Church Planting

Church Planting equips leaders and teams to start new congregations and multiply disciple-making communities. Explore biblically grounded resources on calling and vision, team building, evangelism, leadership development, worship gatherings, discipleship systems, and healthy launch strategies. You’ll also find guidance for fundraising, partnering with sending churches, contextualizing ministry, and sustaining spiritual health through the pressures of planting. Whether you’re discerning a call, preparing to launch, or strengthening an existing plant, these articles offer practical wisdom for planting churches that make disciples and serve their communities in Jesus’ name.

August 19, 2012

Christian Standard

Pondering Religion, the Bible, and How to Grow a Church

By LeRoy Lawson   Roadside Religion: In Search of the Sacred, the Strange, and the Substance of Faith Timothy Beal Boston: Beacon Press, 2005 The Rise and Fall of the Bible: The Unexpected History of an Accidental Book Timothy Beal Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011 God-Size Your Church John Jackson Colorado Springs: Biblica, 2008, 2011 Timothy Beal, professor of religion at Case Western Reserve University, is a new discovery. A good friend recently sent me two of his books without explanation or recommendation, so I read them without expectations. Well, that”s not quite right. When I started Roadside Religion my guard

July 15, 2012

Christian Standard

Megachurches: Storm Clouds Ahead?

By Brian Maris It”s not all smooth sailing for the megachurches. Church leaders I interviewed foresee some storms on the horizon. In my previous column (May 27), I shared seven positive trends megachurches are experiencing. These were gleaned from interviewing nine authors, academics, megachurch pastors, and missional church planters. These nine were overwhelmingly optimistic about the future of megachurches. But not everything they see is positive. Today, we”ll look at three concerns that were mentioned in those interviews.   1. Overfishing in Other Churches” Ponds “There are two kinds of megachurches,” states Eddie Gibbs, senior professor of church growth at

May 12, 2012

Christian Standard

Partnership Hoping to Start 200 Churches in LA

By Jennifer Taylor Three years ago, Stadia partnered with Kevin Haah to plant New City Church of Los Angeles. Last month, Haah announced a partnership with Stadia that will result in 200 more churches across Los Angeles. “New City has grown to about 400 people,” he says. “We reflect the ethnic and economic diversity of downtown and have built an amazing community of believers here. We want this same experience in every neighborhood in the city.” Haah says Los Angelenos identify with specific neighborhoods, mentioning one of 119 areas when asked where they”re from. The neighborhoods range from small, 10,000-person

April 12, 2012

Christian Standard

Orchard Group Teaming Up to Plant Church in Ireland

By Jennifer Taylor Limerick, Ireland, currently has just a handful of Evangelical churches, but this fall the Orchard Group will help an Irish church planter start one more. Dermot O”Mahony, a native of Limerick, moved to the United States after college to work with a growing church, gain ministry experience, and extend his education. He and his wife, Marie, settled in Arizona, where Dermot served as an intern, and then an outreach minister, with Christ”s Church of the Valley in Peoria, and took classes at Hope International University (Fullerton, CA). When CCV decided to help the O”Mahonys start a church

April 8, 2012

Christian Standard

A New Church for Happy”s Inn

By Phil Alspaw “This is just a fun ministry.” I say those words to my wife nearly every Saturday evening as we pull around a rural fire department”s parking lot and start driving 35 miles home after worshipping with Chain of Lakes Christian Church, started by Libby Christian Church last year on Easter weekend. We usually drive on a logging road maintained only a few months of the year; it”s bumpy, narrow, and beautiful. A long section of the road stretches along a gorgeous river that supports a vast wilderness teeming with deer, elk, moose, mountain lions, wolves, bears, and

January 24, 2012

Christian Standard

Church Planting Organizations

Compiled by R. Paige Mathews Christian churches and churches of Christ are committed to church planting! Just a quick look at this list will remind you that church leaders from coast to coast are working to reach non-Christians with new congregations. Church planting organizations and associations were asked to share information about their ministry beyond basic contact information. That information is condensed below, for those who answered our survey.   (For your convenience, this list is available as a pdf. Just click here: Church Planting Organizations.) “¢ “¢ “¢   Alabama State Evangelizing Association Philip King 3601 Lorna Ridge Drive Hoover, AL 35216

January 23, 2012

Christian Standard

So You Want to Plant a Church?

By R. Paige Mathews For 19 years, I have committed myself to an assessment process that determines if a candidate is suitable to be a new church planting leader or team member. To as few as 10-12, or as many as 70-100 candidates in a year, I have asked the question, “So you want to plant a church?” The question usually comes on the second day of assessment, after I have read their documents and after getting to know them, albeit not fully. Therefore, I have sometimes asked the question cynically, “So, YOU want to plant a church?” Other times

January 22, 2012

Christian Standard

Power Planting

Brent Storms became president of Orchard Group in 2009 and CEO this past July. Greg Nettle joined the Stadia team as president just a few months ago. These two young leaders recently sat down with us for a candid conversation about the future of church planting and the future of the church.   Brent, what is Orchard Group”s niche and overall mission? STORMS: Our mission is to plant growing and reproducing churches in New York, the Northeast, and beyond, which often means strategic urban settings. We began in the New York metro area and in the last 20 years we”ve

September 28, 2011

Christian Standard

New Churches Launch

Lots of new churches launched the weekend of Sept. 17, 18! Pathways Christian Church (Cincinnati, OH) Mission Church (Ventura, CA) Community Christian Church (Edgewater location, Chicago, IL) Legacy Christian Church (Menomonee Falls, WI) Lifepointe Church (Downtown location, Raleigh, NC) And one additional church launched on Sept. 25: Reunion Church (Plainfield, IN) Did we miss any? E-mail bu**@*********ub.com if you have news to share!

August 11, 2011

Christian Standard

Consider 9/11 Offering for Church Planting

There”s still time to participate in the Orchard Group“s “Love Prevails” offering on Sept. 11. That Sunday, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., churches will participate in a special giving campaign to fund new church plants in NYC and around the country. Some churches will take a special offering, others will give 9.11% of their regular offering that day, and others have committed to making a special gift before the end of 2011. “From New York, the greatest city in the world, we want to plant more churches in more cities,” writes Orchard

April 17, 2011

Christian Standard

Interview with Justin Miller

By Brad Dupray At an annual growth rate of 65 percent, Real Life Christian Church of Clermont, Florida, was the fastest-growing megachurch in Christian Standard”s survey a year ago. Justin Miller came to Christ at age 9 at First Christian Church, as Real Life was formerly known. As Justin describes it, he came into ministry “through the “˜doggie door” of church leadership.” Asked to serve the youth of the church as a volunteer, he eventually was called to serve as senior pastor in 2002. Since that time the church has grown from about 200 to its current attendance of about

March 11, 2011

Christian Standard

A Partnership to Plant Churches in Ecuador

By Jennifer Taylor The ministry”s new “glocal” initiative combines global partnerships with local church planting. The project is starting in April with four new churches launching near Manta, Ecuador. Stadia is working with Compassion International, a Christian child advocacy ministry, and Camino de Santidad, a church planting movement that has already started 25 churches. “About 5,000 people live in each of the villages we”ve chosen, but there are no churches of any kind,” Stadia shares. “Several lack wells to provide drinking water; they all lack schools and health care.” Partnership with Camino and Compassion will not only create new churches

January 31, 2011

Christian Standard

New Church Plant in Brazilian Community of Toronto

By Jennifer Taylor Impact Canada is working with Jose and Regina Fernandes to plant a church in the Brazilian community in Toronto. As reported in the August 22 Buzz, Impact Canada continues to work toward a merge with Global Missionary Ministries and is pursuing approval of its new name, Impact Ministry Group. www.impactcanada.org ________________ Jennifer Taylor, one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD”s contributing editors and bloggers, lives in Nashville, Tennessee. Do you know of a church breaking new ground or leading innovative ministry? Contact bu**@*********ub.com.

January 11, 2011

Christian Standard

Generation of the Ethiopian Eunuch

By Jeff Arthur It happened about six months after our church launched in 2007. I had preached about Abraham and Isaac that Sunday morning. After the service, one of our ladies told me she was familiar with Abraham and Isaac, because she had drawn the image of Abraham offering Isaac to God while pursuing her degree in art. But she had never heard of other Bible characters I had been talking about in my sermons. That resonated with me all week long. I knew I was preaching to a group divided into three parts””non-Christians, nominal churchgoers, and former Catholics””and that

January 1, 2011

Christian Standard

Playing It Forward for Families, Churches

By Jennifer Taylor The team from Cartwheels & Coffee has been asked to open new locations in Colorado, Kentucky, and even Portugal. “The best ideas come from creative solutions to problems,” says Chris Barras, lead pastor at Area 10 Faith Community (Richmond, Virginia). The idea was doubling the use of a rented space to both minimize costs and maximize community engagement. When Barras and his team planted Area 10 in 2008, they were fortunate to score the famous Byrd Theatre as a meeting place. But the location had no room for a children”s ministry. “We wanted to have low overhead

December 5, 2010

Christian Standard

A Story to Challenge All of Us

By Mark A. Taylor This week we”ve posted several encouraging accounts of new church plants in Greater Salt Lake City. But the bigger story tells how Christian leaders worked together and depended on God to see these happen. It”s a story about cooperation and collaboration. “The churches of the Restoration Movement had never attempted something like this,” says Steve Edwards. The collaboration began more than 15 years ago when the Salt Lake City church planting organization asked the Intermountain Church Planters Association based in Boise, Idaho, if they could work together under one name. Edwards became executive director of ICPA

December 3, 2010

Christian Standard

Built for Speed

By Brent Foulke Charles Hill runs at about 6,000 rpm all the time! To some degree, that”s normal for church planters””big dreams, tough challenges, long to-do lists, and expansive hearts. But when Charles and his wife, Tiffany, moved their family to plant a church in South Jordan, Utah, they entered a particularly challenging race. South Jordan is one of only two places in the world with two Mormon temples and almost no churches that follow Christ alone by the authority of the Bible alone. But the Hills intend to win this race by introducing Jesus as “the way and the truth

December 2, 2010

Christian Standard

Immeasurably More

By David Limiero When Bryan and Missy Meyers participated in a Stadia church planting assessment in the fall of 2009, they had a clear goal in mind””plant a church in northern Nevada in the fall of 2011. It seemed like the perfect plan. Bryan was serving as associate pastor at Hope Community Church in Reno, Nevada. Missy was the church”s preschool director. The church”s senior pastor, Bill Sherman, was solidly behind both the strategy and the timing. And Hope had just planted her first daughter church in nearby Fernley. Bryan and Missy”s church plant would be the next step in

November 3, 2010

Christian Standard

From the Served to the Servant

By Chuck Booher Recently, God called a very popular pastor from our staff to start a new church. When it was announced, our people responded with excitement and cheers. I was sure his departure would cause our attendance to plunge, but it didn”t. I think I know the reason why, and that”s what I want to tell you in this article. Basic Training As I came to the office today, I walked by 10 young adults on our campus picking up trash, pulling weeds, and trimming trees. I could not help but smile because they exuded joy in the midst

October 28, 2010

Christian Standard

New Spanish-Speaking Church Launched

Central Christian Church (Wichita, KS) launched a new Spanish-speaking church on Sunday evening, Oct. 24. Iglesia Cristiana Casa de Luz (House of Light Christian Church) held its first services in one of Central”s auxiliary buildings also used for the church”s community outreach ministry. Edwin Ojedis will serve as pastor.

Help Keep Christian Standard Free & Accessible with a Tax Deductible Donation

We can do more together!

Every gift makes a difference!

No, thank you.
100% secure transactions - receipts provided.
Does Your Church Want to Support Christian Standard?

Would your church consider including support for Christian Standard in its annual missions budget? Your support would help us not only continue the 160-year legacy of this unifying ministry, but also expand the free resources, cooperative opportunities, and practical guidance we provide to strengthen churches in the U.S. and around the world.

We can do more together!

Every gift makes a difference!

No, thank you.
100% secure transactions - receipts provided.
Secret Link