Articles for tag: Church Planting

November 1, 2021

Laura McKillip Wood

Laura-McKillip-Wood

Serving God in the Second Half

By Laura McKillip Wood Amy and Terry Ruff visited a friend soon after arriving in Ghana. During that visit, the Ruffs struck up a conversation with another guest. As they got to know one another, the man told the Ruffs, “You need to meet my friend, Solomon*.” He gave Solomon’s phone number to Amy and Terry, and they called him to set up a meeting. Solomon told the couple where to drive and said he would wait for them by the side of the road. After driving several hours, the Ruffs repeatedly thought they had reached the rendezvous site, but

May 1, 2021

Justin Horey

SPOTLIGHT: Catalyst Christian Church (Nicholasville, KY)

A Church Changing Its Metabolism Catalyst Christian Church of Nicholasville, Kentucky, is a small congregation with a big vision to plant churches. “We want to be a church that has children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren,” said senior pastor David Kibler. Inspired by the church-planting legacy of congregations like East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, Kibler started Catalyst in 2008 with a goal of being a church that plants churches. Catalyst was a “ground zero plant” with no formal support or backing from an evangelistic association or other organization. Kibler worked multiple jobs to support himself and his family during Catalyst’s

May 1, 2021

Justin Horey

SPOTLIGHT: Catalyst Church (Greensboro, NC)

Reaching Anyone ‘with Garbage’ Catalyst Church is reaching people of all races, educational backgrounds, and socioeconomic levels in Greensboro, North Carolina. And though the congregation is diverse, most attendees share one thing in common: a lack of a formal church background. Lead pastor Scott Haulter estimates that 90 percent of people in the church have been introduced or reintroduced to Jesus through Catalyst. Haulter grew up in a non-Christian family, one of three sons raised by a single mother in a low-income part of Columbus, Ohio. When he was a teenager, one of his brothers began attending an area church

May 1, 2021

Justin Horey

SPOTLIGHT: New Life Christian Church (Chantilly, Virginia)

Bold People Exercising Bold Faith At a church as large and well-established as New Life Christian in Chantilly, Virginia, it might be tempting to get complacent. Prior to the arrival of coronavirus early in 2020, New Life helped create the Exponential Network, planted more than 300 churches, and regularly attracted thousands of people to worship services every Sunday. Still, senior pastor Brett Andrews was convinced the church needed something else: boldness. Andrews and the leaders at New Life wanted to get better at reproducing disciples, not just reproducing churches. For the last three years, the church has striven to increase

March 24, 2021

Christian Standard

Church Planter Reflects on Life, Ministry a Year after Nashville Tornado

Just six months after the launch of Alive Nashville, a tornado swept through East Nashville and destroyed the building the church had been meeting in. The tornado struck March 3, 2020. "About 24 hours after [that], we were at an impromptu meeting with several area churches," lead pastor Brandon Jacobs said. "An hour later, my wife and I were standing in the middle of rubble coordinating volunteers and relief workers."

February 10, 2021

Christian Standard

NewThing Planted Nearly 1,000 New Churches in 2020

By Chris Moon Even in a pandemic, the work of church planting continues. Chicago-based church-planting organization NewThing reports it planted 982 churches in 2020, an increase from 855 in 2019. Most of those church plants occurred outside the United States—many of them in Africa and Asia. “COVID hasn’t slowed it down,” said Patrick O’Connell, global director for NewThing. NewThing is the church-planting mission of Community Christian Church in Naperville, Ill., which was founded by Dave Ferguson and Jon Ferguson. The organization has been around for about 15 years and has planted a total of 6,373 churches in 26 countries so

February 9, 2021

Christian Standard

Integrity On Purpose

By Ron Clark, executive director of Kairos Church Planting — Reading and signing an Ethical Conduct Agreement or Covenant before a church not only serves as an encouragement to our congregations, community, and those who have been hurt by church leaders, but it also provides a level of accountability for ministers.

January 12, 2021

Christian Standard

RHM Residency Program a ‘Leadership Pipeline’ for Ministry in Northeast

By Chris Moon   The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t dampened Restoration House Ministries’ efforts to bring young church leaders to New England. The church-planting organization in Manchester, N.H., is in the third year of its residency program which recruits young people from across the country to gain ministry experience in the Northeast. Five residents are nearing the end of their 11-month training cycle. “It’s a work in progress,” said Aaron Rathbone, residency program director for RHM. This year’s residency program came with its own challenges, he said. The current cohort started work remotely in April 2020 just as the COVID-19 pandemic was

January 6, 2021

Christian Standard

News Briefs for Jan. 13

Spire Huddles will be resuming at 1 p.m. (EST) Wednesday, Jan. 13. Huddles offer an online, interactive, conversational, and free way to connect with other church leaders and discuss important topics presented by expert speakers. There is a different huddle focus and host/presenter each week. Huddles (and hosts) over the next few weeks include: • Jan. 13, Church Planting (Jeff Reed of Stadia) • Jan. 20, Preaching Teams (Arron Chambers) • Jan. 27, Children, Students, & Families (Keith Parker) The huddles last roughly 90 minutes. An additional 30 minutes are allotted for final questions at the end of the main

January 1, 2021

Phil Claycomb

How the Pandemic Impacted Planting Churches

7 Counterintuitive Ways to Interpret Reality By Phil Claycomb I’ve coached, mentored, and trained church planters since 2001, so I’ve been involved in many different crisis situations. I’ve sighed deeply and asked, “OK, what just happened?” more times than I care to remember. I’ve brainstormed through a host of “where do we go from here?” discussions. I’ve rolled up my shirtsleeves and jumped in to help “pick up the pieces and move on.” And I’ve discovered that while the causes of crises may vary, and churches are amazingly creative at finding ways to get into trouble, the one thing leaders

December 30, 2020

Christian Standard

COVID-19 Claims Indiana Pastor, 2 Family Members (Plus News Briefs)

Jim Applegate, 54, pastor for 21 years of Westview Christian Church in Campbellsburg, Ind., died of COVID-19 on Dec. 20, followed by virus-related deaths of his mother (12 hours later), and his sister (on Christmas Eve). “The thing that’s keeping me going is . . . hope in Jesus because I know where they’re at,” Nicholas Applegate, the pastor’s son and WCC’s youth pastor, told WHAS11.com. “The first few weeks in December our community had seen a lot of COVID cases, especially here in our church family.” In addition to the death of his father, Nicholas Applegate’s grandmother, Pat Applegate,

December 1, 2020

Christian Standard

Raders Persevere in Planting NYC Church During Pandemic

By Jim Nieman The launch of Reunion Church in the heart of New York City hasn’t gone off exactly as planned this year . . . but few things in life have escaped the far-reaching impact of COVID-19.   “There’s no book on how to do what we are doing,” says Russel Rader, who is launching Reunion in the Union Square neighborhood with his wife, Katie, and the help of a core launch team, Orchard Group, and churches from across the country. “On Wednesday, March 11th, our community had an amazing evening of hospitality in our home with a group

November 25, 2020

Christian Standard

Every Church Is Now a Church Plant

Three Significant Considerations for Every Church in the Midst of and Post-COVID-19 By Trevor DeVage As every aspect of our daily lives is being reconsidered and refashioned by the pandemic, churches are rethinking their futures, too. Or at least they should be. But I’m afraid some are anticipating the days ahead only with a vision of the years behind. And I’m convinced this just won’t work. My thinking on this was influenced by the recent mentoring retreat I attended with Cal Jernigan, lead pastor with Central Christian Church in Arizona. I get together several times a year with Cal and

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