Bob Thune, Lead Pastor of Coram Deo Church Community in Omaha, NE
Not every church plant has a boxing bag as part of their office furniture. Our church was kind of odd that way.
My cousin J.D. – now an Acts 29 church planter in South Africa – was a volunteer intern on our launch team. He was also an amateur boxer who was training to compete in the Golden Gloves tournament. During his lunch breaks, he’d strap on the boxing gloves and go a few rounds with the body bag in the back corner of our borrowed office space.
Watching J.D. train taught me an important lesson: vision and training go hand-in-hand. You begin with a vision of the kind of person you want to become. And then you train with that goal in mind. J.D. wanted to be a successful boxer, so he put in the time and ...
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By Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29.
Adapted and excerpted from his message, “Fighting For One Another: Gospel Friendship.”
We face a problem in the church. We’re often too busy fighting with each other and we’re failing to fight for each other. We need to learn to fight for each other with every weapon in our arsenal.
Each of us stands functionally alone unless we have a brotherhood (a band of brothers, a community, a network) that we gather ourselves in and around. Peter reminds us: “be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
I’m sick of fighting with other believers and other pastors over menial ...
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Posted in: Relationship Building
Tags: four characteristics of a gospel friendship, gospel friendship, christian friendship, discipleship, coaching, scott thomas, fighting well, fighting for each other, christians fighting, good fighting, fair fighting, fighting for not against, 1 peter 5, how to be a friend, how to be a christian friend, how to be a gospel friend, how to be a helpful friend, true friendship, band of brothers, pastors need friends, pastor friendship, dallas boot camp, dallas, church planter training, church plant, training, leadership training
“[Your people are] capable, because the power that raised Jesus Christ is sitting in that single mom. The power that raised Jesus Christ is sitting in that young married couple. The power that raised Jesus Christ is sitting in that 60-year-old guy who’s wasted his life making money for himself. You need to find a way to release that…"
Matt Carter is Acts 29 pastor of The Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas.
Matt remembers childhood observations of his parents' practice of Christianity: attending church services, serving in the nursery or greeting occasionally, and doing a few bible studies. "And that was pretty much it," he notes.
He says that young people today are not content with simply partaking in "the attractional church" wherein ...
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Posted in: Leadership, Disciple Making
Tags: church planting, missional, missional communities, equipping the saints, ephesians 4:12, matt carter, dallas boot camp, training, equipping, leadership development, attractional church, model, missiology, ecclesiology
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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Are you missing out on the Acts 29 boot camp right now? We wish you were here!
Our Fathers and Our Future.
Acts 29 East Coast Regional Coordinator, Tyler Jones (Vintage21 Church, Raleigh), prays over Chan Kilgore and his leadership of the Florida region, joined by Rick Long (The Point Community, Lexington) and Elliot Grudem.
Here are some snaps from our man on the ground, Josh Opp (assistant to Network Coordinator Elliot Grudem):
Joseph Turner, Acts 29 planter of Sojourn Community Church in Houston, listens to Elliot Grudem deliver his message earlier today.
Tyler Jones and Justin Holcomb (Director of The Resurgence) catch up behind the scenes at the conference. By the way, Justin and his wife, Lindsey, just published Rid of My Disgrace, a book all church planters ...
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