better.
 

After listening to the podcast I would love to hear ideas and examples you have of how ordinary Christ followers are involved in the ministry of reconciliation through living a missional life style.

Click here to listen to Matt Chandler’s podcast on “What is Missional Living.”
 

Our Missional Network Team at NAMB defines a missional church as “a biblically faithful, culturally appropriate, reproducing community of Christ-followers who abandon themselves and are sent by God into the harvest to fulfill His mission among all people.”  At the heart of our definition is the sending of God’s people into the harvest to fulfill His mission. Which brings me to my comment on a fresh movement of God, “Could God be leading His church to transition her small groups from community and Bible study to mission?”  Matt stated that when you aim for community you seldom achieve community or mission but that when you aim for mission, you get both community and mission. I am not discounting our need for community or Bible study. What I am suggesting is that if mission drove our groups, community would occur naturally.

To emphasis this shift in thinking, Austin Stone renamed their small groups to Missional Community Groups. Their groups are experiencing real community by working together for a purpose. Matt shared how several Missional Community Groups are reaching out to international students at the University of Texas. By inviting them to a BBQ on campus, they are able to connect, serve and share with the students. Their mission is to minister to internationals by providing each student with a “family” relationship and the opportunity to hear about God’s redemptive plan.

Another concept would be to help your Missional Community groups see that their assignment is not only to network with individuals to proclaim the gospel, but to form small groups in environments like homes, coffee shops and other locations to plant churches among people who may not be attracted to your church and to raise up leaders from those groups to shepherd those churches.

I’m curious: How do you integrate mission into your small groups? Have you transitioned your groups from community focus to a mission focus? How is it working? If not, do you know of someone who has? Do you sense a need for this in your ministry?

Michael "Stew" Stewart

Pastor of Community

The Austin Stone Community Church

510 South Congress Ave Suite 101

Austin, TX 78704

After that grueling test I had one more class for the day - History and Theology of Missions. I like that class, a lot. I was just brain tired and terribly hungry. Somewhere in the midst of the lecture the prof drew a line on the board and explained that in the early days of missions they went to the coastal regions of a territory, and then as access was granted they went inland (Livingstone) and then during the early 20th century the shift was made to the hidden peoples. See as they went inland they would follow rivers and trade routes and reach the people those routes reached but there were pockets of people and even communities of people that were not on those main paths so the push was to go off the beaten path. Then Dr. Bradley asked 'What is next or who is next?' He later told us to answer that question, as we were leaving the class. So I am posing the same question to you, who is next? Who should be our next emphasis in missions? I say, cultures and more specifically subcultures. Instead of putting all the he said she said of our class last night I am just going to phrase the following as if I am bringing it to you fresh right now.

If we were to focus on cultures this would be different then we have in the past thought about things. Instead of focusing on a geographic location (Fort Worth, India, Some Valley) let's focus on cultures that transcend those boundaries. Like for instance rap. Thats right I said 'rap'. Who listens to rap? Everyone. Well maybe not you and I do not all that much but there is definitely a rap culture that is far more reaching than just the inner city African American kids. It is global. So if you were to be a missionary to the rap culture what would you look like? How would you do that? What is potential for reaching people. Think of what kind of influence a famous rapper would have should he accept Jesus, it would be global and it would blow our minds. So what culture are you around?

Whether you want to admit it or not you are part of a culture. I feel it is vitally important for us to examine what culture we are in and then use that to reach those around us. You try it. Name another culture that is everywhere. Maybe they have their own television stations, lobbyist in congress, stores, restaurants, books, movies, fashion and on and on and on. How about the homosexual culture. What are we doing to reach them? Other than telling them they are wrong. Let's put that outreach strategy to another culture like the young professionals. So I walk up to a large group of nicely dressed young adults in a crowded elevator lobby and whip out a giant sign that says 'God hates the greedy!' then I pull out my handy dandy blow horn and start screaming 'The love of money is the root of all evil'. What do you think? Not only am I drastically over simplifying a sub-culture but I am also leaving a really bad impression of God on them. What about the Jews in America or any of the ethnicities in America? God has brought the world to America let's give them the gospel and let them take it back to their homes.

Let's say God calls you to reach a group of people in another country, whomever they might be. He puts (_____________) people on your heart. So you go to school for so many years, you learn the language, you save up money, you are approved through the process of some missions agency, you get and your family leave everything they have ever known and travel to the place where some of these people live and you begin the very long process of becoming (_________) although you never really will be. Or you could find that same kind of people in your own city reach them where you are and with the resources that God has mercifully blessed our country with and you can through them reach those people all over the world. I am in NO WAY saying that people shouldn't go I am just offering up another alternative. People feel that they have two options sit and stay or up and go. Maybe there is a third option, maybe you can do something right now today. What are you waiting for? Look around and open your eyes, the world is at your finger tips. How could the internet, blogging and your current career be used to reach people in Iraq or Minnesota?

Student Ministers you ought to be doing this anyways. It is not good enought to have a large group from each of your prospective school attending your weekly worship gathering. I really feel you need to get up, go down to the school or ball game and look around. What sub-cultures are represented? Are those same groups represented in your Sunday School classes? What about the goths, the skators, athletes, band, acedemics, loners, preps, rappers, wannabees and on and on and on. Before someone gets upset with me, I didn't create these groups I am just trying to reach them.

So my answer to 'Who's next?' is 'sub-cultures. I think you should agree, I also think you should start thinking about which subculture you fit in and where God is calling you. I will tell you this if you are not actively trying to reach some group (your neighbors, your co-workers, your class - all sub-cultures) you are in sin and God will judge you. I mean that in love. You will find no greater joy and ecstasy than when you know God has stationed you to reach "these" people.

Oh God let us be a generation that seeks you, Oh God of Jacob!

To read the entire article, “Reflections on Catalyst One Day,” click here.

Thomas Busby, Systems Coordinator, www.1027church.com

What programs or systems are currently outdated and are no longer effective in fulfilling your church’s mission? What challenges have you faced in eliminating “old couches” from your church to replace them with more effective strategies to reach your community?
 

I am so tired of hearing about church planters who have forfeited their families on restless endeavors of success and church growth. It usually starts with pure motives to plant a church for the disconnected and lost, but can easily become a passion to feed their own ego as success is gained. Read the next sentence slowly and let it soak in.

Any prosperity you gain at the expense of your family will be lost!

It will be as a man trying to keep hold of the wind—you can’t do it! God will not allow you to dishonor Him by keeping your position of influence and leadership in the church when you intentionally or unintentionally degrade something He holds so sacred—your family.

Your home will be your most significant ministry. God ordained the family before the church. That is the advice one man gave me early in my ministry, and it is a great guideline to use as you begin your church planting work. Unfortunately, it is easy to get that out of order and reserve your best for your church instead of your family. This will eventually lead to you losing credibility in your home and in your church. As you pursue your calling, remember that God did not call you to do this without your family. You must first seek God, then lead your family, and allow your ministry to flow from the first two.

I am amazed by the story found in Genesis 22 where Abraham’s faith is tested, and he is told to sacrifice his son. It sounds like a church planting story—sacrificing the family for a calling. The most impressive character in the story, for me, is Isaac because of his willingness to go along. Unlike who the Sunday school literature portrays, Isaac wasn’t a naive toddler who had no idea what was happening. He was old enough to carry the wood up the mountain, he asked inquisitive questions—like where is the animal to sacrifice—and accompanied his father on a three-day journey. So can you imagine the trust he placed in his father as he allowed him to tie him to the altar? Abraham was an old man, and Isaac probably could have overpowered him. Yet he submits to being bound up and put on this altar. Why? What does that tell us about Isaac?

I think it tells us that Isaac was learning to walk by faith by watching his father and, as such, there was a level of trust. He was saying, “My dad has learned to walk with God and trust God, and I trust my dad.” Isaac was called into this story and into a level of faith because his father demonstrated that he would go only where God would lead.

If you want your family to go with you on this journey, let them see you being led by God. Then, bring them with you. If you do this, then and only then will they give up some of their time and your attention for the sake of the gospel. Anything less can lead to a lifetime of resentment towards you, the church, and God.

Has your ministry placed a strain on your family? What kind of practical advice would you give others?

How have you been able to find and identify missional leaders?
 

I.   Be God Focused – Preferences and stylistic disputes will be put aside. We will focus all that we do on glorifying God and fulfilling the mission He has prepared in advance for us.

II.  Teach the Gospel – We want to train our students in the word of God. We will do this by living out the Gospel in front of and by proclaiming it to our students. They will know what they believe and why. They will be encouraged to preach and teach the Gospel to each other. 

III.  Streamline – Activity does not necessarily mean productivity. We want to focus on doing what we do well. We want to improve and focus on Sunday School/Small Groups, Discipleship and our Wednesday Night environments. Students are involved in school, sports, family events and their own social lives, we don’t want them to withdraw from the world by participating in our activities over their own, we want to equip them to be the light of Christ in the world.

IV.  Build Authentic Community – We want to build true community. This will be done not by adding more events to the calendar at random, but by maximizing the time that we have. We will teach, encourage and provide opportunities with our students to be honest with each other about their struggles and who they really are. We will teach them and model for them authenticity that is lacking in much of the rest of their lives. In this environment students will be encouraged to bring others into the community and engage those outside of it.

V.  Student Engagement – We will encourage our students to be the shapers of the ministry within the bounds of our values and vision. Students of all levels of spiritual maturity and age will be encouraged to use their talents and interests as tools within out ministry context. We will also train, equip and provide opportunities for students to lead. Leaders will be held to higher standards; they will be challenged and will be empowered as student minister/missionaries.  

VI.  Provide Opportunities for Missional Living – We will demonstrate how to live Missional lives and we will give our students hands on training in engaging those outside the church. We will give them opportunities to serve our local community and we will facilitate long term engagement with a community of another cultural background than our own.

VII.  High Standards and Training of Adult Workers – We will expect a great deal out of our adult volunteers. They will be expected to be doctrinally sound and in a growing relationship with Jesus. Their lives should exhibit righteousness and self-control. They should be biblically qualified. We will strive to give them the best possible training and assistance as they teach and train our students.

VIII.  True Worship – We will train our students in authentic worship. They will be trained to live lives of worship which will be expressed in praises and spiritual songs in a community environment. These times will be decidedly Christ focused, shifting the attention from ourselves and our personal preferences.

Subsequent to people gathering for this intention, the connection tends to fall apart unless specifically guided back on track.  I think it falls apart because although we are connected for one purpose, that purpose in itself has its deviations.  That is, as Christians we all believe in God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, Salvation, Mercy & Grace, Eternal Life, etc.  Or do we?  The further the list grows, the more deviation occurs.  For example, some believe Hell is fire and brimstone whereas some could make the argument that Hell is the absence of God and eternal nothingness.   Since I’m not a theologian, I cannot make a strong argument either way, but the point is we are divided from the minute we walk in the building (but that’s okay, we’re human beings who are designed to be different). 

Division

Within any given church (or group), there are those that continue to create or invite division.  It seems to me there are three significant causes:

1) Expectations.  Our backgrounds are different and thus our expectations of what the local church should be are different.  It seems logical at least three things need to occur:

• All members should understand what exactly their expectation is and be able to articulate it.
• Churches should explain what their mission is and how they plan to accomplish that mission.
• Existing members should re-evaluate their expectations to see if they are in concurrence with the church’s mission. 

Note:  It’s noteworthy to mention that expectations considerably affect those that are not connected, but our groups can help.  By inviting people in our group/homes and discussing these factors, previous negative perceptions can be reduced if not eliminated.

2) Agendas.  As expectations divide, individual passions divide.  The fact of the matter is, among members in the church, there is little hierarchy if any.  Some may be able to influence others because of their positions in performance (drama, music, testimonies, etc.), but there is no measurement of Christianity (thankfully) and because we are all created equal, our status in the church is equal. 

In other words, we are all equal stakeholders in the local church.  Some feel it incumbent upon themselves to drive the church towards what the church should be.  That is, some use their expectations to motivate their own personal agendas. 

3) Consequences.  In this case, it doesn’t seem there are any consequences.  In families, when individuals deviate from the family’s goals, conflict arises and living becomes difficult.  In some cases, individuals are forced to move out and the family breaks apart.  At work, those that pursue individual goals over the organization may suffer poor social relations with others, receive lower merit reviews & reduced merit-increases, performance management, and potentially termination.   Within many groups where results are important, there is a consequence for deviation.  What are the consequences at church?  It seems there are none, but there is one substantial consequence which seems under-emphasized:  damaged relationships (which can lead to banishment or disassociation).

The purpose of joining any group is to regain or enhance some feeling of community and support.  Some may call the church an extension of their family.   By pursuing anything other than the mission of the church/group, an individual falls into a downward spiral and is therefore defeating the initial intention of joining; in short – it’s counterintuitive. 

Suggestions

What can be done about this phenomenon?  Unfortunately, people are unpredictable and you cannot change peoples’ expectations, agendas, or eliminate the consequences (you can’t change them, but you might be able to influence them).  I suggest you try the following:

1) As a church or group, try to understand and articulate what the expectations are of each individual.  Just because your expectations vary, it doesn’t mean you don’t belong, it just means you have a different idea of what church should be.  It’s okay to have a different idea, but remember three things:

• You can alter your own expectations
• You can emphasize (or de-emphasize) certain expectations
• You can find a church that better meets your expectations

Change can be good and sometimes we feel we are “called” to be the instrument of change.  If it means causing a divide in the church and damaging relationships, I would challenge who the call is from (it may be the antithesis of God himself.  There may also be complex psychological issues at play).  I’m not suggesting the call is wrong, but maybe there is a better approach to implementing change.

Also, ask yourself this, “How realistic are my expectations in the larger scope of things?”  Or, “What am I willing to be flexible on?”  Specific components within your expectations may include worship & praise (band vs. choir or Powerpoint vs. hymnals), atmosphere (stained glass & pews vs. multipurpose room & cushioned seating), and personal involvement (anonymity vs. participation).

2) Determine what the mission is and live it.  If you look around your work environment, you may find a mission statement somewhere.  I’ll bet this statement is on a plaque on a wall and rarely reinforced.  Technically, your mission statement should have nine components:

• Customers
• Products/Services
• Markets
• Technology
• Concern for survival/growth/profitability
• Philosophy
• Self-concept
• Concern for public image
• Concern for employees

(Source:  David, F. (2005). Strategic management, concepts and cases. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall).

Fred David also states the following, “…the mission statement answers the question, “What is our business,” the vision statement answers the question, “What do we want to become?”  Many organizations have both a mission and a vision statement” (2005, p.54).  I believe what Dr. David is trying to say is that some mistake a “mission” statement for a “vision” statement.  I don’t think the semantics are important, but the aforementioned material may help your organization answer the question that each statement asks.

Either way, whether you choose a mission or vision statement, follow it and talk about it frequently. When deviation occurs, refer back to the statement and ask, “How do your actions/behaviors/proposals fulfill or complement the mission/vision statement?” 

Is it okay to make a suggestion for change?  Sure it is, but a suggestion can be accepted or declined and should be received as such (is it a suggestion, or a command?).  Just because your suggestion wasn’t accepted, it doesn’t mean you were wrong.  At any rate, I recommend you follow Walt Disney’s advice, “Keep Moving Forward” (watch Disney/Pixar’s Meet the Robinsons for a full reference).

3) Iterate/reinforce the concept of “developing relationships.”  Church is not about following one person.  It’s about the collective body following the collective mission.  That means being together, working together.  Paul said it best in Philippians 4:5,

Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon (NLT).

There will be differences and you may disagree with the decisions of your church leadership. There comes to a point where the congregation may not know all factors in a decision, but do they need to know?  I don’t think they do.  We need to trust our leadership to some degree and understand that many factors affect a decision.  Many times, I’ve questioned my own church with the decisions that are made, but I come back to the same conclusion:  I’m there because I enjoy and learn something from the message on Sunday and I have made some great relationships.  And overall, the decisions made do not affect my expectations.

Implications

Succinctly, groups help maintain cohesiveness amidst division.  Review your expectations within your committees, groups, and teams and challenge yourselves with your agendas.  There is no doubt that church dynamics are complex in some areas, but your groups can help clarify (if not simplify) your purpose. 

In this case, the best any of us can do is to try and illuminate these three areas. Perhaps talking about them and raising awareness can help some overcome Satan’s tricks to create division.  Does increased awareness guarantee change?  Of course it doesn’t, but it’s one step closer to change and with a little prayer (or a lot) who knows, the “unity” in “community” could really stand out.
 

To take the PLACE on-line assessment, click here.

As a seminarian, I am always confronted with the question of, "What are your plans following graduation?" It seems to me that everyone I know has asked me this question at one time or another. A similar popular question is, "What do you feel called to do?" This, too, is one I have heard many times.

While in a foreign country and distanced from the internet, TV, comic books, etc., I had much time to dedicate to spending with God. I was able to search the Word and listen to the Spirit in ways which I was previously unable to do. In those times this summer, I attempted to seek God's will concerning my next assignment in ministry (graduation is fast approaching - May 16 2008) I was so concerned with what God wants me to do that I lost sight of what God really intends for me...to be His disciple.

This is what I truly learned through seeking God this summer. Many times we get so caught up in what God wants us to do. "God do you want me to do this? Or do you want me to do that?" Instead we should be seeking who God wants us to become: His sold-out disciples! When we seek God first; when we seek His righteousness and holiness; when we seek to become disciples and disciple-makers, then, and only then will God reveal to us the details on the doing. I am not saying that this is some magical formula, but that I believe that God doesn't want more men who are obsessed with becoming pastors or missionaries or church planters or ministry directors - what God wants is disciples seeking to follow Him, walk closely with Him, and reproduce God-fearing disciples.

Nevertheless, there are times when we do want to know God's will. How then, do we know what to do while we are seeking to be disciples? Well, the Bible states that God does indeed answer those who fear Him and seek to be His disciples:

• "Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose." Psalm 25:12
• "The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them." Psalm 145:18-19
• "Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;" Psalm 37:4-7a

These may seem like some random thoughts, but I now understand God's will for me - no longer am I to focus on what God wants me to do, instead, I am going to focus on who He wants me to be: His disciple, seeking Him, and reaching out to others for His glory. Maybe after I learn how to do that and be content, He will reveal to me more about the doing.
 

The bottom line is this: Much of our modern American student ministry, and even our hip, cool emerging/emergent/cutting edge/seeker sensitive/seeker driven/on and on and on, is shallow. It may be a fun social gathering for students, but few lives are being transformed. Our marketing strategies are telling students, and their parents, that church is all about them, their wants, their desires and needs. This is leading to more and more division, less and less biblical teaching and is ultimately creating a generation of students, and adults who will participate only in a religion when it is fun and convenient for them. I don't have all the answers, but I recently spoke openly about these issues with my High School students, and we came up with some problems:

> Students aren't being taught the scriptures, so they don't know it well enough to be discerning or to have their lives transformed by it.

> Many Christians do not model true Christianity but are more like the Pharisees that Jesus railed against in Matthew 23. This generation is looking for something authentic because they are fed so much bull.

> Christians are too divided over politics and "moral causes" and too divided along political lines. Students see moral issues and moral values in the Bible and want to be able to practice and participate in both, but it often dosen't seem possible because Christians and churches are so divided by these issues. Moral causes and moral values are good, but students must see that Jesus is central. Political issues change, but Jesus remains constant.

> The church is marketing to teens and their parents and fighting over good clean Christian families while forgetting our God given mandate to be the light of the world in a dark place. We are more worried about converting other Christians to our religious brand than we are winning lost people to Christ and glorifying God in the world. This is creating a church full of man-centered Christians. Relevance is great, but not at the expense of the supremacy of Christ in all things.

I didn't know how our students would respond, but I was overwhelmed by their response. They want more truth. They want more gospel, they want people to challenge them and hold them accountable. They are tired of the song and dance and want to be the body of Christ in a real way. I've never been more excited as a youth pastor. We had no flashing lights, no powerpoint, no video clips, no games and after it was over they were begging for more. Our students, like all of mankind, are longing for the gospel and the transforming work of Jesus. God help me to show them that.
 

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A few weeks ago, I spent a whole day in the forest alone, seeking God. I wanted Him to answer me about my next assignment. I wanted Him to answer me concerning what I might do to better impact my community. I wanted answers. So, I went into the forest with my Bible and a copy of Words to Winners of Souls by Horatius Bonar and The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter, along with some other excerpts and articles. After praying through a few of the Psalms, I began to read both of these books. Needless to say, I got some answers...just not the answers I wanted...

God said..."You are too busy pursuing answers, and not busy enough pursuing ME"

Allow me to give you some excerpts from my reading that day...

• Bonar, quoting others writes, "It is much to be feared that we are weak in the pulpit because we are weak in the [prayer] closet," (11) and "lukewarm pastors make careless Christians." (2) Furthermore, "Oh, do that on our souls which thou wouldst use us to do on the souls of others!" (8)
• R.A. Torrey writes, "Other things being equal, your growth and mine into the likeness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be in exact proportion to the time and the heart we put into prayer."
  
• Richard Baxter writes, "Be careful...that you preach to yourselves the sermons which you study, before you preach them to others." (61) Furthermore, "It is a palpable error of some ministers, who make such a disproportion between their preaching and their living; who study hard to preach exactly, and study little or not at all to live exactly." (64)
• Spurgeon writes, "It will be in vain for me to stock my library, or organise societies, or project schemes, if I neglect the culture of myself; for books, and agencies, and systems are only remotely the instruments of my holy calling; my own spirit, soul, and body, are my nearest machinery for sacred service; my spiritual faculties, and my inner life, are my battle axe and weapons of war." (Lectures to My Students, 8)

So, I read these words and heard the answer of God. May we not be guilty of seeking everything but God. Yes, books are good, conferences are good, blogs are good; we need to learn from each other. Correspondence and cooperation are important in ministry. Nevertheless, our personal holiness and nearness to God must NEVER be neglected. That should be our first and foremost task and responsibility. If we "succeed" in drawing near to Christ and being conformed to His image, then "success" in ministry will follow. 
 

So, what is it? Well, technically speaking, the word “discipleship” doesn't even exist in the Scriptures. In fact, the very word itself implies a programmed sort of approach, a ship we get on or in so we can participate in something we know we should participate in but would feel better about our participation in it if we actually had a program that applauded our accomplishment in that area. Kind of like bipartisanship and fellowship and sportsmanship. All three are important and necessary, but all three have programmed emphases that supposedly help people do what they should simply be doing naturally because it is that important. You might say, “That?s semantics.” No it isn?t. Language is important, and if we want something to be more than a program, if we want something to be more about process, then we need to emphasize it in our language. Jesus did. He spoke of “discipleship” not in terms of “discipleship,” but in terms of “discipling.” All of those participle words that end in “ing” imply process. An ongoing emphasis is there when you see that suffix on a word. And it matters cause it matters enough to be doing it and to keep doing it. And so, we are officially renaming this blog from this point hither unto forth - “discipling - it was always a non-linear, relational, releasing process.” And it has always been the central purpose of followers of Jesus. As much as it may hurt some people?s feelings, missions and evangelism are not “The Great Commission.” Jesus described missions as serving anyone and everyone everyday, not just once a year. And, Jesus never divided the concepts we call “evangelism” and “discipleship.” In fact, he seemed to speak of the two as parts of the same process. He called that process “discipling.” And he said that “AS WE GO” in everyday life (not just “go” programmatically or scheduled), we should be discipling.

So, what is it? I want to suggest this basic definition that I believe has profound implication in all of my daily living. Discipling is learning and living the ways of Jesus so that others learn and live His ways, too, so that others learn and live His ways, too, and so on. Discipling is all about proclaiming the message that God has come near, mainly by living like He actually did. As we live His ways, we show His love by how we come near as a friend to the people around us everyday. That?s how other disciples are made – they catch it as we do life with them.

To read the entire article, “Discipleship: Thinking Process Not Program” click here.             
               
Jason Dukes, Pastor of Westpoint Church and Leader of Reproducing Churches Network in Central Florida.
westpointchurch.org
reproducingchurches.com

How is your church doing at Discipleship? Share with us your story on how you effectively make disciples. 

A good place to start in answering the question by stating what Biblical community is not.

First of all, Biblical community is not a choice.  I can’t tell you how many people I talk to in my church that have excuses for not living life together in Biblical community.  “I don’t have time.  It’s not convenient for me.  I haven’t found a group of people I connect with yet.”  You’ve heard them all before.  But I realized something this week.  To “do life” together like the New Testament church is not a suggestion of God but a command of scripture.  Hebrews 10:25 says “do not forsake the assembling together, which is the habit of some but encouraging one another as you see the day drawing near.”

If you’re anything like me you have always interpreted that scripture to mean that you shouldn’t skip church.  It does mean that, but the meaning of the text has much further reaching implications.  The key to understanding what the writer of Hebrews is talking about is in the word “forsake”.  It is a much stronger greek verb than to simply “miss out”.  It means to abandon.  The writer of Hebrews is saying, “Don’t quit being the Body!  Don’t quit living in community together.”  Don’t abandon one another.

The realization that hit me, is that when our church members just come to the worship service…hear good preaching….sing to God…..go out to eat with their buds….but it never goes beyond that, they are not just missing out on God’s best….but they are sinning.  A life apart from deep, Biblical community is a life in open rebellion against the Lord.  Those are pretty tough words, but true nonetheless.

Biblical community is hard to achieve.  It takes time.  It’s dirty and it’s bloody.  It’s hard to look your friend in the eyes and tell him that you haven’t felt close to God in three weeks and you don’t have a clue how to reconcile with your wife.  More than that it’s hard to carry your friends baggage and problems when you have enough of your own.

But regardless, it is God’s plan….and more importantly….it is God’s best.

Recently, church planters are re-discovering the importance of sharing what they've learned and experienced with new church planters. This mentoring relationship has created momentum for new churches to launch and become healthy, thriving communities of faith. Click here to read more.

Are you part of a successful church planting story that resulted from a mentoring relationship? Is it part of your churches' DNA to train and mentor rising church planters?

I couldn’t wait to get home to get him some discipleship material and to find churches to recommend for him.  Two things happened in the days ahead that have caused me some concern.  First, he found a Baptist church near his home to attend that first Sunday after he was saved.  He even brought his lost friend.  Now what could be wrong with that?  Well, they left the church scared to death.  My new Christian friend told me that the environment was not friendly, they felt like outsiders, and the message literally frightened them.  It has been difficult to get them to try again.  I wonder if many of our churches are almost completely centered around those who are already there – and if they really care about that?

The second thing occurred as I was looking for discipleship material.  I needed to find something suitable for a successful businessman, with an approach designed for more of a post-modern mindset.  I asked a lot of people and struggled to get a good recommendation.  I went to a Christian bookstore and asked to see their section on material for new believers.  They didn’t have one.  I asked to see their section on evangelism.  They had 3 books.  I asked to see any book in the whole store – or workbook, or course, or magazine, or anything else, for that matter – that was meant to help a new Christian grow.  They had nothing at all.  I thanked the helpful employee and then just wandered a little bit.  I saw the most incredible collection of music, much of which I buy and love – but all for Christians.  I saw two whole rows of exciting and enjoyable fiction – but all for Christians.  I saw row after row of books about how to grow deeper in our faith – but all for Christians.  I saw t-shirts, video games, computer programs and a whole array of other stuff – all for Christians.

It dawned on me that I wasn’t really in a Christian bookstore.  I was in the club resource room.  Full of great resources.  But all designed for the enjoyment, or at best the growth, of the members.  Doesn’t that sound more like a club than a New Testament mission force to you?  And even if I buy all these great resources and learn from them, can I really grow deeper in my faith if it is all for me?  If it never takes me to others with the good news?  Sometimes I wonder if we have gone so deep we have drowned.  I sure don’t want to go deeper than Jesus.  And Jesus seemed to spend a lot of time with real people – with their raw emotions and real problems right on the surface.  It seems to me that a Christian store or a Christian church for that matter, should by the very nature of its name reflect the values and actions of Jesus.  And Jesus was always seeking to save the lost.  Isn’t it time we follow Him again?

Now I sure don’t want to be too hard on Christian bookstores.  After all, I am a voracious reader and spend a lot of time and money there myself.  But I do think it is time we examine all we do as evangelicals and ask a hard question:

Is there any evidence that we are serious about fulfilling the Great Commission as our primary reason for being on this earth?

I have to say that the evidence I see from a lot of different arenas gives me a lot of cause for concern about the answer to that question.

But hey, I am about good news!  I am not a pessimist.  All around the world God is at work.  An atheist I know says she has never seen such spiritual openness in people than right now.  The Lord is on the move and invites us to come with Him.  All we have to do is become the Church again.

When I was a pastor I ended every service by asking our people a question: “What time is it?”  They would shout back, “Time for church!”  And we would leave to go be the church, to take the good news out of a worship center where most had already heard it, into restaurants, coffee shops, sports complexes, schools, neighborhoods and marketplaces where few had heard it. 

I know I fail at this much of the time, but it is my passion to grow in this journey of following Christ on His rescue mission, to love all I get from my books, my music, my worship, and my fellowship, but to never mistake all that for the measure of my Christian life.  Jesus is on mission.  And so my measure must be His mission.

I have high hopes for the growth of my friend in his new life as a follower of Christ.  But it is my prayer that the body of Christ will love him more and help him more – and all the others like Him who God in His awesome grace is calling out of darkness and into His wonderful light.  Wouldn’t that make evangelism good news again?

As you read this I pray you have a great day, full of the joy and adventure of following the Lord of life.  I have no doubt you will – because it is time for church.
 

I was thinking about this the other day when I was at the Braves game. We sat next to some folks. We cheered, talked, etc. After the game we left and I will not see those people again. It got me thinking: what else in our lives is single serve? I think that the way we have done evangelism for the past fifty years or so is Single Serve Evangelism.

(Note: I edited this sentence because it mentioned certain street evangelists by name. They have nothing to do with the point I'm making and as I learned from this post on my blog, can distract from the point of the post). I don't want to bash street evangelists. I know that God has used them to bring people to Himself. He can use a donkey to speak on His behalf, so I'm sure He can use any kind of evangelism we come up with. What I do want to ask is, is this kind of Single Serve Evangelism the biblical way of evangelism?

I do not believe that this form of evangelism is healthy for either the dude who is shopping for a pair of tennis shoes who gets waylaid by someone armed with the four spiritual laws, or for the Christian who is doing his/her best to follow God the only way they have ever been taught by practicing this form of evangelism. The person who is the "prospect" is told about Jesus and the gospel as if it were a sales pitch. They are then asked to buy it and never told what to do with it afterwards. Maybe they are encouraged to find a local church, but where it the accountability? The evangelist is never a part of the discipleship process. They miss the work of teaching and training and making disciples which Jesus commands us all to participate in.

The Great Commandment in Matthew 28:18-20 makes it clear that we are to make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the father, son and Holy Spirit and teach them to observe the commands of Jesus. We are to do this. This cannot be done in a single serve format where we convince someone that they don't want to go to Hell and then leave them with no knowledge of what a Christ follower really is. Unfortunately, this type of evangelism has become so synonymous with the word "evangelism" that many people think that it is the only way to practice evangelism.

Evangelism cannot biblically be separated from discipleship. When Paul preached his great evangelistic sermons he immediately established a local church, taught and trained elders and consistently held his converts accountable and trained them in the way of Jesus. Why do we think we can do things differently?

Real evangelism and discipleship is not easy. It is messy. It is hard work. It takes truly caring for people, building relationships with them, sharing time and life with them and teaching them, in words and in deeds about Jesus. After they come to a saving faith in Christ it takes a continued relationship of teaching, friendship and discipleship. This is a long process and doesn't lend itself to our western ideas of getting results fast and producing big numbers. But at the end, we find ourself with a growing number of brothers and sisters in Christ, real friends, not the single serve kind.

For more information, check out the book The Celtic Way of Evangelism.

            
It all began innocent enough.  I had not planned a customer service consultation in my hurried morning.  I certainly had no ambition to complain, I was getting a good pair of pants for half the price.

But, wouldn’t you know it, when I arrived at the register, it became apparent I had chosen the pair of pants without a price tag.  So, while I waiting for the price, I simply said to the cashier, “I don’t mean to complain, but you might tell your manager, ‘if I can’t find it, I can’t buy it.’” She told me to hold on a minute, and came back with the manager in less than a minute.  He told me he had decided he would use my little slogan at the Tuesday morning staff and sales meeting, and I could have the pants for $9.99, because of my help.  Great way to start the morning.  What a deal!  It may have been worth the hour afterall.

As I have contemplated on this experience, and prayed through some missional implications, I suggest the following thoughts to guide some of the missional conversations and discussions.

If we don’t preach Him, they can’t hear Him.  Simple enough.  How will they hear without a preacher (Romans 10)? We must preach Him, warning and teaching everyman (Col 1).  The missional church must not rest until Jesus embeds, transforms, and impacts every community and culture.  This is a clear word about clarity of the message and focus on Jesus in our preaching.  Fact is, some people come to our churches to get skinny and sober and never get saved.  Please don't misunderstand, I am all for health and sobriety, but the real need is redemption from sin and reconciled to God.  Jesus is the Savior.  He rescues us. How will they hear if we don't really stay focused and be clear?

Are we primarily preaching Him?  Is there too much clutter? Too much noise?  Not enough order?  Not enough help?  Unclear, or no signs? Mixed messages?  What do people hear from the church today?  Are there barriers to this clear message of good news?  Too many fences?

If we don’t live it, they can’t see Him.  Again, simple enough.  People see the reality of Jesus through radically transformed lives.
 

How does the church look like Jesus?  How do we maintain the light and salt while engaging the cultures and communities?  How do we live out Romans 12 with authenic Christian lifestyles and character so people see Jesus?

If we don’t go, they can’t come. The missioanl church is sent.  Sent to preach. Must have a church-shift here-God is the Seeker.  A missional makeover if you will. Thinking missional means thinking incarnational.  They can’t find him, if we aren’t “out there,” because they aren’t coming to the church to find him. Jesus came to seek and to save. The missional church is sent to seek (Luke 10).  We are sent to preach (Romans 10)!

What does it mean to be missional?  What does it mean to be incarnational?

Well, like I said, the morning began innocent enough.  Hope the missional discussion helps us be more on task and in focus in order to reach everyone (Matthew 28),  everywhere (Acts 1:8), to the glory of the Father (Matthew 6).

People are shopping.  How long will it take for them to hear the gospel? Check-out Barnes and Noble. They are finding tarot cards, astrology charts, and new age propaganda.  The occult and cults are growing. Are we preaching Jesus with clarity so there will be no confusion about why He came, what He came to do, and what He has done for us?  If not, they won't find him in the clutter and disorder.  Our missional and evangelistic strategies must reach people where thay are.  Maybe we need to drink coffee and do evangelism at the bookstores across America.

 Think through your evangelistic strategy, sermons, and programs. When the few do come to the churches because of some great invitation or religious memory- let's be sure our calendar and programs aren't so cluttered they don't hear the message of Jesus!  If we don't preach Him, they can't hear Him (Romans 10)
 

Share your missional church planting story with the Missional Network! We’d like to hear what God is doing in your context through church planting in North America.
 

 
Dr. Millirons outlines 20 characteristics and recommendations to help guide the missional resurgence in the 21st century. These characteristics deal with the theological as well as missiological issues and are placed in the following categories:  God, Mission and Missions, the Bible and Theology, Ecclesiology, Evangelism and Ministry. This paper challenges evangelical churches desiring to reach postmoderns today to an extreme missional makeover. Click here to read full article.

Share with us what your church is doing to reach postmoderns.
 

Stetzer takes the reader back through the history of missions to uncover the path leading to the church’s loss of its missional focus. In a section about the obstacles to missiological thinking, the author points out the polarization of “biblically faithful” churches and “culturally relevant” churches and analyzes where churches fall on this scale and what the relationship is between the two.

This paper examines the death of Christendom and how that is helping Christian leaders understand the importance of the church becoming missional. In conclusion, Stetzer admonishes the church to return not to the methods of the past, but rather the motives – reaching the lost. Click here to read full article.

Where does your church fall on the scale of “biblically faithful” vs. “culturally relevant”?
 

Cool River was supposed to be a church plant in South Florida, but God had something else in mind. After a year of preparation and fundraising, the plan was turned upside down. It’s funny, how God does that, isn’t it? 

All Amy and I knew was there was a lack of peace, so we opened up the search for a location again. Our search led us to Colorado. How do you go from Florida to Colorado? Good question … we’re not sure, either. But during a late night talk before bed, we suddenly asked ourselves “What about Colorado?” We then came to a decision … road trip!

So we were off to Colorado, searching, praying, wondering, and praying some more. We ended up in a little town of 15,000 people—Superior, Colorado, located just a couple of miles southeast of Boulder. Nice town, very much the suburbs—a family place. Amy and I liked what we saw initially, and then we started looking for churches. And we found exactly—none! That’s right … no churches. And not just any Christian churches. In Superior there were no churches of any religion. All of a sudden, from out of nowhere, there came what’s come to be known as a “holy discontent”—a feeling that the situation in Superior was not right and something had to be done about it. Almost immediately, the peace that had left us in Florida came back. It was like God was tapping us on the shoulder and then pointing us to this town. Amy and I just looked at each other like, “Is this really happening?” It was.

That was February of 2002. We moved to Colorado in June of 2002. We didn’t know a soul. We started grilling burgers for our neighbors at the pool of our apartment complex. We started loving and serving our city. We started making connections. We started developing friends. We engaged in meaningful conversations. We prayed a lot. And little by little a small group was birthed that birthed a church that has birthed the greatest adventure of our lives.

God has been so faithful to us. He has helped us build a great reputation in our town. He has blessed us with awesome people that love Him and love people, and we’ve seen many of those come to know Him. The peace that He gave us the first day we were here is still with us. However, there have definitely been bumps along the way.

• Moving was a bump. How would we fit in? Would we actually like it here?
• Money was a bump. How in the world would we make it in this town?
• Parents were a bump. They really didn’t want to see us go so far away.
• Evangelism is a bump. Would people in a place where 90+% are not Christian listen to us?
• Finding a meeting place was a bump. Where could we meet? Could we afford it?
• People can be a bump. Nice people are great. Mean people … well, you know.

You get the picture, right? In church planting it can get a little bumpy. It can get a lot bumpy.

One area where there could be some major bumps is in your marriage and family. Let me allow my wife, Amy, to let you in on some of the specifics about one of the greatest challenges when you’re starting a church—keeping your family a family. Take it away, Amy!

You know, Kevin is right. We have experienced our share of bumps and bruises. God never promised us ease. And it hasn’t been easy. Luckily, though, every bump has brought us closer to the Father.

When Kevin and I moved our family to Colorado, I was a young mom. My oldest, Emma, was two. Claire was six months and only months later we discovered Olivia, our third little ball of fire, was on the way. Though I was completely on board and “called” just as Kevin was to church planting, I found myself fully in “mommy” mode. So for me, the early years of Cool River are quite a blur. I was constantly moving, going, and multitasking. Yet somehow in the middle of all the movement, God quickly began impressing on my heart this deep desire to make sure that no matter what else happened, our family must remain healthy and intact in the middle of it all. That was going to be my main responsibility to the church and to our family.

So from the very start, Kevin and I began setting really strong boundaries and priorities for our family. We somehow sensed that we must be bold and intentional from the starting gates. And I am so grateful we have maintained the boundaries for all of these years. Of course, life has changed since those early days of core group and diapers. Cool River has grown. Our kids have grown. Kevin and I have grown. Tensions are different, but priorities have remained.

That’s what I want to share with you in the next few pages . . . the tensions we have felt as a church planting family and what we have personally done to combat them as they attacked. Have we always handled family life with grace and style? Will all of our techniques work for you and your family situation? No way! But it is my hope that our story will at least prompt you to think about the church planting family in a new light. Maybe it will give you the “license” you need to make bold decisions that will protect your family and keep it strong as you begin your own church planting journey.

MarriageTime 

Both Kevin and I are huge advocates for the regular date night. Those two regularly scheduled hours on Tuesday nights have saved our marriage more times than I would like to admit. If you were to strip away all of our other little tips and techniques, I fully believe that our marriage and family would still be healthy as long as date night was in place. That is why I am starting here.

Even as newlyweds, Kevin and I somehow knew the importance of spending quality time together. Back then there was plenty of quantity time. We were without kids, far away from family, doing school and church together. And along the way God just happened to place some great couples in our paths who modeled spending quality time together. These were couples farther down the road than us. They had kids and big jobs, and they were involved in ministries and spent their Saturdays at soccer games. But in conversations we would always hear them talk about date night and what they did or planned to do next week. It was all so intriguing. My parents never did this. But something about the idea stuck. When faced with a more rigorous schedule of kids and church planting, Kevin and I immediately knew this had to become our number one priority.

Six years into it, date night has become one of the very best decisions we have ever made for our family. There really has never been a single week that we could afford to pay a babysitter and go out on the town. But I can confidently say that there has also never been a week that we could afford NOT to do it either. For Kevin and I, date night has become a non-negotiable part of how we do life. The benefits so outweigh the amount of money we have had to fork out to make it happen.

Briefly, here are a few tips that have worked for us on date night. 

• Focus on building marriage, family talk, and dreaming about the future.
• Vary your date night activities … it may be a fancy dinner, a cup of coffee or a long walk.
• Turn off the phone and get rid of other unwanted distractions.
• Be intentional with questions that help identify spiritual, physical, and emotional issues.
• Deal with any unresolved issues as soon as possible.
• Use date night to model to children and others the importance of your marriage as a priority in your lives.

So that’s it! Number one on the top of the church planting family priorities . . . date night! Try it! Create your own twist on the idea. If you don’t have a babysitter that you can count on, try planning one night a week that you put the kids to bed early and sit together uninterrupted on the sofa for an hour. But make sure you put it on the calendar, and don’t let anything get in the way.

Family Time

There is a fine line to walk when planting a church and managing a family. For us, the two worlds often seem to collide and merge together. Sometimes it is hard to find the separation between the two. A church planting family is who we are, and that involves being a part of the lives of other people and having those people in our home and lives all of the time. We embrace jumping into that world and we bring our kids along for the ride. But sometimes it seems as if there is no black and white distinction between the Colón family and Cool River Church. That’s okay. We love what we do and where God has placed us. But some days the grayness of it all needs to be broken through. The home office needs to be closed down and we just need to escape for a while.

As the mom and the watchman of all things family, Kevin considers me the barometer of how we are doing as a family. He expects me to keep things in check, making sure that I am always measuring how healthy we and our kids are. When we are “out of balance” he allows me to let him know. 

Now this doesn’t give me the license to be picky and nagging all of the time. I have to find my own balance in the expectations I have, as well. But this does give me the freedom to break into the church life schedule and plan for family time when we are feeling dry and overextended.

Here are a few things that our family does to ensure we remain healthy and together in the middle of church planting.

• Protect our family time by scheduling family fun nights.
• Plan at least two family getaways a year.
• Turn off the phone and television during dinner.
• Spend quality time with our children every day and individually regularly.
• Rotate who puts the kids to bed each night.
• Attend children’s extra-curricular events (soccer, dance, piano recitals, and so forth).

Here’s the bottom line: we believe that there is no reason for the family to suffer in the middle of starting a church. Sure, there are things that you have to compromise on. There are plenty of days when other people need to be loved on and taken care of. Tensions break all the time. Church planting is fantastic and it is messy. It has the potential to become all consuming if you let it. The pace is often exhausting, and sometimes we all just wish “Calgon” would “take us away” for a day. But we believe the key to balancing family and church planting is summed up in two words: intentionality and scheduling. On some days this seems a bit too rigid. We know. It takes a fair amount of effort on everyone’s part. But it is doable—and it is so worth it. In the middle of living a healthy family balance, you will be amazed at the volumes it speaks to the very ones you are in this ministry for. Just as date night and balance were modeled for us early on in our journey, we are continually amazed at the people all around us imitating our actions. People left and right come up to us and tell of their new date night routines and how much fun they are having. People in the community see us spending time together and setting priorities, and they see its value.  

So we encourage you, as your journey begins, to take time now to make some of the best decisions for your family that you could ever make. Figure out what works for you in your own personal situation. Put some marriage and family on the calendar, and don’t let anything else get in the way of those appointments. We wish you and your family a tremendous journey!

Kevin and Amy Colón ~ Kevin and Amy live in Superior, Colorado, where they are planting Cool River Church.

One does not have to look hard to see the density and diversity of the sheer numbers of people in North America’s urban areas. Just fewer than 200 million people live in the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, representing 65% of the country’s total population.[1] In Canada, 45% of the population lives in its eight largest census metropolitan areas.[2]

Here are some of the current trends in urban North America that impact urban church planting:

• Increase in non-traditional families—The majority of households are comprised of non-traditional families. Some major contributors to the escalating numbers of  non-traditional families are immoral behaviors, non-biblical parenting philosophies, economic crisis, and ease of obtaining a divorce (leading to major divorce increase).

• Immigrant population clustering—While we continue to debate the immigration policy in America, the world continues to come. Moreover, Canada’s population growth is intentionally taking place through open door immigration.

• Regentrification (gentrification)—As early as two decades after the development of the first suburbs, the “resettling” process began in urban areas. Now it is taking place at a breakneck pace. “Live, work, and play” communities are being developed in core/center cities and middle and upscale residential communities, replacing what used to be poor neighborhoods and public housing communities in the inner suburbs.

• Multihousing community proliferation—Extensive population growth has demanded a revisiting of the American dream. With population densities ever-increasing and the amount of land remaining constant, apartment living, condominium dwellers, assisted living, and other senior living arrangements continue to expand.

• Exurban development—Urban sprawl has led to the explosive development in major urban areas of “escape” towns. These towns are increasingly self-contained and their residents have urban mindsets.

• Socio-economic interfacing—We have reached a point where the wealthy and poor can live within the same block. Intentional socioeconomic policy decisions to do away with public housing communities escalate this trend.

• Increasing homeless populations—It is safe to assert that the core and inner city are the congregating place for the homeless. This includes veterans, mentally ill,

those who are the working poor (including families with children), last stage drug/alcohol addicts, and a new segment of former homeowners.

• True multiculturalism—There is an increasing cultural value in North America for merging ethnic and cultural values. The days of a dominant culture have given way to an “urban gumbo.” [3]

• Decreasing Christian presence and influence—Churches are choosing to move to another community rather than to transform the community.

A sustainable Christian kingdom movement in urban North America calls for holistic research that leads to holistic strategy development and implementation. In the urban context, this means taking a look at and understanding the entire metropolitan area, its systems, and what drives the region.

Going forward, the Christian community is challenged to celebrate kingdom impact through intensive relevant gospel sowing and the planting of non-traditional churches within a fast-paced society.

In days gone by, we have rightly celebrated churches’ longevity and stability. This desire has often expressed itself in accumulating resources and minimized mission activity, and resulted in mono-focused cultural ministry. In the meantime, North America has become an increasingly multicultural mission field.

Here are some of the indicators to measure as we seek to make a difference in urban church planting:

• From being uninformed to being informed about the 21st century urban context.

• From isolation to biblical/kingdom fellowship. We must engage the mission field together, not in turfism.

• From selective evangelism to all-inclusive evangelism. God’s plan for sharing is every believer sharing, every person hearing.

• From counting to celebrating. A continuum of celebration should range from tracking gospel sowing to knowledge of and celebrating all types of multiplying     communities of faith.

• From entertaining those attending church to equipping disciples. While quality is important, heart worship that flows out of a growing love relationship with Jesus has to be at the core of our disciple-making.

• From Christians who ask, “What have you done for me lately?” to Christians who ask, “How does God want to use me?”

• From paternalism to partnership.

• From churches focused on self-preservation to kingdom-focused churches.

• From being churches in the community to being community churches.

• From exogenous leadership development to indigenous leadership development.

As we begin to get our arms around urban church planting in North America, this is the first of several articles that will address various aspects of the urban challenge. The urban emphasis church planting team looks forward to engaging Acts 1:8 partners as we join God in sustainable urban kingdom impact. 

Are you planting a church in an urban context? If so, what advice would you give to those who are considering urban church planting? 

In addition to the biblical mandate, there is a compelling demographic necessity to plant churches in Hispanic communities in North America. As of 2008, there are 45.5 million Hispanics in the U.S.,[1] an increase of 374% since 1970.[2] Until recently, this rapid growth in the Hispanic population has been driven by immigration. However, in this decade, the majority of the growth has come from births. By 2050, the Pew Hispanic Center and the U.S. Census Bureau project that the Hispanic population will triple to 128 million, assuming that current immigration trends continue.[3]

Cultural Implications for Church Planting

In order for the church to minister more effectively to the Hispanic community, it must have an understanding of the diversity of the Hispanic community, its spirituality, religiosity, cultural distinctives, and acculturation process. The church needs to answer questions such as: “Who is Hispanic? What are Hispanics like collectively? How diverse is this population? How are Hispanic consumers different from the general consumers? What are their buying preferences? How can the church, association, and state conventions appeal to Hispanic consumers?” This article will briefly address some of the cultural implications for church planting.

Religious Background

The religious background of the Hispanic community has significant implications for the church planting strategies that need to be employed. Even though a large percentage of Hispanics are not actively involved in the Roman Catholic Church, they often experience pressures from their families and friends when they become involved in evangelical outreach activities. They may also go through periods of doubt and confusion when they begin to compare what they are learning from the Bible to some of their religious traditions.

Evangelical efforts to lead Hispanics to faith in Christ need to be accompanied by much prayer, love, and patience. Often, even after a Hispanic has indicated a desire to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it may take months or even years for him or her to make the decision to be baptized and become a member of an evangelical church. This needs to be taken into account in establishing timelines for church planting efforts among them. Relational and/or cultivative evangelism is the most effective strategy for reaching Hispanics with the gospel.

Language

When developing evangelism and church planting strategies targeted to Hispanics, it is a major mistake to assume that their language must be Spanish. Mission strategists must keep in mind the second and third generation of Hispanics, many who relate to others in the English language.

Evangelizing and congregationalizing Hispanics will require at least four approaches:

1. Spanish Language Approach: This approach attracts first generation and new immigrants.

2. Bilingual Approach: Makes use of both languages, and they are interchangeable. This approach will communicate with the second generation Hispanic, who still retains a significant amount of the language of origin and the first generation immigrant.

3. English-Only Approach: The entire process of evangelism and/or church planting is carried out in the English language. This is the world of the third, fourth, and fifth generation of Hispanic-Americans.

4. Predominant English/Anglo Approach: This approach brings the Hispanic directly into the Anglo church. Those reached are usually Hispanics who have already assimilated into the predominant Anglo-American culture. Despite the language, this group continues being a people of community; they need to be welcomed and encouraged to participate fully in the church’s ministry and decision-making process.

Demographic and psychographic studies will assist in determining whether the ministry to Hispanics should be implemented by utilizing the Spanish or English language or if it should be bilingual.

Personal Relationships

 Due to the fact that many Hispanics do not have an evangelical background, there is often timidity and suspicion when they receive an invitation to go to a “Protestant church.” This obstacle can be overcome through the establishment of genuine friendships and the utilization of cultivative evangelistic activities. On an individual basis, there are many things that can be done to communicate Christ’s love to them. Inviting Hispanics to our homes for coffee or for a meal can begin to establish friendship ties. Helping Hispanic families when they are in need can also go a long way towards letting them know that we are concerned about them. When it comes to groups, cultivative activities are absolutely essential. Activities such as block parties, dramas and cantatas (e.g., Christmas and Easter), backyard Bible clubs, Vacation Bible School, arts and handcraft festivals, film festivals (relating to marriage and the family), and Jesus film showings (in a public place or in homes) go a long way toward establishing a bridge between the target people and the church. Home Bible studies are one of the best ways to reach Hispanics. This has proven to be true in this country and throughout the world.

Decision-Making Patterns

The role that the family plays in the Hispanic community also needs to be taken into account in designing church planting strategies. One of the implications of this is that often the family is taken into account in the decision making process. If children or young people make a decision for Christ, it may take a while for their parents to be reached also. If a wife makes a decision for Christ, it may take some time before her husband becomes a believer. During this time, the new family in Christ needs to surround the new believers with genuine love and fellowship. Again, patience will be needed in the discipleship process of the new converts, as well as in the development of the new congregation.

Family Ties

The Hispanic emphasis on the family has implications beyond the decision-making process mentioned above. Very often, Hispanics want to attend church as a family. This is, at times, complicated by the fact that the Hispanic extended family often involves three generations (grandparents, parents, and grandchildren) who have varying degrees of linguistic skills. The grandparents may speak very little English, while the children and/or grandchildren may not know any Spanish. This poses a serious challenge for those starting new churches. The answer may be found in having bilingual worship services or in having two services (one in English the other in Spanish) and providing numerous opportunities for fellowship with both groups.

The task of discipling Hispanic families is perhaps a bit easier in that the different Sunday school classes may be taught in different languages (generally Spanish for the older adults, bilingual for the middle-aged, and English for the children and youth). The point that needs to be made is that one approach (e.g., a congregation that utilizes only Spanish or English) may not be sufficient to meet the needs of the Hispanic community. Flexibility and adaptability are needed if all of the segments in the Hispanic community are to be reached with the gospel and discipled in New Testament-type congregations.

The Hispanic Challenge

Let us not forget that we now face a great mission challenge in this country in light of the explosive Hispanic growth. We are encouraged by the fact that Hispanics are now more receptive to the gospel than they have ever been in the history of this nation. May God help us to respond to this challenge, as we reach and make disciples of millions of Hispanics in new churches that will honor and glorify Him.

Are you involved in a Hispanic church planting effort? What challenges are you facing in reaching Hispanics? What have you learned?

1. Expose the Gospel to the fullest extent as possible in every context.
2. Connect with God as you connect with culture.
3. Focus on developing missional communities as expressions of the gospel.
4. Focus on developing young men for the mission of Jesus.
5. Train leaders relentlessly.
6. Get a coach.
7. Enjoy the journey of church planting.

Click here to read the entire article by Scott Thomas, “The Seven Things I Would do Differently if I was Planting a Church Today.”
 

 What are the seven things you would do differently if you were planting a church today? Share your list with us. 

What urban church planting principles can we gain from Hudson Taylor’s missionary service in China for serving in the changing North American urban mission field?

First and foremost, the urban church planter must be a missionary driven by an agony of the soul and an unequivocal call to which they surrender.

Second, the urban church planter must have an absolute abiding trust in God.

Third, the urban church planter must be a Great Commission disciple-maker.

Fourth, the urban church planter must be contextually relevant and culturally competent.

Fifth, the urban church planter must be strategic in his work. 

Sixth, the urban church planter must share his burden.

Hudson died in 1905 and was buried in Changsha, the capital of the last province to open, leaving a legacy for the next North American missionary.

Click here to read the entire article.

Have you planted a church in an urban context? If so, what are the unique challenges you’ve faced?
 

Jesus started it. By allowing twelve disciples to follow Him around, eat with Him, drink with Him, teach with Him, and heal with Him, Jesus ensured that the gospel spread far beyond Galilee. Paul kept it going. By mentoring Timothy and Titus—by traveling with them, evangelizing with them, praying for them, and writing to them—he ensured that Gentile churches grew stronger and multiplied. From the beginning, successful church planting has gone hand-in-hand with strategic mentoring relationships.

Today, with millions of unchurched people in North America, the need for healthy churches is greater than ever. Re-kindling the mentoring/planting dynamic of early church leaders through Church Planting Internships may be perhaps the most innovative (yet traditional) approach to reaching what is now the largest English-speaking mission field in the world: our own backyard.

Church Planting Internships, or CPIs, take various forms, but their purpose is always to equip potential church planters for the work ahead of them through hands-on experience and disciple-making. A recent analysis of church planters supports a link between planters who have gone through internship programs and higher baptisms and attendance rates their first years of planting.

Regarded as one of the fastest growing churches in the U.S., West Ridge has helped plant churches all over the country and world. In 2005, West Ridge began an internship program by creating a school for training church planters. The church planting school gives interns the opportunity for hands-on training. The valuable lessons interns learn at West Ridge include how to cast vision, structure a church for growth, and motivate volunteers. Jim Akins, Executive Director of Church Planting, reported that five churches have been planted through West Ridge interns. As a result of West Ridge’s commitment to church planting, their members have caught the church planting vision and this year, a young man saved through the West Ridge ministry will go through the internship program.

For Wade Steelman, Regional Strategy Coordinator for X-tended Missions Network based in Hernando, Miss., mentoring men has become a vocational calling. He says his life verse comes from 2 Timothy 2:2, in which Paul instructs Timothy to take the things he has heard Paul teach in the presence of many witnesses and embed them in faithful men who will, in turn, teach others also.

Paul’s charge to Timothy has been adopted as a central strategy for X-tended Missions Network, a Southern Baptist Association with the mission to “magnify God by mobilizing and multiplying churches.” Church planters with X-tended Missions Network initially serve on the staff of a parent church in the area. They usually remain on staff until their church plant passes a membership benchmark, has a stable income, and has a strong leadership team. Throughout the process, the church plant is under the congregational rule of the parent church and the senior pastor becomes the planter’s mentor. As a result, Steelman and his team have seen several church plants that started with core groups of around 30 to reach 600-900 in worship—in some cases in less than a year.

“There is no substitute for a mentor, one who has successfully experienced the hidden spiritual traps that so often destroy well-meaning men,” says Steelman. “Anyone attempting to plant a church needs the spiritual objectivity, encouragement, and tender correcting of a mentor, as well as a good dose of laughter along the way.”

These success stories show how a Church Planting Internship can be used by God to expand His kingdom. While every program is different, the following components should be considered before launching a CPI: 1) candidate qualifications, 2) a training covenant and learning objectives, 3) length of the internship, 4) expectations, 5) compensation/fundraising.
 

Candidate Qualifications
“I look for a guy who has a call on his life—a self-starter who is open to the possibility of doing something different. He has to be somewhat entrepreneurial in his attitude and willing to get his hands dirty by actually working out what he is learning in a real world environment.” These are just some of the qualities that Tim Wolfe, pastor of 1027 Church in Atlanta, Ga., looks for in a church planting intern. Wolfe proves that you don’t have to pastor a mega-church like West Ridge to have a CPI program. 1027 Church, named after its original location in an old nightclub at 1027 Peachtree Street in downtown Atlanta, is still a young church plant, but currently has three interns. Wolfe spends hours mentoring his interns, and stresses the importance of helping future church planters grow in character.

“It’s important to understand that each guy is going to be different,” said Wolfe. “The worst thing I could do is just produce another Tim Wolfe. I want to help these guys grow into their own vision so that they bring their unique gifts and abilities to their communities.”

Before taking on an intern, church leaders should ask themselves some important questions. Does the prospective church planter have 1 Timothy character? Does he have spousal cooperation? What sort of education and past ministry experience does he have? Is he a visionary and a team player? Does he connect with lost people? Is he a soul winner? Coordinators may also want to consider incorporating a self-discovery process such as PLACE (www.churchplantingvillage.net/place) into the program as well as a church planter assessment provided by the state convention.

A Training Covenant and Learning Objectives
It is important to establish learning objectives and a timetable before launching a CPI program, so that both the pastoral staff and the intern are held accountable for productivity. A training covenant can help keep both parties accountable for seeing the objectives accomplished. Cecil Seagle, director of the missions division of the Florida Baptist Convention, is currently launching a new multi-church CPI program in the booming Miami area with the goal of establishing urban church plants. The program will begin with three interns committed to 42 weeks of intense training under the direction of church leaders. Each intern will contribute to his congregation by assisting in various ministries and outreach programs. In turn, the intern will receive congregational coaching, discipleship, education, and help in developing a vision and strategy for his first few years in ministry. Once he has established his vision, church leaders will assist him in gathering together a core group of people who will follow him to his church plant.

“We identified a list of ten or twelve things we really want these guys to learn,” said Seagle. “We want to help each intern develop an entrepreneurial spirit, which is absolutely essential to effective church planting. We want them to learn how to take care of their families, recruit leaders, and lead teams. We want them to see that a church doesn’t run itself, that there needs to be administration and organization. We want to help them identify their leadership style and develop their leadership skills. These are the kinds of practical lessons you can’t just learn from a textbook.”

Length of Internship
The pastors featured in this article all agree that year-long internship programs seem to be the most effective. According to Jim Akins, executive director of Church Planting at West Ridge Church in Dallas, Ga., interns at West Ridge usually begin the program in August with the expectation that they will plant their own church within a year. In addition to assisting the pastoral staff with church ministries and outreach programs, the interns commit to spending time building relationships in the communities they hope to serve, which eases them into the transition from intern to full-time church planter. “Beginning in January, our interns spend one day a week in their target community,” said Akins. “In February, they spend two days a week, in March three days a week, and so on. The goal is to get them out on the field, full-time, by May.” They might be helping with existing outreach programs or simply engaging in conversation at the local Starbucks, but the point is for them to get to know the community and get to know the people they will be serving.
Just because a church plant is established doesn’t mean an internship has to end. Church plants that are part of the X-tended Missions Network often remain under the congregational leadership of the parent church for many years. According to Wade Steelman, “No church needs to begin as a truly independent church in North America. There are too many parent churches willing to adopt!” Steelman says that being under the watchful eye of a parent church helps a church plant learn how to duplicate effective strategies and avoid the bickering and division that is too often indicative of a young church.

Expectations
For both the benefit of the local church and the intern, it is imperative that the individual know up front what is expected of him during the internship. Church leaders should consider ahead of time what the intern’s responsibilities should be, how much time he should spend with pastoral staff, to whom he should report, what meetings he should attend, the extent of his participation, how many hours per week he should devote to the internship, and so forth.

At West Ridge, interns begin their training in August and intern through July. They report directly to Akins. Throughout the year, they help lead various ministries and outreach programs, both at West Ridge and at other local churches. Akins meets with the interns for discipleship once a week for an hour. Interns also get the chance to meet with other members of the pastoral staff, including the executive pastor, with whom they meet once a month. Interns attend staff meetings and regularly submit reports to Akins about what they have learned from watching their mentors in action. In addition to all of this hands-on experience, interns receive 60 hours of supplemental education through the West Ridge School of Church Planting. If the intern plans to plant locally, West Ridge Church helps him establish a core group from within the church. This group supports the intern and works with him as he begins his ministry.

Compensation/Fundraising
Some CPI programs provide a stipend to the intern to assist financially and add legitimacy to the position. Other programs require interns to raise their own support, believing it demonstrates the ability to lead others. Several pastors help compensate their interns through the Student Missionary Program of NAMB (see accompanying resource for more information). According to Tim Wolfe of 1027 Church, a few of his interns have chosen to hold regular jobs during the internship in order to integrate themselves into the community.
 

Jesus started it. Paul continued it. And the rest is history. Now it’s up to this generation of church leaders to see that young church planters are prepared to go into their mission fields prepared. For more information about starting a Church Planting Internship program, contact Steve Canter at the North American Mission Board at (770) 410-6225 or scanter@namb.net.

Using Student Missionaries as Interns
Student missionaries assist local churches, campus ministries, and the North American Mission Board (NAMB) missionaries with evangelism and church planting. While working as missionaries, their objective is to support community ministries, which include ministering to teenagers, working with campus ministries, or facilitating in church planting. Steve Canter, of the Church Planting Group, believes student missionaries “are an invaluable resource for church planters. They help church plants with limited personnel and budget to expand their ministries and influence in a commu¬nity. Churches are also using them in creative ways to train and equip church planters and planting teams through intern programs.”

Students must meet minimum requirements to be accepted as a NAMB Student Missionary. Collegiate students must have completed their freshman year in college and have a minimum 2.0 GPA. They must be a member of a Southern Baptist church, and not be out of school for more than six months at the time of application. Students can begin serving anytime during the year and may serve for up to five consecutive semesters. Those who meet the qualifications are given an honorarium and supplemental insurance, paid for by NAMB, supported by the Cooperative Program and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering®.

For more information on qualifications and the application process, go to www.answerthecall.net and click on the “Students” tab. 
 

"By 1866, in London alone the Spurgeon men had formed eighteen new churches...Preaching was carried on at another seven stations, and the plans were that in each of those a church would shortly be organized." (108)

"Mention has been made of the work of the College students in bringing new churches into being. In all those efforts Spurgeon took a vital interest, giving toward them himself, raising money for them at the Tabernacle, and obtaining helpers for the students from among his people." (121)

"Spurgeon encouraged his people to be out carrying the gospel on Sundays. During his career he frequently arranged to have a group of members leave the Tabernacle to start a new church, and often one of the prominent men of the Tabernacle went with them to provide leadership." (157) 

May we not only follow his example in preaching the whole counsel of God, but may we also follow his example in starting new churches where they are needed!

Click here to see the entire report.
 

The Acts 1:8 Challenge is unique among denominational emphases of recent years.   From the beginning, the purpose of the Acts 1:8 Challenge initiative was to not to become a program, but a passion!

Pastors and other key leaders of Southern Baptist churches of all sizes are identifying a return to an Acts 1:8 style of missions as God's way of refocusing their ministries. The purpose of the church is for every member to be actively sharing Jesus Christ with a lost and dying world..."in Jerusalem, in all Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth!"

Versailles Baptist Church in Versailles, Ky., recently celebrated what God has done through its focus on Acts 1:8 since officially kicking off its Acts 1:8 Challenge emphasis in November 2007.

“Our missions giving has increased over 30 percent this past year,” said Michael Cabell, minister of discipleship and evangelism. “Our Lottie Moon giving was double what it was the year before. In 2007, we had 16 people go on short-term mission trips. In 2008, we had 138 people [go]…that’s an 870 percent increase!

“Acts 1:8 has made a marked difference in our church,” said Cabell. “It has become the ‘bonfire around which our church gathers.’”

Stories like that of Versailles Baptist are being repeated in many of the nearly 3,500 churches across the Southern Baptist Convention that have accepted the Acts 1:8 Challenge.

When a church focuses on the Acts 1:8 paradigm of missions, every aspect of the church—His church—has purpose. For example, no longer is a small group Bible study, music or youth ministry only for members who have been assimilated into the body of the church. Rather, these programs become strategic and significant outreach tools to share the message of Jesus Christ.

First Baptist Church, Star City, Ark., was founded in the 1800s and has a long history ministering to the rural community surrounding it.

During an Acts 1:8 conference hosted at the church for the Harmony Baptist Association, I visited briefly with the church's young pastor, Stephen Beavers. 

As with many churches its age, tradition sometimes trumps new and innovative ministry to the community. But through the church’s focus on God’s mission and a commitment to the Acts 1:8 Challenge, Beavers said God continues to keep its evangelistic glow alive.

Recently, after the church’s youth pastor left, God used a mission trip to its Samaria to raise up a new leader for the church’s youth.

“While in Wichita, Kansas, where we were dong street witnessing, God ignited a passion for youth ministry in a man who was saved at our church,” said Beavers. “He personally led several people to the Lord.”

Today, the man serves as the church’s interim youth pastor.

“God has done a great work there,” said Beavers. “And it started during a missions trip experience. He is a real soul winner!”

At this time of year with the Christmas Season and New Year at hand, now is a great time for a church to consider "rebooting" its mission, so to speak, and install new Kingdom focus "software" and missional DNA that will fuel everything it is and does.

A commitment to making disciples of all nations by taking the Gospel to a church's community (Jerusalem), region/state (Judea), nation/continent (Samaria) and world (ends of the earth) clarifies purpose, simplifies and gives direction to a church’s earthly existence.

While it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and pageantry of Christmas programs, churches with God’s mission at their core focus on the true reason for the season and how they share Christ in a world so desperately in need of Him.

More information about the Acts 1:8 Challenge is available at www.ActsOne8.com.

The defining moment for me, as a church planter, repeats itself almost weekly. I constantly meet people in my town who are living without the hope of Jesus Christ. They are not going to show up at a church service. For that matter, they don’t want to have anything to do with church; yet, God loves them. As such, I feel compelled to seek out ways to effectively engage these people in meaningful connections with the gospel. This is often difficult because my own understanding of what a successful church looks like does not work when it comes to reaching the people we are encountering in southwest Colorado. However, God is showing me that His church can indeed reach the hard-to-reach crowds in my town.

My wife and I came to Durango, Colorado in June of 2003. The local Baptist association invited us to come as church planters with the intent of starting a church that would connect with the local college culture. We had a year to prepare for this new adventure, and it was a productive time for logistically getting ready. However, nothing could prepare us for the challenge of clearly understanding our new context until we physically moved to Durango.

The one exception that did help me was a book I read in preparation for our church planting endeavor. A good friend and seasoned missionary recommended that I read The Celtic Way of Evangelism, by George Hunter.

Hunter’s work in The Celtic Way of Evangelism tracks the history of the Celtic Christian movement. The Celtic Christian community, originating in what we consider Ireland, initiated a brilliant missionary movement that grew with amazing momentum into parts of Europe. The methods of the Celtic Christian missionaries were inspiring and ingenious.

As the story goes, when Celtic Christian missionaries felt the call to reach out to a new village, they would go with a mindset of learning the culture of the people they sought to reach. They would typically establish a camp (monastery of sorts) on the outer fringes of the community. Over time, they would learn about the people of the village—what they ate, their traditions and stories, their perception of spirituality, their work habits, lifestyle rhythms, and so forth. As they studied the community, they would begin to determine ways to bridge the message of the gospel into people’s lives. They didn’t compromise the message of Jesus Christ. Instead, they strategically found ways to use the culture of the community as a platform for sharing the message of Jesus in terms that could be easily grasped. 

The Celtic Christian missionaries loved the people they lived with. They learned and respected the village community and, as a result, they were extremely successful in propelling the gospel into unreached territories.

Strategic Learning Zones

As far as our intent to see a church realized in Durango, my wife and I agreed that if we wanted to understand the people of our new community, the Celtic strategy was crucial. For myself, I began to look for locations that reflected the culture of the people we were called to reach. Early on, I identified a coffee shop on Main Street in Durango, which I considered a learning zone. I had no formal church office to go to (thank goodness!), so I would spend a regular amount of time weekly at this coffee shop. My intent was to listen and learn from the people I interacted with on a daily basis.

As I observed and listened, I realized our target audience was extremely post-Christian. They were happy living in Rocky Mountain “paradise.” Christianity was suspicious to them—mostly due to polarizing issues, which they assumed all Christians upheld. People in my learning zone also seemed antagonistic towards Christianity. When someone found out I was a “pastor,” his or her attitude towards me often changed. At first, this was frustrating, but I eventually got past my hurt feelings and tried to understand why people had such great distaste for the church. Often, I found that their issues and struggles resonated with my own struggles.

In studying the cultural context of Durango, I realized that presenting the gospel using connection points, such as environmentalism, human rights, and love for creation and recreation, were going to be effective bridges. I also realized that our church had to be a “safe zone” for people who felt threatened by organized church/religion.

Other Strategic Learning Zones … Join the Workforce

I am a firm believer that as a pastor, I must interact constantly with people if I want to have a good sense of what is happening in the community. Early on, I realized that the more I understood the situations and perspectives in Durango, the better equipped I would be to communicate the biblical message.

Thus, the coffee shop was just one part in God’s education strategy. Another component was working part-time in a local ski resort. Once again, this job was an easy way to learn about a particular group of people our church needed to reach. The resort employee culture is tough and gritty. Yet to this day, some of my best conversations about Jesus have occurred while shoveling snow, helping a lift operator, calling in medical help for an injured guest, and so forth. Working at our local ski resort over the past five years as both an employee, volunteer, and chaplain, has provided a great way to engage the culture and get a sense of how to reach people who are caught up in the resort lifestyle.

Why Learning is Crucial

Just like the Celtic missionaries, I am convinced that we, too, must invest ourselves in a process of understanding our community. This is a non-negotiable! The church-disconnect comes when churches look nothing like the people in the community. That is a stark observation in Durango. I live in a town full of people who love the mountains, enjoy adventure sports, take on rugged challenges, stand up for environmental causes, try to live “green,” and enjoy extremes. We understood that if our church failed to connect with these issues in a relevant way, we would miss the target. The more I learn about what is important to the people in my town, the more bridges I can build inside and outside the church. It doesn’t mean I have to embrace all the opinions and views out there. I simply need to listen, learn, seek to understand, and love.

I genuinely want people who feel estranged from God to reconsider what faith might look like. To get at this, I must understand where these people are coming from. The only way to understand is to be in the midst of the community. This is an ongoing challenge for me, because it is easy to slip into a cozy group of Christ-followers. You must intentionally find ways to graft your life into the learning zones. You never become an expert of your community. You must continually be a student.

I find it fun to invest my time continually learning about my community. The key to learning is admitting that you need to be taught. When people think you are eager to learn, they become eager to teach you. The more teachable you are, the more approachable you are.

This quest for knowledge can be fun! Especially when you understand that you can “mine” people from inside and outside your church for the things you need to understand. My friend James, who is a part of our church, has taught me so much about music and environmentalism. In fact, those conversations have enriched his spiritual journey, too. Another good friend, Antonio, who is not yet a Christ-follower, has taught me the art of tele-mark skiing, which has created all kinds of recreational inroads for me with people in the winter season. I could go on and on. The learning process is rich with opportunities to grow in understanding people, all of whom God loves!

I suppose we could have arrived in Durango, Colorado, and tried to start a church that simply looked like other successful churches in the area. We could have also come to the area and attempted starting a church that employed trends that are working in some other part of the world. I firmly believe that both of these approaches are problematic and inadequate, especially if we are serious about reaching people who are not yet Christ-followers.

Re-duplicated church models are denying God the opportunity to creatively build bridges into people’s unique lives. For us, we discovered that our church needed to be unique in reaching outdoor-loving, athletic, spiritually-misguided people. And the best way to become that unique expression of church requires constant learning, studying the specific trends of our culture, and loving everyone … especially those who dislike Christianity.

About Our Church and Some Words Concerning Theology …

My perspective has changed a great deal since I started living the church planting lifestyle more than five years ago. Our church plant started meeting regularly after six months of preparation, research, and core group development. We were a small gathering of people for eight months—on average 12 regular attendees (including our initial core group)! This season provided a sort of incubation period where we worked out who we really needed to be as a church. It took a lot of time, prayer, risk, and perseverance.

Our church is called Matthew’s House. We named our church with Matthew 9:9-13 in mind. It is the story of Matthew, the tax collector, who invited Jesus over for a party with his friends—tax collectors and sinners. The religious leaders were scandalized by Jesus’ willingness to associate with these “sinners.” Jesus told the religious leaders that He came specifically for the “sinners.” The “wrong crowd” needed Jesus, and He wanted them.

One of my biggest, ongoing struggles has to do with the fact that many “sinners” of today’s world (me included) see church as the last place they want to go to for help. This bothers me. I am grateful that our core group decided that we needed to be a “safe place” for people to learn about faith and God.

Every Sunday when we gather for church, we say, “Matthew’s House is a safe place for your spiritual journey.” We emphasize this because the people who are coming are often approaching with a sense of estrangement towards God. Creating a safe zone allows people to show up, hear about God, and hopefully move towards a genuine faith decision. It takes time, but we understand that our calling in Durango is to be a safe place for God to do His work.

I must admit that my understanding of the book of Acts has changed as a result of this church planting experience. I used to think that the book of Acts gave us a punch list of characteristics for what churches should look like. I’m rethinking that. Instead, I see the book of Acts as a historical look into how God specifically and uniquely created churches to meet the specific issues of different communities. Each of the churches described in Acts were different. No two were alike! The communities described in Acts required local churches that were designed to meet specific village dynamics. Acts is an amazing account of how the Holy Spirit broke barriers, left and right, to uniquely address each community with an indigenous expression of the gospel!

Conclusion … Learning Turns into Practical Expressions of Unique Church

I believe that our worst mistake as church planters is failing to allow God the creative rights in developing specific expressions of church in our specific villages. We risk being motivated by what looks successful in other contexts. Whether driven by numbers, budget, innovation, or something else, we fail to submit ourselves to what God wants to do specifically where we live and serve.

This means that Matthew’s House in Durango is not meant to be re-duplicated somewhere else. Of course, along with all gospel-centered churches, we hold common elements that are both sacred and biblical. Yet each church is a creative expression of God, designed specifically to reach specific groups of people.

For us, our ongoing process of learning in Durango has helped significantly. Our research led us to practical expressions of church that fulfill our unique calling. Here are some of the ways our specific calling is fleshed out in Durango:

1. We meet on Sunday nights because the people we seek to reach in Durango love to play during the weekend. We decided that Sunday morning would position us to be a source of competition for existing churches. We wanted to collaborate, not compete. Thus, we chose Sunday night. This has its challenges, but in the end, it reaches the people we long to interact with; and honestly, I love telling people that they should play during the whole weekend then consider topping it off with a church gathering on Sunday night. We want people to walk in covered in mud after mountain biking, wearing their ski pants, dirty from rock climbing, and so forth. We are convinced that our church gathering needs to connect with people who like to play!

2. Brand recognition is crucial for our church. In Durango, Colorado, that means we communicate at every regular worship service that we are a “safe place for your spiritual journey.” We back this statement up by structuring our gatherings so that pre-Christians can come and interpret what is happening around them, as well as walk away with something significant.

3. Our church predominantly targets college-aged adults and resort/leisure enthusiasts. We don’t exclusively reach these groups, but they are a dominant part of who God has called our church to connect with.

4. These groups are highly transitional. Thus, we see anywhere from 50-60% turnover in our church annually. We have to literally rebuild our leadership constantly. This isn’t bad; it is simply reality in a mountain-town like ours. As we strategically reach groups of people who are on the move, we must structure our ministry to fit our context. In a sense, we believe we are training up believers for other churches and ministries—we are a sending agency.

5. We reach people who are typically walking into our church with a lot of issues—substance abuse, lifestyle dilemmas, bitterness towards church, and so forth. Sometimes it takes a long time to see spiritual transformation, but we’ve got some epic stories to tell! It just requires patience.

6. Our financial strategy is unique and creative. We rely on a base of internal and external partners to cover operational costs. Over time this will likely evolve, but to reach low-resource crowds, we have to think creatively. We don’t want to build a church that targets people for their money. If you look at our situation from a purely logical approach, we shouldn’t exist. Resources are so limited! But God is in control, and He has built this church out of impossible circumstances. We are a living testimony to the fact that God will sustain His work in the world.

7. Our learned ministry strategy is simple—we tell people to make their passion their ministry. If you like climbing rocks … make it your organic venue for ministry. If you like backcountry skiing, make it your strategic venue for being the presence of Christ in the world. We don’t measure success based on how many people are at church on Sunday night. We base effectiveness on how many understand their role in representing Christ in the places they live, study, work, and play. To facilitate this strategy, we constantly seek out ways to naturally be in the community. This means everyone, including myself. I must model an incarnational approach in the way I lead.

8. We spiritually nurture our people through one-on-one discipleship, small groups, worship gatherings, and hands-on missions (both locally and globally). Our crowd has a unique interest in missions and social justice. We see this clearly as a way God is working in our community of Christ-followers. Thus, we make it a point to annually expose our people to missions, both abroad and in our town.

The above characteristics are specific, learned expressions of church for Matthew’s House, a church in Durango, Colorado. Do not re-duplicate! Sure, we can learn from each other, but no cookie-cutter approaches are allowed in God’s kingdom movement! Each context, each town, each city is an opportunity for a unique, relevant expression of church. We must never slack on doing the hard work of learning who the people are in our community. Otherwise, we cheat our community when it comes to showing the miraculous, universal, and relevant nature of the gospel.
 

 
My conclusion is that we must prayerfully engage our communities in whatever ways we can. We must constantly study in order to appreciate where people are coming from. We must relinquish control to God, too. God will whisper to us as we live, work, play, and interact with the towns and communities we seek to reach. We, then, can be part of His creative gospel revolution, which is moving forcefully throughout the world!

Joe Beckler ~ Joe and his wife, Cheri, live in Durango, Colorado, where they are planting Matthews House.
 

•      Nearly 4000 prisoners were released annually from the state’s prison system.

•      Every night over 2400 homeless people slept in the streets.

•      The average income level was $10,000 for the surrounding area.

•      40% of the population did not have a man living in their home.

Andrew Jenkins, the pastor of The Downtown Church was convinced that “the Bible does not command us to minister out of compassion and charity, to simply address the symptoms of a need. Rather, we are called to minister justice, to get to the root issues and address destructive structures.” From this conviction, a new ministry was launched from the church called “The Village.” Read how this church in Birmingham, AL is moving out into their community and ministering with a social justice and redemptive focus. To read their story, click here.

We’d like to hear your story. How are you ministering to the needs of your community and engaging people in God’s redemptive plan?

There are many words for which there is no consensus definition. "Cult" is one such term. For this article, I will define cult as a group that refers to itself as Christian but which differs in one or more of the fundamental beliefs of Christian orthodoxy.

When we hear of someone belonging to a cult, we tend to have a very negative stereotyped images of deceived followers who belonged to organizations such as the Unification Church ("Moonies" for the irreverent) led by Sun Myung Moon, the People's Temple led by Jim Jones, and the Branch Davidians led by David Koresh.

Because of this stereotype, it is helpful to distinguish between a sociological cult and a theological cult. A theological cult is one that meets the above definition of a cult, whereas a sociological cult is a religious or semi-religious group that is socially or culturally deviant. For example, a sociological cult may have a leader who is very controlling and who makes inappropriate demands of his followers, such as telling certain women followers who are married to have sex with him or forcing adherents to live in a community closed to the public where they cannot leave at will.

Mormonism is not a sociological cult. Although the polygamous Mormon sect which recently made the news under the leadership of Warren Jeffs may certainly be regarded as a sociological cult, the Mormon church disavows this group as Mormon, since it officially ceased allowing polygamy by its practitioners in 1890.

However, Mormonism is a theological cult, since the Mormon church holds doctrines that differ fundamentally from Christian orthodoxy. Space prohibits numerous examples. But we may note that the Mormon church maintains that Mormon males (sorry ladies!) may become a god some day and of the same type as the God of the Bible. It is actually a form of polytheism, although the Mormon church maintains that the God of the Bible is the only God with which we have dealings. Of course, this is fundamentally different than what is taught in the Bible, that there is only one God -- period, and we will never become like Him. He shares His glory with no one and we will never be all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere as God is. (For additional examples of how Mormonism is fundamentally different from Christian orthodoxy, see parts one and two in this series.)

This brings us to the question of Mitt Romney and evangelical voters wishing to cast their vote for a social conservative. I see two ways of looking at this:

On one hand, some may argue, there is more to be concerned about in a presidential candidate than his or her religious beliefs. A candidate's positions on the war on terrorism, poverty, the economy, strictly moral issues such as "gay marriage" and abortion rights, and maintaining free speech all may play into a voter's decision, as can a candidate's character, trustworthiness, experience and track record. As this argument goes, if Romney excels in these areas over another candidate, why not vote for him? Americans are electing a president, not the pastor of our church.

On the other hand, others may argue, a Mormon president would provide Mormonism with visibility beyond anything it has had up to now and consequently give a boost to Mormon missionary efforts. The same may be said of a president who is a Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist. As this argument goes, a nominal Catholic president or one who is non-committed in his or her religious persuasion would not have the same effect on those who share his or her worldview.

Whether Mormonism is a deal-breaker for evangelical voters is something each one has to decide.

For more information on the differences between Christianity and Mormonism, please go to www.4truth.net.

In 1997, he asked that I come to their home and listen to two Mormon missionaries. I went and when they began giving their presentation, I interrupted and said, "If Mormonism is true, I want to know everything about it. However, if it isn't true, I really don't care about all of its history and beliefs. So, would you mind if we focus on whether Mormonism is true?" They agreed and after a little further discussion we scheduled for all of us to return in a week's time and discuss the evidence. While they did their homework, I did mine. In this article, I'll share two of my findings that led me to conclude that Mormonism is a false religion.

My first discovery is that there is no specific confirmation of the Book of Mormon from archaeology. I phoned one of Brigham Young University's top Book of Mormon archaeologists and asked him whether any archaeological finds had confirmed anything in the Book of Mormon. He was cordial and to my surprise answered that there is no archaeological evidence that can be tied directly to the peoples and events described in the Book of Mormon. I placed a second call to BYU and this time spoke with a second Book of Mormon archaeologist. This man was also very friendly and honest, and likewise told me that no real evidence exists that specifically ties the peoples and events of the Book of Mormon to the known world. Keep in mind that both of these are practicing Mormons who are professional Book of Mormon archeologists.

What is interesting is that Mormon missionaries and Mormons in the pew are all told by the Mormon church that a number of archaeological discoveries have confirmed the truth of the Book of Mormon, while Book of Mormon archaeologists at BYU are making statements to the contrary.

My second discovery was that the Book of Abraham, which is counted among the Mormon scriptures, discredits founder Joseph Smith as a true prophet. In 1835, Smith purchased some mummies that were accompanied by some ancient Egyptian papyri. Smith claimed to be able to translate the papyri because they were written in Egyptian, very similar to the "Reformed Egyptian," which Smith claimed was the language of the Book of Mormon. As he translated the manuscripts, he asserted it contained the Book of Abraham, a book written by Abraham himself.

The papyri for the Book of Abraham contained some drawings with Egyptian writing that were subsequently published in Times and Seasons, a Mormon newspaper. The papyri were lost after Smith's death in 1844 but were rediscovered in 1967 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York who returned them to the Mormon church which in turn confirmed them to be the originals and published them for others to see. A Mormon academic journal named "Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought" asked three prominent Egyptologists to translate the papyri. If Joseph Smith was a true prophet, the contemporary translation would be very close to Smith's. The stakes were high, since the translations of the Egyptologists either could confirm Joseph Smith as a true prophet or expose him as a charlatan. For if Joseph Smith was terribly wrong in his translation of the Book of Abraham, it casts doubt on the Book of Mormon, too.

John Wilson and Klaus Baer, both professors of Egyptology at the University of Chicago, and Richard Parker, a professor of Egyptology at Brown University, were asked to do the task. The results were devastating. All concluded that the manuscript was a common Egyptian document buried with mummies for guidance in the afterlife and was not used until at least a thousand years after Abraham. They also concluded that Smith's translation did not bear the slightest resemblance to the actual translation. This is especially important when we consider that Smith claimed that the Book of Mormon was written in the same language. Since it can be demonstrated that Smith was gravely mistaken in his translation abilities when it came to the Book of Abraham, why should anything but the same conclusion be drawn pertaining to his ability allegedly to translate the Book of Mormon?

Therefore, at best, Joseph Smith was mistaken to believe that he had the ability to translate Reformed Egyptian and, therefore, we should render the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham as unreliable. At worst, he was a fraud, and the gold plates he said he found and translated into the Book of Mormon never existed in the first place.

In other words, if Joseph Smith really believed he was divinely given the gift to translate and that the Book of Mormon contains an historical account of real peoples, he was either self-deluded or deceived. The other option is that Joseph Smith knew his claims were false. If this was the case, he was a deceiver. Deceived or deceiver? Either way, it seems pretty clear that Joseph Smith was not a prophet of God. Accordingly, despite the fact that the Mormon church embraces a few beliefs in line with biblical Christianity it is demonstrably a false religion.

For more information on the differences between Christianity and Mormonism, please go to www.4truth.net.

Sharply dressed and very friendly, they ask if they can come in and tell you about God's good news. But you're unsure. They claim to be Christians. And you remember your Sunday School teacher talking about Mormonism. But most of the points made are vague in your mind and many are forgotten. You desire to talk with them but don't want to get into a conversation unprepared. So you politely say, "I'm busy" and close the door.

Ah, yes. Where were you? That's right, back to your breakfast. You slice off a piece of French toast, swish it in syrup and take a bite. However, while sipping your coffee you feel a sense of disappointment. You know that you just passed up a valuable opportunity to share your faith because you were unprepared. You know that if Jesus had been there He would have spoken with them. And you wonder what it is that Mormons actually believe. Is Mormonism Christian? Is the Mormon church a cult? 

This is the first of three blogs that will answer these questions. In it, we will take a brief look at the history, the beliefs and the people of the Mormon church.

HISTORY -- Mormonism started in 1830 with 24-year-old Joseph Smith Jr. According to Smith, he had several experiences, during which God, Jesus and the angel Moroni gave him instructions. Part of the instructions supposedly included digging up some gold plates buried by the angel Moroni around A.D. 400 on a hill just outside of Smith's town of Palmyra, N.Y. Smith dug up the plates, claimed they were written in "Reformed Egyptian" and that God had given him the ability to translate them. This translation became known as the Book of Mormon, a purported account of the ancient inhabitants of North America between 600 B.C. and A.D. 400.

Mormons have four sources of authority: the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has become one of the fastest growing religions in the world. According to the Mormon church, Latter-day Saints membership now totals nearly 13 million worldwide. The church owns Brigham Young University.

BELIEFS -- Many beliefs held by the Mormon church are fundamentally different from those found in biblical Christianity. These have been detailed in numerous publications. But here are a few of the more prominent ones:

-- God was once a human as we are now, and progressed to become God. He is one of many gods.

-- Man has the ability to progress and become a god.

-- Jesus was the first spirit child of God the Father. Subsequent spirit children are angels and humans. Jesus is the son of God and a member of the Godhead, though these are not understood in the sense of biblical Christianity, since in Mormonism they are three individual Gods.

When Mormon missionaries visit you, they usually will not focus on the doctrines previously mentioned. In fact, they probably will not even bring them up. Instead they will seek to find common ground on many of the doctrines biblical Christians believe. For example, they may begin by saying that God revealed the Old Testament through Moses and the prophets. Then Jesus came, was crucified and resurrected. Evangelicals agree on these facts. Then the differences begin. They will tell you that before Jesus' ascension to heaven, He appeared to the inhabitants of North America and gave them the gospel as well. His message and the history of these inhabitants from roughly 600 B.C. to A.D. 400 are recorded in the Book of Mormon. Furthermore, they will tell you that since the apostles were not replaced when they were killed, the Christian church went into apostasy. In other words, it abandoned the true faith, and consequently, a restoration was necessary. Mormons believe that God chose Joseph Smith to bring that restoration; therefore, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church.

THE PEOPLE -- Mormons are wonderful people who are very sincere about their faith and are generally very caring. Although Mormon scholars, such as those at Brigham Young University, are well aware of the challenges which face Mormonism, Mormon laity, including Mormon missionaries, are pretty much in the dark and would be surprised if you share with them the information that will be contained in the next blog in this series.

For more information about the differences between Christianity and Mormonism, please visit www.4truth.net.

·    28%  want to see Great Britain become an Islamic state
·    68%  hold that Brits who insult Islam should be arrested & prosecuted
·    25%  have either never heard of the Holocaust
·    45%  hold that 9/11 was a conspiracy between the U.S. & Israel (another 35% said “Don’t know”)

The objective of committed Muslims is to Islamicize the world.  When a person or a country stands in its way, it is regarded as a “war on Islam.”  This does not mean all Muslims hate Christians.  For over a thousand years there have been many friendships between Muslims and Christians.

However, these Muslims have disregarded the Qur’an, since it prohibits such friendships (Q 5:51).  So what are Christians to do?  I would like to suggest three initial responses by evangelicals to Islam.

1. Recognize that we stand in the way of Islam intentionally. 

We believe that Islam is a false religion.  The apostle Paul wrote, “But even if we (or an angel from heaven) should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be condemned to hell!” (Gal. 1:8 NET).  Since Islam’s message differs fundamentally from the gospel, it is clear what Paul taught concerning the fate of Muhammad and those who propagate Islam.  A few years later Paul wrote, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5 NIV).  It is the responsibility of evangelical Christians to promote the gospel of Christ to the exclusion of the core messages of other religions—including Islam.  In the eyes of committed Muslims, this places evangelical Christians at war with Islam. 

2. Engage in Christian Jihad! 

Jesus predicted the current dilemma.  He warned that false prophets would come (Matthew 16:11-14) and that the day was likewise coming when religious zealots will kill Christians and think they are offering a service to God (John 16:2-4).  It is natural to feel anger and hatred toward Muslims who want to kill us.  On a national level, we can support politicians who are committed to hunting down and destroying terrorists, upholding free speech, and standing in the way of Muslim thugs who declare war on everything which does not allow Islam to dominate.  On a personal level, Jesus tells us plainly what our response should be:

But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. . . . If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. . . . But love your enemies, and do good . . . and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. (Luke 6:27-35 NASB)

Jesus calls us to a Christian Jihad.  The difference is that our holy war actually involves—well—holiness.  These words of Jesus were not easy to hear for the early Christians who were persecuted and killed by Jewish authorities followed especially by Rome.  It will not be easy for us either.  However, this is a day when cooler heads must prevail and holiness is our goal.

3. Recognize that God is Bringing Muslims to Christ! 

In 2005, roughly 250,000 Muslims converted to Christianity in Iran.  Between 2003-2005, roughly 1 million Muslims converted to Christianity in Arab countries.  Muslims are coming to Christ in North America, too, although not to the same extent as in Muslim countries.  Dr. Ergun Caner came to North America in order to build Mosques and Islamicize the U.S.  A persistent evangelical Christian led him to Christ.  Ergun then led his entire family to Christ, with the exception of his father who disowned him.  He is now the President of Liberty Theological Seminary and his brother Emir is the Dean of The College of Southwestern.  Abdu Murray is an attorney in the Detroit area who became a Christian after wrestling with the preponderance of evidence in its favor.  He is now active in sharing the gospel with Muslims.  Nabeel Qureshi was a committed Muslim whose father is a Muslim leader in Virginia.  Last year Nabeel became a Christian.  After being shaken by the evidence for the truth of Christianity, Nabeel prayed that God would give him three dreams that would provide guidance in the matter of the truth of Islam or Christianity.  He received these three dreams and, against what he had hoped for, God confirmed the truth of Christianity.  Nabeel is now in medical school and simultaneously completing a Master’s degree in Christian Apologetics.  His future intentions are to spread the gospel of Christ. 

Nabeel’s baptism

We live in a new day when evangelical Christians in North America may soon join their brothers and sisters around the world in being persecuted and martyred for their faith.  This is a whole new way of thinking for us in North America where we have been shielded from severe persecution.  In “Me and Becky,” Christian artist Chris Rice challenges believers to get out of their comfort zone.  We have a home on Abundant Life Blvd, butterflies in our yard and a fish on our car.  We tear up in church and sing our harmonies loud.  We read our Bibles, keep a prayer journal, and are careful to give thanks before meals in restaurants. But is that enough?

There’s a world out there that we left behind
Full of souls as important as yours and mine. 
Looks like a reckless road and a sacrifice
And I’m crazy scared it may cost our lives
But then I remember Jesus died
So come on Becky.  Let’s go for a ride.

We may also remember Paul’s words: “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21).  Now is the time for Christians to begin serious dialogue concerning how we may be used of God to get His glorious gospel to Muslims in North America, a people whom God loves passionately.

For more information, please go to www.4truth.net.
 

To read the complete article, click here.

Is there value in prayerwalking? Share your experience on how it impacted your community.

How does your church engage the community for sharing Christ? What are the challenges that you're facing?

Before you disconnect from this article, please consider these interesting facts about Facebook:
•    It is the 6th most-trafficked Web site in the world.
•    It has more than 70 million active users (up from 25 million one year ago).
•    Users spend an average of 14 minutes on the site every time they visit (up from eight minutes six months ago). Most users visit multiple times each day.
•    It is adding an average of 125,000 users per day.
•    It contains over 55,000 regional, school, or work-related networks.

If that isn’t enough to keep you reading, Facebook isn’t just for college students anymore. Although it began as (and was limited to) a social networking media for college students, now more than half of the users are not college-aged. Its largest and fastest growing demographic is adults over the age of 25.

Mark Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook when he was 21 (he is now 24), insists that Facebook is a tool and only a tool. When you open up the welcome page on the Facebook site, it says: “Facebook is a social utility that connects you with people around you” (emphasis theirs). In the same way you find it beneficial to use utilities like phone service, electric power and water, Facebook can serve your ministry as a helpful utility.

In a cover-story article in Newsweek (August 27, 2007), Zuckerberg gave an interesting quote:  “(Facebook)…is a world-changing idea of unlimited potential.” Changing the world sounds like an assignment the Lord Jesus Christ gave to His followers just before He returned to heaven. It stands to reason that we might be wise to use a tool that is designed to be helpful in reaching that goal.

If you are new or a novice to Facebook, I recommend you sign-up and explore the site (www.facebook.com). At the sign-up page, click on the “ABOUT” link at the bottom of the screen to learn more about the site.  Chris Forbes has written an excellent e-book (see link below) entitled Facebook for Pastors which is a great introduction to the utility and to using it in ministry. By far, the best way to learn Facebook is to “facebook” (now a verb as well as a noun).

I want to explore with you several ways Facebook can be used to assist in your church planting and ministry activities. Facebook should not determine the activities you do or the way you spend your time. It should simply be used to further the tasks and goals to which you are already committed.

EXAMINE YOUR COMMUNITY.  After you have exhausted the standard demographic and population research for your community, why not use Facebook to help you get a more personal glimpse of individuals in your area? Facebookers join groups. By regularly exploring these groups you will begin to get a sense of the interests, activities, and causes in your own backyard. For example, a quick search for my community of just under 6,000 people revealed a wealth of information:

•    There was a group of 75 people interested in helping to save a local lake from the drought.  (I actually think they were trying to save their “party spot” for the summer.)
•    There was a group of 72 people supporting a “Walk for Diabetes”.
•    There was a political party group with more than 50 people.
•    There were more than 150 people who hate the congestion on our local commuter highway.
•    A group of 76 people were supporting a young lady going to Cambodia on a mission trip.

In addition to these, 15 groups had formed around existing churches or youth groups, one group was boycotting a local coffee shop, and there was even a white-supremacy group searching for members.  Admittedly, this is very informal research, but it provides me with a revealing understanding of those I call my neighbors.

ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE.  Since Facebook is all about connecting with people, it’s an excellent way to establish friendships and nurture relationships within your community. As you join groups in your area (or start new ones), you can gain “friends” by inviting them to be your friends on Facebook. These relationships can be developed around similar interests and experiences. The perceived anonymity of social networking encourages people to open up and reveal personal things about themselves. You can connect with people who “love the home team”, “can’t get enough of the local chicken wings”, or “have seen every Bette Midler movie”. Opportunities for community service and involvement flow throughout the groups. If a group forms in your community to clean up a vacant lot next Saturday, you can show up and rub shoulders with people who have the same passion. 

ENCOURAGE YOUR DISCIPLES.  Facebook is an exceptional method for connecting with and encouraging the people you are making into disciples. Lots of college and youth groups have discovered the value of this media for communication and promotion of events and programs. Why not form a closed group that can only be joined by those you approve? Use some of the powerful and creative applications available on the Facebook platform that share studies and thoughts, track progress, or provide levels of accountability. Have a daily meeting with each person using the Facebook chat function. While this approach could never replace the important, face-to-face interaction, it can provide a consistent and convenient method to express care and nurture on a regular basis.

EVANGELIZE THE LOST.  The ultimate task of every church planter is to help connect those who are lost to God. Facebook can be one of the places you conduct that activity. Friends can be made and groups can be established for the purpose of giving God the opportunity to use you to connect people to Jesus. These relationships can give non-believers a safe environment in which to explore spirituality and hear from a believer in a neutral setting. In a day and age when Christians find it harder and harder to connect with those far from Christ, Facebook can be one vital link.

EXCHANGE IDEAS.  Facebook is a very functional place to connect with other church planters and pastors for the exchange of ideas. You can involve yourself in chats with individuals or conversations with a group of people on a discussion board. The interactive features of Facebook make it extremely easy to post what you have read or are reading and even give a quick review of the book or blog. It’s simple to put a Web link on your Facebook page that would steer your friends to sites you found beneficial to your life or ministry. Facebook currently contains over 200 groups dedicated solely to connecting people interested in church planting.

Whenever a new opportunity presents itself, skepticism always accompanies it. As you entertain the prospect of using Facebook in church planting activities, be sure to proceed with all the caution and discernment you employ in every other decision. Start small and enjoy little victories. Happy Facebooking!

I'd love to hear how your church is utilizing social media to connect and communicate with people. What types of social media do you use, what has worked, and what hasn't worked?
 

1. Muhammad is the Prophet predicted.  In John 1:19-24, John the Baptist is asked regarding his identity:

This is John’s testimony when the Jews from Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?” He did not refuse to answer, but he declared: “I am not the Messiah.” “What then?” they asked him. “Are you Elijah?” “I am not,” he said. “Are you the Prophet?” “No,” he answered. “Who are you, then?” they asked. “We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What can you tell us about yourself?” He said, “I am a voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord—just as Isaiah the prophet said.”  Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. So they asked him, “Why then do you baptize if you aren’t the Messiah, or Elijah, or the Prophet?”

Some Muslims argue that Elijah is John the Baptist, the Messiah is Jesus, and the Prophet is Muhammad.  They add that Christians have no reason to conflate two of these figures (Messiah, Prophet) into one. 

While it is clear that many Jews of the time had an expectation of three prominent figures, Jesus never affirmed this belief.  In fact, Jesus is not speaking in any of the verses related to this expectation, nor is He being addressed.  He is only ever being spoken about. We have no record that He ever confirmed—actively or passively—that the Jews were right to have this expectation of three prominent coming figures.  It is also interesting to note that the Jews of Jesus’ day were not in agreement pertaining to the number of prominent figures.  Consider the following:

•    Some Jews thought of 3 figures: Elijah, Messiah, Prophet (Pharisees in John 1:25)
•    The Dead Sea Scrolls reveal that some believed in a Prophet, a royal Messiah, and a priestly Messiah (1QS Col. 9 vs. 11).
•    Some Jews regarded Jesus as the Messiah (John 7:41)
•    Some Jews regarded him as the Prophet (John 6:14; 7:40)
•    Some Jews combined the royal Messiah and the Prophet (John 6:14-15)
•    Early Christian Jews regarded Jesus as the Messiah and the Prophet of Deut. 18:15, 18
(Acts 3:19-26 [esp. 3:22]; 7:37)

The bottom line is that in claiming that Muhammad is the Prophet spoken of in Deuteronomy (18:15, 18), Muslims align themselves with the Jews of Jesus’ day who were mistaken in their understanding of His identity.  The earliest followers of Jesus regarded Him as the One Who was both the Prophet, the priestly Messiah, and the coming royal Messiah.

Let’s look at one more. 

2. The “Comforter” spoken of by Jesus is not the Holy Spirit but Muhammad.  

It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you. (John 16:7 HCSB)

Some Muslim apologists claim that the “Counselor” or “Comforter” mentioned by Jesus cannot be the Holy Spirit since Jesus said the “Counselor” could not come until Jesus had left.  However, it is the Holy Spirit Who is said to lead Jesus into the wilderness (Matthew 4:1).  This argument is easily answered.  There are 4 Comforter Statements made by Jesus; all in John.  In every case the “Helper” is said to be the “Holy Spirit” or the “Spirit of truth.”

•    John 14:16-17: “[The Father] will give you another Comforter…that is the Spirit of truth”
•    John 14:25-26: “the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send…He will teach you all things”
•    John 15:26 - 16:1: “When the Comforter comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth…He will testify about Me” 
•    John 16:7-30: “if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you….when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth…He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and disclose it to you.”

While the Comforter can only come after Jesus has left (John 16:7), it is in a different manner.  In John 14:16-17, Jesus says that the Comforter abides (present tense) with you and he will be (future tense) in you.  Moreover, in Acts 9:31 we see that the Holy Spirit was indeed comforting after Jesus had ascended: “So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase.”

In conclusion, we have noted two examples of New Testament texts being twisted by Muslim apologists in order to argue that Muhammad is predicted within its pages.  Although the average Christian has no idea how to reply to Muslim arguments, one can see that is not that difficult with a closer look at the biblical texts.

To get more information, please go to www.4truth.net.
 

"My sister and I used to go to a church when I was seven," he said. "We'd go every Sunday and Wednesday and whenever there was something going on there. One day though a leader saw us getting out of my parents' car and later asked us why our parents didn't come into church as well. You know? We didn't have to go to church there. My parents didn't care. We could have stopped going anytime we wanted.  Anyway, I could tell the attitude of the leaders changed. We stopped being invited places with the church group. We realized we were no longer on the in-crowd there. And I decided 'you know what? I don't need this.'"

So my friend told me he's been to church since then, but not to any Christian churches. He appreciates all forms of spirituality: Hinduism, Native American animism. He celebrates Hannukah with his Jewish friends and Ramadan with his Muslim friends and in all of his words that day I sensed a hurt and a real desire to love. To love and to be loved. To be known and to be loved all the same. This, I believe, is why the homosexual lifestyle is so attractive to sensitive and injured people. It provides a community that hints at love and hints at acceptance and provides a safe haven for a guilty conscience: a guilt caused by acting out of a false sense of love. It could simply be said (of course this overly simple) that my friend left the place where he could find true love because a leader's theology of love didn't very well include the idea of accepting someone for the same reason Christ accepts and loves them: because they are his creation.

 
Now I realize that in every story of burn victims (those who've been burned by Christians in this case) there is a story behind a story. Somebody had to set the fire. But somebody had to fuel it. And someone had to add oxygen to that flame to make it grow into a fatal force. It's a more complex story than what I'm recounting here. But it does at least bring up a good point: what is our theology of love. What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? What does it mean to love God with all your heart? Why does Christ combine the two?

Well, loving God means you'll love your neighbor. And this is why I love the story of Missionary Service Corps missionary Kerry Jackson who has moved into Atlanta to live among the arts community down there. His love for God has poured into his love for his fellow artists. He wants to provide them with gallery space, work space, worship space and space to be who they are--men and women created in God's image and therefore worthy of redemption.

 
So, I gave my friend Kerry's contact info. And took my friend's card to give to Kerry. On it he has a picture of himself dressed in drag. I hope one day God's grace will remind him to dress like himself.

For the Taking Prayer To The Streets Guidebook click here.

Through prayer, God greatly multiplies our efforts.

As a church planter there is no greater need than the establishment and communication with a prayer support team.

Who?

This may not be as easy as you think. Your prayer warriors will need to know specific prayer requests and some of those may be about specific people in your ministry or on your leadership team. I suggest strongly that you enlist individuals to serve on your team who know you personally but who do not live in your area of service. This gives you the freedom to speak openly and honestly without fear of your requests becoming local gossip.

I would suggest that you recruit as many people as possible to serve on your team. Start with a minimum of fifty and grow from there. I would also include your sponsoring and partnering churches.

As you have opportunities to share your vision for your plant it is crucial that you carry with you a way to enlist prayer warriors. Even a legal tablet will work as long as you use. Never stop enlisting prayer warriors!

It might not hurt however to establish a local prayer network which includes your church members and local pastors. Naturally you would not include sensitive subjects but I believe that the creation of this second team will benefit both your plant and those praying for you. It reinforces the importance of prayer and allows them to participate in your ministry.

What?

I am a big believer in being very specific with your prayer requests. Asking the Lord to bless the missionaries is wonderful but blessings come in a variety of forms! Be specific with your requests. I would also make sure that I stay balanced in my requests. Your prayer requests might include the following:

 1. Specific requests for you and your family. Be honest about your struggles and needs.
 2. Prayer for your vision and values. Include updates and be honest about your struggles.
 3. Prayer for your leadership and financial needs. Be specific.
 4. Prayer for upcoming events and speaking opportunities.
 5. Prayer for your strategy. Keep them updated
 6. Prayer for the lost by name.
 7. Prayer for your sponsoring churches
 8. Prayer for your mentor or coach
 9. Prayer for your vision, that you would see the community as God sees it
 10. Prayer for resources. BE specific about your needs

Not only would I send out my prayer requests, I would also send out praises as well. Those praying for you want to know what God is doing in your midst. Testify of His greatness! Don’t forget to send pictures or direct them to a web site where you post pictures.

I would also ask them to send to you prayer requests. Pray for them even if they do not send you requests.

It would be advantageous to include with each prayer letter a short section on how to improve your prayer life. Coach them in their praying, teaching them how to pray using scripture. Suggest books on prayer. Not only will this help them in their praying on your behalf, I believe that it will add value to your letter.

When?

I would send out a newsletter each month unless something urgent comes up.
 
 How?

There are many ways to send your requests. My personal preference is via email but would want to send a minimum of two communications a year via regular mail. I believe that this shows that you value their partnership and could be included with a Christmas or thank you card. There are a number of ways to create your data base just keep it accurate and up to date.

Resources

Maxwell, John (1996), Partners In Prayer, Thomas Nelson Publishers

Sanchez, Daniel R. (2002), Church Planting Prayer Strategy, North American Mission Board (available at www.churchplantingvillage.net click on Church Planting Resources, scroll down to Prayer section)
 

One of the challenging points of the book was that Ezra had been trying to bring spiritual revival to Jerusalem for years by focusing on the temple. He rebuilt the temple, brought back temple treasures, restored proper temple worship, but the city wasn't changed. It wasn't until Nehemiah came to Jerusalem years later with a burning passion for the city and people of Jerusalem, united with spiritual vigor and passion of Ezra, that the city was truly revitalized physically and spiritually.

We can all learn a lesson from this. Too often we spend all our time and energy focusing on fixing the church, restoring conservative doctrine, fighting over worship, building better buildings, etc. This isn't bad, we should be passionate about the scriptures and doing church biblically, but not at the expense of the people and community around us that God has called us to serve and minister to. Our spiritual vigor and passion must be united with a passion to serve and love the people of our cities and see our cities improve, physically and spiritually.

As the prophet Jeremiah wrote, "Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper (Jer. 29:7)." May all of us in exile seek to see our cities prosper to the glory of God.

"By 1866, in London alone the Spurgeon men had formed eighteen new churches...Preaching was carried on at another seven stations, and the plans were that in each of those a church would shortly be organized." (108)

"Mention has been made of the work of the College students in bringing new churches into being. In all those efforts Spurgeon took a vital interest, giving toward them himself, raising money for them at the Tabernacle, and obtaining helpers for the students from among his people." (121)

"Spurgeon encouraged his people to be out carrying the gospel on Sundays. During his career he frequently arranged to have a group of members leave the Tabernacle to start a new church, and often one of the prominent men of the Tabernacle went with them to provide leadership." (157) 

May we not only follow his example in preaching the whole counsel of God, but may we also follow his example in starting new churches where they are needed!

Because we (meaning the vast majority of western Christians) only experience God during set "God" times, we cannot connect with pre-Christians on their own turf. This is especially applicable to youth ministry. Instead of helping students become missionaries in perhaps the greatest mission field on earth, their schools, we try to create cool programs, do fun events and get un-churched people into our doors. All we end up doing is attracting like minded Christians from other churches (if we have the coolest programs) and a massive number of people are continuing un-exposed to the gospel.

Teaching and worship times are important. Fellowship and doing life together are important. However, the focus cannot be all the Christians hanging out and having a good "safe" time while the rest of the world goes to hell. We must teach our students to connect with their friends where they are. They must begin to view themselves as missionaries to their schools, to their skate parks, to their sports teams and their neighborhoods.

This is a massive challenge and cannot be accomplished by instituting a program or a seminar, we're talking about changing a culture from the ground up. But the end result is a group of students passionately living out their faith in the contexts that they already belong to. That is how our students can be the salt and light of the world.

Click here for the article.

Starting churches by shaping emotionally healthy leaders represents the primary strategy of Fellowship Associates, a church planting center in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Click here to read the rest of  "Understanding Fellowship Associates' Emotional Approach" by Kima Jude.

are environments where multiple

disciples are intentionally

SELECTED, DEVELOPED, and SENT & SUSTAINED

to make disciples which results in new churches

Environments

                  Individual Churches

                  Networks

                  Associations

                  Para-church or intentionally established Non-Profits

                  Preparing more than one disciple at a time

                  From outside the “environment” or community

                  From within the “environment” (Indigenous)

                  Laity that will lead or be a part of church planting teams

Intentionally

                  There is a process that can be communicated

                  Disciple making that results in church planting is a stated value of the “environment”

                   Interns & teams are chosen based on pre-established criteria

                  Character

                  Knowledge   

                  Skills

                  Doctrine and Values of the denomination

                  Family prepared

                  With resources

                  To the lost

                  Continued networking and support

To read article, click here.