"All the churches that were planted by Paul were planted because Paul was ... explicit in preaching the gospel ... a number of contemporary churches think it's insightful to quote 'preach the gospel and use words if necessary' but this has no connection with what we find in the life of Paul."
In 2009, Western Europe Acts 29 Director, Steve Timmis, taught two sessions at the London Boot Camp on "How to Plant a Church." In How to Plant a Church - Part 1, Timmis taught that the book of Acts is a church planting narrative. In Part 2, he laid out five specific principles needed in order to plant a church - which we are sharing here.
1. Preach the Gospel.
The apostle Paul gathered believers by preaching the Gospel, “Almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the ...
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Posted in: Mission
Tags: how to plant a church, steve timmis, five factors, five principles, uk, church planting, planter, how to start a church, how to start a gospel-centered church, how to plant a biblical church, biblical church, model, context, preach, preaching, total church, help for church planters
Adapted from a sermon by Matt Chandler at the San Jose Boot Camp in June 2011.
The Moralism Pitfall
Preacher: The Gospel must be explicit in your teaching — it cannot be assumed. If you assume it, you will build out what Christian Smith called, "Christian Moralistic Theurapeutic Deism."
If you don't make the Gospel explicit, if you don't keep coming back to the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ for us, if you don't keep coming back to the wrath absorbing cross for us, If you don't keep coming back to the resurrection — listen, you need all three of those — if you don't keep coming back to those things and you assume that's some sort of kindergarten-level, entry-understanding Christianity; you are going to build out Moralistic Deism — do this, don't do this ...
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James MacDonald is the founding senior pastor of Harvest Bible Chapel, one of the fastest growing multi-site churches in the Chicago area reaching over 13,000 lives each weekend. Through James’ leadership and by God’s grace, a church planting ministry was formed in 2002, Harvest Bible Fellowship, which has planted more than 69 churches across North America and around the world. James also teaches on Walk in the Word, a daily radio broadcast committed to “igniting passion in the people of God through the proclamation of truth.” He and his wife, Kathy, have three adult children and make their home in suburban Chicago. James will be speaking at the upcoming Chicago Boot Camp on Sept 15.
Excerpted from his talk given at the Acts 29 Lead Pastors' Retreat in ...
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Brevity of Sermons
By Pastor Scott Thomas
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit… I will be brief. ~William Shakespeare, Hamlet
Church planters generally have a lot of vision, passion, drive and urgency to communicate the Good News to others. How do these excellent characteristics translate into the sermon length—particularly for those of us who have a high view of Scripture?
The length of a sermon does not necessarily equate to a message centered on the Gospel. A good sermon may be long, but rarely is a long sermon good. Just because some great communicators preach for an hour, does not mean that it is the new covenant for church planters.
It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what other men say in whole books - what other men do not say in whole books. ...
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Of our nearly 800 audio files of teaching from Acts 29 pastors, these ten teachings by Acts 29 were most listened to in 2010. Download all ten for 526 minutes (or nearly nine hours) of learning!
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