Articles for tag: Church Planting

Church & Ministry Church Leadership Eldership

Elders Champion MissionsÂ

By David RoadcupÂ Â An effective elder-shepherd team connects to the missions initiative of the congregation. Elders should be the greatest proponents for mission service in the body of Christ. By following Jesus” marching orders, we can facilitate and support the missions outreach of our churches in the most effective way possible. Good elder teams are involved in missions!Â Â In Acts 20:17-38, Paul, who is on his way to Jerusalem, arrives by ship at Miletus and calls for the Ephesian church elders to join him there. (Paul had planted and nurtured the Ephesian church.) When the elders arrive, Paul involves them

November 4, 2017

Mission & Evangelism

The Church and Global MissionsÂ

By Kent E. FillingerÂ With 195 countries and 7.5 billion people in the world as of April 2017, we have our work cut out for us in fulfilling Christ”s commission. Therefore, every church should have a clear global-missions strategy.Â I surveyed 148 churches in late August to gain a better understanding of the current status of global missions in our movement. The survey size was somewhat small, but the responses included a nice cross-section of churches:Â Â “¯37 small churches (average worship attendance of fewer than 250) “¯38 medium-size churches (attendance of 250″“499) “¯29 large churches (attendance of 500″“999) 22 emerging

November 3, 2017

Mission & Evangelism

Three Shifts to Increase Global EngagementÂ

By David DummittÂ The church is the hope of the world. The global church is connected like no other generation before us. This should impact the way churches engage internationally. We live in an exciting time in church history, and we have the privilege and responsibility to grow the kingdom of God well.Â Global engagement isn”t a new idea to American churches. Mission programs, global outreach projects, generosity campaigns, and more have been a part of churches in the United States for centuries. Many methods, strategies, and best practices have come and gone, but like everything else, we need to

October 31, 2017

Mission & Evangelism

More Than Bible TranslationÂ

By Greg PruettÂ It was my first day on the job back in 1994, and I was eager to get started. I walked onto the West African scene fully trained to translate the Bible””tomes of knowledge about Greek, linguistics, and missiology crammed into my mind. But when the sun rose on my first workday at Pioneer Bible Translators, my mentor didn”t escort me to a desk to show me how to translate. Instead, he walked me over to a well he had hand-dug for the village to show these Muslim people the love of Christ, and we started troubleshooting a

September 16, 2017

Prayer Worship & Prayer

The Engine that Powers Our Progress

The Vital DifferenceÂ Between a Church that PraysÂ and a Praying Church By Derek Dickinson I thought planting a new congregation in Fairbanks, Alaska, was a terrible idea. The winters are brutal. It occasionally hits 50 degrees below zero! In the winter, it”s a place of darkness, with only four hours of sunlight per day. This “terrible idea” wasn”t mine, thankfully, but God”s. I was so opposed to planting a congregation here that I fasted from all solid foods for 30 days on two occasions and prayed that I could plant somewhere else. But God”s answer was clear: I was to be

September 9, 2017

Inner-City Catalyst: An Interview with Samson Dunn

By Rick Lowry Samson Dunn serves as lead pastor with Catalyst Church in Phoenix, Arizona, a culturally diverse church committed exclusively to reaching the inner city. Over the past 10 years, Catalyst has grown from a small urban work to two campuses that touch thousands of people weekly. Samson”s personal journey and the church”s journey have followed a nontraditional path. Their story will expand the vision of any church leader who takes the gospel of Christ seriously. QUESTION: Your upbringing didn”t prepare you for ministry in the traditional way. SAMSON DUNN: I”m from southern Kentucky, Monroe County. My parents

September 1, 2017

A New Church Planted in an Old Church

By Matt Summers This month, Crossroads Christian Church (the urban church we planted in Joliet, Illinois) celebrates its 10-year anniversary. During that time, we have grown from several dozen people into a thriving congregation of more than a thousand with a vision to reach thousands more for Christ. We have built our ministry by meeting the social and spiritual needs of our community. We have baptized 500 people into Christ, remodeled our original church building, built a larger worship center, started a Spanish-speaking congregation, and now we are relocating to a new building that will facilitate even greater growth and

August 19, 2017

Urban Church Planting: A Conversation with Eric Metcalf

By David Dummitt When I was first invited to write an article about urban church planting, I planned to write about trends, research, data, and the like. But after thinking about it some more, I decided that rather than share my thoughts, it would be more powerful to share the insights of someone in the proverbial trenches of urban church planting. I recently sat down with Eric Metcalf, a colleague, fellow church planter, and friend. Eric and his wife, Erin, are church planters in downtown Chicago. Eric is also the residency catalyst for NewThing. Their passion for the Jesus mission,

July 28, 2017

4 Key Reasons Why Network Church Planting Is Succeeding

By David Dummitt Church planting has been a dynamic practice for 20 centuries, with methods and strategies morphing in response to context and culture. Modern church planting is seeing tremendous success as it shifts from “traditional” to a network church-planting model. The classic “parachute-drop” model is one of the most common methods we have seen in the last century. In this model, a church planter sets out like a pioneer to launch a church where there is no church. Typically, in this traditional, high-risk model, the church planter sets out with limited resources and few (if any) connections. In the

July 20, 2017

FLYING HIGHER: The Eastpoint Story

It’s sunny but chilly this Sunday morning in Portland, Maine. That’s typical for May. It’s Eastpoint Christian Church’s final week in this facility, their fourth location in 13 years, but such is the case for many church plants, especially in the Northeast. Each location has had its challenges, but this one has been especially interesting. It’s a former DHL Express warehouse on the grounds of Portland International Jetport; worship and sermons are regularly interrupted by the roar of jets taking off and landing. Churchgoers have overlooked the noise and been thankful for the building, cramming nearly 1,500 people into 15,000

July 14, 2017

Colleges & Seminaries Organizations & Events

Mid-Atlantic Christian University Founder Dies

ELIZABETH CITY, NC “” The founder and first president of Mid-Atlantic Christian University, George W. BonDurant, died July 11 at the age of 101. He grew up in Mt. Rainer, MD, the son of William W. and Helen Lawrence BonDurant, who were committed leaders in the Restoration Movement.Â He received a four-year scholarship to Columbia University, New York City, but his mother, concerned about his faith in a hostile atmosphere, sent him to Erieside Christian Service Camp. After one year at Columbia, he transferred to the Cincinnati (OH) Bible Seminary. There he met and married Sarah Lou Presley. The couple helped

June 20, 2017

Restoration Movement History

5 Reasons Church Planting Should Matter to You

By David Dummitt Not long ago, when you talked to church leaders about church planting, eyes would glaze over and conversation topics would awkwardly shift. I”m excited to live in a time when this is changing. Organizations like NewThing, Stadia, Passion for Planting, Orchard Group, and others demonstrate that more and more churches are passionate about planting even more churches around the globe. Whether you lead a congregation of 50, 500, or 5,000, your engagement in church planting is critical to the mission that Jesus gave us to be and make disciples. Multiplication is a charge for each one of

June 19, 2017

Jerry Harris

A Plea for the Restoration Movement

By Jerry Harris It”s foolish to want all Christians to be in unity if we can”t be unified in our own brotherhood. We need to fight for relationship in all the issues that could potentially divide us. Otherwise, no one should take this Restoration Movement seriously. The first-century church had more difficult challenges that threatened deeper divisions than we do now. We must learn the same lessons of living out the fruit of the Spirit that they did. We can”t allow ourselves the prideful position of proving ourselves right over the greater need of loving each other. If we can

June 16, 2017

WHERE’S THE STEEPLE? “” Restore Church, Silver Spring, MD

By Justin Horey In the fall of 2016, Restore Church of Silver Spring, Maryland, opened “The Living Room,” a coworking space where individuals have access to open office space, a kitchen, Wi-Fi, printing, scanning, coffee, and tea for a small monthly membership fee. The Living Room is one of a growing number of shared office environments around the country tailored to freelancers and telecommuters who don”t need a full-time office but prefer not to work out of their home. “The Living Room gives us a space where we can connect in relationships,” said pastor and church planter Aaron Thomas. “By

June 12, 2017

WHERE’S THE STEEPLE? “” Journey Church, Three Way, TN

By Justin Horey At Journey Church in Three Way, Tennessee (near Jackson), lead pastor and church planter Jeremy Brown likes to ask, “What would we do if we didn”t have to do anything?” That approach led to Journey meeting at the Fun Zone””West Tennessee”s premier indoor inflatable party center””in the early years of its existence. Every Sunday morning, a team of volunteers from the church would deflate and roll up 13 large jumpers before setting up for worship. Afterward, volunteers would unroll and reinflate the jumpers. Brown liked the message the Fun Zone location conveyed to outsiders. “No one who

June 9, 2017

Church Building the New Testament Way

By Doug Lucas Suppose the Restoration Movement churches (Christian churches and churches of Christ) want to restore the New Testament practice of constructing or buying church buildings. What would it look like? Easy answer. To my knowledge, throughout all the New Testament, there”s not a single example of constructing or buying a building. The book of Acts records exponential church growth without buildings. And, according to Matthew 28:19, 20, our core mandate is to make disciples who will make disciples””not build buildings. Making disciples always needs to be at the center of everything we do, whether it be going, baptizing,

June 5, 2017

Restoration Movement History

Urban Churches, Creative Solutions

By Brent Storms Where to meet presents special challenges for new congregations in expensive, congested cities. Urban churches are finding solutions that offer lessons for anyone”s church building decisions. One of the biggest challenges of starting a church in a city center or urban context is finding the right facility for Sunday gatherings. Space is limited. Landlords are skeptical. Prices are (often) outrageous. One example of the challenges: hotly contested lawsuits have bounced from court to court over whether churches should be allowed to rent New York City public schools for religious services. Some churches have been in public schools,

May 9, 2017

Mark A. Taylor

Our Future: with Unity?

By Mark A. Taylor If you led a workshop on the future of the Restoration Movement, you”d likely mention many positive signs about our tribe. Here are some I included when I was asked to speak on that topic: “¢ Our churches are doing dynamic ministry, trying new approaches, and succeeding with new strategies. We”re a creative bunch. “¢ Closely related to the above, our lack of hierarchy leaves our leaders free to try new ideas without needing permission from anyone. And new ideas abound among us. We”re an entrepreneurial bunch. “¢ Leaders from our group are publishing widely, with

April 28, 2017