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 ...
Keep Reading
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. ...
Keep Reading
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, ...
Keep Reading
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
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 about churches helping to confirm the called.
Head and heart confirmation are both important. They both fit into the category of what many pastors and theologians have described as the internal call. But by themselves they are incomplete. A genuine call to ministry manifests itself not only in the thoughts and desires of the called person but also in his gifts, abilities, and skills. This last aspect of confirmation fits into the category of what theologians name the external call because it is the one that is most easily recognizable to other people.
Skill Confirmation
I did ...
Keep Reading
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
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, where he tells the story of his calling to ministry.
I was sitting in my very first Christian summer camp worship service, and to be honest, I was a little creeped out by the sheer volume of youth group kids in the chapel of this small, denominational Christian college. The college was located on a mountain, and half of its facilities were in Tennessee and half were in Georgia.We were in the South with a capital S.I had never been in the South before. Where I grew up, there was a strange combination of Midwestern and Southern culture, which meant that some people were ...
Keep Reading
Posted in: Calling
Tags: calling, calling of a church planter, what does it mean to be called to ministry, what's a ministry call, what is a call, how do you know if you're called to ministry, how do you know if you're called, how do you find your call, spiritual gifts, spiritual calling, vocational calling, darrin patrick, the journey church st. louis, church planter book, crossway
