by Bruce Wesley
I met with a pastor of a large and influential church with the hopes of engaging him in a church planting movement for the sake of the city. Over lunch, his observation about church planters surprised me. “I find that most church planters are characterized by two things: arrogance and impatience.” He quickly added, “And I guess I should not be surprised at that. Who else can believe that he can gather disinterested people, lead them to a new life in Christ and help them embrace a mission to change the world with little or no physical resources?”
I think the second comment was his way of trying to diffuse some of the tension he felt about his own statement. After all, I am a church planter—you know, arrogant and impatient. But he was ...
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The four biographies of Jesus (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) spill over into their natural conclusion, the book of the Acts of the Apostles. The twenty-eight chapters of Acts are filled with gospel-dominated people committed to evangelism, discipleship, and church planting.
Jesus, living and heralding the gospel, poured into men who built churches that built men that planted churches that built men that planted churches, and that continues to this day. To not be "in step" with the building of churches that build men that build churches is to not be "in step" with God. Evangelism, discipleship, and church planting are at the center of the bulls-eye of God's plans for this church age in which you and I exist. It will change when Jesus comes back to make all things new, ...
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by Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29
"In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'" (Acts 20:35, ESV).
Church planting is hard work. That may be revelatory or, if you are planting a church, it may be extremely redundant. Before we set out to start a new Gospel-centered, missional, evangelical, relevant, community-minded, incarnational, culture engaging, Bapticostal, Lutheriterian, cutting edge church, we must first commit to hard work.
Jesus Calls Us to Work Hard
Our society tolerates a lot of mistakes made by people and a lot of character flaws. Laziness is not one of them. Jesus encountered the disciples after His ...
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Darrin Patrick, Vice President of the Acts 29 Network and lead pastor of The Journey Church in St. Louis, authored Church Planter, published by Crossway.
Crossway has generously allowed us to post Chapter 2 for free.
Get it here.
Join Us for the Church Planter Conference in San Jose on June 3-4
We are excited to be joining The Gospel Coalition and NorCal Network to bring Mark Driscoll, D.A. Carson, Matt Chandler, Scott Thomas and Jeff Vanderstelt to San Jose in June to speak to church members, leaders and planters about getting on mission through church planting to see more people meet Jesus. Don't miss your opportunity to hear from leading influencers about God's mission to save the lost through Spirit-led and empowered church planting. ...
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Darrin Patrick, Vice President of the Acts 29 Network and lead pastor of The Journey Church in St. Louis, authored Church Planter, published by Crossway. With permission, we are sharing from Chapter 2, on how churches can help confirm the called.
There are two ditches that church leaders can fall into as they help confirm a man’s calling to gospel ministry. First, they can make it too easy to be affirmed in gospel ministry. A church can accept uncritically a man’s internal call — the man’s subjective sense of calling — as God’s affirmation. Churches who fall into this ditch have the attitude, Just let the boy preach! Many times this approach produces a man who relies on his gifts and fails to develop his character, ...
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Posted in: Calling
Tags: calling, how can i confirm my call, calling confirmation, church planter's call, how do i know if i am called to plant a church, how do i identify a church planter, how do i identify a leader in my church, how do i know if someone is called, external confirmation, skill confirmation, how do i know if i should start a new church, should i start a new church, should i send out a planter, how do i identify a planter, how do i identify a pastor, who should plant out of my church
