The “particularization” ceremony was conducted by Dr. Walter Wood, lead pastor of North Cincinnati Community Church. Dr. Wood is a man with whom I would like to spend much more time to learn and be stretched spiritually and practically in order to be more effective in ministry both personally and professionally.

Dr. Wood gave a brief sermon, teaching from John 1:35-ff. exploring the question, “How did Jesus plant a church?” He brought out three strong points, but the first point really stuck with me. After reading the text, Dr. Wood pointed out that Jesus started with one person at a time and He took good care of each one. When God came to earth to plant a church, He didn’t become distractingly consumed with moving through crowds of people too quickly. Jesus relationally connected with people, one at a time, and cared deeply for them.

I heard in these words a challenge to think similarly. We should start with one person at a time and care deeply for him. This made me wonder at our congregation. While our goal is to introduce as many people as possible to a committed following of Christ Jesus, we don’t want to start churches that are widely attended, but relationally shallow. Are our people intentional about connecting with people, one at a time and caring deeply? Am I leading, modeling, and praying for this among our people? Will we be effective in starting a healthy church? This leads to a closing question, “Who is the one person with whom you are relationally connecting and for whom you are caring?”

1. No (or unclear) directional signs inside or outside your facility

Unfortunately, familiarity often breeds contempt for strangers. Once we know the ropes we forget about those who don’t and it becomes every man, woman, and child for themselves. Put yourself in the place of a first-time guest and ask; “Do I know which door to enter?” (What if that door leads to the choir loft, or the front of the worship service? What if it opens into the Pastor’s study? Or maybe its locked and I’ll make a fool of myself.)  “Do I know where the childcare or classes are located? Where are the restrooms? Etc.

2. No greeters other than someone handing out bulletins.

Strategically placed greeters not only say “hello,” but their presence communicates to guests that they are special and you’ve been expecting them. A smiling face, a warm handshake, and a helping hand are hallmarks of a friendly church. Many churches place greeters in the parking lot, at the entrances, in the classrooms, and worship area. They not only welcome folks but also are available to walk people to where they need to go. (By the way, even regular attendees appreciate a friendly greeting.) Can’t find anyone in the church with a friendly disposition willing to greet guests?…Well, that may be another deadly sign.

3. No information about your church is readily available.

A greeter armed with brochures, or a wecome station stocked with newsletters, info cards, and Sunday School/small group information, and other opportunities to plug in or get connected is extremely valuable. It tells your guests who you are, what you’re about, and that you’d like them to be a part too.

4. No one introduces himself or herself to, or welcomes the guest(s).

You’re probably thinking that this never happens. That’s probably because you haven’t attended any churches other than your own lately. Check out the friendliness quotient of your church by enlisting a non-attendee to show up some Sunday and give you honest feedback (A kind of “mystery shopper”).

5. No one extends an invitation to lunch or to return next week.

People will connect to your church through relationships. If they can’t relate they won’t return. You will need to overcome your discomfort to make them comfortable. You will need to make others part of your life if you want them to be part of God’s kingdom. Hospitality may be the church’s most under utilized gift.

6. No general word of welcome is offered from the pulpit/platform.

What is said from the platform can make a big difference in how one feels from the pew. How the welcome is extended is critical. Normally, its not wise to call guests by name, have them stand, or stand in their honor (while they are seated). You don’t want to embarrass them in any way. In today’s culture people seek a degree of anonymity, yet don’t want to be totally ignored. Find a balance that works in your setting. Use the term “guest” rather than “visitor” and simply thank them for coming. Have registration material available in the pews/chairs and encourage them to fill it out and place in the offering. Bulletin tear-offs work well for this and can be used by everyone present to allow for prayer concerns, decisions, and other requests. A bonus would be a time and place after the service for guests to meet with the pastor and have refreshments.

7. No follow up within 48 hours of guests attending.

You have a two-day window to make a positive impression after someone attends your church. After that the possibilities of their connecting with your ministry are dramatically reduced. Send a letter, a card, an e-mail, or make a phone call to say thank you, invite them back, offer assistance, etc. In some cases a brief drop-by to leave literature or a gift is appropriate (hint: keep the car motor running and the car door open to signal the brevity of your stay). Also, if the contact person is someone other than the Pastor it is of more value. Sorry, but a non-clergy contact is often considered more genuine.

Location

A key decision is where to plant the church. Sometimes God clearly speaks about a specific location, an example being: ‘Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us”‘ (Acts 16:9). Not surprisingly, Paul went to Philippi, a leading city in Macedonia, and planted a church. Paul was also encouraged to stay in Corinth because the Lord told him that He had many people in that city.

However, it’s not always so clear. The Holy Spirit told the church in Antioch to ‘set apart for me Barnabas and Saul to the work which I have called them.’ It was clear to them that this work was to plant churches but no specific instructions were given as to where to go. They themselves chose to go to Cyprus. The reason would appear to be that Barnabas, the leader of the team, was originally from Cyprus (Acts 4:36). It is always easier to establish a new church where there are already existing relationships.

The policy of Paul and Barnabas, as outlined in Acts, was to use ‘common sense’ to identify the next place to plant, fully offering this to God then expecting Him to redirect if necessary. This seems to be a healthy model for us to follow when considering where to plant.

Apostolic and prophetic ministry can both, therefore, be involved in identifying strategic locations. I believe they also have a key role in helping match leadership with location.

Vision and strategy

Having a leader and a location doesn’t mean we are ready to plant a church. There is the need for vision (what sort of church is to be planted) and strategy (how it is to be planted).

Too often there is not enough clarity regarding the style or ‘flavour’ of the church that is to be planted. It is one thing to say we want to help students for whom Christianity is a foreign language and church is an alien culture discover Christ in all His fullness but what sort of “church” will accomplish this? Similarly how do we communicate with Arabic speaking Muslims or families with pre-school children or active retired people? Doing things the same way we have always done them will not work, we have to have distinctive and creative ways to communicate.

I believe that apostolic ministry has a role in helping churches in identifying appropriate vision and strategy for their context.

Conclusion

There is something special about church planting! It continues to be God’s chosen method of establishing His kingdom on earth. There is much to learn from both Scripture and experience but nothing beats rolling up your sleeves and getting involved in making history by planting a church!

I believe with all my heart that it is God’s chosen method to reach those for whom Christianity is a foreign language and church is an alien culture.

Questions to be considered.

• Within your community what sorts of church plants are needed?
• Is God calling you to be involved in a church plant?
• Which “location” / type of person are you called or most suited to reach?
• Do you have a sense of God calling you to lead a church plant?

WRITTEN BY TONY THOMPSON

Tony is an Elder at Hope Church Luton and part of the Leadership team.

He works full time for the church and is married to Anne and they have 2 sons.

Happy Valentines Day!

Join us in loving Jesus to the Father’s glory as the Holy Spirit leads us into God’s mission of making disciples of all nations.

For those of you who are far, let us pray together so that we, as God’s people, can
1. Share Jesus no matter what.
2. Care for people no matter who.
3. Dare to follow Jesus no matter where.

What   |  “A Night of Vision and Prayer”

When   |  March 14th (Thursday), 7-8 pm

Where  |  Village Church of Irvine, 77 Post Irvine, CA 92618

Who     |  Friends and family of Center Church launch group and those who want to join the movement of gospel-centered church planting and the mission of making disciples of all nations.

Why     |  Create a missional momentum, pray for Irvine and OC, and give towards gospel-centered church planting movement.

We appreciate your prayers, giving, and participation to see Jesus as the center of our lives.

Love in Christ,
Center Church Launch Group

Here are 7 responsibilities that every Pastor should have.

1) Follow Jesus (Your Lead Pastor is not responsible for your spiritual growth, or relationship with Jesus. Pursue Jesus and be His fully devoted follower)

2) Own the vision of your lead pastor, believe in it, and lead it!

2) Diffuse any momentum killing or division causing chatter. (Zero Tolerance for Division)

3) Lead with excellence in all your areas of ministry and take responsibility for your failures.

4) Challenge yourself consistently by setting personal and spiritual goals in your life . ( Always have accountability for your goals.)

5) It’s never about you! (Its always about Jesus. Jesus is always about people. It’s about reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus and making them into disciples)

6) Encourage, believe in, pray for, protect, and love your Lead Pastor and family. (Remember that Satan hates their guts. Satan desires to kill them, steal from them, and destroy them.)

7) LOVE YOUR CHURCH (This is not a job, remember thats it’s your calling and that God put you there for a purpose. You might as well enjoy it while you are there. You don’t have to do anything, you get to!)

I have failed in every area multiple times. Be excited about what God is doing in your Church. None of my leadership opinions will make you a perfect. Take it as helpful advise.

Pastor Joe Peña

Let’s get S.M.A.R.T. about evangelism. No, I’m not referring to a “cone of silence,” or communicating via shoe phone, for those old enough to remember the TV series. I’m talking about a holistic approach to reaching more people for Jesus. Examine your church’s entire ministry and overall approach to fleshing out the great commission. Is there proper focus on others, and their need for the gospel? Do the elements of church life work together to create positive synergy for evangelism? Here are some ways your church can get S.M.A.R.T. about evangelism.

SPIRITUAL CLIMATE

Learn to become a spiritual climatologist, and evangelism environmentalist. The spiritual atmosphere of your church largely determines if you will experience showers of blessings or a draught in the baptistry.

Pray for souls to be saved, and for believers to be bold. Preach the word of God in season and out. Stress outreach and include gospel presentations in Sunday School classes and small groups. Conduct regular witness training, and set aside  specific times for outreach. Make use of testimonies. Be mindful that every kind word and caring act enhances the spiritual climate of your church and community. We must be good news if we are to share the “good news.”

MINISTRY TO OTHERS

Get outside the walls of the church and serve beyond the gravitational pull of the membership. Discover the needs of others around you and develop ministries to meet those needs. Recovery ministries, child care, food distribution, tutoring, literacy classes, and servant evangelism efforts are just a sample. Create your own list of 101 ways to reach out to your community.

ACTIVITIES FOR OTHERS

Include those outside the church in activities of the church. In fact, initiate activities just for them. Vacation Bible School, concerts, musicals, dinner theaters, recreation, family movie nights, and game nights (including video games), just scratch the surface of possibilities. But, activites need not be just an inside job. Consider how others can join you in engaging the community for Christ.

RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS

Equip and encourage the church to cultivate relationships with neighbors, co-workers, and others in their constellation of influence. Learn to genuinely care for them and show it. Practice a lifestyle of evangelism, and “infiltration” tactics, so when Sunday services are over the church is strategically deployed not simply dispersed. Be salt and light by “infiltrating” organizations, teams, exercise classes, and other venues where lost people gather. As Jesus demonstrated, meeting people where they are is the first step to getting them to where God wants them to be.

TRUTH SHARED WITH OTHERS

Become an opportunist. Be sensitive to holy moments and divine appointments. Share the truth about Jesus; who He is, what He has done, and the difference He makes in your life.

Since evangelism is a top priority of the church and every Christian’s job, let’s get S.M.A.R.T. about it.

So in 2007 I came to the city, not knowing a soul, but knowing that God was calling me here. The internship was a wonderful experience and by the end of it, I had fallen in love with the city. I knew that God wanted me to stay, so I found an apartment and went on a job search. I was actually able to help my Dave with some of his classes when he started bringing them to the city. In fact, one of the guest speakers led a ministry here in the city where I was able to work at for a few months as an administrative assistant. It was a very random job, but it was a job! I continued to be involved at Forefront Church, leading a small group and leading the setup team for Sunday mornings. It was a pretty exciting time. All I knew was that God led me to New York City and that I wanted to be involved with church planting.

After a few months of being a Forefront, I was asked to come on staff for a leadership residency. It was the perfect opportunity to learn the nuts & bolts of what goes into a young, successful church plant. For a year I was doing all kinds of stuff – leading interns in service to the community, setting up for worship on Sunday mornings, maintaining the church website. It looked like this was the church that God had planned for me to be at in New York.

However, as I started the second year of the residency, I became restless. I was tired of doing anything and everything. I wanted to move to focus on a few specific things – teaching, discipleship. However, the ministry needs were nearly all geared toward administrative tasks that I was doing, which I can be good at, but are not my complete passions in ministry. As the residency ended, it was clear that if I stayed at Forefront, I would be doing the administrative tasks which I didn’t want to do. This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for where I thought God had been leading me.

During that same year, I was getting burned out of focusing all my ministry energy on the background of the Sunday worship services. I began thinking about different ways of doing church that were focused more on relationships than just Sunday worship. I devoured books about house churches, being missional, missional communities, and other church leadership buzz words. The more I read, the more I realized that no church I knew was even coming close to doing any of the things I read.

Suddenly the plan I thought God had for me didn’t make any sense. He had led me to New York City, He led me to Forefront Church, He provided a job, then He provided this residency. Now when the residency was over and…? On top of all that, I continued to wrestle with a different way to do church, which made me debate if I should even stay a part of Forefront. Honestly, I questioned whether I should even be a pastor. I didn’t want to leave New York, but I didn’t know what I was supposed to do next. I ended up getting a part time job in retail during the evenings. It really felt like a step backwards in my career. I had no idea where God was leading me or how my recent experiences fit into his plan.

Then I met Chris. Chris was planting a new Orchard Group church in upper Manhattan, called Everyday Church, and they were looking at doing things a little differently. They had just started meeting as a home group on Sundays where they ate a meal together, had communion, and looked at a story from the Bible. They didn’t have a worship service yet. It was definitely different from my church experience so far. As I got to know Chris and the rest of the staff, it was clear that we had a similar vision of what church could look like. I reluctantly decided to join the staff part time. The church was very relationally focused. They didn’t have a “launch date” for their weekly worship services like most church plants I knew.  Instead, they met as home groups and served their neighbors. They didn’t do any marketing, but relied on relationships to grow. They would start a monthly worship service when it felt appropriate. I loved it.

I led one of our home groups and soon became the worship leader when we started our worship services. I had never led a band before, but I was willing and able. The church was only like 40 people, so it was a little less intimidating than leading a large congregation. We didn’t even have a sound system! For the first year, we met as home groups three weeks a month and then for worship once a month. We steadily grew until we started a third home group. In 2012, we added a sound system to worship and starting having it every other week. I also started serving full time at Everyday. Everyday had a balance between relationships and worship that I hadn’t experienced before.  That summer we celebrated the baptism of 7 of my friends at Everyday. As I’ve looked back on my whole experience in New York and in church planting, Everyday Church is where God wanted me – it just wasn’t around when I first got here!

This year we’re transitioning our home groups into Everyday Groups, which are more like missional communities. I’m even going to be leading the launch of our next one. Stay tuned to hear about my experience with it!

So that’s my experience with church planting so far. It has been harder than I ever thought possible. I expected it to be difficult, you know, like facing an exciting challenge. I didn’t expect my dreams to be shattered and re-arranged. Though it’s often quite difficult, I can’t see myself serving the kingdom anywhere else doing anything else.

At its most basic, a church plant requires three elements – leadership, location and vision/ strategy. (Location as described in the previous blog may be a people group rather than a geographical distinct location.) This is true for each type of plant described above.  It is occasionally possible to gather a small number of people when only two elements are present, but all three are needed to plant a church.

Sometimes, once a location and a vision are identified a leader is sought for that context. Alternatively, you can have a leader with a vision to plant a certain type of church and a suitable location is then sought. Even having a leader and a location requires vision of what sort of church is going to be planted, and a basic strategy of how this is to be achieved prior to gathering people intentionally. From my experience, there is no ideal order for the three elements to come together, but church planting only really starts when all three are in place. Let’s look at these three elements in more detail.

Leadership

The bottleneck in many parts of the world is leadership. If we had more leaders we could plant more churches. The benefit of keeping strong relationship between the plant and the mother church means the leadership requirement for the church plant are less releasing more church planters and therefore enabling more churches to be planted.

A key role of apostolic and prophetic ministry is to identify church planters. This appears to be a God-given ability. Put an apostle in a group of leaders and he seems to be able to pick out those gifted and called as pioneering church planters in no time! Many church planters have been identified and released by apostolic ministry in this way.

Prophetic ministry also has a role in releasing church planters. I vividly remember sitting in a room minding my own business when Colin Baron prophesied over me that I needed to move from where I was and get involved in a pioneering church plant. Over a short period of time others prophesied similar things, confirming my call to move to Luton to plant the church there. Many have been released into church planting through the prophetic. I do not believe a prophetic word is essential before you can plant, but having one does help!

Once church planters are identified, they must be suitably trained and developed. Church planters need to be leaders, able to get their own vision from God and inspire others to join them in establishing the vision. This is very different from a manager who seeks to implement someone else’s vision. Very few people are natural leaders, if we want to plant more churches we need to have a purposeful way of developing leaders. If we want to increase the rate of church planting we need to identify and develop more leaders.

Location and Vision & Strategy will be looked at in next weeks blog.

WRITTEN BY TONY THOMPSON

Tony is an Elder at Hope Church Luton and part of the Leadership team.

He works full time for the church and is married to Anne and they have 2 sons.

We are on the 3^rd phase of our trip, traveling with Ted Olsen of Dawn Ministries.

This specific project is a group of people who, until two years ago, had no believers. The photo shows one of the groups of believers that now exist.

An interesting part of this project is the story of believers of Dutch decent in Venezuela who became interested in unreached people groups. A friend put her in touch with Ted Olsen. An interested group of people from her church put together the seed money to fund three teams of local believers who now minister to the tribe.  The two Anglo girls shown came to see the project their mother helped initiate.

Interestingly, this group makes a living by reprocessing cow pies.  The end product is shown in the back ground and sells for a good price since fire wood is harder to come by.

Not all of the people we have had contact with on this trip are impoverished economically. But so many are spiritually without the influence of Almighty God in their lives.

Thankfully we have witnessed and have been a part of seeing some come to Christ in the weeks we have been here.

Tomorrow night when we get on the train, we start the long trip back to USA.  Thank you again for following in prayer.

George – Dean Dye – Bill Crooks

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Leave a comment and encourage our Berean International Church Planting Team!

Our team (Bill, Dean and George) arrived safely back to North Platte at 3:30 am on Saturday Feb 2nd. We are grateful for the good driving of Bill’s grandson Josh who picked us up from the Denver airport late Friday night.

The NW India team with Ted Olsen includes the man standing next to me who ministers very effectively in a state along the Pakistan border.

Our flight going and coming took us through Dubai on Emirates Airlines. On our brief layover we went on a tour downtown and had our photo taken with some of the locals.

A bit of trivia: the way our airline tickets worked out we actually flew home over the North Pole. We departed the USA out of New York and arrived back in Seattle; technically an “around the world” trip!

Thanks to all who followed the trip including your prayers!

Leslie and I went on a vacation this summer to visit some great friends of ours and family in Austin, TX. We had a great week there, as I have had several times before. Usually when I take a trip I am overjoyed to be returning home to Kansas City. It’s that relieving feeling of being back where you belong. However, as we got closer to Kansas City and further away from Austin on that drive home, I began feeling increasingly discontent about leaving. At first I thought it was just the tell tale signs of having a vacation well spent. It became increasingly obvious to Leslie and I however that this was not the case. We had to ask ourselves that question; Are we feeling called to Austin? Are we about to move?

I think it was a week later when I sent a text message to a friend of mine who was actually waist deep in a church planting residency in Austin. I told him that we couldn’t get Austin off our hearts and that we would be praying about moving there and being a part of what church he would eventually plant. You see, Leslie knew when she married me that I felt called to be a church planter and when we did move from Kansas City it would be to plant a church somewhere. So this was the first place for me to start, to talk to the dude who I would pursue doing this with. He responded with exuberant support of us. Then we left it alone. I was determined that if this was just an emotional pull then I would leave it alone until the emotion went away.

About two months went by. In that two months we would go in and out of praying heavily about this decision and completely ignoring it. Then in mid-September we faced the fact that a decision needed to be made. I still felt something for Austin, as did Leslie. I think I was honestly looking for any reason not to say yes, and Leslie was just looking to me for an answer. In retrospect, I am incredibly thankful for her support of me during this time. She was going to support me no matter what decision I came to. She is an awesome wife.

So we’re moving to Austin, TX. It feels really great to get that off my chest publicly. With that, there are a few things to be said.

To Kansas City

I cannot put into words how important Kansas City and the people in it are to me. I moved here three years ago not knowing what the heck I was doing. Over the course of those years I met some of the most genuine people in the world. I have been taught about the Gospel of Jesus in ways I didn’t know were possible. I’ve been cared for and developed so much at Redeemer Fellowship and can’t thank the leadership there enough. I have met brothers and sisters who have changed my life forever. To everyone here, thank you so much. I cannot ever forget any of you.

As we move on from this city to the next, I ask for you to pray for these things.

1. The people of Austin, TX.

The truth is that we are moving to Austin for these people. I believe the Gospel is so revolutionary that it is the only thing powerful enough to save you from yourself. Pray that the people who live in Austin, believers and nonbelievers alike, will be receptive to us. That we can enter the community and start doing the work of missionaries and that we see lives transformed by the Gospel.

2. Leslie and I finding work.

It sucks, but without jobs we wont be able to do this work for long. Leslie has an incredibly mobile career as a nurse, but there have already been speed bumps with the Texas State Board of Nursing and we just pray that those issues get cleared up and she finds a hospital to work at. I just hope theres an opening for me at the Apple Store there, if not I’m sure some opportunity will open up. We need your prayers here.

3. Our families

Leslie’s awesome mom Nancy is losing her daughter to twelve hours of highway. It’s not super far and airplanes are incredibly fast modes of transportation. It’s also difficult for here because where we live right now (1 hour away) is the furthest Leslie has ever lived from her mom. Pray for her and Leslie’s brother Owen as they adapt to life without as much of her as they’re used to.

Also, please pray for my mom. I haven’t talked about this much but my mom suffers from COPD, a devastating lung disease. One of the big reasons we made this decision is to be closer to her and to help care for her as her health has been getting worse since last winter. We are moving her to Austin to where better health care is available. I have been away from my mom for 3 years now and am beside myself to be closer to her and be able to care for her. Pray for her health.

4. Our team already in Austin

Last but not least, pray for our team who have already assembled in Austin and have begun the work of developing relationships with the people in our area. The work they are doing right now is a lot harder than it sounds. Pray that they don’t become burned out or beat down when things get difficult. Pray that we all communicate, make decisions, and build this church for the sake of the Gospel and the glory of God…not for ourselves.

I Am Gonna Shut Up Now

This has gotten really long, but theres a lot to say. I will obviously be talking about this more and will be updating you on how things are panning out and asking for more of your prayers for different things. We are incredibly excited about this. It’s important to say that were not moving to our home, but instead a place we are temporarily displaced to. Home is a place we can’t even imagine yet.

It also looks like another family will be joining us as a result of our second Get to Know Gateway! Please keep praying for us as God is showing some movement, but we need more people helping us. If you know of someone in the west side suburbs around Cleveland, then please pass this info along to them.

If you, or someone you know, is interested in learning more about Gateway River Church, then please come to one of our gatherings listed below. Send me a message of which one you want to attend. If those dates don’t work, let me know and we will find a time to get together. Each time is a no pressure, one hour presentation about Gateway River and features yummy food! Let me know if there are questions or to sign up!

Thurs. Feb 21 6:30

Sunday Feb 24 4:30

Our website should be up in about a week where people can gain even more info!

If you are launching a new campus or planting a new church, I recommend that you also use (or at least seriously consider!) direct mail. Here are four key principles that have made it work for us.

1. Plan far ahead. Doing a direct mail campaign takes work, money, and planning. As soon as you set a launch date you need to put this on your timeline and get the right people involved. We have always used a local direct mail company to help us do our direct mail campaign. This enables us to work face-to-face with experts and has also saved us money over using large, national direct mail companies. In talking to others it seems like churches that have used local companies have had a better experience.
2. Use some local photos. Instead of using all stock photos, we have used photos that we have taken ourselves in the community that we are targeting. This communicates that we care about that community; we are not just a slick “big box” church extending our brand thoughtlessly into their area. By using photos of local landmarks that are immediately recognizable, we are saying that we live where they live and are there for them. You might think that some of our photos look lame, but that is because you are not from here and don’t recognize the scenes. (You are not our target audience!) We have found that people connect with and appreciate the local images.
3. Send multiple postcards. We were told by other churches and by the direct mail experts to send multiple cards—not just one. One post card brings an awareness, but multiple cards are more likely to bring a response. Since our budget is limited, sending multiple cards to the same addresses means we are sending to fewer homes. We have tried from three to five cards, and seem to have settled on sending four cards to each home in our target—one a week for the four weeks leading up to the launch Sunday. We typically budget $8,000 to $10,000. You can hit each home with four color postcards for about $1 per home. That includes everything: buying addresses, printing, and postage. So, for example, for $10,000 you can send four cards to 10,000 homes. We were told to expect about a 1% response which seems to hold true. Be sure to print extra cards to give to people on your team to hand out to friends and at local kindness outreaches that you do. Personal invitation is still the most powerful (and cheapest) method!
4. Don’t use only direct mail! Direct mail is just one way of getting the word out. You want to use as many channels as possible. Do kindness outreaches, put up signs, send news releases to the local paper(s) and see if they will do a story about you. And above all, encourage your growing team to invite relatives, coworkers, neighbors, friends and enemies.
   

What has been your experience with direct mail? What questions do you have about it? What other methods of publicity have you found to be effective?

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Description of the assessment from one of our Berean leaders:

A great and glorious day of assessing. It is always exciting to see what the LORD is doing in the lives of others. He reminds us of our call and His desire. All of these candidates have a tremendous heart to see the work of the LORD done and all of them see themselves as having the assignment of serving Him with all of their lives.

As each couple heads out on this journey, they seek the affirmation of others that have traveled the road. That affirmation is the primary purpose of this great activity.

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Leave a comment and let us know what you think of our church planter assessment event!

Hi Guys,

We’re finally doing it! Our first ever Church Planter Bootcamp. If you have planted a church in the past 3 to 5 years, this event is for you!  In order to better accommodate everyone, we are going to do the boot camp in conjunction with the Berean Fellowship Leadership Forum on April 8-10 at Maranatha Camp near North Platte, Nebraska. We’d like to start Sunday evening on the 7th and conclude Wednesday afternoon on the 10th. This is for the men this time around, and we will work on incorporating the wives at other events like the annual National Conference.

Program elements:

• Combination of vision casting and idea sharing for our church planting movement
• Applicable learning tracks
• Developing leaders, elders, and team
• Developing stewardship, giving, and budget
• Healthy pace and rhythm in ministry and family
• Gathering and scattering ministries
• Combo of lecture and interactive discussion
• One-one-one interaction

Tom Wood from Church Multiplication Ministries will be a featured guest. Tom authored the book “Gospel Coach” with Acts29.

We strongly encourage all new and recent church planters to participate in this event! The financial cost will be minimal, and I will have that info out to you right away. For now please add this to your spring calendar!

Let me know if you have any questions at all!

Kris Cheek

bfcmultiply@gmail.com

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Leave a comment and let us know if you’re coming to the Bootcamp! Share a story from a previous Berean National Church Planting event.

In the past I have taught that scripture and experience indicate that there are three basic types of church plant. There is the pioneering church plant where leadership is ‘parachuted’ into an area to establish a church. This was a common method employed by Paul. A good example was when he planted into Ephesus. Without having anything on the ground in Ephesus, or even close by, Paul turns up with his team, builds relationships with others in the city, gathers local people to him and plants a church. This was how Hope Church, Luton was planted, I moved to Luton in 2002 with a team, we gathered some local people and started the church.

Then there is the mother church birthing others. The initial plant in Ephesus resulted in many other churches being planted in the province of Asia, as Luke tells us in Acts 19:10. The churches mentioned at the beginning of the book of Revelation are among those planted out from Ephesus. In many ways this is an easier way to plant a church, coming out of an existing church. Hope Church, South Beds was planted in this way.

The church in Antioch is an example of the third type of plant, the ‘unplanned pregnancy’. In Antioch a group of Christians gathered because of persecution, ‘the Lord’s hand was on them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord’ (Acts 11:21). Apostolic ministry was sent from Jerusalem to serve this spontaneous new church. In Newfrontiers churches we too have experienced this type of, where God just breaks out and causes a church to be planted. Apostolic ministry then responds to what God has already done. The apostolic role is present but different in each case.

However since I began writing and teaching on church planting other forms of church planting has been experimented with. The distinctive of this new form of plant is that strong relationship remains with the mother church. Many churches are experimenting with starting new congregations planted into different communities but remaining part of one church. Other churches are starting mission groups into particular communities.

In many ways this “new” form of church planting isn’t new at all. Every church I have been part of over the last 30 years has had a youth group that functions like this type of church plant, having its own distinctive flavor allowing it to reach out relevantly to teenagers but remaining very strong links with the mother church. This concept is now being extended to other communities sometime defined by geography (e.g. a particular house estate); age or stage of life (e.g. not just youth but active retired people or students or families with pre-school children); specific ethnic or language groups. As with our youth groups we can reach out to specific communities in a relevant way whilst maintaining the gospel imperative of demonstrating that we are all one new man in Christ.

These new ventures can take the form of any of the types described above though the difference is that the “umbilical cord” to the central church is never cut; infrastructure resources including celebratory gatherings and overall leadership continue to be available to the church plant.

I think this form of church planting has a major role to play, alongside the other forms as we seek to reach the whole of the UK and the whole of Luton.

Questions to be considered.

• Why do you think that “church planting is the most effective form of evangelism under heaven”, especially when it comes to reaching those for whom Christianity is a foreign language and church is an alien culture?
• What are the benefits of church plants remaining linked to the mother church? What are the vulnerabilities?

WRITTEN BY TONY THOMPSON

Tony is an Elder at Hope Church Luton and part of the Leadership team.

He works full time for the church and is married to Anne and they have 2 sons.

Today, I’m linking up with Christine over at Grace Covers Me as she releases her book, The Church Planting Wife: Help and Hope for Her Heart, and collects heart stories from church planting and ministry wives.

Christine wanted other women to share how church planting has changed them.  And, although in order to share all the ways this grueling, difficult process has changed me I would also have to write a book, I’m going to do my best to summarize in the way that I love best.  I will compare it to exercise.

I teach spinning.  If you’ve never taken an indoor group cycling class, let me assure you that the first time will probably get your attention.  The seat hurts.  It takes way more effort to get that wheel around than you expect.  The resistance can be heavier than you’ve ever experienced on another bicycle.  I often have athletic people (even marathon runners) who come in confident that it will be “no big deal” for them to participate.  They are well-conditioned, yet, at the end of the class they look beat, tired, and a little surprised that it was so difficult.  (That is if they can make it to the end of the class–many leave early, sometimes limping!)

This was me when it came to church planting.  I thought I was conditioned for it.  I studied.  I listened to podcasts, read stories, and went to conferences. I grew up in the church.  I knew what a pastor’s wife did.  She looked great, she had a lot of people over, and she could always be seen smiling and nodding.  She made sure the pastor’s clothes matched and the church foyer was decorated.  Her children looked cute and acted sweet (at least on Sunday mornings).  She made great casseroles for every pot luck.  And, in many cases, she had a special talent for singing.

I was ready…well, except for that singing part…(I was prepared to adjust that part of the vision.  I don’t sing unless a radio beside me is blaring.)

Sure, I knew it was going to be hard.  That’s what everyone told us at least. But, deep in my heart I was sure that their hard was probably different than my hard.  My pride fooled me into believing that I was somehow better equipped…that I would not struggle as everyone else had.  I thought I was strong…that I was ready. But, then someone put a 50 pound barbell in front of me and told me to lift.  I bent down to attempt and I couldn’t get it off the ground.

What happened?  Well, we didn’t grow a megachurch in six Sundays.  We didn’t have a line of 100 people (or even 10) waiting to get in on that first “launch” Sunday.  We didn’t have someone just “give us” an awesome place to meet.

And, this was only a small part of the struggle.

People we invited never came.  People who pledged to us their loyalty didn’t come through. People who said they wanted us to succeed, that they were on our team, sure didn’t act like it.

Expensive mailings failed.  Events didn’t produce the results we wanted.  And my husband was discouraged…most of the time.

For the majority of the first 18 months of our church planting adventure, I would enter that elementary school building thinking that the workout would be easy that day…that I was ready for it.  But, every Sunday afternoon I was beat down, defeated and struggling to figure out how I was supposed to encourage my husband to be any more hopeful than I was.  It was too hard.  How could I possibly go through that same exercise again…every week?

But none of my problems, none of my struggle with church planting was really about what other people did or didn’t do in relation to our new church.  It was really all about me.  The problem was my heart, my attitude, my expectations, my hope, my trust, and my (now-exposed) lack of faith that God was working and would provide…that God would sustain us. 

Yet, he has.

He has been faithful to grow us. He has been faithful to change us.  I picture Dr. Seuss’ Grinch at the end of the story, when his heart expands to ten times its size.  I feel like God has stretched our hearts in the same way.

Through the maturing process he has shown me that what I thought was important–the exercises I was prepared for– are not the ones that matter.  I no longer stress about how the donut table looks, mis-spelled words on the worship guide, or the fact that my daughter somehow made it out of the house wearing her well-worn pink Crocs with her frilliest red dress.  I now understand that how the church looks and how I look don’t really matter all that much.

And, I’m starting to see how my role as a church-planting wife might not be all that different than my part-time job at the gym…How maybe the most important thing I can do for my family and for our church is to make sure I stay spiritually conditioned and then support, encourage and help others in the various stages of their efforts to shape-up their relationship with God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I wanted to be strong enough so I could do it on my own.  (Pride…again).  Now I’m experiencing a new phenomenon, in that, when I am weak that He is made strong.  I’m being taught to surrender.  I’m seeing his grace in the opportunities he gives me to grow.  I’m being conditioned to rely on his ability to carry the weight.  He’s showing me that only in His power will I be able to love people in the way he commands.

And, It’s the hardest workout I’ve ever done.

**If you are a church planter’s or pastor’s wife — I’d encourage you to follow Christine’s blog at www.gracecoversme.com.  I’d also ask you to check out my other blog where a few other ministry wife friend’s and I post about our day-to-day struggles at www.journeysofapastorswife.com**

Be3 India Mission Update: George Cheek

Greetings from India!

These photos were taken on the next to last day of our trip in the villages with the Be3 portion of our India trip.

Monty is visiting with the family and neighbors of a devout Hindu family that invited us to stop by and come in as foreigners.  They patiently listened to our presentation and are open to others coming again to visit.

The “family photographer” seldom gets in the photo, so I chose this one taken with the back camera of my cell phone.  So many friendly faces!

The trip has been going very well.  Dozens of people have accepted Christ, and there is a good follow up system with local believers in place.  I will provide more details later. Please pray for us!

Your brother,

George Cheek

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Please leave a comment to encourage George Cheek and the Be3 Mission team to India!

India Update From Pastor Frank

Most of you are familiar with our Berean Fellowship’s venture in India, the 300in3 Project, through which we partnered with India Campus Crusade to train church-planting pastors in unreached villages in five states spread from north to south.  Luana and I, along with three other couples, recently completed a journey to Global South, as I call it, to encourage and stimulate the brothers and sisters there in their work.  (If you haven’t followed us on this trip, you can still catch up by reading the posts on my blog, www.pastorafrank.wordpress.com.)

Our stateside Berean family has been heavily investing in this project.  Many of you have had the privilege of either going to India to teach the doctrinal module to men in training, or to attend their graduations.  That being said, your church family may or may not be up to speed on the state of affairs of the Berean Fellowship’s work in India.

Luana and I are in the position to rectify this situation.  I am putting together a presentation and challenge about both what is taking place in India and our continuing involvement in meeting the needs of our brothers and sisters there.  Almost all of them are in a “hand to mouth” situation, barely having enough to survive, let alone having anything for medical and other assorted emergencies.  We would be very happy to come to your church to inform your church family about these things.  We want our stateside Berean family to recognize the continuing bond we have with our Indian pastors and families.  The DNA of our Fellowship is present half a world away on the Subcontinent!

We’d be happy to come for a one-time presentation, presentations to small groups, or to be part of a missionary conference/emphasis. Will you pray about this?

To contact us, please send an email to bfcnetwork@gmail.com.

Thank you.

Frank and Luana VanCampen

Pastor At Large, BFC

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Please leave a comment to encourage Pastor Frank in his global networking for missions in the 1040 window!

Pt 2

INCLUSIVE MINISTRY
(1 Corinthians 12; Ephesians 4:11-16; 1 Peter 4:8-10)

Every member is to be on mission for God; involved in the ministry of both the “gathered” and “scattered” church. Spiritual gifts must be discovered, deployed, and developed. A God-sized impact on a community or people group depends on the inclusive ministry of all God’s people. Help others to catch the vision of being missional, and release them into the harvest field.

INSTRUCTIVE PROCESS
(Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 2:42;11:25-26; Ephesians 4:12-13)

Remember the goal is to make disciples who can reproduce disciple-makers. A systematic process should be in place to build up the body of Christ, making its members fit for the kingdom of God, and equipped for service. The study of God’s word and development of Christian skills are to be designed for every stage of spiritual development. Think discipleship by design.

INSPIRATIONAL WORSHIP
(Psalm 34:3; Isaiah 6:1-8; John 4:23-24)

Christ-centered, Bible-based, Spirit-led, God-glorifying, believer-edifying, guest-appealing worship is critical. Whether in a living room or auditorium, the Savior is to be magnified, the saints motivated to serve, sinners moved to repentance, and the repentant experience grace and renewal. Times of worship act as a fueling station, and strategy session, that provides impetus for the work of the church–beyond the walls.

INNOVATIVE MEANS
(Mark 2:22; Proverbs 18:15)

Don’t be afraid to color outside conventional lines. Creat a climate conducive to risks and experimentation, where failure is not seen as final, but tuition necessary for ultimate success. Avoid being trapped by the familiar, wed to the comfortable, or driven by the traditional. Neither become enamored with everything new, but rather embrace what honors God and is effective in fulfilling His purposes. Remember, creativity runs in God’s family.

INVESTMENT OF LIVES
(Romans 12:1; Isaiah 6:8)

Planting churches requires seeing ourselves as “living sacrifices,” an offering poured out for the kingdom of God. A faithful investment of time, energy, and resources in God’s kingdom, will pay divine dividends.

The goal of Mission Groups at Missio Dei Church is to nourish the core identities of Christianity, namely, that God in Christ regenerates His people to become family, worshipers, learners, and servant neighbors. It is one thing to talk about becoming these things and quite another to explain what we mean and how we know if we’re accomplishing these goals. Below is a quick primer on what we’re working and praying toward through Mission Groups:

Family In Christ, we become the family of God. While born to the family of Adam, we can by faith be re-born (I Pet. 1:3) and adopted (Eph. 1:5, I John 3:1) into God’s household, giving us a status of belonging and responsibility for one another. Our hope in Mission Groups is to have a small relational community of believers that does life together. We share meals together, stories together, as well as hurts and hopes together. While we experience isolation, we weren’t created for it, and the Gospel reverses this aspect of the curse, uniting us together for the sake of our joy and His glory.  We measure our strength of family by the ways in which lives are shared (I Thess. 2:8). We celebrate the stories of people making decisions together, serving one another and spending time together outside of regularly scheduled group and worship gatherings.

Worshipers We often talk about being a “seeker senstive” church, but we recognize that it is not natural man that is seeking (Rom. 3:10-11), but it is the Father who is seeking true worshipers (John 4:23-24). Worship in group life is primarily expressed by our prayers and praises. When we cry out together to God in Christ, for what do we cry out? When we praise Him for answering the cries of our heart, for what do we praise Him? Our hope is that these request and praises move beyond the typical health and wealth requests, although those are not dismissed or unimportant. We’re looking to encourage hope in Christ, so we measure success by the sharing with honesty and vulnerability those things that are deeply held in our hearts as we pray together (Col. 1:9-14).

Learners Jesus made disciples and commissioned them to make disciples (Matt. 28:18-20). Simply put, a disciple is a learner, being taught the ways of the one with whom he is identified. God’s word is the authoritative instructor in teaching us about God and ourselves (I Tim. 3:16-17, II Pet. 3: 14-18). Therefore, we encourage time spent together reading, memorizing, meditating upon, and applying the Bible. The goal of learning the Bible is a continual re-discovery and application of the Gospel (Eph. 3:14-19) and we measure learning by Spirit-filled practice of Christ-like habits as described in Scripture.

Servant Neighbors God’s desire is for diversity of culture in the eternal Kingdom (Rev. 21:24). This happens as the church is sent out to love God and neighbor and declare the coming of His Kingdom and those outside become those inside. Missio Dei doesn’t exist for herself, but for the building up of others and the transformation of lives. We encourage one another in group to engage the culture around us and to do it together. Strength in service is measured by how many outside lives are committing to God, to His people and to His mission (Acts 2:46-47).

Mission Group leaders this term have been tasked with emphasizing one of these core identities for the term. Typically a new group will make “family” their emphasis and for those who have a sense of family, they will work toward developing a stronger sense of identity in the other areas. Our hope is that you can find a group in which to grow. We have 10 Mission Groups throughout Cincinnati neighborhoods, multiple nights of the week and you can sign up for a group here.