Tyler Jones and his wife Kimberley planted Vintage 21 five years ago. After attending many churches in the area, Tyler and Kimberly noticed an absence of people in the 20-40 age groups. After much prayer and guidance, they felt God's call to begin a church with people of that age group in mind. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Picture this: You work in a high school and all the 14-year old boys are slumped over and have no guidance because many of their dads are not present in their home. So, you decide to start a young men’s bible study group to give them some guidance and community. But, guess who shows up: all the churched kids. Many boys leave the church when they reach the end of high school, why does it happen so consistently?...“The world is now filled with passive, emasculated men that were not validated by their fathers.” Read More
Category: Church Planting
A church planter is a uniquely gifted pastor with a passion to proclaim the gospel to those who are unchurched with the goal of establishing a new community of believers on mission in their community for the glory of God. But just because a man is called to plant does not mean it is easy to do without some help from those who are actively involved in birthing new churches. Acts 29 and Mars Hill Church want to humbly offer to help. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Ed Stetzer spoke in Philadelphia recently on the topic of ‘Missional Movements and Church Planting'. Ever the missiologist pundit, Stetzer gave summation of God's mission to the world and how the church can be and is part of it. Read More
Category: Church Planting
In these last clips from the 2008 Chicago boot camp, Mark Driscoll answers two important questions from the ladies in the audience about the influence of culture and media on the family as well as where Mark's wife comes alive in the midst of planting a church and the messiness of ministry. Read More
Category: Church Planting
‘Seeing God’s vision for the culture is so important in how we live now.’ In the last 50 years there has been fierce debate over the extent to which the church should be involved in evangelism, social action, or both. ‘The gospel is not a culturally specific truth. It transcends culture. Worship music is not solely the sound that comes out of Nashville, Tennessee.’ Read More
Category: Church Planting
Roughly two years ago Mars Hill Church experimented with multi-site church, thanks to the influence of my friends at Leadership Network and pastors they connected me with to learn from, such as my buddy Larry Osborne. That experiment has proven wildly successful and we are now a church with seventeen services on six campuses and are expanding campuses rapidly. For us, multi-site has become a second form of church planting and has revolutionized how we do ministry. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Darrin Patrick, lead pastor of The Journey, spoke at our Boot Camp in Chicago about Leading the Mission. Darrin planted a church in 2002 in St. Louis and it has since grown and seen many people come to Christ as well as he serves as Acts 29's vice-president. In this session Darrin shares how ‘practicing hospitality is more than just inviting Christians over to watch Survivor' and that leading the mission in church planting is a gruelling yet high calling. Read More
Category: Church Planting
At the boot camp in Chicago this year, Mark Driscoll answered questions from church planters and their wives. With great honesty and candidness Mark spoke about the ways he succeeded and also the ways he failed in loving his family while planting Mars Hill Church. It was a helpful time of Q&A. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Mark Dever spoke at this year’s boot camp in Chicago about Evangelism in Church Planting. Some may think that wearing a suit and talking about relevance is a paradox, but not for Dever. He spoke with great wisdom, kindness and humility sharing his love for evangelism. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Mark Driscoll spent an hour talking with the participants of the Chicago boot camp about the importance of having a gospel-centered family. In this Audio clip, he tells his story about planting Mars Hill Church in Seattle and the stress it placed on his family. He then answered one question, How do I fulfill my role as a godly wife to my husband who is a strong leader? Read More
Category: Church Planting
Mark Driscoll led the session on Preaching the Mission to the students and faculty of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and to the sold-out boot camp registrants in Chicago (Deerfield) at the end of January. Driscoll said he prefers to preach rather than teach about preaching. He cleverly said it is the difference between going on a date and teaching someone about dating. “Going on a date with your wife always ends... Read More
Category: Church Planting
What are the differences and similarities between the "emerging" and "emergent" church? Has the emerging church struck a chord with engaging the younger generation? How do we engage the emerging church? How should we respond to the challenges it raises? Read More
Category: Church Planting
Our church planting boot camps are always open to all people and are beneficial to all church leaders. The next boot camp will be in Chicago January 29-30 on the campus of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS). "Chicago at the end of January?" you ask, doubting our sanity?" I told you that church planting is not for wimps. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Acts 29 Network is blowing into Chicago January 29-30 for a church planting boot camp on the campus of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. This training coincides with TEDS’ Church Planting Week. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Geoff Bradford and Steve Huber, pastors at liberti in Philadelphia, PA, shared to a group of church planters and pastors in the Northeast about the theological foundations and the practical implications of the multi-site model. Some key questions addressed: What does it mean for you and for your church to be ‘sent' into the world God has placed you? What is the church you serve built for? Read More
Category: Church Planting
We had an excellent line-up of speakers at our Raleigh Boot Camp last month. All audio, video and notes are now available from our main sessions for you to listen to or download. Read More
Category: Church Planting
"The Acts 29 Boot Camp in Raleigh was the best training I received in preparation for church planting. I laughed, I cried, I struggled with the messages, I argued with myself but I walked away better prepared to plant a gospel-centered church." (Attendee at our Raleigh Boot Camp) Read More
Category: Church Planting
New Audio Posted: On August 14th, Darrin Patrick spoke to church planters and leaders in the St. Louis area about what it means to be a church on mission and why this is still a crucial question that faces the church in contemporary society. Read More
Category: Church Planting
In this 5 minute excerpt, Mark Driscoll speaks to the dynamics of the family behind the scenes in planting a church especially defining the role of the church planter’s wife. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Nearly every church planting network and assessment center uses some form of Ridley’s list of characteristics for an effective church planter. While I normally decry cut and paste articles, we get numerous questions from potential church planters asking if they should plant a church. When I set out to plant a church, I examined a list of characteristics from Malphur’s book to discern God’s call to plant a church. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Mark Driscoll shares in this three minute audio clip some of the lessons he learned in the beginning stages of planting Mars Hill Church and offers great insights of what to avoid as a pastor. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Listen to this 4 minute audio excerpt from Scott Thomas and Mark Driscoll answering the question of those pastoring a church that seems to be plateauing and/or recognizing the church is off mission and what steps one might take to turn it around. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Listen to this 5 minute audio from Mark Driscoll and Scott Thomas explaining the importance of calling for a church planter including what it means to confirm your calling, being called to a geographical location, the timing of your call and some practical steps of what to do next once you are called to plant a church. Read More
Category: Church Planting
In light of some recent attacks on us and on our leadership, we wanted to “set the record straight” about a few misrepresentations about Acts 29. This is lengthy for a blog, but it is necessary for contextual clarity—something our critics don’t always practice. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Missional-Is that a Real Word? - A church that is not missional is not really a church. A church exists by mission as the sun exists by burning. When the sun loses its burn it ceases to be the sun. When a church loses its mission, it ceases to be a church. Missional is an adjective describing all of the activities of the church body as they are brought under the mission of God (missio dei) to proclaim the good news of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. Being on mission very easily becomes one activity in church among many others vying for attention. Over time churches allow meetings, programs, traditions and other good things to cumulatively move the church from missional mode to maintenance mode. A church must continuously see itself as missionaries and all of its energies must be missionary. Read More
Category: Church Planting
This Blog has an accompanying audio podcast made available by and used by permission of National New Church Conference. The audio can be accessed on the National New Church Conference website. The National New Church Conference is a cross-denominational gathering designed to connect, inspire, equip and challenge church planting leaders. The conference will be held in Orlando, Florida April 23-26, 2007. Read More
Category: Church Planting
How would we define church planting? The best definition I know of which describes church planting is the word “missions.” Church planters are missionaries. If church planting isn’t about missions it’s only about rearranging Christians. You can start a new church using attractive programs, dynamic worship, and fancy PowerPoint displays, but if all you’re doing is drawing other Christians from other churches That’s not missions. We call that “sheep-stealing,” or “swapping chairs on the Titanic.” Church planting is about missions, reaching out to the unchurched. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Tim Keller, lead pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, NY offers church planters insights to help clarify the purposes of the church based on the example of the early church in Acts 2:42-47. Read More
Category: Church Planting
The most important factor in determining an effective gospel-centered church plant is the lead pastor. Cool bands, hip buildings and powerful children’s ministries may contribute but do not make the biggest difference. It is the clear visionary guidance of the lead planter. Below are ten characteristics of a "wise church-planter." Read More
Category: Church Planting
We live in a me-centered world. Many churches are rapidly becoming me-centered. The consumer (church attendee) arrives at church expecting the supplier (church) to provide a flawless product (ministry, style, program) that meets all of their needs. The gospel is merely an added afterthought. If a church is centered on success (rather than the pursuit of Jesus) it forfeits its original calling by Christ and seeks merely to attract or keep its (paying) “customers.” Read More
Category: Church Planting
Twenty Questions You Should Ask Yourself before Considering Starting a Church by Dr. J. Allen Thompson, President of the International Church Planting Center in Atlanta, and coordinator of multicultural church planting for Mission to North America for the PCA. As an executive with Worldteam, Allen helped the organization to focus on a strategy for training and deploying national workers in church planting in 14 countries. Read More
Category: Church Planting