Articles for tag: Church Planting

November 18, 2009

Christian Standard

Meeting the Needs by Providing the Wants

By Mark A. Taylor What people need and what they want are not necessarily the same. For example, children need their vegetables, but they don”t always want to eat them. Creative moms find ways to combine good food in dishes that taste good too. Church leaders do this too. People want practical help for everyday problems. They need instruction from God”s Word and the advice of experienced Christians. One way to provide both is by giving them CHRISTIAN STANDARD and our sister publication, The Lookout. For example, we saw the Sunday-morning bulletin from a small Christian church in Tennessee. The

November 15, 2009

Christian Standard

Developing the Leadership Culture

By Glen Schneiders READ THE SIDEBAR: “Keys to Cultivating Leaders” Leadership development never happens accidentally. I learned this important lesson in the early years of our new church. I had a very young, inexperienced staff, and I found myself increasingly frustrated that they were not more assertive leaders. They were tentative at times, and at other moments were like bulls in a china shop. “Why don”t they just step up and lead?” I kept asking myself. One day as a staff member and I were making a hospital visit, it hit me. Actually, I made the visit while he was

November 15, 2009

Christian Standard

Keys to Cultivating Leaders

By Glen Schneiders READ THE MAIN ARTICLE: “Developing the Leadership Culture“     Don”t Shortcut the Selection Process for Potential Leaders You will pay in the long run for shortsighted personnel decisions (paid and unpaid). In the early days of church planting, the tendency is to fill slots with “warm bodies,” and often we have to do that. But as you do, assess which people have the capacity to lead. Don”t hand over control too quickly; it is much harder to reclaim it. David Cottrell puts it this way, If you hire tough, it will be a whole lot easier

November 15, 2009

Christian Standard

Growing Leaders in a Young Church: Infancy to Eldership

by Dave Smith I walked into the mailroom at TCM International in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was January 31, 1994. In my mailbox was a letter from a church in Princeton, New Jersey. Ever the optimistic fund-raiser, I assumed it contained: (a) a very large check, (b) a commitment to support TCM until Jesus returns, or (c) both of the above. Much to my surprise, it was a letter asking me to consider leading a church planting team to New England. New England! My immediate reaction was that it was too cold, too far away, too expensive, too unfriendly. But 13

November 11, 2009

Christian Standard

The Most Important Leadership Task

By Mark A. Taylor Say leader to someone who is not a leader, and he”s likely to picture a public person: the convincing speaker, the meeting chairman, the decision-maker with the last word or the authority to sign-off. Those who actually lead, however, know much of their work happens in private, behind the scenes, one-on-one, or even alone. But leaders as well as followers sometimes miss one dimension of leadership, and that”s the responsibility highlighted in this week”s issue: Leaders must develop new leaders. The leaders writing this week know this. They speak in the context of a new church,

October 25, 2009

Christian Standard

The Wide Road Is Still the Wrong Road

  by David Faust What do you get when you cross a Jehovah”s Witness with a universalist? A knock on the door for no apparent reason. Actually, universalism is no joke. It”s a widely accepted philosophy imbedded in the psyche of our generation. The idea that one must believe in Jesus Christ to be saved sounds antiquated, judgmental, and narrow beyond belief to postmodern ears. The church isn”t immune to this trend. In 1985 I wrote an article for Christian Standard called “Taking the Wide Road: The Subtle Menace of Universalism.” Nearly a quarter-century later my concern about this issue

October 7, 2009

Christian Standard

Interview with Matt King

By Brad Dupray Matt King”s road to accepting the grace of Christ was a long and rocky one, but today God is using Matt in a powerful way as senior pastor of Valley Real Life, a Christian church serving the Spokane Valley in Eastern Washington. Before entering vocational ministry, Matt was a sales manager for a machine tool company in Spokane, traveling extensively across North America carrying out multimillion dollar transactions. In his personal life, Matt and his wife, Nona, experienced the sorrow of infertility and miscarriage, and then were joyously surprised with the birth of Ethan just five months

September 27, 2009

Christian Standard

A Look at This Year”s NACC: Going Home

by Thomas F. Jones Jr. See Steve Reeves’s assessment of the 2009 NACC See D. Clay Perkins”s assessment of the 2009 NACC       My hometown is Follansbee, West Virginia. It is located in the northern panhandle of the state about 20 miles north of Wheeling and 40 miles west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It”s a steel mill town located on the Ohio River and has fewer than 3,000 residents. I don”t go there often these days but when I do, everything seems to fall into place. Going to the North American Christian Convention is like going home once a

September 13, 2009

Christian Standard

MEDIUM-SIZED CHURCHES: The Elephant in the Room

by Kent E. Fillinger Describing the 66 medium-sized churches analyzed in this issue reminds me of the old fable of the blind men who each touched a different part of an elephant and then tried to describe what the animal looked like. The men disagree based on the part of the elephant they touched and their personal perspective.  For the last four years, 3:STRANDS Consulting has partnered with Christian Standard to conduct in-depth research of Christian church/church of Christ megachurches and emerging megachurches. For the first time, the same research survey was completed by churches with average worship attendances of

September 6, 2009

Christian Standard

Why Plant Churches?

  by Tom Jones Recently, I”ve been thinking quite a bit about my home church. I have a special place in my heart for that little church, located on the corner of Penn and Neville streets, in Follansbee, West Virginia. Do you know what a sure sign of a home church is? It”s when you are 49 years old and the good folks still call you “Tommy Jones.” I have so many fond memories of my home church, like when I was 11 years old and stole Communion grape juice from the church refrigerator with my best friend Randy Weaver.

September 6, 2009

Christian Standard

Exponential “09: What”s the Buzz?

  by Dick Alexander So what”s all the buzz about Exponential? What exactly is drawing more than 3,000 mostly young leaders to Orlando, Florida, each spring for three intense days? What was known a few years ago as the National New Church Conference, drawing a few hundred church-planting zealots, has reinvented itself as Exponential and now attracts thousands. Its growth has been, well, exponential, and it”s attracting a lot of attention for good reasons.   FOCUS AND ENERGY Exponential exists to facilitate church planting. It bills itself as the largest church-planting gathering in North America, with participants coming from dozens

August 30, 2009

Christian Standard

The Celebration of Congregationalism

by C. Robert Wetzel As a young man I spent too much time thinking about what was wrong with the church without reflecting enough on how much I was blessed in being a part of it. And when I thought of church, it was both the local congregation and broader expressions of church. There was, of course, an idealized version of what the pure, New Testament church was supposed to be, but if the ideal existed, it must be in another town, another state, or another country. Thankfully, the older I grew the more I began to see what is

August 30, 2009

Christian Standard

Seven Key Question for Jon Ferguson

  by Darrel Rowland Jon Ferguson, cofounder of Community Christian Church near Chicago (www.communitychristian.org) and director/cofounder of the NewThing Network (www.newthing.org) discusses the hows and whys of multisite.       Why multisite in the first place, especially vs. expansion at the original location, and vs. planting an entirely new church at the new location? At Community, we”re always asking, “Where is God at work?” or better yet, “Where may God be dreaming?” Our mission is helping people find their way back to God. Multisite and church planting have been our responses to where God is at work in our

August 30, 2009

Christian Standard

The Multisite Movement: Success Stories

  by Darrel Rowland The couple had a simple question: How much does it cost to join the church? That”s when the leaders of Rocky Mountain Christian Church (www.rmcc.org) knew they were hitting their target audience of unchurched people with their first multisite campus. “They said, “˜Don”t you have to pay a membership fee? Do you have to buy tickets? We”ve never been in church before,”” recalls Rick Thielen, who helped launch the new 30-acre site about 17 miles east of Rocky Mountain”s home campus in Niwot, Colorado. “When you start getting those kinds of questions, you”re starting to get

August 30, 2009

Christian Standard

The Multisite Movement: Unexpected Complications

  by Darrel Rowland Unexpected complications and challenges are common in the multisite movement. Certainly not every expansion leads to a glowing success story. For example, Discovery Christian Church in Dublin, Ohio, tried to get a site going in a nearby Columbus suburb. It didn”t work. Journey”s Crossing Church in Gaithersburg, Maryland, closed a second location in the Washington, D.C., area. Community Christian Church in White Marsh, Maryland (www.communitycc.net), was preparing to launch a second site near Baltimore this year, but those plans are now on hold. Community Christian, averaging about 750 in attendance, already was actively helping plant churches

August 26, 2009

Christian Standard

Interview with Todd Wilson

By Brad Dupray Todd Wilson serves as director of Exponential Network and is on the leadership teams of several national church planting ministries. Todd received his BS in nuclear engineering from North Carolina State University and spent 15 years working in the Division of Naval Reactors on nuclear submarine design, operation, maintenance, and overhaul. In 2000, he entered full-time vocational ministry as executive minister with New Life Christian Church (Centreville, Virginia). As a church-planting church, New Life releases Todd as a missionary to the kingdom with a primary focus on church planting and other entrepreneurial initiatives. Todd and his wife,

August 16, 2009

Christian Standard

Ideally

  by David Faust Great enterprises are not built on deals; they are built on ideals. And it”s hard to think of more noble ideals than these: “¢ “No book but the Bible, no creed but Christ.” “¢ “In essentials, unity; in opinions, liberty; and in all things, love.” “¢ “Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent.” “¢ “We are not the only Christians, but we are Christians only.” I heard these slogans when I was a child. I”ve analyzed and admired their truth as an adult, and I”ve found them useful over

August 9, 2009

Christian Standard

Loving Our Neighbors, Building Relationships in Kansas City, Missouri

  by Patirck O’Connell At Restore Community Church, Kansas City, Missouri, we call the intentional, outward-focused love of people “Reachout.” Through Reachout, we help align people with our mission of “Helping people find their way back to God” and mobilize them to become difference makers in their neighborhoods, cities, and world. Reachout is not an agenda or a program; rather, it”s our response to God”s command to love others. Being intentional about carrying out Jesus” command to love our neighbors has helped us forge new relationships and provided us the opportunity to be more like Jesus. We want to be

August 9, 2009

Christian Standard

Serving, Reaching, and Transforming in Cleveland, Ohio

  by Scott Pugh I grew up thinking church was boring and irrelevant. My attitude completely changed when I gave my life to Christ at a pool hall after a Christian reached out to me. But a lot of other people still think the way I did. They don”t go to church, or have been hurt by the church, and are just plain fed up with anything religious.  How are Christians going to reach these folks? We know the church must reach beyond its walls to seek the lost like Jesus did. And that”s what we”re trying to do through

June 17, 2009

Christian Standard

Interview with Bob Harrington

By Brad Dupray Bob Harrington has had a front-row seat in the “simple church” arena””as described and advocated in the book Simple Church (Broadman & Holman Publishers). The church where he ministers (Harpeth Community Church, Franklin, Tennessee) has embraced the simple church concept. As director of Church Planting Networks with Stadia East and lead trainer with Church Coaching Solution”s church planter bootcamp, he has trained many church leaders in implementing simple church strategies. And as a student, Bob studied under Thom S. Rainer, coauthor of Simple Church with Eric Geiger. Bob completed his DMin at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in

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