By Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29
(Adapted from CH Spurgeon’s Lectures to His Students)
A pastor’s life is most effective as a sharpened tool in God’s hand by nurturing the spirit, soul and body and not just organizing information in a logical manner. We are God’s sword in a holy war and are not dependent as much on our talents as we are on our likeness to Jesus. A pastor that is spiritually out of order is a serious disaster to himself and his ministry.
Our first care must be our own soul and we must be regenerated men. This cannot be overlooked. Our faith must be personal and not just professional.
Secondly, a pastor must be vigorous in his personal piety and he must be advanced significantly beyond the typical Christian. His godliness must be vibrant, ...
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The Spiritual Man
Romans 8:5-11
by Scott Thomas, Acts 29 President
Spiritual vitality was the highest rated quality of a church planter as polled by Acts 29 pastors. What are the characteristics of a spiritually vital pastor? The following responses came through Twitter and Facebook.
No matter how busy, portrays God's grace and accessibility
A rich prayer life
Not afraid to be prophetic and take unpopular stands.
Happy in God, loves wife, constant learner, overall discipline, humble, sleeps (evidence of peace/humility)
He must love his wife.
Humble, Reverent to God, Continues to grow, loves his family, and preaches from the Bible and not his opinions.
Suffers well and, in adversity, points to Jesus.
#1 - Humility, in my humble opinion
Knowledge of and passion for ...
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By Scott ThomasActs 29 President and Director
The qualities of a successful basketball player are consistent. He or she can dribble, shoot, pass, play defense, rebound, play as a team, think, move quickly and work hard. They don't have to do all of these at the same level but all of the qualities characterize a succesful player at the highest level.
Church planters similarily have qualities that determine their God-given capacity to plant a reproducing church.
Chuck Ridley, professor at Texas A&M University compiled the germinal research on church planting assessments with his Church Planter Profile (CPP). Most assessment instruments start with Ridley’s 13 characteristics in mind as they formulate their own church planter profiles. (Charles R. Ridley and Tweed ...
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By Scott ThomasActs 29 President and Director
It won’t hurt the church if people are called away to go and make disciples elsewhere. It will hurt the mission if they stay. As I read about the church in Jerusalem and Antioch, I see them identifying, equipping and sending men to plant churches.
In Acts 11:19-26, the Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to the city of Antioch. They didn't send just any schmuck. It is reported of him, "He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith" (11:24). The first thing Barnabas did was to recruit Paul/Saul from Tarsus and take him to Antioch to work with the church. Barnabas then spent the year equipping Paul and doing ministry with him among those who were first called Christians.
In Acts chapters 13-16, the local church at ...
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Tags: paul, barnabas, call, eldership, biblical, bible, acts, spiritual vitality, qualifications of a church planter, discipleship, sending, daughter churches, church multiplication, church planting
By Scott Thomas
Every young man that considers church planting asks the question, “Am I a Church Planter?” It is the question I asked myself many years ago. It is the question we ask every man who submits himself to our Acts 29 assessment process to be a lead planter in our network. Many times he is depending on our assessment process to confirm his calling.
Over the next year, this blog will focus on ten qualities that we believe are important for a church planter to effectively plant the gospel in a community. We will produce articles that reflect on one quality each month and then we hope to publish an e-book on each quality that compiles the articles into a document equivalent in size to a single chapter in a book.
Most church planting books and publications ...
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