By Brent Rood

The emerging church movement is not as new as it used to be. As with every movement, it has reached a point in its trajectory where as it matures, the ideals of the movement have given way to the reality of the movement. Theory birthed practice. The ideal was that good substance should replace good management. Gospel-centered preaching, authentic and transparent relationships, and incarnational ministry should replace synthetic programs, simplistic and linear discipleship processes, and cold task- driven business models. The emerging church set out to accomplish this and in many ways it has, but as the movement is maturing there is a large wave of disillusionment. On one hand, we are seeing the gospel restored to the pulpit. We are seeing true conversions taking place instead of simply growth transfer. We are reaching the messy people that the church as a whole has not reached. On the other hand, many of our churches are struggling to stay afloat. Most are fighting unsuccessfully to break growth barriers, to develop a lucid vision, or to create functional structures, supporting that vision. We are not achieving our goals of making disciples who make disciples, and truly multiplying ourselves to the point where we can actually plant other churches. Could we have possibly thrown out the baby with the bathwater? Although we may, with Bill Hybels, lament the lack of substance in the Willow Creek model, we cannot argue with some of his results - thousands of people influenced, hundreds of books and resources developed, organized and structured models of discipleship that can be duplicated. These results and others have been the product of a model that is weighted on management. Being of a prophetic gifting, I do not have the answers, but I do have questions that I feel need to be raised as we are looking at where we are at this point in the emerging church movement.

Are substance and size antithetical concepts? If substance is what we want, then why do we complain about a lack of growth and organizational structure? If going back to the early church is what we are really seeking, is the early church model one in which substantive churches were at the same time large? Often we look to early portions of Acts and see thousands converted in one sermon, but we overlook the multiple churches like Galatia, Ephesus, and Corinth which were struggling and small. Have we imposed numerical success to these churches that didn’t actually exist? Are we trying to have our American cake and eat it too by attempting to have substance and size at the same time? (Sure, there are those pillar emerging churches able to accomplish both, but this seems to be the exception and not the rule.) Or is there really a way that substantive ministry and exceptional management can work together? I think it is possible that the entrepreneurial spirit of church planting has attracted primarily prophets and priests, but not kings.

Whatever conclusions we land on in these areas, needs to speak into how we train church planters. At the very least, we should be realizing that good organization and business models are not Satan incarnate, and that kings should have a place at the table.

What do you think?

Matt Adair is replanter of Christ Community Church in Athens, Georgia. He wrote earlier this month on Embracing Your Unique Gifting and Leveraging it for Jesus’ Mission. Here he looks at the power source for the church’s employment of their gifts.

Entrepreneurial Aptitude - A Sacred Trust

Church planters are gluttons for punishment.

The spiritual soil of the cities we dig around in often feels like petrified clay. The first people to jump on the bandwagon as we plot world domination will most likely abandon us. The stress that comes from denominational agencies, our families and the deepest recesses of our souls is a force powerful enough to stop a charging rhino dead in his tracks.

And now I’m asking you to take another whack of the paddle by leading with the kind of edge that emphasizes your strengths and minimizes your weaknesses. Odds are that you believe there’s a direct correlation between the problems in your plant and your foibles as an entrepreneur. If only you were more outgoing or better organized, more like Driscoll or Chandler or Patrick or Kilgore or Vanderstelt...

Nevermind that marketplace influencers like Seth Godin (in books like Linchpin) are begging and pleading with you to use your unique wiring to create something of significance. Set aside the fact that an entire cottage industry surrounds the StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment in an effort to help you identify and lead from a position of strength rather than exerting max effort to address your weaknesses and gaining minimal reward at best.

We share this vision of edgy entrepreneurship. However, with all due respect to the best and brightest in the business industry, we are forced to part ways when it comes to identifying the power source of our life and leadership. The business gurus encourage self-actualization (maximizing our own glory as our greatest potential), while for the Jesus-worshipping church planter our greatest potential comes from maximizing the glory of God by the power of an external source we are utterly dependent on: the Holy Spirit. At the end of the day, entrepreneurial aptitude for starting a new church - adopting an attitude that embraces our unique brand of genius - is a mysterious gift of humility and confidence that the Holy Spirit gives to us for the glory of God and the good of his world.

And it is out of this doxological-redemptive trajectory - loving God and loving people - that churches thrive. Where unique gifting is leveraged for the glory of God, there’s an organic group of missionaries in community empowered by the gospel. Our entrepreneurial edginess does not serve people as means to a self-directed end because our mission is to love God and love people (Matthew 22:37-40). The discovery of our own genius is not meant to prop up our ego but should be put into play to equip people to be the church (Ephesians 4:7-12).

And at the end and underneath it all is a hope the world finds confusing or cuss-worthy (1 Corinthians 1:23) - a courage that is not buried deep inside of us but a courage we see  nailed to a cross 2,000 years ago on a Palestinian hillside. Here is attitudinal aptitude par excellence - the boldness of doing what only you can do (Acts 4:12) wrapped around the kind of humility that lays down your life for people that you love (Mark 10:45).

This means that entrepreneurial aptitude is not a strategy - it is a sacred trust that has been pressed into us and is lived out as we press into the Jesus who came to turn the world right side up and make everything better than brand new (Revelation 21:5).

Acts 29 Boot Camps are church planting conferences open to the public that focus on the vision of church planting, calling of the planter, mandate to multiply churches and the theological foundation for gospel-centered church planting. The Seattle Boot Camp will be hosted by Mars Hill Church Ballard Campus in Seattle, WA

Boot Camp Location:

Mars Hill Church | Ballard Campus
1401 NW Leary St
Seattle, WA 98107

Cost: $149 EACH | $99 per couple for assessment

Boot Camp | Seattle September 29-30, 2010

Schedule subject to minor changes

Wednesday, September 29

8:00 am | Registration in Main Lobby
9:00 am | Welcome & Worship
9:30 am | Session #1: Overview: The Man, The Message, The Mission – Darrin Patrick
10:30 am | Session #2: A Skilled, Shepherding, and Determined Man – Scott Thomas
11:30 am | Session #3: Ministry of the Word: More Than just Preaching - Tim Lane
12:30 pm | Lunch - provided (simultaneous: optional Logos presentation in Paradox)
1:30 pm | Workshops

• Missional Communities Part 1 – Jeff Vanderstelt & Caesar Kalinowski
• Pitfalls of Church Planting Part 1 – Jon Needham and Brian Hope
• Spiritual Leadership: Training Leaders in Character, Passion & Godliness – Rob Berreth
• Replanting a Church on Mission – Dan Braga
• Wive’s Track Part 1 - Christy Rood & Caylin Ford
• Church Planting Coaching Huddles Part 1  (hosted by Acts 29 Church Planters). If you are in the process of planting and would like to ask questions and receive coaching from a church planter, this is for you. The coaching huddle will be a small group with an Acts 29 Church Planter helping you work through real, practical situations.

3:00 pm | Session #4: A Rescued, Called, Qualified & Dependent Man – Chan Kilgore
4:05 pm | Session #5: The House of Mission: The Church – Jeff Vanderstelt
5:05 pm | Closing of Day 1
5:30 pm | Dinner on your own
7:00 pm | Worship
7:30 pm | Session #6: Being a Community on Mission – Darrin Patrick
8:30 pm | Close

Thursday, September 30

8:30 am | Doors open
9:00 am | Worship
9:30 am | Session #7: The Historical Message: Christ-Centered, Sin Exposing & Idol Shattering – Mark Driscoll
10:45 am | Great Commission Ministries Presentation 
11:00 am | Workshops

• Missional Communities Part 2 – Jeff Vanderstelt & Caesar Kalinowski
• Pitfalls of Church Planting Part 2 – Brent Rood & Sam Ford
• Planting in Smaller Cities – Patrick Bowler, Russ Johnston & Matt Porter
• Training Leaders to Share the Mission – Paul Dean
• Wive’s Track Part 2 – Christy Rood & Caylin Ford
• Coaching Huddles Part 2 - (hosted by Acts 29 Church Planters). If you are in the process of planting and would like to ask questions and receive coaching from a church planter, this is for you. The coaching huddle will be a small group with an Acts 29 Church Planter helping you work through real, practical situations.

12:30 pm | Lunch  (provided) and Q & A Session
1:30 pm | Session #8:  The True Message – True to the Community, True to the Gospel –
Eric Mason
2:45 pm | Closing Remarks

Friday, October 1 

8:00am-6:00pm    Assessments for A29 applicants

If you are interested in undergoing assessment as an Acts 29 Network Church Planter, please complete the online application. **Note: the wife of the planter is required to be at assessment. Assessments will take place on Friday, October 1 for those who have completed Phase 1 in the application process. Cost for assessment is $99 per couple. If you would like to be assessed please contact tyler@acts29network.org. Assessment times can only be reserved once you have completed Phase 1: Slot #1: 8:00 -10:00 am | Slot #2 10:15 - 12:15 pm | Slot #3 1:30 - 3:30 pm | Slot #4 3:45 - 5:45 pm

Church Planter, by Darrin Patrick is available here.

Matt shares some great counsel from the Scriptures and his own life to help us do just that.

Pastor Mark Campbell | Lead pastor of Portico Church Arlington | Arlington, VA

Call to Plant

I came on the staff at Portico Church, an Acts29 Church plant in Charlottesville, VA, in 2005. The church consisted of our Lead Pastor, Chris Atwell and his family and myself and my wife and daughter. When I arrived, Chris was just finishing radiation therapy for tongue cancer. Needless to say, the road was going to be difficult, but God is faithful beyond our wildest imaginations.

After labor with minimal success for over a year, Chris was re-diagnosed with cancer in May of 2006 and had massive surgery to remove a large portion of his tongue and his lymph nodes. During the two months Chris was recovering, the church grew from 30 to 100. In the next two months, Portico would grow to 200, with people getting saved, others growing greatly in their knowledge and application of the gospel, and Jesus architecting a genuine, authentic, biblical community.

For four years, I saw God move powerfully to save the lost and transform the lives of many through our church plant. I saw first hand the beauty of the Bride of Christ and how God's primary means to advance the kingdom is the local church. This put a fire and passion in me for the Church and future church planting.

In 2008, I began to sense a call to plant. I put it prayer, knowing, and having experienced the weighty and difficult road of church planting, I wanted to hear from the Lord. I was only going to do it if the Lord was calling. Otherwise, not a chance. 

In December of 2008, Chris Atwell asked to hang out after church one Sunday. He proceeded to tell me that the Elders of Portico believed that I could, and should leave to plant a church. This was a huge confirmation from the body of Christ and Godly men that I respect greatly.

I shared with my wife and we began praying and after six months of prayer, research, and seeking counsel, I felt a clear call to plant a church in Arlington, VA, just outside Washington, DC.

After our house sold in 21 days on the market, we moved to Arlington in December of 2009.

Involvement in Acts 29

I became involved with Acts 29 through coming on staff at Portico Church in Charlottesville in 2005. It has been an enormous blessing to be part of a network through the years and to experience the partnership and brotherhood of the Acts 29 network.

The biggest benefit has been the relationships and knowing that even though there may be days that you feel alone, there are other people who are laboring for the Christ in the same ways.

God's Grace

They are almost too many to count. The Lord's grace in this church plant has been tremendous and at times overwhelming. The people are one of the biggest evidences of God's grace and honestly is a testimony to the faithfulness of Acts29. Our church and the core has people from approximately eight different Acts29 Churches literally spanning the entire US. The people that have come from these churches love Christ, are faithful servants, understand the Gospel, and are living lives on mission. It's a beautiful thing to see. 

In addition, God has given my wife and me grace in our transition from Charlottesville to Arlington. We are from the Northern VA area and had never really wanted to move back. We love our church in Charlottesville and the people there, but needed to be obedient to the call to plant. God has supernaturally given us a love for the city, the people, and we feel like we have lived here for years. It's totally God's grace.

God's grace is evident in the Lord's provision financially as we plant in one of the most expensive areas in the country. He is good.

Pray

Please pray that I am faithful lead my home well, I preach with boldness, and many rebels becomes worshippers of the King.

Read full profile here

A called-by-God church planter is a truly focused individual. He knows that he needs specific things in order to do what God has called him to do in the city to which He has been sent.

Continued from yesterday...

Men As chauvinistic as it sounds in today's egalitarian climate, you really do need a few good men to help you plant a church. God will send some godly women, whom you will love as mothers and sisters, that will be used by God in unbelievable ways to extend the kingdom through your local church. I am not minimizing the role of a woman in church, or women in general. In our church, women lead worship, teach bible studies, serve as deacons, etc. I’m simply highlighting the reality of the "just as". Just as the men go, so goes the family. Just as the men go, so goes the society. And, just as men go, so goes the church. You don't have to have a PhD in Sociology to realize that our world is jacked up because men don't do what they should and do what they shouldn't. Men are the problem in our broken world. And, if you work hard and smart, men can be a big part of the answer for a church trying to reach a broken world.

How do you get and develop good men? First, you have to be a good man yourself. You will not attract what you are not. Scripture is full of encouragement and challenges you to become the man God wants you to be. In short, be a Biblically qualified elder and you will do well. Most men who come to your church either did not have a good relationship with their dad or did not have a dad at all. They will look to you for a model of what it means to be a godly man. So, as Paul told Timothy, watch your life and doctrine closely so you can deliver such men. Not only do you need to be a model for them, you need to train them. The first meeting we ever had in our church plant was a men's discipleship meeting. We studied 1 Timothy 3 and I pleaded with the men who were present to aspire to be elders in our new church. The point is that you have to call men up. You have to plead with them and challenge them to be better than they are. But, you must not just tell them to live better.  You must train them to live better. This involves many meetings: one on one, small groups and medium-sized groups. Make sure that you are spending time with emerging male leaders and equipping them to teach, lead and counsel.

It is important to add that while discipleship groups are good, so are one-on-one mentoring relationships, etc. These are not enough to produce the type of men that you will need to build a prevailing, gospel driven church. You must see the pulpit as the main vehicle to reach and train men. Many pastors preach sermons that are too effeminate to draw men. You know this is true because the majority of churches have a much lesser percentage of men than women. When you preach, preach strong! Call men to Christ, call them to lay down their idols of entertainment and work. When you preach, use illustrations that men relate to. Integrate things like sports, music, and films that appeal to men into your sermons. Preach like men are in your church and they will come.

A called-by-God church planter is a truly focused individual. He knows that he needs specific things in order to do what God has called him to do in the city to which He has been sent.

Building One of the things that he needs is a building. I remember driving through my city almost every day with my eyes peeled for my dream building. I looked at schools, science centers, community centers, art galleries, coffee houses and old church buildings. Heck, I even looked at a VFW (Veterans of Foreign War) building/bar complete with a medium sized tank from World War One directly in front of the entrance. I remember getting totally stoked about a potential building only to have my hopes dashed time and time again. On more than one occasion, I had vivid dreams about a certain meeting space, which is weird for me because I don't normally remember any of my dreams. Finding a place to gather is a big deal and every church planter should concern himself with this search.

Money Another important element in a successful plant is money. Most church planters resist the idea of pursuing it. Many church planters think it is unspiritual to focus on it. But sooner or later every church planter realizes that it is going to take money, a lot of it, to do what God is calling him to do. I remember going to my first church planter training conference and hearing that a church planter needed to be a fundraiser. My initial thought was that if this were the case I couldn't plant, because I hated to ask people for money. But like every church planter eventually does, I realized that I had to get over this and that God's vision was worth me getting over my fundraising phobia. Money is an important and pressing issue. In fact, after talking with over a hundred church planters in the last year, I have heard the same story over and over again: "I need to raise more money. Do you know where I can get some?" I then suggest some money sources they can pursue. Denominations, Church planting networks like Acts 29, established churches and generous individuals are all good sources. A called by God church planter will find the money needed to plant just like Jesus and the Apostle Paul.

You have to have a place to meet, preferably one without a weapon of mass destruction on the premises. You will always need money. In this world it is the answer for everything, just as the writer of Ecclesiastes stated. However, I would submit that there is something you need more than money and a building. To plant a prevailing, reproducing church you must have people, and more importantly the right kind of people.

People There are many ways to start a church. You can just start holding public meetings. You can begin to meet non-Christians and wait for them to come to faith, then use them as leaders. You can hive off a group of people from a mother church and use them to start yours. However you choose to start, you need a core group to serve as your new church. The truth is that you need all kinds of people to begin public worship, lead small groups, run sound, play guitar, set up, tear down and love kids in the children's ministry. For the planter, it is often overwhelming to realize how many people it actually takes to begin a local church. But successful planters know that it isn't only about the quantity of people you have, it is the quality of the people that will help the most. Most of the time when someone starts a church they use Christians as core group members. Without going into great detail, let me describe who you don't want to be in your core group. You do not want flaky Christians who attend another church and 3 other "Christian" meetings during the week. Also, you do not want ultra needy Christians who can't stand on their own and will need you, the planter, to keep them healthy. You do want men and women who are not looking for you to fix every problem in their life. You do want men and men who see themselves as missionaries and are looking for a community that will equip them to reach out to their friends with the love of Christ.

To be continued...

By Paul Dean

Paul Dean is an Acts 29 church planter who started Alathia Community in Issaquah, Washington, four years ago.

You’ve got to admire the entrepreneurial aptitude of the extreme sport crowd. Crash or land, they are always trying something new.

Entrepreneurial Aptitude (E.A.) is a gifting from the Holy Spirit that makes you (to some degree) comfortable with the extreme sport-like risk that is church planting. Starting something from jack-squat takes tireless prayer, effort, and relationship-grinding teamwork, and may just crash even after all that. A lead church planter has to be OK with apparent failure.

E.A. is hard to describe, because it looks different with different people. Acts 29 church planters answer a series of questions that hit at the issue before and during assessment – the most important one being, “What is something you have started from scratch?”

When I was assessed, my answer was something like this: “I used to make up games as a kid -- we even kept stats and formed a league. In high school, I formed a group of youth who did odd jobs and sent the proceeds to orphans. In every church I’ve served I’ve started some outreach from my circle of peers. I’ve also started 3 successful businesses.”

All these projects, ministries, and businesses show a tolerance for risk and ability to see things through to completion. Over time I’ve come to conclude that, in order to serve his Kingdom, my Savior has created me in such a way that I am comfortable with significant risk. Sometimes things go well, and sometimes Jesus teaches me about depending on him and resting in his providence through my spectacular crashes.

Like the other qualities of a Lead Planter that Acts 29 assesses, E.A. directly impacts the ministry of the church plant. Everything that a new church does originates in the head of the planter. New ideas that spring from time in prayer and God-given missionary insight into the culture can lead to great Kingdom progress. If a planter does not have E.A., he is hesitant to try new things and either copies from existing models (that likely fail because they were developed in another culture by someone with a different skill set) or is paralyzed with indecision. For example, during the last 4+ years of planting Alathia, we have started bible studies, core group training, Sunday services, service projects in the community, Christmas Festivals, small groups (transformed to outward-focused gospel communities), regional efforts in church planting (Acts 29 Eastside), a training program for church leaders (Antioch Northwest), a church planting foundation, and supported a wild effort to support church planting through coffee sales.  Very little of that would have been done without tolerance of risk and the God-given skill set of creating something from very little.

Therefore, if you are praying through your calling to plant a church, perhaps you should ask yourself the question, “What have I started from scratch?” If your list is long and includes projects, ministries, businesses that God has providentially blessed, then perhaps Jesus is using your entrepreneurial aptitude to point you toward church planting.

Jeremy Rose | Lead Pastor of Axis Church | Nashville, TN

Call to Plant

Eight years ago I prayed for the Lord to allow me to plant a church. I heard nothing. Five years ago the Lord led me to leave the full-time ministry to attend seminary and learn how to plant a church. Three years ago while vacationing with my wife for three days, I read Polhill's "Acts" commentary, the book of Acts and Driscoll's "The Radical Reformission." during those three days, I knew that God was leading me to something new and adventurous. A year and a half ago God called me to a time of prayer where I felt Him say to me, “there is a new work that you will be opened to.” What convinced me to start a new church is what I felt in my heart. I know that the best way to spread the fame of God is through church planting. I know that this call is so real to my heart—so real that I cannot see myself doing anything else. I know that to do anything else would be disobeying. Moreover, I am called to reach a specific demographic—the post-moderns who are not being reached by most established churches.

Involvement in Acts 29

I become involved with Acts 29 by first hearing rumors of a "crazy preacher in Seattle" and then reading his book, "The Radical Reformission." In reading his book I was drawn to learn more about this network of like-minded men who were committed to the gospel and loved their cities.

God's Grace

My relationship with my wife is so wonderful that I must believe it is because of the Lord. Our three kids love The Axis and continue to display a desire to know more about Him. God's grace led us to the neighborhood we live in and to the school for our kids to attend.

God has led many creative and gifted people to our church and several entrepreneurs who love Him and Nashville.

I am close friends with Ray Ortlund and have been blessed to work along side him at his church, Immanuel Church. Words cannot accurately describe the blessing this is to me.

I have such a wonderful and caring coach in David Thew. This has been and is a substantial blessing.

Prayer

I need wisdom and grace to persevere. I must continue to preach the gospel to myself--pray this for me. Pray for my time with the Lord, my kids and my wife. We need more funding--pray for this. Pray also for the future elders of The Axis.

Read his full profile here.

Part 3: Sober Judgement

When I assess church planters for membership in the Acts 29 Network, I try to encourage them both during the assessment and in the report I send them following the assessment to heed Paul’s encouragement in Romans 12:3: “I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

Planting a church requires many things. One is entrepreneurial aptitude.  It requires the micro-skills that Scott Thomas listed in this post.

I’ve yet to meet a potential church-planter who wanted to plant a small church that would never grow past 50 members, always struggle to pay its bills, and never have enough resources to hire a second staff member. That, however, is the reality for most church planters for many years. Your church might be the exception, but it probably won’t be.

For example, the Acts 29 Network has nearly twice as many churches with less than 200 members as they do churches with over 200 members.

One of the things I think that indicates is that church planting takes time. As has been said, most church planters accomplish a lot less than they think they will in one year and a lot more than they think they will in five years.

If you don’t think five years is a long time to labor in planting a church, you’ve never planted a church.

When you plant a church, you are starting something from nothing. You are calling people to join and sacrifice for something they can’t see. There will be days when it seems you (and possibly your wife) are the only ones who understand what you are trying to do. Your best strategic decisions are often appreciated long after they are implemented and usually receive criticism not confirmation before and when they are made. You won’t have a boss to check on your day-to-day work, affirm your decisions, or cover you when you mess up.

To plant a church, you must cast a compelling vision for something that can’t be seen, be willing to call people to that vision, plug them into that vision in a way that matches how God has gifted them and won’t crush them in the process, and then work to accomplish that God-given vision, often alone, for what seems like an eternity.

Think about your gift set with sober judgment. If God hasn’t gifted you to plant a church, don’t force your family to suffer through that process. Don’t call others to follow you on a path you aren’t equipped to walk down. Don’t serve Jesus’ blood-bought possession in a way he hasn’t called or gifted you to serve. Instead, serve in the specific way God has gifted you with great joy.

If you believe God has equipped you to plant a church, see if others agree with your self-assessment. If they do and the time is right, serve with great joy. 

Part 2: Humble Reflection

The Apostle Paul writes, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them” (Romans 12:3-6, emphasis mine).

Though we don’t find entrepreneurial aptitude listed as a specific spiritual gift in Romans 12, I think it’s fair to say, based on what Paul writes there, is that the ability to start and lead things is a gift of God’s grace.

Therefore, you should remember that if this specific type of leadership is a gift of God, you shouldn’t consider yourself less of a person (or Christian) if you don’t (now) have the gifts required to serve as a church planter. Serve as God has gifted you. Let him decide what type of service is “holy and acceptable” to him (Romans 12:1). Instead of being frustrated with what you don’t have, serve with what he’s given you.

At the same time, if God has graced you with this specific type of leadership, consider Paul’s words to the haughty (but skilled) Corinthian church: “What did you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Corinthians 4:7). I can’t think of much that will make a leader utterly useless to Christ’s Church than unchecked pride, for “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6).

Serve as God has gifted you. If it’s as a church planter, then plant a church. If it’s in another way, then joyfully serve that way. Church planters are important to Christ’s Church. But so is every other member of the body of Christ. In fact, “the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,” not the parts that seem stronger and more presentable (1 Corinthians 12:22-24, emphasis mine).

There is a danger when talking about leadership opportunities in the church—especially when talking about planting a church. Church planters start something from nothing. They are the pioneers, and they have the wounds to prove it. Though they might not say so publically, there is a rush when you see people coming to and being changed in the context of what you privately call “your church.” 

It’s a danger that Peter addressed in 1 Peter 5:2-3 when he encouraged elders to “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.”

Church planters are to serve Jesus’ church willingly, eagerly, and as examples. That means they must not view their position as simply a place to define or prove themselves. Instead, they must believe they are called (willing and eager) and they must believe they are qualified (examples). If these things are not the case, there is a chance they could serve under compulsion (to meet their or another’s expectations), for shameful gain (to gain things like power, fame, or fortune), or be domineering in their service (usually a sign of fear or pride).

A good way to fight against this danger is to realize that everything you have is a gift from God himself (1 Corinthians 4:7), believe that God gifts as he best sees fit (Romans 12:3-6), and recognize that you are serving in the church—the very thing Jesus shed his blood to claim as his own (Acts 20:28, Titus 2:14)

Part 1: Sober Assessment

It was during my first year of seminary that I had lunch with a denominational director of church planting. I foolishly assumed he took me to lunch to recruit me. He wisely used the time at lunch to help me not think of myself more highly than I ought to think, “but to think with sober judgment” (Romans 12:3).

Early in the conversation he said, “Tell me about some of the things you’ve successfully started.”

“That’s a stupid question,” I thought. “Why not ask me about my preaching skills? Why not ask me about the small groups I’ve lead, the theological papers I’ve written, the ways I’ve engaged my unbelieving neighbors with the gospel?”

As I consider that conversation now, I recognize the wisdom in his question. He wasn’t trying to vet me for pastoral ministry. Though that was important, he knew that would come at another time. Instead, he was trying to help determine my fit for church planting. The starting new things question was an important question to consider.

He knew what I had yet to grasp: Church planting isn’t just another ministry opportunity. It isn’t an internship, a résumé-builder, or something I should use simply to test out the ways I thought God had gifted me.

It is a specific calling from God to serve Christ’s church—his blood-bought possession—in a very specific way. It’s a high calling—as are many callings to specific service in Jesus’ church.

The question I thought was stupid was actually wise. It was a way of helping me soberly assess how God had gifted me for service in his church. If I was to plant a church, I needed more than simply desire. I needed a specific gift set, one that God doesn’t give to every pastor. 

Reflecting on things I had successfully started provided further encouragement to seriously consider the call to church planting. If I couldn’t think of things I hadn’t successfully started, I probably needed to consider a call to another type of pastoral ministry.

November 9-11, 2010

Potential Speakers:

- Wayne Grudem – “Theology and the Surge”
- Darrin Patrick – “Leadership and the Surge”
- Jeff Vanderstelt – “The Gospel and the Surge”
- Matt Carter – “Mission and the Surge”
- Justin Anderson – “Leadership Development/Preaching and the Surge”
- David Kinnaman – “The Future and the Surge"

Potential Breakout Ideas:

- Tom Shrader (Pastor, reformed mega-church in Gilbert called East Valley Bible Church) – “Transition and the Surge”
- Heath Taylor/Dan Braga – replanting
- Chris Gonzalez – Equipping people for mission
- John Mitchell – Fund raising
- Vermon Pierre – Cross cultural ministry
- David Fairchild – Missional Communities
- Luke Simmons – Suburban planting
- Harvey Turner -
- Tyler Johnson – Local networks? Surge promo? How a mega-church can influence planting? 

Potential Schedule:

Tuesday 

9AM - Welcome, Worship, Main Session #1 – Darrin Patrick – “Leadership and the Surge”

10:30 - Main Session #2 – Wayne Grudem – “Theology and the Surge”

Lunch provided - Q & A with Grudem? (This was great in Raleigh)

2PM – Breakouts with local Arizona A29 guys

5PM - Main Session #3 – Jeff Vanderstelt “The Gospel and the Surge”

Wednesday

9AM - Main Session #4 – Justin Anderson – “Preaching and the Surge”

10:30AM - Main Session #5 David Kinnamon – “The Future and the Surge”

Lunch provided - Scott Thomas promotes Acts29 “Networks and the Surge”

2PM – Breakouts with local Arizona A29 guys

5PM - Main Session #6 – Matt Carter – “Mission and the Surge”

MORE TO COME SOON!!

Kevin Larson | Lead Pastor of Karis Community Church | Columbia, MO

Call to Plant

As a seminary student, I was struggling with where God was calling me. Seeking a position in an established church seemed like a bad idea. I took a church planting class, and it seemed clear that I had "wiring" that made pioneering a community a better fit for me. People around me confirmed that. I then began praying about where to go and seeking out opportunities, and God opened a door for me to come back to my favorite city, my college town that I had left about 10 years earlier, Columbia, Missouri.

How Did You Get Involved With Acts 29?

I ran into my friend Jonathan McIntosh during fundraising. He handed me Driscoll's Reformission book, I read it, and things took off from there. Relationships like I have with him have been the best. Having people you can call and vent to and ask questions of is worth millions. There is so much deep, rich brotherhood in Acts 29.

God's Grace

I've seen people come to faith in Jesus that have become leaders. I've seen timid men become leaders who can be bold, loving shepherds. I've seen religious people have their lives radically changed by the gospel. In my life, I've seen growth, having my identity rooted more in Jesus. I've seen my ministry gifts grow. I think my preaching is better. I think I know better about what I'm doing now, in general. I believe I have a healthy marriage, by God's grace. My wife is a joy and is God's grace to me, right before my face each day. I look around and see amazing men/leaders in Karis, and I'm humbled and blown away by the mercy of God.

Advice in Church Planting

First, you must make sure your wife is totally on board, and she has to be tough as nails. Or, I promise you, you won't make it. She is going to take tons of hits. You must protect her, but there's only so much that can be done.

Second, sort out your rationale for planting. Make sure it's not because it's the hip thing to do. Planting is amazingly, shockingly hard on you and a family. Coolness won't sustain you.

Third, get the gospel deeply planted in your heart. It's very hard to not have your identity going up and down based on how your church is going. It's hard not to compare yourself to others in your town or across the network.

Fourth, make sure you're setting out to build a community that's different or don't bother. Plant something that really is built around the gospel, where people are tightly connected relationally and speak the gospel into each others lives. Don't just be another Sunday service. But this is much, much harder than you think.

Fifth, be committed to labor by God's grace to impact your community. Seek her good or shalom. Share the gospel message. Make sure you don't just want to have a church where you can preach and, because of that, it's definitely cooler than where you've been.

Sixth, make sure you can train leaders. Planting, or any real ministry, all has to do with leadership training. Are people following you? Do people gravitate to you? This isn't a pride thing. It's a movement thing. If the thing's only as deep and wide as you, it's not going to go anywhere. Make sure you can raise up leaders, that it's in your makeup. Don't start planting until you have a better handle on this.

Read full profile here

3rd Wave: Growth and Development

We celebrated our 1-year anniversary on October 1st, 2006, which was an awesome celebration and milestone testimony for our church. Our attendance really began to grow after our 1-year anniversary.  God continued to send people from across the Outer Banks to be a part of a postmodern church that was impacting peoples' lives with the gospel of Jesus Christ.   Over the course of the next year, we grew over 100%.  This season was dedicated to growing in a way that was healthy.  Instead of merely focusing on growing numerically, we also focused on building relationships with those already in our church.  One of the most important decisions we made as a young church plant at this time was to become official members of the Acts 29 Network.  Our church has benefited from Acts 29's teaching on biblical leadership and church structure, as well as the coaching relationships that we developed with other Acts 29 planters.

There were a lot of new challenges and opportunities facing our church because of our growth.  To help insure that people felt ownership over the growing church, we implemented a membership process that encouraged people to give their time, gifts, and giving to the Lord.  In order to do quality ministry we needed to strengthen our giving and regular financial support, which would naturally happen as people took ownership over the church.  At this time, we also changed and updated all of our promotional materials.  We also mobilized and trained more lay leaders.  Deacons and elders were trained as innovative leaders and technicians.  We created a new logo, developed a new website, and printed all new materials.  An assimilation process was also developed which helped newcomers connect to our church family.

4th Wave: Moving toward Maturity

As we began to move past our one-year mark, we had to rethink our church's systems and structures once again.  If we were going to continue healthy growth as a church we would have to rethink, retool, and restructure our church.  At this time, we appointed our first two elders after almost a year of prayer and study.  Our first official staff position of Worship Pastor was created for one of our elders.  We began to focus on member care through a threefold process that includes bible studies, fellowships, and ministry involvements.  We started doing quarterly leadership training events to help identify and train emerging leaders within our church body.  We also increased our community outreach by hosting large art shows, adopting a beach access to clean up, and feeding firemen each week.

Next Wave: Looking to the Future

We just celebrated our 2-year anniversary! This was an awesome time of celebration where we recounted the past 2 years and renewed the vision of our church. Where do we go from here?  Over the next year, we need to enlarge our leadership team and volunteer base.  Our staff will expand to include an associate pastor and an administrative assistant.  Church planting will be more of a focus in our region.  As the lead pastor, I need to transition more of the ministry into the hands of elders and deacons, leaving room for me to be able to spend my time preaching the gospel, casting vision, and dreaming about the future of Church of the Outer Banks.

By this time next year, I see a church that has a real community presence and constantly seeks to make a difference in the Outer Banks.  I see an army of volunteers who are making a positive difference in their families and their community.  I see a church that will grow into 2 multisite campuses. We are currently dreaming of a community facility that will hold a coffee house, art gallery, and concert venues.  There is no telling what God will bring in the next wave at Church of the Outer Banks.

Winfield Bevins

Surfing is a two thousand year old-past time that is the art of riding waves from the ocean that God created. It was the sport of ancient kings and is now a multi-billion dollar industry. My name is Winfield Bevins and I am a church planter and a surfer. I have the awesome privilege of serving as lead pastor of Church of the Outer Banks, which is located in one of the premier surf spots on the East coast. Surfing and church planting are my two great passions. I began surfing when we moved here to plant the church in 2005. Since that time my life has been profoundly impacted by both surfing and church planting.

Surfing and church planting are surprisingly similar. Churches grow in waves or stages.  A church planter must understand that there is a process to church planting where the church will grow through several developmental stages. In other words, there are several waves to the process of church planting that every church must inevitably go through. 

This is the story and the process of how we planted Church of the Outer Banks.  We are getting ready to celebrate our second year of ministry as a church plant. Although we have made many mistakes, God has faithfully helped us continue to grow as a church. Regardless of whether a surfer "wipes out" or "hangs ten," he paddles back out for another wave. This is a lesson that we have learned as a church over and over. After you attempt one wave, no matter what the outcome, you need to get back out there and prepare for the next wave.

1st Wave: The Call and Conception

It all begins with catching the wave of God's call to plant a church.  My wife Kay and I began to feel the call of God to plant a church.  After serving as a pastor and college instructor in Tennessee for three years, I knew God had prepared me to begin a church with my wife.  We began to dream of planting a church that would be highly innovative, gospel centered, and culturally relevant where anyone could come regardless of his or her background.  We dreamt of a church that would be low on religion but big on relationships.  We knew it would be a place where people could find and use their spiritual gifts.  During that time, some close friends began telling us about the need for a contemporary, cutting edge church in the Outer Banks, North Carolina.

After much prayer, I resigned as lead pastor to our church in Tennessee and made plans to move to North Carolina's beautiful Outer Banks.  Everyone thought we were crazy because we were moving to a place where we had never been before.  With only faith, a few possessions, and our beautiful baby girl Elizabeth, we moved to the Outer Banks in May 2005.  These first 6-12 months were a time to wrestle with the call of God and to dream about the church plant.

2nd Wave: Strategic Planning

Church of the Outer Banks first met in a home with only five people in June 2005.  After a few short months, we built a core group of about 20 people and quickly outgrew the home meeting space.  During this time we prayed, planned, and raised money to purchase sound equipment, screen, projector, backdrops, website, logo, and printed materials.  This was a season of strategic planning, vision casting, and building our core group.

We then began looking for a place to meet that would allow us to continue to grow. After looking at several locations, the Lord opened a door for us to meet at the new YMCA in Nags Head, North Carolina. October 2nd 2005 was the first service in the YMCA.  We only had about 35 people in our first service. However, the move allowed us to expand our ministries to include a nursery, children's church, coffee bar, and worship team. After months of prayer and preparation, we had finally launched the church, but the hard work of growing the church was only beginning. To be continued…

Resilience in Church Planting
Dustin Neeley, pastor and planter of The Crossing Church, in Louisville, Kentucky.

Originally published on the Resurgence here. 

Church planting is hard. Over the past five years, I have been disappointed, disillusioned and just plain dissed by various people and problems. However, by God's grace, here we stand as a church that is not just surviving, but thriving, and planting new churches.
One of the keys? Resilience.

Good, old fashioned, gospel-driven "sticktoitiveness."
Sadly, this is a quality that I have seen lacking in far too many church planters. 

Many men are interested in having a cool website, a Mac, and the latest Driscoll book in their messenger bag. But how many are willing to stay the course even when the going gets tough? Far fewer. In fact, I believe the absence of resilience is why so many church planters flame out, shame out, or tap out in the first five years and close down their churches.

Acknowledging that resilience is a necessity for missional success, what can we do to grow it within us?

Recognize that God commands it. 
In Paul's first letter to his apprentice Timothy, he writes, "As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry" (2 Tim. 4:5). He says the same to us today. Be disciplined. Stay the course. Fulfill your ministry through the power of God at work within you.

Learn to take a punch. 
It has been well said that wise men turn their critics into coaches. As we grow in the gospel as leaders, we are wise to look for the "diamonds in the rough," even among the most stinging criticism, and seek to learn from (and not repeat) our mistakes.

Consider the examples of those who have gone before. 
The "Hall of Faith" in Hebrews 11 is such a great encouragement for church planters. To see that we share the same mission as Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and all of the other heroes is a great encouragement in times of trial. Suddenly, in the light of a man being asked to sacrifice his own son, being kicked out of your building doesn't seem so bad.

Learn to truly depend upon Jesus. 
Though all of us would give lip-service to this concept, most of us struggle to give it life-service as well. Pray that God would teach you what it means to abide in Him, listen to His voice, and give you His strength for the hard road ahead. More than anything, this will give you the strength to endure. 

There are many, many things that I would change about the last five years of planting. But one thing that I would not change is how God has grown resilience in me through the power of His Spirit at work within me especially during the hard times. May he do the same in you.

Next month, Acts 29 Vice President Jeff Vanderstelt will teach at the Seattle Boot Camp. Here he shares his story of becoming a part of Acts 29:

Around 2003, I came out to the Seattle area to plant churches with Bill Clem, who was planting Doxa church. We were going to plant 20 churches between Seattle and Tacoma. I helped Bill in the early stages of Doxa as a “Leaving Elder” - with the idea that I would plant out of Doxa. A supporting church required that I go through the Acts 29 process to qualify for support, so that was my original reason for connecting with Acts 29.

What attracted me from the beginning was the serious commitment to both theology and missiology, and, most of all, the relationships. Rick McKinley was part of the network at that time, and he really pursued me. Mark called me almost every week and came down to Tacoma almost once a month to meet and pray. It was a real, relational connection that drew me in. I’m committed primarily because of the relationships – I don’t see Acts 29 as an organization, but as a brotherhood. Also, I believe that God is moving and has been unbelievably gracious in extending favor to us – and I want to be a part of what he is doing through Acts 29. And, Acts 29 is who I am, not just something I belong to. I’m a part of shaping it and making it what it is.

National Boot Camp is going to be a great time together – listening to great teaching and meeting church planters. We hope to see you there!

| REGISTER | SCHEDULE |

In this video, he shares some poignant counsel on how to process suffering within our network and in our own ministries.

Vision, Mission, Values of Church

• Our vision (what we're becoming): A diverse community bringing the whole Gospel to the whole person, whole city, and whole world. 
• Our mission (what we're doing): Connecting the disconnected by loving God, transforming lives & changing the world
• Our values (what make us unique): Love, Family, Story, Feast, Blessing, Mission

Call to Plant

I spent of number of years in various associate-type pastoral roles but never felt settled. I always felt that there was a better way for the church to engage disconnected people to God and the community. Church planting had been an idea, but never a clear call until I was flying back home from an interview at a church. I was somewhere over Wyoming when I heard the Spirit tell me to plant a church.

The full story is here

Involvement with Acts 29

I got introduced and involved with Acts 29 through being a part of the core team for The Journey in St. Louis.

The biggest benefit of the network has been the true brotherhood of the other pastors. The gospel, a commitment to missional ministry, and theological clarity is truly the glue that holds the network together and makes it so strong. These men are not only a great source of support and encouragement, but also provide a sharpening of me as a Christian, a husband, a father, and a pastor.

God's Grace

One of the biggest examples of grace that God has shown to both me personally and our church are the elders that I get to serve with. I fervently prayed for men to labor with for the gospel that would be the type of men that I would want my daughters to marry one day. He answered that prayer well, and it has blessed me personally and our church beyond measure.

Matt Adair replanted and pastors Christ Community Church in Athens, Georgia. To hear more from Matt, check out his audio teachings here.

‘He looks silly!’

Now if you had seen the picture of David wearing Saul’s armor that I was looking at with my five-year old son, you would agree with his assessment. And what makes this scene even more silly than the visual of an oversized helmet and XXL body armor on a M sized body is that David was already an accomplished warrior (think bears and lions). He already had the weapons needed to fight but was put in a situation where he was told he would have to wear another man’s gear in order to succeed.

Some of us in church planting world look pretty silly. We are self-starters by nature but in the name of success and fitting into the culture of a tribe like Acts 29, we have grabbed other men’s gear and try to wear it like it’s our own. We want to tell stories with the wit of Kevin Cawley or influence the restoration of cities like Keith Watson or write with the precision of Jonathan Dodson and Reid Monaghan or act like we’re the grizzled veteran of numerous cage fights when the truth is we haven’t been in a fight since the 7th grade. And we lost that one - to a girl!

I want to give you permission to abandon the pursuit of balance in leadership. It is nothing more than a silly myth that will put a lid on your influence and a muzzle on your message. You must give primary attention to what only you can do to add value to the life of your church and community. Find your edge and sharpen it. Become your own brand of missional genius.

Look, I understand the push back that comes with leading with a kind of edge that cultivates your strengths and sets aside your weaknesses. This has the potential to become a breeding ground for the larvae of life-sucking parasites we call arrogance and self-reliance. But in the end we believe that entrepreneurial aptitude is rooted in an attitude of humility and courage that was bought with blood on the cross and has been pressed into us indelibly by the Holy Spirit.

For more on this idea of leading with an edge and becoming your own brand of missional genius, check out Dave Kraft’s book Leaders Who Last and Tribes by Seth Godin. 

By Scott Thomas

Entrepreneurial Aptitude is the sixth characteristic of ten that we look at in an Acts 29 planter. Often past behaviors are indicators of future behaviors – and men who have taken initiative in the past to start things are more likely to be able to plant a church than those who have never started anything. However – there’s a dark side to Entrepreneurial Aptitude that we wish to address: performance-drivenness that is devoid of and antithetical to the gospel.

To be successful, we believe we must improve our own competence, experiences, comprehension, and creativity. The saying goes, “If it’s gonna be, it’s up to me.” We believe and practice that our lives are built on our own abilities. As a revered Pharisee, the Apostle Paul had good reason to boast in his own abilities.

Look out for the dogs, look out for the evildoers, look out for those who mutilate the flesh. For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh— though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead (Phil. 3:2-11).

Paul warned against performance that was based on our own abilities. We are exhorted to put NO confidence in the flesh regarding our salvation. Many people want to “partner” with God as co-Savior and we think God needs our performance to accomplish His will for the world. Paul used his own stellar life as an example of the futility of being confident in our own abilities. He said that the near perfect life he lived was “rubbish.” Rubbish is translated “dung” in other translations from the Greek word, skubalon – the excrement of animals, refuse, rubbish and anything worthless and detestable.

It doesn’t mean that if a person is Gospel-centered, he is not productive. Contrarily, a person that is Gospel-driven can accomplish much for the kingdom and for the mission of God, but success is not rooted in a person’s performance or for his own glory. It is not based on his own ability and the means by which he accomplishes great things is not by using others, leading them with force or driving them to produce for his own benefit. Rather, the efforts are rooted in the Gospel and expressed through the power of the Spirit and as a result bring glory to God. This is done through Christ for the accomplishment of the mission for which God sent His Son and His Son sent his church and is now completing it with his body – a gathered community of Spirit-empowered disciples of Jesus.

By Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29 Network

In August, we will focus many of our blogs on the church planter characteristic of Entrepreneurial Aptitude. Here, Scott introduces this characteristic and its micro-skills.

What have you started successfully? Some men can't see the vision of what is to come, and some -  even if they see the vision - can't find the steps toward accomplishing their vision. If you can't be the architect, then you are in trouble.

As an example, some very pastoral people are NOT the best people to start a church, or at least not as the main team leader. Be clear about who you are. If you're a shepherd, counselor, caregiver, and you could be a success doing those things in an established church or as part of a team, then that is where you should be.

Someone who is called to plant a church is frustrated if they don't do it. Number two leaders rarely make good number one leaders. While the micro-skills below should aid to confirm a calling to plant a church, they do not constitute one.

Entrepreneurial Aptitude Micro-Skills:

1. Has demonstrated past successes in starting new ventures.

2. Is an innovative and strategic visionary.

3. Is highly energetic and enthused about starting a new work.

4. Shows ability to enlist others in new ventures.

5. Evidences being a self-starter.

6. Has a willingness to work intensely for an extended period of time.

While God does not need our skills and talents to accomplish His mission, he does equip those he calls – so we do look at his entrepreneurial aptitude as an indicator. When we see men applying to plant a church who have never preached, never led even a small group, have no record of serving in a church or are lethargic, we see these as warning signs. Either the man is a long way off from planting a church and needs to demonstrate faithfulness with a little, or he is not truly called to plant a church.

We are not looking for polished, highly-educated, articulate men to call into church planting. We are looking for men who are called by God, and then looking at how their God-given skills, passions and desires align with that call.

Our primary hope for those who apply with us is not that they’ll necessarily become a church planter. We want to help each man judge himself soberly, and fan into flame his calling.

Romans 12:3 – For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

1 Corinthians 11:28-30 – And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?

1 Timothy 1:6 – Fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands…

Darrin Patrick is Vice President of the Acts 29 Network. His book, Church Planter, is available for pre-order now, and is the basis for our National Boot Camp in Seattle next month.

Boot Camps are a time and place to not only get solid teaching, but to really connect with like-minded people. Here Darrin recounts his first steps into the Network and his own Acts 29 Boot Camp experience nearly ten years ago: 

In 2001, I heard about this crazy new network that was helping urban church planters.

I had recently parachuted into St. Louis with Amie and our baby to plant The Journey Church. While I’d raised all the financial support we needed, we lacked any relational support from our denomination. We were new, had no friends, and had no like-minded partners in the gospel.

Curious and hopeful, Amie and I decided to attend an Acts 29 boot camp on a cruise ship over September 11, 2001. We didn’t know anybody, and had no idea what we were in for. 

When Mark Driscoll and I met at boot camp, we were like brothers separated at birth. He understood me and what I was trying to do. He started calling me once a week, and I started getting to know other guys, like Chan Kilgore, in the network. All our wives became friends. It was really relational and so encouraging. We were committed to strong theology, passionate about reaching the lost through church planting, and strongly supportive of one another. That was what sold me on Acts 29.

Would you like to join us for boot camp in Seattle, September 29-30? We'd love to have you, and the boot camp will be packed with Acts 29 church planters you can meet who are happy to talk with you about your call and hopes for church planting.

Oh yeah, and we'll have some awesome teaching from: Darrin Patrick, Mark Driscoll, Jeff Vanderstelt, Scott Thomas, Chan Kilgore, Eric Mason, Tim Lane, and our local men: Paul Dean, Dan Braga, Rob Berreth, Jon Needham, Brian Hope, Caesar Kalinowski, Sam Ford, Brent Rood... 

| Pre-order Darrin's Book  | See Seattle Boot Camp Schedule | Register for Seattle Boot Camp |

David Pinckney | Pastor of The River of Grace Church | Concord, NH

Call to Plant

My dad pastored in NH starting in 1965 (I was born in NY in 1963). I was called to pastor while a sophmore in college. I pastored a historic small town baptist church from 1987-1997 (now Countryside Community Church). In 97 I joined the staff of a mega church in York PA (Living Word Community Church). In 2001 the Lord started "hitting me" with the concept of returning to NH to plant a church in the capital City of Concord. After much prayer and affirmation, we were "boots on the ground" by July 2002.

How did you become involved with Acts 29? 

Having been connected to the Young Leaders Network in the late 90's, it became a natural fit to plug into A29 when God called us to plant. The biggest benefit is the brotherhood, which has strengthened my faith, character, marriage, and skills. I love this Network and am humbled to be part of it.

How do you pastor your family?

I am still learning, but to date have found satisfaction and a measure of success walking with each of my children (now young adults) through life, keeping them focused on Jesus through his word. So far all 5 still love Jesus and his church. There is no greater joy!

God's grace

God keeps converting people despite us! We are weak. He is strong. He works through the simple and broken. We are filled with joy at each new person who comes to Jesus!

God keeps providing funding. NH is the least charitable state in the Country (consistently placing 50th when it comes to charitable giving per person), yet, God continues to provide so we have enough!

Please add any additional information that you would like to communicate to those that would be reading this on the Acts 29 website.

You have one life to invest for Jesus. Find the congregation he wants you in and serve it with all devotion, sacrifice, humility and endurance. Thanks for being part of the family!

Pray

That the glory and gospel of Jesus would continue to spread through our community, and that the Spirit would give us strength to endure until the end.

30 Reasons Why Pastors Fail to Seek Counsel for Issues in their Life:

Notes from Kenneth Maresco, “Accountable Pastors/Accountable Churches,”
2005 Sovereign Grace Pastor’s Conference

By Pastor Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29 Network

Ted Haggard was the founder of a megachurch in Colorado Springs and president of the politically powerful National Association of Evangelicals who was forced to resign nearly four years ago, after admitting that he had bought methamphetamine from, and had a sexual encounter with, a male prostitute.

Ted Haggard speaking to his new congregation meeting in his barn.

In a letter to the congregation, Haggard confessed to sexual immorality and described himself as "a deceiver and a liar." Describing a lifelong battle against temptations that were contrary to his teachings, Haggard wrote in his letter he had sought assistance "in a variety of ways," and while he had stretches of "freedom," nothing proved effective. "There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I've been warring against it all of my adult life," Haggard wrote.

Haggard returned to his home in Colorado Springs after his forced exile and recently started a new church in the barn behind his house. The two-month old flock is seeking larger facilities to serve the 200 people attending regularly.

According to Wall Street Journal on July 24, Haggard acknowledged grave lapses of judgment in the episode he refers to as "my crisis." WSJ said, “Mr. Haggard also said that in his sorrow and shame, he accepted too much guilt after the scandal broke. ‘I over-repented,’ he said.”

WSJ reported that Haggard said, "Tiger Woods needs to golf. Michael Vick needs to be playing football, Ted Haggard needs to be leading a church."

I have several problems with what is reported here if Haggard said these things. I have no reason to believe that a reputable publication like the Wall Street Journal fabricated any of Haggard’s statements. But one statement struck me with incredulity: “I over-repented.”

“I Over-Repented”

Haggard admitted in 2006 to lying to and deceiving his congregation and family and to having “a massage [with a male prostitute] that went awry.” In his letter to the congregation, Haggard wrote, "The fact is, I am guilty of sexual immorality, and I take responsibility for the entire problem.”

So, how can Haggard over-repent for sexual sin and lying?

Martin Luther set off the Reformation by nailing the “Ninety-Five Theses” to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The very first of the theses stated, “Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ…willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance.”[1]

It is important for us to know what repentance truly is if we are to develop a heart of continual repentance. Thomas Watson, English Puritan (ca. 1620-1686) wrote a helpful treatise on repentance. He said, “Repentance is a grace of God’s Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed.”[2] John the Baptist warned the Pharisees and Sadducees who were arriving with bath towels at his baptism, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matt. 3:7b. – 8). John the Baptist said that change of life accompanies repentance and repentance bears the fruit of a changed life.

Six Characteristics of True Repentance

I am no better than Ted Haggard. This is what scares me. I am an active sinner in need of forgiveness continually. I have never “over-repented.” Rather, I under-repent most often. Any suggestion for a pastor not to take full responsibility for sinful actions is a foolish example for others to follow. Ted said that he “accepted too much guilt.” The first sin in the history of mankind was eating the forbidden fruit. The second sin was not accepting responsibility for the first sin and blaming others.

God, help me to repent fully and not to blame others for my blatant sin.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death (2 Cor. 7:10).

[1] Timothy Keller, Gospel in Life: Grace Changes Everything (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), p. 28.
[2] Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1999), p. 18.

Troubled Souls and Pastors

By Scott Thomas, President, Acts 29 Network

Pastors are often overwhelmed with ministry. I am concerned for their souls. I spoke last week to the widow of a pastor who committed suicide recently. It was sobering. She said that he didn’t just come home one day and explode. Instead, she said, "his soul faded out slowly-just like the song by Casting Crowns:"

It's a slow fade when you give yourself away
It's a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day

Indicators of a Troubled Soul

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. (Acts 20:28)

7 Possible Solutions to a Troubled Soul

1. Renew your mind with prolonged Scripture reading

I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. (Psalm 16:8-9).

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day (2 Cor. 4:16)

 Stop holding God’s word as a piece of literature. It is a loving God who is speaking to you personally.

2.  Pray with an unhurried heart

First, pray. Then pray without rushing through a list or a formula for praying. Let God speak to your heart. Allow yourself to sit quietly beside the still water. Stop your perpetual motion and sit with God and talk. He might have something to say to you if you stop long enough to listen.

3. Confess the hidden sins of your heart

“But let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious” (1 Peter 3:4).

God is after your heart, your thoughts and your deepest desires. He will not be satisfied with anything else.

4. Live in true community with others and allow them to truly know you.

How many people actually know you—the private man, not the public man? Do they know about your finances, your marriage, your anger, and your sins?

We need others to help us in our battle against sin (Heb 3:12-13). Paul David Tripp said that Without a community, I will listen to my own lies and buy into my own delusions (Instruments in the Hands, p. 54).

5. Review your calling by God.

Os Guinness said, “Calling is the truth that God calls us to Himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion, [enthusiasm], and direction lived out as a response to His summons and service.”[1] Guinness said, “The notion of calling is vital to each of us because it touches on the modern search for [personal] identity and an understanding of [two crucial questions: who am I? Why am I alive?]”

6. Review the goals and strategies you have for your life

You may have impossible goals or you may lack a practical strategy to fulfill them. Both of them need to be reviewed regularly. Pastors waste huge amounts of time that have NOTHING to do with their calling or objectives. View your life in terms of whole-life stewardship for the glory of God.

7.  Rest in God's grace, love and acceptance of you

You don't have to earn God's love and acceptance. Through the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus to impute to you His righteousness, you are a beloved son of God in whom God is well pleased. You can't earn more favor from God. He doesn't demand more than the substitutionary atonement of His Son Jesus Christ to declare you righteous.

The widow of this deceased pastor urged me to tell pastors to seek the help they need before it is too late. She said the pride of her husband didn’t allow others to know about the chronic pain existent for years in his soul. But, she said, his pride, however, was merely fear he had all of his life. No one knew about his troubled soul—until it was too late.

[1] Os Guinness, The Call (Nashville, TN: Word Publishing, 1998)

Here Matt Chandler sits down to talk about his cancer and leading his church in and through suffering. In this video:

• Pastors - have a biblical theology of suffering before it happens to you and your people
  • If you haven’t studied it and taught it to others, you have no rock underneath you and no hope to offer in the waves of pain and emotion that will ensue
  • We live in a broken, fallen world so suffering will not be escapable
  • Remember suffering is not the only means to sanctification (asceticism)
  • Matt’s personal reflection on living with cancer

Video Quote:

“Lauren asked the doctor, ‘what’s best-case scenario and what’s worst-case scenario?’ He said: ‘Best-case scenario is that God heals you… worst-case scenario, honestly, is that you get killed in a car wreck on your way home today.’

“He was the first one to say to me out loud, ‘nothing’s really changed for you – you just get to be aware that you’re mortal. Everyone is, but they’re just not aware of it.  The gift that God’s given you is that you get to be aware of your mortality.’

“So if this goes bad for me, if my MRI scan shows that … I have a short amount of time, I can talk to my wife, talk to my children, shoot videos… most guys who die in their 30’s kiss their wife goodbye in the morning and never come home. … At least once a year, for the rest of my life, I get the anxiety of ‘am I going to hear today that I only have a couple years to live?’ … It is a gift.”

Thanks to Dustin Neeley, Acts 29 planter in Louisville, KY, for taking the time to get this interview and share it.

Matt updates his health on his blog every Friday.

My friend Yancey has written an accesible book for men of John Owen's treatise of sin. Men either want to deal with sin by tapping into white-knuckle disciplines (because it's manly) or by excusing sin altogether because all men deal with certain sins. Neither attempt to defeat our formidable sins has any success. Yancey (and Owen) will help guide men to stop trying to defeat our sins on our own and start tapping into the gospel's power over sin.

Order multiple copies and give them away.

- Scott Thomas, President, Acts 29 Network

About the Author
Yancey is the Teaching Pastor at Clear Creek Community Church in League City, Texas, a suburb of Houston, where he has served since 1998. He is a husband to Jennefer and father to three sons; Thatcher, Haddon and Beckett. A native Texan, Yancey loves to spend time with his family and friends at his ranch house in the Texas Hill Country. He is also an avid sports fan with a soft spot in his heart for the Houston Astros. Obviously, Yancey is learning much about patience and long-suffering.

He is a graduate of Baylor University (Religion, 1993), Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity with Biblical Languages, 1996) and currently pursuing a Doctor of Ministry at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis. You can find more of Yancey's thoughts and work at his blog, www.YanceyArrington.com.

About the Book
Some have been defeated by certain sins for so long it seems hopeless.We do our best to fight by reading the Bible, praying, and engaging in other spiritual disciplines yet still find ourselves face down on the mat more than we care to admit.

In TAP, author and teacher Yancey Arrington looks to some of history's best sin-fighters, John Owen and the Puritans, to find out why the "Just Do More" approach to the spiritual disciplines may be the wrong strategy to defeating sin. TAP exposes some of the more popular, but ultimately inept approaches and beliefs about sin, repentance and spiritual growth while coaching how to get "into the cage" with our sins and not only survive...but win!

Discussion questions included with each chapter.

Endorsements

Our battle against sin is to the death – the death not of us but of our sins – because Christ triumphed for us two thousand years ago. In his bold new book Tap, Yancey Arrington helps us connect with the victory of Christ right here, right now, in our lives today.
– RAY ORTLUND, JR.
Lead Pastor, Immanuel Church, Nashville,
author of A Passion for God
  
Ancient wisdom made practical. That is what Yancey Arrington has done in this book. He shows us the folly of well-meaning but ineffective sin-turning strategies. Tap shows us the way to really repent and prefer Christ over the sin that would seek to destroy us.
– DARRIN PATRICK
Lead Pastor, The Journey, St. Louis,
author of Church Planter: The Man, The Message, The Mission
  
With wonderful gifts of communication and great biblical insight Yancey Arrington leads us through the realities of our battle against sin and the power of gospel truth. “Belief before behavior” is not simply a slogan, it is the key to victory that Yancey uses to unlock the hope every believer needs (and has) to walk in the strength of God’s grace.
– BRYAN CHAPELL
President, Covenant Seminary, author of Christ-Centered Worship

Yancey Arrington extends the power of hope in the gospel to those whose fight with sin has left them tired, doubtful and defeated.  With Tap in hand, get ready to fight well against sin instead of merely fighting hard.  Get ready to believe again that Jesus made a way for you to defeat the sins that have defeated you.  Get ready for a grateful love to overflow in your newly, liberated life.
– BRUCE WESLEY
Senior Pastor, Clear Creek Community Church, Houston
  
You won't get to the essence of your bout with sin with a more relevant and readable guide than Yancey Arrington's Tap.  Having served alongside of Yancey in local church ministry, I can attest that this weighty, biblical wisdom is brought you by a true fighter himself.
– WILL MANCINI
Founder, Auxano
author of Church Unique
  
Many of us live in a dull stupor, forgetting that we are in a battle with sin. Yancey Arrington awakens us to the fight. Offering a biblically-guided battle plan, Tap trains us to trust and treasure Jesus above all else—this is the only way to victory in this ultimate fight.
– JEFF LAWRENCE
Lead Pastor, Chatham Community Church, Chapel Hill

By John Bryson
Fellowship Memphis

In Stephen Pressfield’s classic “War of Art”, he mentions that the high performers, the creatives, those who produce, those who are effective, etc. eventually have to learn to “be miserable”.

“The artist must be like that marine. He has to know how to be miserable. He has to love being miserable. He has to take pride in being more miserable than any soldier…because this is war, baby. And war is hell.” (68)

I believe this is a powerful idea and one every man, every leader and every change agent must learn in order to perform and push through tough seasons of life and leadership.

Navy Seals teach this...one of my friends at dinner mentioned how two-a-days football practices taught him this...another friend added how Medical school Residency taught him this...I threw in how that was my greatest lesson in training for and running a marathon…you can be miserable, and still move forward, produce and thrive.  God teaches this…see Abraham, Moses, Joseph, David, Paul…take your pick.

What a powerful lesson we should all live!  Could there be a greater gift, on a practical level, to invest in our kids?  How can we train emerging leaders or church planters with this reality?

In our age of spoiled kids, privileged kids, over-indulgence, helicopter parenting, and the lies we tell kids and young men and women that they “can be and do anything they want to be and do”…many are launching “soft” young adults into the world who have no idea how to struggle well or thrive through misery…so they pout and quit and remain a taker, not a giver.

Couple that with ridiculous expectations that a perfect job is waiting on them along with a perfect boss in exactly the city they want to live in along with a paycheck that is more than they’ll need and you have a recipe for a disaster…check most 20-somethings.

The few truly understand, theologically, that we live in a fallen world, this is not heaven (thank God), life is hard, there is much pain, disappointment and misery…but in the midst of that, by God’s grace, we can learn to cultivate and create in the midst of circumstances that will rarely, if ever, be ideal.  

A friend once told me to pinch Gen 1 and 2 in one hand and Rev 19 and 20 in the other.  Those 4 chapters are perfection.  The other 1,185 chapters in the Bible teach us to contend in the midst of a fallen world.

Don’t be a whiner, quitter, or baby and quit pouting or being surprised about “how hard” it is to do what you are doing.  Of course it is.  You are limited as a fallen human in a fallen world.  Learn to cultivate and create…all the while, being miserable.  If you can thrive and stay on mission, especially through the worst of circumstances, you are preparing to be a game changer, a true leader, who can adapt, adjust, and endure.  

Jesus is still our perfect rescuer and our relentless pursuit of Him is still our greatest joy.

Theological Clarity and Application: Equipping Believers in Biblical Doctrine

by Pastor Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29 Network

Theological Clarity and Application is an interactive curriculum of the book, Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005) written by Wayne A. Grudem and edited by Elliot Grudem. Christian Beliefs (160 pages) is a condensed version of Grudem’s book, Bible Doctrine (528 pages), and that itself is a condensed version of Grudem’s award-winning Systematic Theology (1,290 pages).

This guide is designed to equip Christians in the core beliefs of Bible doctrine in preparation for church leadership or to help new Christians to distinguish truth from error. This guide can be used to prepare elders, deacons, small group leaders, Sunday School teachers and all those who want to learn more about maturing in their Christian faith and becoming equipped to give a gentle and respectful answer to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15). An instructor in a class or small group or in a one to one environment can facilitate the questions or it can be utilized as a self-study or as a tool to equip a family in Biblical doctrine.

Theological Clarity and Application seeks to preserve the contents of Grudem’s Christian Beliefs by using questions to stimulate further understanding and application. The participants in this curriculum would benefit by first reading each chapter in Christian Beliefs before answering questions in the workbook. It is also highly recommended to have a respected study Bible and a copy of Grudem’s Systematic Theology available for reference.

Each chapter of this guide corresponds to the chapters in Christian Beliefs. At the end of each section, a prayer text and Scripture memory is included. Additionally, a reference to the corresponding chapters and supplementary readings in Grudem’s Systematic Theology are included as well as further readings by noted conservative scholars and authors who contribute to the specific topic covered in the chapter.

This material is not something that should be rushed through to complete. It is like a refrigerated locker full of meat that must be eaten slowly and systematically one meal at a time, allowing ample time to chew and digest the information and ideally to savor with others. One can complete the study in 20 weeks by covering one chapter a week or complete it in 40 weeks (approximately one school year) by covering one chapter every two weeks. The latter allows for a deeper reading of the accompanying Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem.

This new version is now copyrighted by Zondervan Corporation who graciously continue to allow it to be downloaded free.

Endorsements:

“This is a fantastic resource to theologically develop Christian leaders. Biblical, simple, practical, and helpful.”
Mark Driscoll, Pastor of Mars Hill Church
Founder of Resurgence, Lead Visionary of Acts 29

“To provide compelling leadership for our churches, we need more than good intentions. We need strong theology. In Theological Clarity and Application Scott Thomas has provided us all with a rich resource as we grow together. I commend his work enthusiastically.”
Dr. Ray Ortlund
Immanuel Church, Nashville

“Leaders in Christ’s church today must have more than a superficial knowledge of the faith. If they are to help churches contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, they must be steeped in Scripture and deep in theological insight. Scott Thomas has provided a remarkable guide to assist leaders in their theological growth.”
Dr. Alvin L. Reid
Professor of Evangelism and Student Ministry
Bailey Smith Chair of Evangelism, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

“An insightful and practical training manual that helps make systematic theology accessible for men who aspire to the office of elder.”
Dr. Darrin Patrick
Vice President, Acts 29 Network
Pastor of The Journey Church St. Louis

“Paul’s first piece of advice to his hand-picked church planter Titus was to get elders in the churches in Crete. Church planters often ignore this advice to get many other important things done. This shouldn’t be. Scott Thomas has given us a valuable tool to help us develop men that “hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught” and are “able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9). I look forward to using this book to develop elders to do those things.”
Elliot Grudem
Editor of Christian Beliefs
Acts 29 Network Coordinator

“Scott Thomas’s guide to Grudem’s Christian Beliefs: Twenty Basics Every Christian Should Know, will undoubtedly stimulate discussion about these key doctrines and help drive home their importance to both new and mature Christians, church leaders and members, young and old alike. His questions are razor-sharp and don’t shy away from difficulties and mysteries provoked by these cardinal Christian beliefs.
Dr. Gregg R. Allison
Professor of Christian Theology
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY

“With this resource, Scott Thomas provides a clear and helpful way to prepare believers for dealing with the difficult doctrinal environment of our day. In this simple but effective guide, the leaders and members of your church can be challenged to deepen their understanding of biblical doctrine through serious study and meaningful conversations.”
Dr. Ed Stetzer
President of LifeWay Research

Download the version that best serves your needs:

Copyright ©2009 by Scott Thomas, Copyright ©2010 by the Zondervan Corporation

Watch from Ipad and Iphone here.

By Pastor Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29 Network 

Zac Smith was a 33 year old IT Director at Newspring Church in South Carolina. He died of cancer on May 16, 2010.

Zac was the son of missionary parents, married to Mandy for 11 years and the father of three young children. In May of 2009 this then healthy 32-year-old man was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer. Doctors removed a foot and a half of his colon and a lemon-sized tumor.

Going through this terrible cancer, Zac asked why this was happening to him while he was serving God. He wondered if God was punishing him for his past sins. He didn’t understand why he had cancer, but he knew God was in charge. After three months of chemo, the scan indicated that he was cancer free. A month later, the cancer reappeared in his abdomen. He was devastated and confused.

In his last days, Zac took comfort in Matthew 7:11 where he realized that God gives good gifts to his children. Through cancer, Zac said he became a better follower of Jesus, a better husband, and a better father and a better boss. “If God chooses not to heal me and allows me to die, God is still God and God is good. To God be the glory.”

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11 ESV)

Our prayers are with Mandy Smith and her three children and their extended family, as well as the NewSpring Church family. 

You may not be dealing with anything as severe as cancer, but as long as you live in this sin-filled world, you will experience continual pain, suffering, betrayal, health issues, financial struggles and many other things. Our hope is not in this world. Our hope is not in people. Our hope is not in our family. Our hope is not in our finances or comfort. Our hope is in Jesus Christ who bore our sin, redeemed us from the penalty of sin, and through His resurrection has victoriously provided a way to eternal life.

Take comfort in the words below as you suffer for God’s glory.

“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.  And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.  And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.  For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.  And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?  Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:16-39 ESV)

By Pastor Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29 Network

Pastors and Church leaders are utilizing coaching as a way to address the personal and spiritual and ecclesial issues that they commonly face. The problem is that Christian coaching contributors, to varying degrees, draw their theories and practices from Carl Rogers and other humanistic theoreticians who believe that the client/coachee is basically good and one finds the answers to the maladies of life by looking inside.

Humanistic Roots

Rogers taught that man is only good and corruption enters from the outside. He believed that through self-actualization, [1] man would become all that he is able to become. [2] Rogers advocated a non-directive, client-centered therapy (CCT) to solve a person’s problems. In this approach, the therapist/coach would avoid deliberately directing the client in some way. The CCT has roots in Freudian thinking, according to Rogers. [3]

Humanistic Roots in Christian Coaching

Some of the humanistic coaching methodologies utilized by Christian coaches are seemingly antithetical to the full body of their teaching about the gospel. [4] I think it is the result of a lack of Gospel-centered resources for coaching.  In an attempt to provide much-needed and beneficial coaching for church leaders and pastors, some Christian leaders and authors are drawing from the only source of information available that is seemingly devoid of an explicit gospel centrality.

Coaching that is centered on the client’s ability is contrary to the gospel. Several Christian coaches utilize John Whitmore’s principles found in his book, Coaching for Performance. Whitmore believed to “get the best out of people, we have to believe the best is in there." [5] That's Rogerian and not Christian. Even the author of the book entitled Christ Centered Coaching promotes a client centered coaching approach (ironic as it sounds), “Coaching focuses on promoting discovery…By helping you focus on the untapped potential within you, a coach can guide you to discover that potential and what needs to be done." [6] The author suggests that by discovering our own potential, our problems can be solved because man is inherently good.

No Inherent Potential without the Gospel

The Scriptures and the Gospel of Christ clearly reject this presupposition on multiple occasions.

• Romans 3:10, “As it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one.’”
• Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  
• Jeremiah 17:9,  “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” 
• Ephesians 2:1–3 states that the sinner is “dead in… transgressions and sins.”  In verse 2, we discover that the sinner actively practices evil and that he is enslaved to sin because his natural desire is to gratify the cravings of his sinful nature and follow its desires and thoughts.
• The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy that sinners are taken “captive” by Satan “to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:26). 

Without the intervening work of Christ in our lives, we have no potential–untapped or otherwise.

Gospel Coaching Identifies our Idols

To experience full God-ordained potential, a Christian leader must recognize that he is a forgiven sinner made righteous entirely through Jesus Christ and not through his own merit or ability. Transformation occurs for the Christian when he realizes that behind every wrong action, thought or emotion is unbelief in the Gospel. We can functionally believe that our pleasure, satisfaction and possessions are more worthy of our pursuit than God. We sin when we find meaning and worth in anything except our identity in Christ. David Powlison explained the concept of biblical idolatry and the heart:

Has something or someone besides Jesus Christ taken title to your heart’s trust, preoccupation, loyalty, service, fear and delight? It is a question bearing on the immediate motivation for one’s behavior, thoughts and feelings. In the Bible’s conceptualization, the motivation question is the lordship question. Who or what “rules” my behavior, the Lord or a substitute? [7]

Whereas the humanistic approach says the problem is “out there” and the solution is inside the person (advocated by Carl Rogers and the multitudes who follow his humanistic traditions), the gospel teaches that the problem is “inside the heart and mind” and the answer is found “outside of himself” in Christ.

[1] "The full realization of one's potential" Abraham H. Maslow, Motivation and Personality. 1954. Ed. Cynthia McReynolds. 3rd ed. New York: Harper and Row, Inc., 1987.
[2] Larry Crabb, Basic Principles of Christian Counseling (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1975)
[3] http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Rogers/therapy.htm
[4] Namely, the use of John Whitmore’s GROW approach utilized by several good leaders.
[5] John Whitmore, Coaching for Performance (Clerkenwell, London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2002), p. 13.
[6] Jane Creswell, Christ Centered Coaching (St. Louis, MO: Lake Hickory Resources, 2006), p. 13.
[7] David Powlison, “Idols of the Heart and Vanity Fair” Journal of Biblical Counseling, 13, no. 2 (Winter 1993), p. 35.

Vain Attempts to Solve the Stress of Church Leadership Issues

By Pastor Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29

Christian Smith, Professor and associate chair in the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of the National Study of Youth and Religion researched the religious and spiritual beliefs held by U.S. teenagers.  After hundreds of discussions about religion, God, faith, prayer, and other spiritual practices, they summarily refer to their beliefs as "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism" (MTD). They describe MTD in the following way:[1]

Moralistic – Do Good. 

This is the belief that the Gospel can be reduced to improvements in behavior. This moralistic approach to life believes that central to living a good and happy life is being a good, moral person. That means being nice, kind, pleasant, respectful, and responsible; working on self-improvement; taking care of one’s health; and doing one’s best to be successful.

The Christian leader that is inclined naturally as a prophet[2] has a proclivity toward moralism if he avoids the cross as the means of justification and sanctification. We shame our family and congregation into doing better and we deal harshly with those who fail to perform to the level of acceptable behavior. To deal with the pressures of ministry, a man declares himself as moral in comparison with other Christian leaders. Our standard for morality is Jesus Christ and we cannot attain morality without His righteous imputation (Romans 4:3-8).

Moralism or behavior modification will not help us to gain favor with God or ease our pressure. As Tim Keller has often said, “We are more flawed and sinful than we ever dared believe, yet we are more loved and accepted than we ever dared hope.”[3]

Therapeutic – Be Nice and Smile.

This is the belief that adherents enjoy psychological benefits by participating in something good. This is not a religion of repentance from sin or living as a servant of a sovereign divine. Rather, it is about feeling good, happy, secure, at peace. It is about attaining subjective well being, being able to resolve problems, and being nice to people. It is doing good things so that you feel good about yourself.

Those leaders who are naturally inclined as priests and who avoid the cross will lean toward this solution to the effects of sin. They might be inclined to resign from ministry to find a more favorable environment. This person focuses only on the positives and avoids conflict at all costs—even if compromise of principles is necessary.

Many well-meaning Christian leaders offer therapeutic solutions to the problems we face. They suggest that we need hobbies or retreats or new routines. One pastor said that to deal with the stress, he listens to soothing music, hangs around good friends, gets a massage and shoots guns.[4] Apparently, he shoots guns to compensate for his other less than masculine practices to cope with the pressure. Another pastor said “I take mental holidays while I am at church during the week.” Obviously he was taking one when he wrote that. Finally, another pastor said, “I have a note card that I wrote to myself inside of my desk. It simply says, ‘Lighten up and smile.’” I wonder if that note card works if he or a family member got cancer? These men are giving spiritual advise to hurting congregants who are trying to comprehend the nature of sin and the existence of God. With our pulpits filled with these ideas, it is no wonder moralistic therapeutic deism is thriving in America.

Deism – Just Do it.

This is the belief in a God who exists, created the world, but leaves you alone. In this belief, God is like a Divine Butler who waits for you to call upon Him to intervene or a Cosmic Genie to grant your wishes. If things do not go as one expects, God gets the blame.

Deism is the natural proclivity of the king who avoids the cross. He doesn’t believe in a sovereign God so he has to get a consultant, or get educated or get systems and structures to fix the problems he faces. He has a tendency to work on the superficial structures of his life and to align his life with leadership maxims and pragmatic quick fix ideals. He adapts quickly to methods that are good rather than adopting principles that guide. These may not be the stated principles one verbalizes but functionally this is how he operates.

Christian Smith said that MTD is not an official religion, but that it “is simply colonizing many established religious traditions and congregations in the United States.” The implication of all of this is that the philosophies of MTD are dominating our churches, pulpits, books, and counseling and coaching sessions. 

[1] From Princeton Theological Seminary Institute for Youth Ministry Accessed on May 30, 2010 Here: From a version of “Summary Interpretation: Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,” from Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers by Christian Smith with Melinda Lundquist Denton, copyright © 2005 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
[2] John Frame has identified the verbiage of leader as “Prophet,” “Priest” and “king.” Drew Goodmanson expanded the idea in the following way: PROPHET (strength) - a visionary who has a burning desire to ‘preach the word of God’. Loves to learn, read, study God’s Word and teach/preach it to the people. Sees the normative standards declared by scripture and want all humanity to see this as well. PROPHET (weakness) - A visionary leading people without a plan is difficult. A Prophet can preach ‘Christ-centered‘ (norm, information) rather than ‘gospel-centered‘ messages. He can preach Christ and crush people with the news, law and perfection of Christ. KING (strength) - Know how to take a vision, organize and implement it. Understands systems, planning and organization. KING (weakness) - Without the proper vision or gospel-centeredness a system is worthless. PRIEST (strength) - Tremendous understanding of the needs of the people. Can rally the people, help solve interpersonal problems and counsel. PRIEST (weakness) - Without proper understanding of the norms (God’s Word) and how to apply it, a priest will only be dealing with felt needs. Here: Accessed June 22, 2010
[3] From The Gospel Coalition blog. Accessed 06-05-10 Here: 
[4] citation available, but not publicized. 

By Scott Thomas

Michael Todd Wilson and Brad Hoffmann in their book, Preventing Ministry Failure provided a valuable test to evaluate a pastor’s level of stress.[1]

Personally respond to each statement, using a scale of 0 to 3:

0=Rarely/Never feel this way
1=Occasionally/Sometimes feel this way
2=More often than not feel this way
3=Regularly/Frequently feel this way

Next, have a spouse or a close friend (someone who will be totally honest with you) rate you on the same items based on their perception of you. It doesn’t matter if you agree or disagree with their perception. Just ask of their honest opinion and accept it with humility. Often, others who care for us deeply will see us more objectively than we do.

Total each score at the bottom of its respective column.

Rating

           ____            Total Score (0-120)

Relatively healthy ministers, [according to the authors], will have a small total, typically less than 40. Larger totals should be reason for concern. There is not an arbitrary cutoff for “healthy.”  Distress that remains unchecked grows slowly over time. Therefore, the larger the total the more you might want to be concerned about your general level of distress.

[Scott:] I did this test for myself recently and  asked my wife to independently score what she thought my level of distress was with the same test. I totalled 54 and she scored me at 56. Then, we compared answers, especially the areas with a variance of two points, and we talked about the level of stress I may be feeling and how we can respond accordingly. Interestingly, I do not feel stressed and equally my wife feels as though I am in a healthy state of emotions. For me, a healthy score could be 50 or below (I do have room for improvement), while others may need to operate at a level of 40 or below. The most beneficial thing you can do is to honestly evaluate yourself and then discuss it with your spouse to determine in what areas of your life you are not living with the belief that Jesus is the most satisfying aspiration of your life and that you can rest (calmly) in your identity in Christ.

[1] Michael Todd Wilson and Brad Hoffman, Preventing Ministry Failure (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Books, 2007), p. 111-114.

Every leader needs someone in his or her life that serves as a shepherd. After observing Christian leaders for 30 years, I compiled a list of 16 issues that I believe Christian leaders hide from others and often suffer alone.

Pastors deal with an array of emotions as a result of ministering to a group of people. The stress of preparing sermons, developing leaders, handling boards, raising funds for the budget, caring for the sick and elderly, encouraging the wayward, challenging people to get on mission, bringing unity, reconciling conflicts, conducting worship, handling facility issues, counseling, weddings, funerals, social functions, praying with others and the responsibility of having an exemplary marriage and family.

Some of the statistics that relate to pastors are staggering:[1]

[1] Michael Todd Wilson and Brad Hoffman, Preventing Ministry Failure (Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Books, 2007), pg. 31, except where footnoted differently.
[2] Lifeway Research study of 1,000 pastors: “Pastors, Time-management, Stewardship” 2008, accessed on 5/21/2010 at http://www.lifeway.com/article/169952/
[3] From the Francis A. Schaeffer Institute. Accessed on 5/21/2010 at: http://www.intothyword.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=36562

By Dr Bruce Wesley

Clear Creek Community Church

Church planting exposed my emotional brokenness on two fronts. First, I was angry most of the time. My anger fueled my workaholic tendencies. Church planting required undivided attention and a willingness to correct matters quickly. Since anger actualizes a person, it became my constant companion. I lived just below the boiling point. Most people were unaware of my tendency to boil over. They simply felt that I was driven to make things happen. But my children walked on eggshells at home.

Emotional Detachment

Secondly, two years after we planted Clear Creek Community Church, I recognized a feeling of emotional detachment from my wife and kids. I don’t remember where the question came from, but I asked myself, “What if my wife and children never feel loved by me?” I thought about how much of a failure I would be if I planted a church successfully, but I did not know how to love my wife and kids in a way that they felt cherished, protected and connected to me. What if I reached the end of my one and only life and thousands of people became Christians, but my children wanted nothing to do with me (or Jesus)? That would be such a farce.

I called a friend who could help me work through my junk

I hated the process of talking about what makes me tick. It actually hurt. But I learned so much about anger. Anger is Omni directional. It splashes on the people it was never intended to affect. Of the four basic emotions: mad, sad, glad and scared, anger is the second emotion. We always feel one of the other emotions first, but we jump to anger because it’s the empowering emotion. That made sense to me since I stayed angry in order to stay engaged and solve problems. With anger, it was as if the house was always on fire.

My friend helped me see that my driven life and associated anger stemmed from my performance orientation. I was driven to perform and succeed because I believed successful people are loved. So anyone who stood in my way of success was cutting off my air and, thus, they were met with my wrath in response. I could morph from nice guy to killer in a nanosecond.

It was the gospel that changed me. One day my friend said to me, “There is nothing you can do that will make God love you more and nothing you can do that will make God love you less.” I had said the same thing many times. But when I heard the statement, God’s Spirit opened my heart to grace. I realized that I was trying to earn God’s love through hard work and success. That’s why I was angry and the people I loved were being pushed away. It’s when I learned to preach the gospel to myself that my emotional world changed. Under grace, in light of the gospel, I became self-controlled.

In retrospect, we were exposing the idols in my life. And the gospel continues to set me free more than a decade later. I’m grateful. So are my wife and kids.

By Scott Thomas, Acts 29 President

Every shepherd in the church needs a shepherd. In the last 12 months, many pastors experienced trials and suffering. Some were health-related, others were family issues: major organ transplant, the rebellion of children, psychological damage of an adopted child, marital problems and adult children walking away from the faith. These real issues devastated many of them for several months. Some pastor friends of mine dealt with their own cancer, loss of employment, abandonment by friends and betrayal by fellow elders, and others experienced serious financial setbacks. The pain is acute and in many cases, ongoing. I’m also aware of four suicides by pastors this last year. This is four suicides too many. The devastation on their churches and their families continues to impact the body of Christ in a major way.

The church leader is not exempt from problems. Quite frankly, the supernatural spiritual attack on church leaders is enormous and relentless. Who is shepherding the shepherds? Where do church leaders find their pastoral care? For many church leaders, they have no idea where to find help. Yet, they feel lonely, abandoned, and vulnerable. They deeply desire relationships, but are not sure if they want to share their heart’s deepest concerns with members of the body–even other leaders, so they suffer in silence and as a result are not able to properly shepherd the flock where they have been assigned to oversee. The whole church suffers when the leaders suffer.

In an attempt to help the church leaders, coaching has been introduced to help them to be more productive, strategic, effective, goal reaching and leadership developing. The focus has been on competence, consulting, and mentoring; guiding him or her into a more desirable future. While I think these things are important in their right context, I don’t think coaching, as we know it, is answering the fundamental issue among all pastors and church leaders, namely, who is the pastor to the pastors and who is shepherding their soul?

We can pay $300 an hour for someone to coach us to help make decisions as we lead the church in a myriad of facets: finances, technology, leader development, real estate, human resources and personnel decisions, legally operating a nonprofit organization, budgets, bylaws, buildings, boards, and Bible–if we have time.

What we really need is someone to shepherd our soul so that we can shepherd others by leading them to the chief Shepherd, Jesus Christ. I am proposing that coaching for the church leader looks less like corporate consulting or pop psychology and more like biblical shepherding. I’m proposing that every church leader needs to obtain a shepherd coach to come alongside him with words of truth to encourage, admonish, comfort and help—words drawn from Scripture (and not just corporate world), grounded in the gracious, saving work of Jesus Christ, and presented in the context of a caring relationship. The Shepherd-Coach needs to probe the church leader for compulsive unbelief and selfish motivation, disobedience and sin and he needs to offer godly counsel and encouragement.

This only functions properly with a thorough understanding of the gospel, its central role in the life of a believer and its ongoing work to produce gospel transformation, healthy leaders, and churches reproducing for the glory of God and the good of the mission of Jesus Christ. If the Gospel is not at work in the life of the church leader, then it is highly unlikely that it will be at work in the life of the church.

For the rest of the month, we will explore these principles.

Church planters often know the “latest book to read.” We reference pragmatic books constantly. But are we reading the right books?

Reading Indigestion

As a church planter, it can be difficult to read the books we need to read. We are often overwhelmed with emergency reading—reading in areas of the church where we are deficient (e.g. children’s ministry, church discipline, missional church, counseling, best practices). We scour blogs and books for practical insight, inevitably digesting half-baked ideas and practices.

If we aren’t careful, we can get indigestion by consuming this stuff. Our diet devolves. We get bogged down in best practices instead of diving deeply into the Bible and our culture. What we need is good theology and missiology. For sure, there’s a place for winsome dialog about church planting best practices, church methods, and philosophy of ministry. My Tools for Missional Church is an attempt to contribute to these practical resources.

Reading Integratively

The danger, however, is reading practically apart from grounding our practice in theology. Snapping up the latest best practices, whether they are missional communities or multi-site video venues, should never be done haphazardly. As elders we are to watch our life and doctrine closely to make sure that theology and practice are closely intertwined, both for ourselves and for our flock (1 Tim 4:16). We should read and lead integratively.

I find that my church passion, insight and practice are helped by reading deeply—taking in good information and reflecting on its application. Cultivating good reading is a disciplined process that is learned over time. Fortunately, I’ve had a great missiological mentor to help me along the way, Dr. Timothy Tennent. Tennent now serves as the President of Asbury Seminary and studied under Dr. Andrew Walls, “the most important person you don’t know”.

Fortunately, Tennent is a great model of theology and practice. He is both a theologian and a practicioner—tithing a third of his life to church planting and theological education in India. Tennent advocates a missiology done in “space and time,” meaning theology should be done in dialog with church history and contextualization. This has a way of keeping our best practices honest, squaring them with theological history and our cultural context.

As theologian-missionaries, we should all strive to cultivate and practice a theology that is missiologically oriented and a missiology that is theologically grounded. Not all missiologists follow this difficult, interdisciplinary path. Sometimes the integration of theology and missiology is up to us, the practitioners. We possess the high calling of shepherding the church in truth, wisdom, and love. And a little help can go a long way.

Reading Intentionally

To offer a little help, I’d like to recommend some good missiology. Missiology is the great integrating theological discipline, bringing biblical exegesis, systematic, biblical, and practical theology together for the sake of gospel advancement.

In no particular order, here are some missiologists I have found particularly helpful. Some are more theologically reflective than others. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but it is an honest one. I have read multiple books by most of these authors. I certainly don’t agree with everything they teach, but that’s why I like them so much. Sometimes they change my mind for the good. Other times they strengthen my position. Here’s a key work by each author:

• Andrew Walls – The Missionary Movement in Christian History
• Paul Hiebert – Anthropological Insight on Missiological Issues
• Chris Wright – The Mission of God           
• Ralph Winter – The Perspectives on the World Christian Movement
• Chuck Kraft – Culture, Communication, & Christianity
• Lamin Sanneh – Whose Religion is Christianity?
• David Bosch – Transforming Mission
• Tim Tennent - World Missions: A Missiology for the 21st Century (Kegel, 2010)
• Leslie Newbigin – Foolishness to the Greeks

No doubt I’ve left some good ones out, especially the newer missiologists like Ed Stetzer, Darrel Guder, Alan Hirsch, and so on. One advantage of the above list is that it is international (though representation from the Majority Church is scarce). After all, the newer missiologists have all read these older missiologists anyway. Just check their footnotes and follow them to deeper reading. Strive to do theology in “space and time” by reading integratively. Avoid reading indigestion by making your practice theological and, in turn, make your theology practical. 

-Continued

We Fear of Peoples’ Opinions

Fifth, Ambassadors who grow fearful of people can start changing the message and misrepresenting the King.  There is a reason why the saying “don’t shoot the messenger” has become a bit proverbial.  Messengers do get shot you know.  Throughout the ages Jesus and his gospel have been polarizing eliciting joy and wonder as well as ridicule and guile.  When people mock you as a messenger or disregard the message you preach will you adjust the gospel to tickle the ears of this world? (2 Timothy 4:1-5) Will you continue to reach out to others and share the gospel? If you give way to fear, you will go AWOL.  Jesus told us that all authority on heaven and on earth have been given to him and that we preach good news on his orders (Matthew 24:14, Matthew 28:18-20). We need to put a cup on and stay in the fight even when it gets tough; we must not compromise.

We Do Not Realize the Importance of Our Call

Sixth, an ambassador who does not realize the importance of his call will neglect it and go AWOL.  God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the wise.  God has chosen us for this high calling to be his ambassadors.  This was his choice to use us. God does not have a “B team” in his Kingdom and calls all his people to represent him and share the gospel.  If we forget this we might despise ourselves and feel unusable by the King.  This might just keep us out of the game.  God in his wisdom saves and calls whomever he chooses; we should joyfully respond and stay in the game.

We are not Equipped and Trained

Seventh, ambassadors can be AWOL when they simply do not know what do to in the mission.  Thankfully, God has given us apostles, prophets, pastor-teachers, evangelists to equip the church for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-16).  A church should always train ambassadors to represent the King and preach his message. We should be people who proclaim the gospel with our lips and reflect it in good works.  Churches that neglect this calling are themselves AWOL.  When a church no longer believes that Jesus is King and that his gospel is the only hope for sinners, then it is no longer an embassy or outpost for Jesus. It is sadly a dying relic of a bygone age.  Church leader, don’t be AWOL, the implications are massive and you are accountable to the King (Hebrews 13:17, James 3:1).

Today, I pray you walk in the conscious realization of your ambassadorship and that you joyfully represent for Jesus.  As we share his message we will see the gospel’s power to save. God is faithful and is always calling new ambassadors to his team who wish to live for his glory and the good of others by extending hope through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Are you in? Are you AWOL? Let’s repent and get back to work.

Article originally appeared on Power of Change see website for complete article licensing information.

By, Reid S. Monaghan

One of my favorite passages in Scripture comes at the close of the fifth chapter of 2 Corinthians.  It highlights both God’s transformative work in our lives and his missional calling on us in the world.

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

I have always found it a bit amazing that God chooses to transform rebellious, sinful and wayward people into new creations who he then calls to be his ambassadors. An ambassador is one who both represents for a kingdom or nation and carries the message of that realm to others.  As Jesus’ church we represent the Kingdom of God while living among the kingdoms of this world and we bring the saving gospel message to those around. That message is that God forgives sin, removes guilt, turns away wrath, frees us from his just condemnation, makes us clean and makes us part of his family. This is all through the work of Jesus on the cross.  God saves us from sin, death and hell and creates a new community out of such people.  In light of our calling and message, I find it puzzling that Jesus’ followers can sometimes be AWOL from this mission. The following are seven simple ways I think we can become AWOL Ambassadors.

We Won’t Leave Our Own Country

First, if we won’t leave our comforts to go to others we will be AWOL Ambassadors. We can like it too much at home, where we think it is safe, where we don’t have to leave our preferences, our comforts and actually be among people who are different from us.  We like our world where everyone looks the same, talks the same and is easy to be with.  We would rather stay here than go there for the sake of the gospel. AWOL.

We Don’t Like Other People

Second, if we don’t love other people we will remain AWOL from our calling.  After all, “they” have different beliefs, opinions, and habits than we do.  “They” might offend my sensibilities and their lives are messy; I really do not want to love them. In fact, I pretty much don’t like those folk.  If we become involved with those outside of the church they might inconvenience us and mess up our world.  Thank God Jesus did not think this way or he would have never taken on flesh, walked among us and died for us.

We Bring the Wrong Message

Third, if an ambassador brings the wrong message, she will be AWOL from her duty.  So many people are hearing a message from the church that is not the message of the Bible. Our message is convoluted by our actions: God doesn’t like people, neither do we. We want to take over the government. This is what some people “hear” from the church today in America. Is that really our message? Or others teach that God is open-minded, tolerant and doesn’t care about sin and evil doing. Is this really our message? Our message is that God is holy and is the righteous judge of sin and sinners AND he saves them by his grace through the work of Jesus on the cross.  Are we bringing the wrong message? If so, we are AWOL in our ambassadorship delivering the messages of men as if they were the message of God.

We Represent the Wrong Kingdom

Fourth, an ambassador for Jesus represents his Kingdom not the Kingdom of George Bush or Barak Obama.  Christians can become AWOL when they represent for party politics as if that was the Kingdom of Jesus. I am not saying that our message and allegiance to Jesus will not have implications for our political philosophies and involvement. I am saying that an Ambassador who thinks Jesus would only vote Republican or Democratic or Libertarian or Green or whatever is already AWOL.  Remember what our King said to us “My Kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:33-38)

(continued...)

By: Jonathan Dodson, Pastor of Austin City Life

Advance & Retreat of the Church

Over a century ago, Church historian Kenneth Latourette (1884-1963), pointed out that the church’s history is one of advance and retreat, advance and retreat. This oscillating influence over the centuries has resulted in various, new expressions of the Christian faith across time and cultures. It is exciting to read of and witness these current expressions of the gospel in Africa and Asia.

The Incomplete Glory of God

These new expressions of Christian faith in the advance of the church are, in fact, an expansion of God’s glory.

But isn’t God’s glory un-expandable and complete? Not according to Jonathan Edwards in The History of Redemption. Edwards writes:

God looks on the communication of himself, and the emanation of the infinite glory and good that are in himself to belong to the fullness and completeness of himself, as though he were not in his most complete and glorious state without it. Thus the church of Christ is called the fullness of Christ: as though he were not in his complete state without her…

God in an incomplete state? His glory not full? Sounds awfully unorthodox. What is Edwards saying?

Missional Church is Not Enough

If Edwards is correct, the full expression of God’s glory can only be completed through the history of redemption. The history of redemption cannot be completed until “the end has come,” and the end will not come until “the gospel of the kingdom has been preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations” (Matt 24:14). God’s glory, then, is expanded by expressions of the gospel in the many cultures of the world. The church must advance. His glory hangs on it.

However, the church also retreats. Passion for mission wanes. Even with the resurgence of missional ecclesiology, we fail in sharing the gospel in our own cultures. Add to that: 80% of deployed missionaries are sent to areas already evangelized. Roughly 30% of the globe is unevangelized and untargeted by “missional” churches. 1.6 billion people are not hearing the gospel in 38 different nations. There are still at least 13,000 unreached people groups equalling millions who have not heard a first proclamation of the gospel.

The Missional Church is not enough, because when the focus of the Church is mission, we are destined to retreat, tire out, and fail.  What then are we to do? Surrender and blend into our cultures with the hope of missional memory loss?

Completing the Glory of God

We need a greater, more captivating motivation. Imagine this: if our missional endeavors rely on something more certain than our oscillating passion for the advance of the gospel, then there is hope.

If the history of redemption will not come to a close until God’s glory has been completed, then the assurance of mission starts and ends, not with the church but with God’s commitment to his own glorious expansion. It follows that to be increasingly motivated for mission is to be increasingly captivated by the God of expanding glory and beauty. Missional church is not enough. What we need is captivation with God’s glory, and a God who is relentless in showing his glory to his people throughout history. This glory is complete. From this place of awe the mission of the church will advance and God’s glory will be completed.

Sources: 

Kenneth Latourette, A History of Christianity, Vol. I (Peabody: Prince Press, 2003)

David Barrett & Todd Johnson, World Christian Trends: Global Diagram 34 (Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2001). See also: http://www.gordonconwell.edu/ockenga/globalchristianity/gd/gd34.pdf

Jonathan Edwards, The End for Which God Created the World, in Ethical Writings, vol.8 of the Works of Jonathan Edwards, ed. Paul Ramsey (New Haven: Yale Press, 1989)

Gerald R. McDermott in "What If Paul Had Been from China?" in Max Stackhouse, ed. No Other Gods Before Me? (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001)

Jeff Vanderstelt is Vice President of the Acts 29 Network, and has been sharing with Scott Thomas on how his church engages their communities on mission. Here Jeff shares about living in such a way that unbelievers ask questions that only the gospel can answer.

1 Peter 2:12 – Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

1 Peter 3:15 – But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.

In this video:

1. Live a life that can’t be understood unless the gospel is true.

2. An example of gospel-living: radical generosity in tipping at restaurants.

3. Consistent, gospel-centered living in all areas of life.

4. Avoiding moralism in good deeds.

5. Effective discipleship occurs when leaders are on mission with their people.

6. An example of gospel-centered living: eating as worship.

7. Church busy-ness kills church mission.

Jeff Vanderstelt: “For example, radical generosity – people who tip waiters way beyond what they deserve – requires a gospel explanation. Go to the same restaurant regularly, and even if they’re having a terrible day and their service reflects that, blow them away. Give them an amazing tip. Do that a few times. Eventually they’re going to realize that something’s different about you – because nobody tips according to bad service, they only tip if they got something good for it. But the gospel tells us: we got something good that we don’t deserve for our bad service. That’s gospel-tipping… it gives me an opportunity to talk about the gospel.”

How to Share Your Faith – Jeff Vanderstelt

Jeff previously shared about living in community and on mission. Here Scott asks Jeff “how do you train your people to share the gospel?”

1. Confidence in the gospel is primary. If your people haven’t understood the gospel and its power personally, specifically and currently, they cannot have confidence to share it. Look for places where the gospel has not come to bear in your peoples’ lives.

a. Past Tense Gospel: Justification. Do your people struggle with guilt and shame? Do they truly understand their justification?

b. Present Tense Gospel: Sanctification. Do your people struggle with living victoriously on a daily basis? Do they understand the power of the gospel for today?

c. Future Tense Gospel: Glorification. Are your people living in many fears and afraid of the future or ‘unknown’? Do they understand God’s promise and security of a glorious end?

2. Develop your people in a biblical theology – to know the story of the Bible and how it all points to Jesus.

a. If your people can learn to tell the story of the Bible orally, they’ll be able to share it with others.

b. Teach your people how to identify Jesus as the main point of each of the smaller stories in the Bible, they will learn how to contextualize the gospel in their current situations and stories.

c. Teach your people the basic gospel story-line: creation, fall, redemption, restoration. Help them to understand their own smaller story in this vein – to identify their own false gospels and see how the true gospel of Jesus is the real answer.

3. Teach others to declare the gospel through the sacrament of Communion.

a. Every Sunday, your members should be reminding each other of the gospel at Communion.

b. Practice with one another as believers, and grow in competence to share the gospel with those who don’t understand or believe in Jesus at all.

Jeff Vanderstelt: “Your people have to have confidence in the gospel. Otherwise, they won’t share it. If they don’t believe it’s the power of God to save because they haven’t experienced it changing them, they’re not going to talk about that.”

Scott Thomas and Jeff Vanderstelt talk about living lives on mission together.

Jeff Vanderstelt is Vice President of the Acts 29 Network, and has been sharing with Scott Thomas on how his church engages their communities on mission. Here he tells the story of how his Missional Community recently walked with a man named Clay to faith in Jesus. This is a great story of what it looks like to have the whole church on mission!

Scott Thomas and Jeff Vanderstelt talk about living lives on mission.

Soma Communities in Tacoma, Washington, is a church that calls every person to embrace the command of Jesus to make disciples. Here Jeff Vanderstelt, church planter of Soma and Vice President of Acts 29, discusses how this is done in their church. In this video:

1. Every member a disciple-maker.

2. Missional Communities as missionary teams.

3. Missional Community covenants – shared distinctives, customized mission field.

4. When every member is a missionary, spiritual maturity progresses by necessity.

5. Advice for existing churches without missional DNA that want to change.

Scott Thomas: “As men plant churches, how important is this issue of calling their people to become missionaries?”

Jeff Vanderstelt: “I think it’s absolutely imperative. If the church planter doesn’t call his people to be missionaries themselves, then he becomes the missionary and it’s not any different than a church sending someone to another part of the world and they just pray for him and send him money... Sunday will become a report of your pastor being the missionary for the church, and everyone will applaud it and be happy that he’s doing it for them. . . . But the rest of the church won’t grow up – that’s the problem - because only one person really needs the power of the Spirit, needs to know the gospel, and needs to grow up into maturity.”

By Pastor Scott Thomas, President Acts 29 Network

We are examining the characteristics of a missional church.

• Part 1 is found here where characteristics one and two are discussed.
• Part Two is found here and examines the third characteristic.
• Part Three is here and examines the fourth and fifth characteristics.
• Part Four is here and explores the sixth characteristic.
• Part 5 is here where characteristics seven and eight are described.

His mission is nothing short of the redemption of peoples and cultures, the renewal of all creation for his own glory. God’s great, burdensome, and glorious mission is the renewal of all creation! God, in his mercy has invited us to participate in his mission.

The community of believers provides opportunities and they practice hospitality for living out the gospel in word and deed with one another. Church leaders must set the pace for pursuing the mission of Jesus. As Jack Miller noted, churches become “religious cushions” that tranquilize the guilt-ridden person with the religious warmth of its liturgy.[1] Jack said the contributors of these religious cushion churches are the following:

• Quiet acceptance of churchly dullness as normative
• Fear of extinction
• Extreme sensitivity to the negative opinions
• Demand for comfort – a nice church with a nice pastor preaching a nice sermon about a nice Jesus.
• Unrestrained Gossip

Members of a missional church are expected to serve on the frontlines of the mission. The missionary emphasis of the body overtakes the self-serving individual and they either hide, escape or they get trained in living life as a missionary across the street, across the seas and across the socio-economic, ethnic, religious and political boundaries.

10.  Godly, biblically qualified elders lead a missional church (1 Timothy 3; Titus 1; Eph 4).

While most descriptions of a missional church do not include this characteristic, I don’t think it is possible to maintain a missional emphasis without what Jack Miller calls “pacesetting pastors” who continually remind the body of the mission for which Jesus has called and the Holy Spirit has empowered to pursue until the return of Jesus.

Titus was commissioned by Paul to establish the churches with qualified elders in Crete to rebuke false teachers, teach sound doctrine, establish godly homes, preach the gospel of grace, do good works, confront rebellion and multiply followers of Jesus. The key to straightening out the crooked churches in Crete was the establishing of qualified elders to guide the rest of the body toward the gospel.

Elders are to be above reproach in every area of their life.[2] The gospel will never take root in the body until it takes root in the leader’s lives. Spurgeon writes, “Brothers, I beseech you, keep the old gospel, and let your souls be filled with it, and then may you be set on fire with it!” [3] A church will never be missional until its elders live missional lives in front of their followers.

The real value of an elder in a missional church is the equipping of non-vocational leaders to lead and share responsibility for the mission and for the discipling of new believers (Eph. 4:11-12). Reproducing churches unleash the whole body to exercise their gifts (1 Cor. 12:8-10) and encourage them to lead others on mission to proclaim the gospel in new ways and new places in the community. New believers are incorporated quickly in the mission and receive on-the-job training through an organic mentorship rather than top-down control.

Missional or Biblical?

Looking over the description of a missional church, one understands this word to be equated with the pattern set forth in the Bible. The church established by the Apostles was a church on mission. It was missional. It seems that the evangelical church just needed a new word like missional to describe the “Biblical church.”

Complete Ten Characteristics of a Church on Mission is found here.

[1] C. John Miller, Outgrowing the Ingrown Church (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989), p. 20 ff.
[2] At least 17 characteristics are found as descriptors of Paul’s general heading of “above reproach” in 1 Timothy 3:1-7 and Titus 1:5-9 with additional thoughts from 1 Peter 5:1-3 and Acts 20:18-35.
[3] C.H. Spurgeon, An All Round Ministry (London: Banner of Truth Trust, 1972), p. 126.

By Pastor Scott Thomas, President Acts 29 Network

We are examining the characteristics of a missional church.

• Part 1 is found here where characteristics 1 and 2 are discussed.
• Part Two is found here and examines the third characteristic.
• Part Three is here and examines the fourth and fifth characteristics.
• Part Four is here and explores the sixth characteristic.

“Christ wants to create ‘a people’ not merely isolated individuals who believe in Him.”[1] A disciple is a Spirit-empowered follower of Jesus who is united with a gospel community on mission for all peoples for the glory of God. A recent book by Dan Kimball entitled, “They Like Jesus But Not the Church” is illustrative of our culture’s skepticism with churches and Christians. The culture is not seeing Jesus in the church and frankly Christians are not seeing Jesus in the church and are not motivated to engage in authentic gospel community because they have little reference for it outside of the Bible's descriptions (Acts 2:42-45; 4:31-35).

God is a missionary God and God’s primary missionary method is his covenant people. Mankind was made in the image of the triune God. God created us in that image as persons-in-community to be the means by which He would reveal His glory. As a result of sin, we grasp for isolation from God and His church.  When the local church allows this proclivity for seclusion, these image bearers of God fall short of His glory.

The missional church moves out across the nations as a movement of people empowered and sent by Jesus while drawing people through its common life as a God-glorifying movement of believers and unbelievers alike back to Jesus. Steve Timmis writes, “Our identity as human beings is found in community. Our identity as Christians is found in Christ’s new community. And our mission takes place through communities of light.”[2]

What community looks like is unique in every setting, just as every family is unique because there are a lot of variables and moving parts. But the family/community works out the details of their common mission because they are equally committed to each other and to their mission as Christ followers. Those in community do not act in isolation, but rather sacrifice their schedules, time, money, conveniences and individuality to serve the need. It is foreign to us that the believers in the first church sold their possessions and with singleness of heart gave to those in need. This deep unity and collaboration among the first church ignited the gospel proclamation that turned the world upside down. 

The Book of Acts describes the Christian community in multiple ways that may lead to even greater deeds than are described in this canonical record.

8. The goal of a missional church is to walk in community with others as Jesus pursues them in His own way and timing (1 Cor. 9:20-23).

This gospel community includes believers and unbelievers. Jesus was criticized for including non-believers in community.

“The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” (Matt. 11:19)

Judas was a part of the disciples even as Jesus spoke about letting the tares grow up with the wheat (Matt. 13:24-30; cf. 1 Cor. 2:19). He spoke to the woman at the well when no one else would dare (John 4). Our interaction with unbelievers is not for the saving of mankind or for the building up of our church, but rather for the glory of God.

The witness of Jesus to the lost woman of Samaria can be summarized in following way and provides for us a basis for our friendship with sinners.[3]

Look over the list of eight ways Jesus approached this woman and examine your heart to see if you interact with lost people in a similar manner.

[1] Sinclair Ferguson, Grow in Grace (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1989), p. 67.
[2] Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 2008), p. 50.
[3] Alvin Reid, Evangelism Handbook (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2009), p. 63.

By Pastor Scott Thomas, President Acts 29 Network

We are examining the characteristics of a missional church.

• Part 1 is found here where characteristics 1 and 2 are discussed.
• Part Two is found here and examines the third characteristic.
• Part Three is here and examines the fourth and fifth characteristics.

The life of Jesus was empowered, led and directed by the Holy Spirit. To be dependant upon the Holy Spirit means to live like Jesus as opposed to some strange mystical experience. Jesus gave the Great Commission, as we commonly know it, and He included the prerequisite of Spirit-empowerment to accomplish it. In Luke’s gospel, for example, Jesus explains the gospel to His disciples and tells them that as witnesses of His resurrection, they are to proclaim it to others. But He told them to stay in the city until they were clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). Jesus promised that He would empower the church through His Holy Spirit as they make disciples (cf. Acts 1:8). “The promise of God’s presence often accompanied his call to service in the Old Testament (e.g. Ex. 3:12; Josh. 1:5); it is not so much a cozy reassurance as a necessary equipment for mission.” [1]

The Great Comforter

The Great Commission comes equipped with the Great Comforter. This promise is fulfilled by the provision of the Holy Spirit—the missionary Spirit sent to witness to the coming of the Kingdom of God (John 13-17; Acts 2:17). Lesslie Newbigin again offers some succinct instruction for us here. “Mission first of all belongs to the Spirit who is sent by Jesus and the church is taken up into that work…Mission flows in the following way: the Father sends the Son; the Son sends the Church and equips it with the Spirit to enable it to carry out its mission…God does not cease to participate in the missionary enterprise with the sending of Jesus. He does not initiate mission with the sending of Jesus and then leave the missionary work to be carried on by a human institution that followed the pattern of Christ without the help of the Spirit.”[2] Newbigin continues, “The active agent of mission is a power that rules, guides, and goes before the church: the free, sovereign, living power of the Spirit of God. Mission is not just something that the church does; it is something that is done by the Spirit, who is himself the witness.”[3]

A missional church can effectively reflect the power of the gospel (Romans 1:6) as it depends on the Spirit of God to empower the body for evangelism, discipleship and gospel proclamation rather than depending on big events or buildings or programs or methods utilized elsewhere to draw unbelievers to an event. The Apostle Paul explained to the church situated in the pagan, sinful city of Thessalonica that this “gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction” (1 Thes. 1:5; cf. 1 Peter 1:12). Paul was saying, “I did the speaking but it was not I. I was used by the Holy Spirit to accomplish the work He intended.”[4]

Some churches put their emphasis on the studying of the Word. While important that we feed our souls, these are typically the intellectual theologians that spend great hours reading and studying in often arguing the finer points of doctrine resulting in pride of knowledge but rarely conversions. Other churches put a majority of their emphasis on the Holy Spirit and are often more interested in an experience than the authoritative Word. The Holy Spirit uses the Word and the Spirit of truth for understanding. A missional church proclaims the truth with boldness through dependence on the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 4:29-33).

[1] The Gospel According to Matthew, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (TNTC; IVP; Eerdmans, 1985).
[2] Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret: Sketches for a Missionary Theology (London: SPCK, 1978), p. 56.
[3] Lesslie Newbigin, _A Word in Season: Perspectives on Christian World Missions (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), pp. 21 ff.
[4] Martyn Lloyd Jones, Courageous Christianity (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 2001), p. 191.

By Pastor Scott Thomas, President Acts 29 Network

We are examining the characteristics of a missional church.

Part 1 is found here where characteristics 1 and 2 are discussed. Part Two is found here and examines the third characteristic.

The missional church is more than a gathering of people with a missions program (or one that considers itself “mission’s minded”), or has a financial commitment to mission works or a mission’s committee. The missional church is vested in God’s mission to a specific place, people and a particular time in history (Acts 17:15). Mark Driscoll said, “If the gospel is the seed of God’s powerful work in our lives and world, then the culture is the soil into which it is planted.” He further adds, “Understanding the soil helps the missional church know which weeds of moral sin and theological error will need to be pulled up so as not to choke out the growth of the gospel and church.”[1]

The Challenge of Gospel Contextualization

Missionary to India, Lesslie Newbigin stated that contextualization has been discussed among those involved in foreign missions for years as a necessary means to proclaiming the gospel into the language and culture in a way to “make sense” to those whom the gospel is being addressed.[2] Newbigin’s point is that we now face the same challenge of contextualization in our post-Christian western world—our neighbors, friends, co-workers and even family. The irony is that our older churches that applauded the non-compromised contextualization of the gospel by the foreign missionaries that they sent with prayers and money are the same churches that now struggle with that missionary approach in our Western culture with peoples from diverse ethnicities, languages, religions, socio-economic backgrounds and ages.

We redemptively engage peoples and cultures, by sharing, showing, and embodying Christ in our context. This includes evangelism, cultural engagement, counseling, empathy, and celebration. It’s bringing the renewing power of the whole gospel into the whole city through the whole church. It is not realigning our Bible to the culture, but by God’s grace realigning the culture to the Bible.

Mission is a characteristic of God.

Mission is a characteristic of God. He’s a sending God. He sends his Son and sends his Spirit to renew the world. The Son sends His believers by the authority of God as He was sent. So, mission doesn’t start and end with us. It starts and ends with God.

“I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth” (John 17:14-19).

5. Boldly & intentionally promotes the gospel through making disciples and church planting globally through collaborative expressions of mercy and generosity.

A missional church is not simply focused on the growth of neither the single local church nor its continued physical presence in the community. Its goal is to make disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:18-20). When a church focuses on its own promotion, it has a tendency to use disciples to build a church, resulting in resentment. Conversely, a church that focuses on making disciples will use the corporate church to promote the gospel to as many people as possible—both local and global or as Dr Bob Roberts refers as glocal transformation. A missional church sees church planting as the outworking of mission in a community. Its mission work is the establishing of churches glocally. When our mission mindset is to promote the building of churches in multiple contexts, we are more prone to collaborative work with other churches and with a heart of generosity for the advancement of the gospel in all nations.

[1] Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, Vintage Church (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 2008), pp. 223-224.

[2] Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1989), pp. 141-142.

By Pastor Scott Thomas, President Acts 29 Network

We are examining the characteristics of a missional church.

Part 1 is found here where characteristics 1 and 2 are discussed.

Worship is the central act by which the community corporately celebrates with joy and thanksgiving both God’s presence and promised future.[1]  A missional church worships God in an authentic way as we worship a Savior who left us here to be captured by His love and pursue His mission through His redemption. The missional church encourages what Tim Keller calls “evangelistic worship”—making worship comprehensible to unbelievers leading to commitment.[2]

Principles for Public Missional Worship

Bob Kauflin reminds us the principles for public missional worship. “Paul challenges the Corinthians to take unbelievers into account when they gather. He insists that they keep the unbeliever in mind as they exercise spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 14:23-25)…Whether it’s raised hands, formal liturgies, or unspoken standards, we need to see them through the eyes of an unbeliever.” [3] Kauflin suggests that to significantly impact the unbelievers in a worship gathering, the following should be present:

Why Preaching is Suffering in the Church

Preaching is central to the missional church worship experience. The Reformers were convinced that the heart of true biblical worship was the preaching of the Word of God. Al Mohler said that preaching is suffering a loss in today’s church due to six factors.[4]

Preaching of the word has life-transforming power producing repentance, restitution, confession, reconciliation, comfort, joy, encouragement, wisdom as well as indignation, anger and offense by the stubborn hearted person. The missional church seeks to make disciples with Spirit-empowered preaching of God’s truth or as Martyn Lloyd Jones said, “Preaching is theology coming through a man that is on fire.”[5] John Piper described preaching. He said 1) the goal of preaching is the glory of God. 2) The ground of preaching is the cross of Christ and 3) the gift of preaching is the power of the Holy Spirit. [6]

The missional worship gathering additionally incorporates public reading of Scripture, prayer for the glory of God to be expressed through the suffering body and community, and response to the Spirit of God and the word of God expressed demonstrably with undefined regularity through baptism and communion. Although the worship gathering is not primarily for us, the body is instructed how to participate in the diverse liturgy as committed followers of Jesus.

Elements of Authentic Worship

The missional church experiences authentic worship by beginning with a true vision of the living God (Isaiah 6:1-8).

To be continued...

[1] Empirical Indicators of a Missional Church, Gospel and Our Culture Newsletter ( http://www.gocn.org/resources/newsletters/1998/08/vol-10-no-3-september-1998 (accessed 10-18-09)

[2] http://www.redeemer2.com/resources/papers/evangelisticworship.pdf

[3] Bob Kauflin, Worship Matters (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 2008), p. 203.

[4] R Albert Mohler, Jr.,He is Not Silent (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2008), pp. 16-21.

[5] Iain Murray, Lloyd-Jones: Messenger of Grace (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2008), p. 22.

[6] John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), p. 23.

[7] R Albert Mohler, Jr., pp. 28-38.

By Pastor Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29 Network

The Tension to be on Mission

The church in every generation is called to bring the good news of the kingdom into a spiritual encounter with the aspirations and challenges of that culture where it resides. Simply, believers are on a mission from God in their respective communities. To engage today's culture with the gospel requires the formation of a gospel community - the church of Jesus Christ - to be a visible representation, witness and engaging instrument of the sovereign outreaching hand of God in our culture. In many churches this may require a new vision, new ways of thinking, and new patterns of behavior (Matt. 9:16-17). This means pre-believers are encouraged to be included in the context of all of the church functions as they make small steps toward Christ (Luke 19:10).

Since we are in Christ, we have a missionary identity. We are adopted into a missionary family. We serve a missionary God. Mission becomes part of our identity, because our Father is a missionary God and we resemble Him as a child of God. So, the church is a missionary church, with missionary people, that do missionary things. It is who we are and it is also what we do. Mission is not something we tack on to the list of options as a Christian. To be Christian is to be on mission. It’s who we are and it is what we do.

Ten Characteristics of a Missional Church

1.     The missional church is committed to the authoritative, infallible, inerrant, inspired Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:14-17; Acts 2:42).

The authority of all missionary work is founded in the truth that God has a clear word to communicate to the world. The Bible’s authoritative word—not just the casual observance and even religious obeisance—guides the missional church toward understanding the person and work of Jesus throughout all of Scripture (Luke 24:44).

Although this is admittedly a unique description of missional, it cannot be an assumed reality. I think the distinguishing difference between emergent and emerging is the view of the Bible. I no longer use the words but to clarify, a missional (emerging) church is motivated by the words of God to proclaim the timeless gospel in a timely method. David Garrison said the one thing that keeps the reproduction of churches from fragmenting into a thousand heresies like a crack splintering across a car windshield is the authority of God’s word. Garrison believes this is one of the characteristics of every church planting movement.[1]

2.     Understands the centrality of the gospel expressed in all aspects of a person’s life (1 Cor. 15:1-4; 2:2; Gal. 6:14).

In Galatians 2:14, Paul deals with Peter’s racial pride and cowardice by saying their “conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel.” The Christian life is a process of renewing every dimension of our life—spiritual, psychological, corporate, social—by thinking, hoping, and living out the implications of the gospel. The gospel is to be applied to every area of thinking, feeling, relating, working, and behaving. The missional church is not dependant on programs or methods, but rather by the transforming power of the gospel. GOCN began with the indicator of a missional church as one that proclaims the gospel audibly and visibly. [2]  “Being gospel-centered means being both word-centered and mission-centered,” says Steve Timmis, Director of Acts 29 Western Europe. [3]  The gospel is not separated from the authority and effectiveness of the Word and is not devoid of practicing the gospel through mission living. It was Newbigin who described the local congregation as ‘the hermeneutic of the gospel’.[4] Newbigin’s idea is very simple: people understand the gospel by looking at the people of God. It is the church in time and space - the local church - that expresses the gospel and interprets it within its own cultural setting. 

Through the gospel, He rescues us from a life of self-serving mission to participate in a life of God-serving, Christ-glorifying mission. We are remade into missional people by the redeeming work of the Spirit and the Son.

[1] David Garrison, Church Planting Movements (Midlothian, VA: WIGTake Resources, 2003), p. 182.

[2] Empirical Indicators of a Missional Church, Gospel and Our Culture Newsletter ( http://www.gocn.org/resources/newsletters/1998/08/vol-10-no-3-september-1998 (accessed 10-18-09)

[3] Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 2008), p. 33.

[4] Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1989)

By Pastor Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29 Network

I believe Missional is one of the most misunderstood words used in Evangelicalism today. The term is used in a way to mean anything that is evangelistic or contextualized ministries or edgy and sometimes just defined in the “cool” category (we’re "missional" because we play indie rock, have a soul patch and worship in a dimly-lit warehouse with candles and artwork). Its meaning gets lost in the method by which it is employed. For mainline churches, missional is an attempt to resurrect its roots and passion for evangelism. For those tired of organized religion, it may be a defining word to live like Jesus without aligning with a church that is perceived to be irrelevant. In most cases, missional is described by a method one uses to evangelize. Missional, therefore is difficult to define and thus we are relegated to a description of its uses.

             Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City describes it in terms of identifying oneself with the non-believer and how we function as a church body with cultural-sensitive methodology and addressing the same issues inherent in the culture where the church ministers.[1] Keller asserts, “We don't simply need evangelistic churches, but rather 'missional' churches.”[2]

Incarnational. Indigenous. Intentional.

             Ed Stetzer, President of Lifeway Research distinguishes missional from mission-minded as an attempt to sensitize the established church with biblical missions across the street and not just missions across the seas. “Missional means actually doing mission right where you are,” Stetzer writes. “Missional means adopting the posture of a missionary, learning and adapting to the culture around you while remaining biblically sound.”[3] Stetzer condenses the statement to say, “Missional means being a missionary without ever leaving your zip code.”[4] Stetzer and Mike Dodson described the missional church as 1) Incarnational—entrenched in their communities, 2) Indigenous—taking root in the culture of the society and 3) Intentional. [5]

            Steve Timmis, author of Total Church and Acts 29 Western Europe Director, describes the missional church by stating,  “Mission is the primary purpose of the church in the world.” [6] Timmis best describes the practice of missional ministry as “ordinary people doing ordinary things with [extraordinary] gospel intentionality.” [7] This restates how Stetzer and Dodson described missional above as incarnational, indigenous, intentional missional living.

            Lesslie Newbigin was a missionary to India. Upon his return to the United Kingdom, he was shocked to find how ‘pagan’ it was. He became convinced that this was as needy a missionary field as anything he had seen on the sub-continent. The church needed to adopt a missionary stance towards the world. Newbigin’s answer was for the church to take a missionary stance to the world, Newbigin simply asked the church to have the courage to be herself. [8] Newbigin argued that the church must return to its foundational essence a missionary in the world.

            The Gospel and Our Church Network (GOCN), for which the church is indebted along with Newbigin for their germinal work on the missional church said, “The missional church represents God in the encounter between God and human culture. It exists not because of human goals or desires, but as a result of God’s creating and saving work in the world.”[9] Over a decade ago they provided 12 indicators of a missional church that attempted to describe a missional church and not define missional.

            Mark Driscoll uses the term missional as a way to emphasize that the church exists to “go into the cultures and nations of the earth and live sacrificially for the [salvific] good of others.” [10] Driscoll’s description above can mean anything one attaches to it and thus moves into describing what a missional church does as a descriptor.

Sent.

            As Stetzer has stated in his blogs, missional is not something that one can sum up the meaning for the word. [11] Even describing it is diverse and multi-dimensional. Perhaps the most succinct description of the word missional is found in Hugh Halter and Matt Smay’s The Tangible Kingdom Primer. Hugh and Matt say that missional essentially means “sent.” They claim, “In simple language, it means that we are passing through this life [in Biblical language as sojourners, wanderers, aliens, foreigners, strangers or ambassadors] with a sense of purpose, duty, passion, and responsibility for the ‘mission of God.’”[12]

            Missional is an adjective describing all of the activities of the church body as they are brought under the mission of God to proclaim the good news of salvation through His Son Jesus Christ. Being on mission can 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 or worse, me-centered mode. A church must continuously see itself as missionaries and all of its energies must be missionary.

           A missional church understands it has been sent into an irreligious world to proclaim the Gospel of Redemption that is made possible by the Son's sacrifice for our sins and the Father's love for us. Every believer is sent on this mission by God just as Jesus was sent on this mission (John 17:14-16, 18; 20:21). To respond to this calling is to be missional. To neglect it is to disregard the mission of God and to cease being the kind of church that is following Jesus.

           I would conclude that a missional church is a theologically-formed, Gospel-centered, Spirit-empowered, united community of believers who seek to faithfully incarnate the purposes of Christ for the glory of God. The mission of the church is found in the mission of God who is calling the church to passionately participate in God's redemptive mission in the world (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8).

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMolvODsM-c

[2] http://sheasumlin.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/missional_church-keller1.pdf

[3] Ed Stetzer, Planting Missional Churches (Nashville: TN: Broadman and Holman, 2003), p. 19.

[4] Ibid, p. 19.

[5] Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson, Comback Churches (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 2007), pp. 4-7.

[6] Steve Timmis, Church (unpublished guide used in Porterbrook Training), p. 15.

[7] Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 2008), p. 63.

[8] Steve Timmis, Church (unpublished guide used in Porterbrook Training), p. 16.

[9] www.gocn.org

[10] Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, Vintage Church (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 2008), p. 218

[11] Ed Stetzer, Thursday is for Theology of Missions—Meanings of Missional, part 3 (http:blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstatzer/2007/08/Thursday_is_for_theology_of_mi.html) posted August 29, 2007.

[12] Hugh Halter & Matt Smay, The Tangible Kingdom Primer (Anaheim, CA: CRM Empowering Leaders, 2009), p. 2.

iPad users, view this on Vimeo here.

In this interview, Alex Early speaks about being intentional for missional, Kingdom impact. He put his focus on persistent prayer and reliance on God. 

Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29 & Russ McKendry, of L2 Church in Denver, CO talk about navigating theology and mission.

Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29 and Jean Dorlus, President of Step Seminary in Haiti. They met to talk about church planting strategies in Haiti. 

by Hunter Beaumont
Fellowship Denver Church

Doctrine in the New Testament literally means “teaching.  It’s a morally neutral concept. Doctrine can be good or bad. 

1 Tim. 6:3-4 – “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing”

Doctrine is often used to refer to objective truth claims about the gospel events, facts that are outside of us in time and space.  The Apostles Creed is an example of the centrality of doctrine in the life of the early church.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
    the Maker of heaven and earth,
    and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
    born of the virgin Mary,
    suffered under Pontius Pilate,
    was crucified, dead, and buried;

He descended into hell.

The third day He arose again from the dead;

He ascended into heaven,
    and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
    from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost;
    the holy catholic church;
    the communion of saints;
    the forgiveness of sins;
    the resurrection of the body;
    and the life everlasting.

Consider all its fact claims: God exists; he made heaven and earth; Jesus Christ is his only Son and our Lord; He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of a virgin named Mary; he was tried and convicted under a Roman governor named Pontius Pilate; he was crucified on a cross, died, and was buried; Three days later he arose from the dead; He ascended into heaven where he now sits at the Father’s right hand; one day, he will come to judge the living and the dead.  The Apostles Creed is a catalogue of doctrine.

Doctrine–claims of objective truth and the ability to distinguish between truth and error – is essential to preaching the gospel.  However, such claims sound increasingly strange to the culture at large.  Furthermore, some within the Church will also argue that doctrine is not essential.  To many younger evangelicals, these arguments sound plausible and attractive.

Preach the Gospel with Winsome Confidence

Effective gospel preaching requires that the preacher’s “voice” reflect the transforming work of the gospel in his own heart. The gospel of grace should humble us, since salvation and even “right doctrine,” is not our own doing but the gift of God.  This should translate into a winsome, gracious demeanor when dealing with skeptics.  Preachers committed to orthodoxy will need to be especially on-guard against self-righteousness by virtue of right doctrine.  This is a strong temptation that leads to “talking down” at people. At the same time, the gospel makes us confident.  The ability to confidently proclaim the gospel and point to the finished work of Jesus will earn you a hearing with people who are used to qualified, tentative, guarded, tip-toeing public discourse.

Explain things as you Preach

Gospel preaching will require lots of explanation.  Patient, clear explanation wins the hearts and minds of many.  Be familiar with the most common arguments against “doctrine.”  Name them and describe them.  It is important to understand not just what they are saying but to ask, “Why is this attractive?”  Then offer well thought-out, even more attractive counter-arguments.  The most attractive argument is to show how they downplay and ignore the goodness of the gospel, instead becoming religion.

Speak to people’s fear of rejection and scorn

Speak head-on to the reality that being a Christian sets you at-odds with the world.  At the same time, remind them that the gospel itself is a great resource for living peacefully in a pluralistic world.  Because salvation is by grace, the gospel does not allow (much less require!) us to look down at people who believe differently.  Only the gospel gives you this resource to be confident in what you believe and humble toward others.

by Jeff Vanderstelt

Jesus commanded us to make disciples who make disciples. We can make disciples formally and informally. In formal discipleship you need to consider all that you want people to:

Know – key doctrines all people should know

Believe – truths that motivate and transform your identity and behavior

Do – the activities that the gospel leads us to practice

Informal discipleship, in conjunction with formal discipleship is crucial in making followers of Jesus who both hear and obey.

5 ways church planters make disciples informally:

1. Encourage a disciple-making culture.

God commanded through Moses (Deuteronomy 6) and Jesus commanded the disciples (Matt. 28:18-20) to develop a disciple-making culture where all of life becomes the platform for disciple-making.

Six questions to determine if you have a disciple-making culture:

• Are the few doing the ministry for the many? Or are the few equipping the many for the ministry?
• Do we spend the majority of our time equipping, training and developing leaders?
• Is it apparent that every member is to be a full-time minister in your church?
• Do new believers get called and sent into the mission upon conversion?
• Do you celebrate those who leave to start new works?
• Is there shared leadership within the local body?
• Do you intentionally create vacuums for other leaders to fill?

2. Make your life visible and accessible to others.

To be an example for the flock (1 Peter 5:1-3), others need to see our lives as an observable example of gospel ministry, mission and ordinary life. We also need to observe their lives – to see if they are faithful (2 Timothy 2:2). The areas we need to observe one another includes marriage, family, management of our household, love of neighbors, our leadership, our training, and our discipling, as well as conflict management, exercise, prayer and how we use money.

3. Live with your leaders in community.

Jesus said the greatest apologetic for the gospel is our love for one another (John 13:31-45). We practice the “one anothers” of scripture in community. If you’re not developing people to love one another, you’re not making disciples. And you will not make disciples who love one another if they’re not in consistent community where others are building them up.

4. Live as servants together

Ephesians 4:11-16 tells us that God gives some to equip the saints for ministry, and that the means by which we grow up into maturity is when each part is doing its work. We will not grow up if we are not all ministering. We grow up as we build up the body and serve together.

5. Make sure your leaders live on Mission

Living life on mission requires getting in the game. Is your missional living more of a chalk-talk (sermons and teaching) or an actual game? Is it just a scrimmage among other Christians or are we actually engaging the lost? If we are not in the game of mission, we will not become disciples, but rather just a spiritual formation group.

Today is the kick off to the Denver Boot Camp. This is the place where mission continues and Men Engage the world. Keep posted for updates on the camp as well as audio from our Acts 29 speakers.

See Who's speaking at this year's Denver Boot Camp.

The first-ever Acts 29 Church Planting Conference in Brazil was held in Rio de Janeiro on May 17-19, 2010. Men from over eight states in Brazil as well as from Chile participated in the International bootcamp, entitled “Foundations of Church Planting.” The conference was co-sponsored by Restore Brazil (V360), Tempo de Colheita, and Escola Teologica Reformada.

Pastors Chan Kilgore, Gregg Heinsch, Adam Sinnett and Jay Bauman gave the presentations on the foundational elements of church planting. All the bootcamp’s manual and theological material was carefully translated to Portuguese by a professional translator.

Antonio Carlos Costa, a movement leader in Brazil, spoke of the relationship between social justice & the gospel. Antonio recently presented at the Q Conference in Chicago, receiving a standing ovation for the unique presentation on human rights & social activism from a reformed perspective.

Jay Bauman, serving as a pastor at Barra Presbyterian Church, also shared on developing citywide church planting networks, which Jay has started in Rio de Janeiro as the director of Restore Brazil.

Over 90 were present during the bootcamp, including 80 pastors and church planters. The American team interviewed 16 men interested in becoming a part of the network, even having to turn away some due to inadequate time in the schedule. We have already received a few complete applications and are expecting more.

Another interesting development is the strong level of interest in bringing similar training to Chile. We are praying about this as leaders from the Presbyterian & Anglican churches in Santiago visited with us and demonstrated a strong interest in hosting a bootcamp there in the future. One of the pastors commented simply on his experience – “This bootcamp has changed my life.” By God’s grace, may the Gospel move forward in Rio, in Brazil, and beyond.

Join us in praying for the advancement of God’s kingdom in Brazil.

Jay Bauman

By Pastor Scott Thomas, President, Acts 29 Network

 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

I love YouTube and I hate YouTube. I walked into the office one day and declared, “YouTube is of the Devil!” The reason that I love it is that one has access to all kinds of normal, subnormal and mostly abnormal behaviors uploaded by anyone with a simple camera and a computer. Did you see the self-affirming little girl singing to herself in the mirror? Don’t click on it. I also hate YouTube because, well, I waste time watching 4 year olds sing in the mirror.

YouTube is also the place where any doctrinally deficient doofus can display a less than systematic theology. I recently showed a YouTube video to an Acts 29 pastor of a “preacher” advocating “tokin' the ghost” with mythical “jehovajuana.” We both thought (hoped) it was a joke. Unfortunately it is more normal than abnormal in the church today. Maybe not to the level of this guy, but the church, trying to attract the perceived anti-doctrinal culture, spews Oprahesque theology and nobody seems alarmed.

Six Reasons Good Doctrine Makes Good Sense (drawn from J. Ligon Duncan III)

1. Truth is for Joy and Growth

John 17:13-17, But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth (emphasis added).

2. Truth is to be Lived

Matthew 28:18-20, And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (emphasis added).

3. Errant Doctrine Destroys, True Doctrine Leads to Love

1 Timothy 1:3-5, As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith (emphasis added).

4. Life and Doctrine are Inseparable

1 Timothy 1:8-11, Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted (emphasis added).

5. Good Doctrine Promotes Godliness

1 Timothy 6:2-4, Teach and urge these things. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions (emphasis added).

6. Truth Proclaiming is a Pastoral Responsibility

Titus 1:1, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness (emphasis added).

Part Two

By Pastor Scott Thomas

Part One is found here

Sola Scriptura is a Latin phrase that literally means “By Scripture Alone.” Sola Scriptura is the doctrine that the Bible is the only infallible and inerrant authority for Christian faith, and that it contains all knowledge necessary for salvation and holiness.

I preached sola scriptura to the church where I was lead pastor. My son who was 16 at the time had a girlfriend that he really liked. It was his first girlfriend. I picked him after a school event one day and he told me, “Well, it’s over.” After he explained to me that he meant he broke it off with his girlfriend, I asked him what happened. He said, “She’s just not sola scriptura, Dad.”

In Part One, we looked at the first of five primary views of Scripture, Sola Ecclesia. We will briefly look at the other four and then talk more about sola scriptura.

Five Primary Views of Scripture

Prima Scriptura

Prima Scriptura is the belief that the Body of Christ has two separate sources of authority for faith and practice: 1) the Scriptures and 2) Tradition. Scripture is the primary source for authority, but by itself it is insufficient for all matters of faith and practice. Tradition also contains essential elements needed for the productive Christian life. Adherents of this view are some Roman Catholics, some Eastern Orthodox, and some Protestants.

Regula Fidei

Regula Fidei literally means “Rule of faith.” It is the belief that tradition is an infallible “summary” of Scripture passed on through apostolic succession. Ultimately, there is only one source of revelation, but two sources of authority. In other words, Tradition is Scripture. Adherents of this view are Eastern Orthodoxy, early church and some evangelicals.

Sola Scriptura

Sola Scriptura is the belief that Scripture is the final and only infallible authority for the Christian in all matters of faith and practice. Adherents of this view are evangelicals, reformers. More on this later.

Solo Scriptura

Solo Scriptura (different from sola) is the belief that Scripture is the sole basis and authority in the life of the Christian. Adherents of this view (fundamentalists, restoration churches, anbaptists) believe that tradition is useless and misleading, and creeds and confessions are the result of man-made traditions.

Support of Sola Scriptura

It is self-evident that the Bible did not record everything that Jesus said and did. John’s purpose in telling his readers this (John 20:30-31) is not because he wants them to seek out “unwritten tradition” to learn of these other things, but because he wants them to know that what he has recorded contains sufficient information to bring one to salvation. There is no reason to think that people need exhaustive knowledge of all that Christ said or did. The Bible is not an exhaustive history; it is theological history. Scripture speaks of its sufficiency (2 Tim 3:14-17).

The Scriptures speak explicitly against the “traditions of men” as misleading and often in opposition to God’s written Word. Therefore, all traditions must submit to Scripture (Matt. 15:2-6).

The New Testament speaks of the importance of Tradition (2 Thes. 2:15; 1 Cor. 11:2; Jude 1:3). But the Tradition that is referred to in these passages is the Gospel message that was eventually recorded in the New Testament. There is no reason to believe that the New Testament writers were speaking of some infallible “unwritten Tradition” that was separate from the message of the New Testament and that was to be passed on through an unbroken succession of bishops throughout the ages.

It is agreed that Peter and the apostles were given authority and the guidance to teach the truth. Their authority and teaching continues today, not through an unbroken lineage of succession, but through their teaching contained in the Scripture.

What’s the Big Deal?

Church pulpits, classrooms, small groups and incarnational communities are filled with men and women who are perverting people’s minds with mystical, quasi-spiritual and extra-biblical ideas about God and eternal life. Scripture alone contains the words of eternal life and about Jesus, the hero of the Scriptures, who is the only way to God (John 5:39-40, 46; Luke 24:27, 44-45).

Bibliography

Part One

By Pastor Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29 Network

Sola Scriptura is a Latin phrase that literally means “By Scripture Alone.” Sola Scriptura is the doctrine that the Bible is the only infallible and inerrant authority for Christian faith, and that it contains all knowledge necessary for salvation and holiness.

So what does this have to do with planting a church or qualifications of a pastor? People ask me if Acts 29 is affiliated with the emergent church because we used to talk about the emerging church—one that is emerging from apathy, an inward focus, from religion, from man-imposed structures that limited the advancement of the mission of God through the church. I used to say that the difference is that one has a Bible as a literal authority and the other has a Bible as a literary addendum.

The church is poisoned with false teaching and unless an authority exists, every wacky doctrine is fair game.

Restoring Sola Scriptura

The sixteenth century reformation was responsible for restoring the principle of Sola Scriptura to the church. This is a principle that had been operative within the church from the very beginning of the post-apostolic age. Initially the apostles taught orally, but with the close of the apostolic age, all special revelation that God wanted preserved for man was codified in the written Scriptures.

Martin Luther was neurotic about going to hell so he became a monk in the 16th century. He would sometimes confess his sins for 6 hours at a time. He began viewing the gospel differently than what the church was articulating. At this time there was only one church, the Catholic Church and its Pope was considered to have been successively appointed by Peter. Luther made a list of 95 issues to debate the church and nailed it to the door of the church in Wittenberg Germany in 1517. Luther was asked to recant his writings or suffer excommunication. Luther’s response is below.

"Unless I am convinced by the testimony from scripture or by evident reason—for I confide neither in the Pope nor in a Council alone, since it is certain they have often erred and contradicted themselves—I am held fast by the scriptures adduced by me, and my conscience is held captive by God’s Word, and I neither can nor will revoke anything, seeing it is not safe or right to act against conscience. God help me. Amen.“ [The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, ed. Samuel Macauley Jackson and George William Gilmore, (New York, London, Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1908-1914; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1951), p. 72.]

 Five Primary Views of Scripture (discussed in sequential blogs)

Sola Ecclesia

What is Sola Ecclesia?

This is the belief that Tradition, represented by the magisterial authority of the Roman Catholic Church, is infallible and equal to Scripture as a basis for doctrine; it is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice since it must define and interpret Scripture. In this structure, a teaching becomes infallible when the Pope speaks alone concerning matters of faith or morals (ex cathedra) or when the Pope and bishops speak together. The Catholic Catechism states, “The Church, to whom the transmission and interpretation of Revelation is entrusted, “does not derive her certainty about all revealed truths from the holy Scriptures alone. Both Scripture and Tradition must be accepted and honored with equal sentiments of devotion and reverence” (Part One, Section One, Chapter Two, Article Two, II, #82).

Sola Scriptura Put to the Test

Unfortunately, this dual authority also exists functionally among evangelicals that hold to traditions and concepts practiced in their particular church or denomination.

I had a lady say in a church-wide meeting where I was discussing establishing elders in the church in accordance with the Bible, “I don’t care what the Bible says, this is not what Baptists do.” I threw up in my mouth and didn’t respond because she was her own defender and accuser at the same time.

On another occasion, I had the largest financial contributor of a church I pastored come in to see me. The night before, we took 20 or so teenagers up to a mountain to teach them to pray. We ended the night of teaching and praying by sharing communion together. It was a stunning experience as we stood reverently at the top of the mountain that provided a panoramic view of the city upon which we were praying that God would bring His glory. Her two sons were involved. She was angry that we took communion on a Wednesday night and was announcing her departure from the church because, according to her, we are only supposed to take communion on Sundays. I handed her my Bible and asked her to show me where that principle was taught. When she wouldn’t take my Bible I placed it on top of my head (it sounds silly, I know) and said that I am under the authority of the Bible and that if I were guilty of something it commanded, I would repent. Otherwise, I am not bound by ancillary practices. Unfortunately, to the detriment of her sons, they did leave the church. In retrospect, I could have been a better shepherd-leader in that situation.

I had another large contributing married couple come see me in my office. These still bring anxiety even though I trust God’s provision. They threatened to stop giving to the church if I didn’t make the husband an elder in the church because he was one in his former church. He was clearly unqualified biblically. I leaned into the Scripture’s authority and held my ground. They stayed in the church and made a $10,000 gift the following week.

I wouldn’t know what to do in these situations if I didn’t believe in sola scriptura. God provided the church with an infallible and inerrant single source of authority. While I love the traditions and epic historical moments in the church, our authority isn’t sola ecclesia.

You will have similar stories as you plant a church and the busload of religious nut jobs show up advocating an aberrant theology that either exists in spite of Scripture (liberalism) or in addition to Scripture (legalism).

Put your Bible on your head and teach God's Word with humble confidence.

Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears recently published Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe covering basic Christian theology. In chapter 10, they outline a biblical understanding of The Church. We want our pastors to have theological clarity regarding their ecclesiology.

A stark difference exists between the picture of the church painted in Scripture (Acts 2) and the perception of most today. In the book of Acts, we see a generous, united and loving society. Today when hearing the term “church,” many mistakenly think of a building at best, and a mob of angry, political, divisive, judgmental hypocrites at worst.

The (local) church is biblically defined as follows:

The local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. In obedience to Scripture they organize under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching and worship, observe the biblical sacraments of baptism and Communion, are unified by the Spirit, are disciplined for holiness, and scatter to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission as missionaries to the world for God’s glory and their joy. (Doctrine: 307)

Jesus is the head of the church – and this refers to more than hierarchical structure. The mission of the church was started by Jesus, the first missionary: he left heaven and came down to earth to live among sinful, lost people, and to show them the way to the Father through the Spirit’s empowerment. Upon his return to heaven, Jesus’ mission was handed to the church for its continuation, also by the Spirit’s empowerment.

Jesus is the head, apostle, builder, chief shepherd & ruler and judge of the church. He also is present in the church (“I am with you always”).

The church’s gospel has three aspects: revelation, response and results. Gospel revelation centers on “what God did” – the reality of Jesus’ death & resurrection in context of our sinful lostness. Gospel response is the “what we do” part – entirely Spirit-empowered change as a result of revelation. Gospel results are about “what God gives” to us – Jesus’ righteousness, the Holy Spirit living in us, a new heart, and membership in Christ’s body, the church.

Jesus is the “senior pastor” of every church, beneath which there are three offices biblically outlined within the church. In order of hierarchy, these are elders-pastors, deacons, and church members.

Elders-pastors. The responsibilities of an elder center on pastoral care and guarding doctrine. Elders must be men who adhere to high standards as outlined scripturally in all aspects of their lives. The elders-pastors are held accountable before God for the care of their church through these responsibilities. Elders are always mentioned in plurality.

Deacons. Deacons simply serve the elders. A major difference between a deacon and an elder-pastor is that deacons are not biblically required to be able to teach or preach. Additionally, 1 Tim 3:11 and Romans 16:1 refer to both men and women serving in the office of deacon.

The office of membership in the church is not akin to casual, consumerist membership in a country club. Members of a church do not join to be served, but to obey Jesus, serve and participate with church’s communal mission. The church is to actively equip members as a priesthood of believers to lead ministry as they have been gifted and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

God preaches the world into existence; John the Baptist comes preaching; Jesus preaches the good news of the kingdom and sends his 12 disciples to do the same; Paul instructs Timothy to “preach the word” (2 Tim 4).

Marks of a healthy church include good preaching that is biblical, theological, memorable, transformational, missional and Christological (Jesus is the hero-savior).

“Baptism and Communion are visible presentations of the gospel performed regularly by the church” (325).

In baptism, a believer identifies with Jesus’ death and resurrection – finding their new identity in the death and life of Christ. While nearly all Christians practice baptism, there are wide and deep disagreements about who should be baptized, and how. The argument here is made for only believers to be baptized.

Communion reminds Christians of Jesus’ brutal death for their sins, calls them to examine themselves and put their own sin to death before partaking, reminds them of their unity with the church founded in Jesus alone, and is a foreshadow of their future, glorious feast in heaven with Jesus.

The purpose of both these sacraments are to keep the church “gospel-centered, repentant, and on mission” (327).

Church discipline is not simply excommunication, as popularly and fearfully misunderstood. It is training (both formative and restorative) for believers who are ‘holy sinners’ still working out their salvation and dealing with sinful natures.

Download a free chapter or get your copy of Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe.

Tim Keller wrote “The Centrality of the Gospel,” an excellent 12-page article available here, on the power and joy of the gospel in transforming lives. Here he explains how the two major ‘gospel thieves,’ religion and irreligion, steal joy and power from the gospel – and how, ultimately, these two ‘opposing’ worldviews are actually the same root sin.

 The following is an excerpt from Keller's article but we encourage you to read the full article.

The two “thieves” of the gospel

The gospel critiques both religion and irreligion (Matt.21:31; 22:10).

Tertullian said, "Just as Christ was crucified between two thieves, so this doctrine of justification is ever crucified between two opposite errors."

On the one hand, "moralism/religion" stresses truth without grace, for it says that we must obey the truth in order to be saved. On the other hand, "relativists/irreligion" stresses grace without truth, for they say that we are all accepted by God (if there is a God) and we have to decide what is true for us. But "truth" without grace is not really truth, and "grace" without truth is not really grace. Jesus was "full of grace and truth."

• "I am more sinful and flawed than I ever dared believe" (vs. antinomianism)
• "I am more accepted and loved than I ever dared hope" (vs. legalism)

The moralism-religion thief

How does moralism/religion steal joy and power?

Moralism is the view that you are acceptable (to God, the world, others, yourself) through your attainments. (Moralists do not have to be religious, but often are.) When they are, their religion if pretty conservative and filled with rules. Sometimes moralists have views of God as very holy and just. This view will lead either to a) self-hatred (because you can't live up to the standards), or b) self-inflation (because you think you have lived up to the standards). It is ironic to realize that inferiority and superiority complexes have the very same root. Whether the moralist ends up smug and superior or crushed and guilty just depends on how high the standards are and on a person's natural advantages (such as family, intelligence, looks, willpower). Moralistic people can be deeply religious--but there is no transforming joy or power.

The relativism-irreligion thief

How does relativism steal joy and power?

Relativists are usually irreligious, or else prefer what is called "liberal" religion. On the surface, they are more happy and tolerant than moralist/religious people. Though they may be highly idealistic in some areas (such as politics), they believe that everyone needs to determine what is right and wrong for them. They are not convinced that God is just and must punish sinners. Their beliefs in God will tend to see Him as loving or as an impersonal force. They may talk a great deal about God's love, but since they do not think of themselves as sinners, God's love for us costs him nothing. If God accepts us, it is because he is so welcoming, or because we are not so bad. The concept of God's love in the gospel is far more rich and deep and electrifying.

What do both religious and irreligious people have in common?

They seem so different, but from the viewpoint of the gospel, they are really the same. They are both ways to avoid Jesus as Savior and keep control of their lives.

Read the full article here.

 By Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29 Network

If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. – Galatians 1:9

Is your Christianity marked by a deep belief, assurance and dependency on grace through Jesus? Or is your heart bent on man-fearing, self-worshiping religiosity? Religious people are glory thieves – taking from God what is rightfully his. Even worse than resulting in personal corruption, religion spread insidiously in churches; Paul’s fiercest commands throughout his letters were always against the religious people in the church.

Grace is freedom from the curse of works (Gal. 3:10), freedom from condemnation (Gal 2:15), freedom from slavery (Gal. 5:1) and freedom to worship and obey Jesus by the power of the Spirit (Gal. 5:16). Religion can never love or honor Jesus – it is ashamed of and offended (Gal. 5:11) by the gospel that declares all as sinners in need of a Savior. Religion says you can save yourself. Religion is “another gospel.”

What gospel are you spreading like a wildfire in your church or life? Grace? Or Religion?

Tim Keller shows the difference between Religion and Gospel in his new publication, Gospel in Life Study Guide (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2010), p. 16.

Acceptance

• Religion: “I obey; therefore, I’m accepted.”
• Gospel: “I’m accepted; therefore, I obey.”

 Motivation

• Religion: Motivation is based on fear and insecurity.
• Gospel: Motivation is based on grateful joy.

Obedience

• Religion: I obey God in order to get things from God.
• Gospel: I obey God to get God – to delight in an resemble him.

 Circumstances

• Religion: When circumstances in my life go wrong, I am angry at God or myself, since I believe that anyone who is good deserves a comfortable life.
• Gospel: When circumstances in my life go wrong, I struggle, but I know my punishment fell on Jesus and that while God may allow this for my training, he will exercise his Fatherly love within my trial.

Criticism

• Religion: When I am criticized, I am furious or devastated because it is critical that I think of myself as a “good person.” Threats to self-image must be destroyed at all costs.
• Gospel: When I am criticized, I struggle, but it is not essential for me to think of myself as a “good person.” My identity is not built on my record or my performance but on God’s love for me in Christ.

Prayer

• Religion: My prayer life consists largely of petition, and it only heats up when I am in a time of need. My main purpose in prayer is control of the environment.
• Gospel: My prayer life consists of generous stretches of praise and adoration. My main purpose is fellowship with God.

Confidence

• Religion: My self-view swings things between to poles. If and when I am living up to my standards, I feel confident, but then I am prone to be proud and unsympathetic to failing people. If and when I am not living up to standards, I feel humble but not confident – I feel like a failure.
• Gospel: My self-view is not based on my moral achievement. In Christ I am simul lustus et peccator – simultaneously sinful and lost, yet accepted in Christ. I am so bad that he had to die for me, and I am so loved that he was glad to die for me. This leads me to deep humility and confidence at the same time.

Identity

• Religion: My identity and self-worth are based mainly on how hard I work, or how moral I am – and so I must look down on those I perceive as lazy or immoral.
• Gospel: My identity and self worth are centered on the one who died for me. I am saved by sheer grace and I can’t look down on those who believe or practices something different from me. Only by grace am I what I am.

By Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29

I grew up in an A-Theological church. They weren’t anti-theology but they were not pro-theology either. Frankly, I think theology scared them because they made fun of people who emphasized theology, especially Calvinists. So, we didn’t get into theology. But we studied the Bible. A lot! Sunday School, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night and Tuesday morning men’s Bible Study.

I learned Greek and how to use the tools for Hebrew and how to parse verbs and exegete passages of Scripture and use big words in sermons. But it was like describing the intricate details of the bark of a tree without really knowing anything about the tree or the forest. It is a foolish way to understand Scripture—the revelation of God.

I have heard a lot of sermons that used a lot of Bible verses without ever pointing to the person and work of Jesus. He is the hero of the Bible, not a supporting role player. Jesus said, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44) emphasis mine. I once preached a brilliant sermon in a winsome way and I sat down and it struck me, “Oh crap, I left Jesus out.” Some of you are more indignant that I used that word than the fact I preached without any mention of Jesus.

The dramatic change for me occurred when I went to Italy in 1988. I went over there with a handful of “great” sermons that were lost in translation. They didn’t appreciate the clever turn of a phrase. In one sermon, the Italian missionary was trying to bail me out. I didn’t tell him I knew he was correcting my sermon when he translated it. I was instead grateful. And convicted. It changed my approach to preaching and teaching and studying the Bible.

Since I didn’t know any living theologians, I turned to dead guys like Calvin and Edwards and Owen and Baxter and Gurnall and Watson. Their sermons were unlike my sermons and I discovered beauty in theologically deep teachings that centered on Jesus, God’s sovereignty, sinfulness of man and the grace of God.

At my denominational meetings I felt like an Avon lady at an Amway convention. I was even elected state president of my association but I shortly quit because I knew I no longer fit. For years, I had no tribe. Then I met Acts 29 Network in 2002 when they had 17 members. I immediately found the community that appreciated theology and its application as well as passion about the mission of God through the local church.

Even if you are meandering in a Christian cultural fog that lacks theological clarity, you can learn theology with some intentional discipline. Many of you may not have the opportunity to attend a seminary. You can start by reading Mark Driscoll’s newest book, Doctrine. You can study through BILD or Porterbrook. You can also work through my free workbook available online.

Download Theological Clarity and Application e-Book:

• Questions Only (63 pages) - Black & White | Color
• Workbook Version (91 pages) - Black & White | Color

By Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29 Network

The gospel is the power of God for salvation and sadly many churches are ashamed of proclaiming it (Rom. 1:16). As a result we may not be experiencing the fruit of transformation in our churches that is normally associated with the gospel (Col. 1:4-6; 2 Peter 1:3-9). Gospel transformation is most often found in the company of gospel proclamation.

The gospel can be (cautiously) summarized in the following manner: God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to live our life, die our death and rise again triumphantly to bring forgiven sinners together by the Holy Spirit to live as his Kingdom people under his gracious reign.

The focus of the gospel is not on the inadequacy of mankind (including the transformation), but rather on the glory of God. I am transformed when I live in line with the gospel (Gal. 2:14)—avoiding both legalism and licentiousness—and pursuing the joy found in complete and utter surrender of my unrighteous life in exchange for His righteous life expressed graciously through every aspect of my Christian walk (Gal. 2:20).

The gospel is what makes us right with God (justification) and it is also what frees us to delight in God (sanctification). The gospel changes everything!

How does the Gospel Change Everything?

It is found simply in the not so simple phrase by JI Packer, “God saves sinners.” [J.I. Packer, “Introductory Essage,” in The Death of Death in the Death of Christ, by John Owen (London: Banner of Truth, 1959) 4-5.]

God

“God – the Triune Jehovah, Father, Son and Spirit; three Persons working together in sovereign wisdom, power and love achieve the salvation of a chosen people, the Father electing, the Son fulfilling the Father’s will by redeeming, the Spirit executing the purpose of Father and Son by renewing.”

Saves

"Saves – does everything, first to last, that is involved in bringing man from death in sin to life in glory: plans, achieves and communicates redemption, calls and keeps, justifies, sanctifies, glorifies. Sinners do not save themselves in any sense at all. Salvation, first and last, whole and entire, past, present and future, is of the Lord, to whom be glory for ever; amen."

Sinners

"Sinners – When we are born, we are dead, condemned, depraved, corrupt, perverse, sinful and completely unable to save or even lift a finger to enable salvation (Rom. 2-3; 6:23). This vile sinner doesn’t even know he is dead. The law of God exposes the extent of our wickedness (Gal. 3:24).”

The grace of God extends down to us, not because we deserve it, but even as we do not deserve it (Rom 5:8). Our works, even attempts at good works are not adequate to contribute to our salvation or sanctification. Once the Spirit regenerates our dead souls, we by faith receive the completed work of Jesus who accomplishes our justification—a declaration of His righteousness on us. As His grace continues to work in our lives, the gospel comes to fruition (Col. 1:6; 2 Peter 1-3-9) in every aspect of our life.

Summary of video:

Vintage21 Church has defined three types of relationships to help their church navigate how they partner and interact with other churches and ministries:

1. Family

Have the same “DNA” - agree theologically on the authority of Scripture, Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and what that accomplished, etc.

Can plant churches together

Highest level of sharing resources and interaction

2. Friends

Christians who clearly love Jesus.

Have differing views on things like church polity, etc., which affect how closely they can work together.

Some activities and resource sharing is possible.

3. Partners

Ministries that may not be Christians at all.

Often social justice groups.

Provides an opportunity for evangelism to happen with those who they are serving alongside as well as those they are serving directly.

Summary of video:

• Started as trendy & reactionary without clear communication about theological concepts. Shallow teaching, mildly humorous, and “of zero help.”
• Result: Constant conflict in leadership, no life transformation among people. There was no cohesion, so tension just mounted for seven months.
• One day, they made a radical change to preach through books of the Bible and be theologically clear with their people.
• Result: most of the original people were lost. But many people started dealing with Jesus and the hard, real-life questions. Jesus and the Bible became the authority in their church instead of ‘the lead pastor’ – and people started meeting Jesus and growing and changing.

• Gospel-centered preaching is not simply biblically accurate teaching; if you are missing Jesus and gospel transformation, you are just a theological neatnik.
• The first job of the preacher is to deal with the text on a gospel level – not accessing commentaries first, but asking “where is Jesus in this?”
• The outcome of the teaching should be “how does the gospel affect us personally?” (not necessarily an application of ‘go do’.)
• Gospel-centered preaching should be interesting, deep and life-changing.
• “Snippets” to present the gospel biblically can be a helpful tool. Tyler gives teaching on Mark 10 as an example. “Instead of spending 45 minutes cramming how God hates divorce down their throats – present 10-minute snippets: ‘here’s the ruin that divorce brings in your life; here are the idols that allow the divorce to happen, here’s the beauty of God’s intention for marriage,’ and let that bring you to ‘marriage is a great image that points to your communion with God’ – and this leaves us with the beauty of the gospel at the end.”

• Preachers need to spend time developing their preaching and growing in their giftings in obedience to Jesus (Tyler has 22 goals in preaching and men who check in with him and give him feedback in these areas).
• Many preachers are very gifted – and sin by trusting in their own strengths first rather than spending hours in prayer and in the text they are preaching on.

By Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29

The number one reason men do not pass the application and assessment phase for membership into Acts 29 Network is that we do not observe that they have a clear understanding of basic theological concepts. Acts 29 does not require a seminary degree to apply nor do we believe a seminary degree unequivocally equips one in theology. We want our planters to be robust in their theology and possess clarity. We also want them to be able to make practical application from it. Our theology concomitantly informs everything we believe and everything we do.

As we examine movements of God, David Garrison said that every movement possesses biblical authority as one of its characteristics.* Ed Stetzer argued that a movement has theological integrity. ** Dr. Alvin Reid stated that a movement must have clarity and theology was implied.*** Seth Godin wrote in his book, Tribes, “A tribe is a group of people connected to one another, connected to a leader, and connected to an idea.” Drawing from the wisdom of these men, I would further state that a movement must possess not just theological integrity or clarity but also theological unity. We can all be clear on our own theological positions and we can all believe the Bible is the authority and still lack the theological unity we need to be a sustainable and reproducible movement.

To achieve unity, we agree on the doctrines that we deem are essential and we agreed that we can possess latitude on others. We call these “closed handed” and “open handed” issues. For instance, inerrancy of Scripture, virgin birth, penal substitutionary atonement and deity of Christ (among others) are in the closed hand. We will fight over these. Conversely, gifts of the Spirit, methods, baptism mode and eschatological details are in the open hand. We choose not to fight over these issues, although they serve as lively topics of interest as we challenge each other’s position. We have unity in the closed handed issues and we have charity in the open handed issues.

I have written 7 questions to diagnose if you possess enough theological clarity to plant a theologically-rich church. I have also provided some sub-points for further understanding to the questions. With each of these theological concepts, I believe strongly that a man who is motivated can gain clarity through intentional study with friends like Grudem, Carson, Piper, Driscoll, Keller, Packer, Sproul, Boice, Duncan, Frame, Goldsworthy, Ware, Horton, Lloyd-Jones, Spurgeon and Calvin.

The lead pastor of any church must serve as a theological gatekeeper for the body. He should be well read and informed concerning basic theological positions while relentlessly scanning the evangelical landscape for deviant theology and wolves seeking to mislead the sheep.

SEVEN SELF-EXAMINING QUESTIONS FOR THEOLOGICAL CLARITY

I. Do I have a clear understanding of the gospel?

Definition of gospel
Implications of the gospel
Centricity of the gospel
Transformative power of the gospel

II. Do I possess a clear understanding of the orthodox doctrines of faith?

1. Revelation of God
2. God – His attributes
3. Trinity
4. Creation
5. Angels, Demons and Satan
6. Mankind - his creation, fall and curse
7. Sin – its effects
8. Christ – His incarnation and redemption
9. Salvation
10. Atonement
11. Church
12. Resurrection
13. Election
14. Justification
15. Adoption
16. Sanctification
17. Perseverance
18. Death
19. Holy Spirit – His Power
20. Return of Christ
21. Final Judgment
22. Heaven

III. Am I an articulate apologist for the faith and able to apply a Scriptural argument regarding the following theological positions?

1. Annihilationism
2. Antinomianism
3. Arianism
4. Arminianism
5. Consubstantiation
6. Deism
7. Dictation Theory
8. Dispensationalism
9. Doceticism
10. Dualism
11. Evolution
12. Fatalism
13. Feminism
14. Limbo
15. Monism
16. Pantheism
17. Pelagianism
18. Perfectionism
19. Purgatory
20. Soul Sleep
21. The Mass (Catholic)
22. Transubstantiation
23. Universalism

IV. Have I demonstrated a commitment to the local church as an expression of a gospel community on mission to make disciples of all nations?

Great Commission Mandate
Sending Nature of the Church
Global Responsibility

V. Can I exercise grace toward those who hold to other views of theology so that I can collaboratively promote the Kingdom of God?

Unity
Diversity
Charity

VI. Can I biblically defend basic church ecclesiology?

1. Purposes
2. Authority
3. Mission and Ministries of the Church
4. Spiritual Gifts
5. Purity and Unity
6. Church Discipline
7. Church Government
8. Complementarian Church Leadership
9. Preaching
10. Baptism
11. Lord’s Supper
12. Membership

VII. Do I possess a thorough understanding of the Bible and am able to comprehend and communicate intelligently about theological concepts?

1. Adoption
2. Ammillenialism
3. Angels
4. Apostle
5. Aseity
6. Baptism in the Holy Spirit
7. Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit
8. Body of Christ
9. Born Again
10. Canonicity
11. Common grace
12. Communicable and Incommunicable Attributes
13. Complementarian
14. Conversion
15. Cosmological Argument
16. Covenant
17. Covenant of Grace
18. Covenant of works
19. Covenant community
20. Credo Baptism
21. Deacon
22. Death
23. Decree of God
24. Definite Atonement
25. Demons
26. Dichotomy
27. Disciple
28. Doctrines of Grace
29. Ecclesiology
30. Effectual Calling
31. Egalitarian
32. Eisogesis
33. Ekklesia
34. Elder
35. Election
36. Eschatology
37. Excommunication
38. Exegesis
39. Exorcisms
40. Expiation
41. External Calling
42. Faith
43. Father
44. Final Judgment
45. Foreknowledge of God
46. Forensic Justification
47. Free will
48. General Revelation
49. Glorification
50. Heaven
51. Hell
52. Hematology
53. Hermeneutics
54. Holy Spirit
55. Humiliation of Christ
56. Hypostatic Union
57. Imago Dei
58. Imminent Return
59. Impeccability
60. Imputation of Sin
61. Incarnation
62. Incomprehensibility Of God
63. Inerrancy
64. Infallibility
65. Infinite
66. Intercession
67. Invisible Church
68. Keys of the Kingdom
69. Liberty
70. Limited Free will
71. Lord's Supper
72. Lordship Salvation
73. Mediator
74. Millennium
75. Miracles
76. New heavens and new earth
77. Officer in the church
78. Omniscience
79. Ontological Argument
80. Original Sin
81. OT and NT Priest
82. Overseer
83. Paedo Baptism
84. Parousia
85. Particular Redemption
86. Penal Substitution
87. Pneumatology
88. Postmillenialism
89. Predestination
90. Premillenialism
91. Propitiation
92. Providence
93. Rapture
94. Reconciliation
95. Redemption
96. Regeneration
97. Regulatory principle
98. Religious Affections
99. Repentance
100. Reprobation
101. Resurrection
102. Sanctification
103. Satan
104. Second Coming
105. Son of God
106. Soteriology
107. Sovereignty
108. Special Revelation
109. Spiritual Body
110. T.U.L.I.P.
111. Teleological Argument
112. Theistic Evolution
113. The Fall of Mankind
114. Theology proper
115. Total inability
116. Transcendence
117. Tribulation
118. Trinity
119. Virgin Birth
120. Worship

*David Garrison, Church Planting Movements (Midlothian, VA: WIG Take Resources, 2004), p. 171 ff.
**Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird, Viral Churches (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2010), p. 169
***Alvin Reid, Gospel Centered Movements Change the World (e-book, http://alvinreid.com/e-books/advance.pdf)

The Master of Missional Leadership

The Master of Missional Leadership is a 36-hour graduate degree program in missional leadership. This unique cohort program includes a course on discipleship (Leader as Disciple), three missional leadership courses (Missional Christology, Missional Ecclesiology and Missional Missiology), three leadership courses based on the triperspectival paradigm (Leader as Prophet, Leader as Priest and Leader as King), Missional Coaching and a Master’s Thesis. This program focuses on training missional leaders to serve the Church to transform cultures for Christ by staying culturally accessible and Biblically faithful. Students experience cohort-based (small group) interactive learning within teams of campus pastors, church planters, and Biblical living, worship, and administrative pastors.

EXECUTIVE STYLE

The innovative delivery system includes three one-week intensives and six weekend seminars all taught by nationally recognized pastor/scholars. The entire program is completed in one year and can be done in residence or at one of the regional Re:Train sites in Seattle, Raleigh or Nashville. The courses within the Master of Missional Leadership are only available for those accepted into the degree program. Singles course offerings are not available. Program duration is one year and cannot be taken over multiple years.

An undergraduate degree or demonstrated life and ministry experience is required for admission.

For 2010, this program is offered in Seattle, WA, Nashville, TN and Raleigh, NC.

See the “Course Calendar” page for specific program dates. Course schedule will be confirmed upon student’s admission to Re:Train.

The Master of Biblical & Theological Studies

The Master of Biblical and Theological Studies (MBTS) is a 36-hour, foundational and integrative graduate degree program designed to deepen and broaden education in Biblical and theological studies, cultivate mature understanding of the Christian faith, survey themes of Scripture and consider the Church’s relationships from Biblical, historical, and theological perspectives. Additionally, exegetical and expositional fidelity will be a focus of this program.

The courses in this program include: Basic and Intermediate Greek, New Testament, Old Testament, Systematic Theology, Biblical Theology, Apologetics, Perspectives and Religious Affections.

Seattle Method: The MBTS in Seattle is a university-style program consisting of two semesters. Each semester consists of six courses offered once a week for 15 weeks. Some courses may be offered in week-long or weekend seminars.

Albuquerque Method: The MBTS in Albuquerque is a two-year program. Students participate through month-long courses of personal study that culminate in Friday/Saturday weekend intensive sessions, once per month. The delivery system is much like Re:Train’s Master of Missional Leadership program.

For 2010, this program is offered in Seattle, WA, and Albuquerque, NM. For full-time degree-seeking students, program duration is one year in Seattle and two years in Albuquerque. Despite designed program lengths, degree-seeking students can participate in the program on a single or multiple year completion track. See the “Course Calendar” page for specific program dates. Course schedule will be confirmed upon student’s admission to Re:Train.

An undergraduate degree or demonstrated life and ministry experience is required for this degree.

Promotion Video

May 26-27, 2010

Acts 29 Boot Camps are church planting conferences open to the public that focus on the vision of church planting, calling of the planter, mandate to multiply churches and the theological foundation for gospel-centered church planting. The Denver Boot Camp will be hosted by L2 Church in Denver, CO.

Boot Camp Location: L2 Church, L2 Arts & Culture Center 1477 Columbine St Denver, CO 80206

Cost: $149 EACH | $99 per couple for assessment

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. Matthew 11:12 ESV. As missional pastors and church planters we cannot let anything hinder the distinctives and power of the gospel in every area of our lives, as we carry out the task of renewing this world in Christ.

Schedule

Tuesday, May 25

7:00-9:00 pm - Pre boot camp Welcome Reception

Wednesday, May 26

9:00 am – Registration
10:00 am – Welcome - Scott Thomas
10:10 am – Worship
10:30 am – Main Session One: Welcome to Acts 29 Video - Mark Driscoll
11:00 pm – Break
11:15 am – Main Session Two: The Mission of Making Disciples - Jeff Vanderstelt
12:00 pm - Vendors Announcements (GCM, Logos, A29 Coffee)
12:10 pm – Lunch
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm: Workshops – all going on simultaneously (see workshops list below)
3:00 pm – Main Session Three: Engaging the Culture: Living in Sin . . .Well - Jeffery Ventrella
4:00 pm – Break
4:20 pm – Main Session Four: Engage your Bible - Sam Storms
5:20 pm – Closing Remarks - Russ McKendry
5:30 pm – Dismiss

Thursday May 27

9:00 am – Welcome - Scott Thomas
9:10 am – Worship
9:30 am – Main Session Five: Engage the gospel part 1: Free But Costly - David Bahnsen
10:30 – Break
10:50 am – Main Session Six: Engage the gospel part 2: The Gospel and the Pulpit - Sam Storms
12:00 pm – Lunch
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm: Workshops – all going on simultaneously (see workshops list below)
3:00 pm – Main Session Seven: Engage Your Family - Russ McKendry
4:00 pm – Break
4:20 pm – Main Session Eight: Engage the world: Work that counts in 100 years - Acts 29 President, Scott Thomas
5:30 pm – Dismiss

Friday May 28

8:00 am – 6:00 pm – Assessments

If you are interested in undergoing assessment as an Acts 29 Network Church Planter, please complete the online application. **Note: the wife of the planter is required to be at assessment. Assessments will take place on Friday, May 28 for those who have completed Phase 1 in the application process. Cost for assessment is $99 per couple. If you would like to be assessed please contact tyler@acts29network.org. Assessment times can only be reserved once you have completed Phase 1: Slot #1: 8:00 -10:00 am | Slot #2 10:15 - 12:15 pm | Slot #3 1:30 - 3:30 pm | Slot #4 3:45 - 5:45 pm

Workshops (1:00-2:30pm on Tuesday & Wednesday)

SET – Wed 26 May

• The Missional Church: Bomb Shelter or Ammo Depot??!! (The Nature and Character of Principled Cultural Change and HOW the local Church must respond) - Jeffery Ventrella
• Planting a Church as a Bi-vocational Pastor– Aaron Carlson
• Preaching the Gospel in Doctrine Adverse Culture - Hunter Beaumont
• Engaging Men with a Better Manhood - Rick White

SET – Thu 27 May

• Ambitious Christians in an Age of Mediocrity – David Bahnsen
• Engage Your People with The Great Commission – Rick White
• Forming & Leading Missional Communities - Jeff Vanderstelt
• Church or Sect? 1 Peter on Christian Presence in a Non-Christian Culture- Sam Storms

Coaching Intensives - (Led by Mars Hill Albuquerque pastors). Offered both days during the workshops. Space is limited

• Matt Wallace-Community Groups, Redemption Groups (short term groups for addicts, the abused and people wrestling with cycles of unbroken sin), Youth, Children and Biblical Counseling.
• Donovan Medina- liturgy, worship band multiplication, worship arts and production technology.
• AJ Hamilton-all executive and administrative functions including assimilation, staff management, financial integrity and technology
• Dave Bruskas - Leadership development (elders and deacons), vision/communication, campus/church multiplication and bilingual ministry.

Five Lessons from Puritans on Family

by Winfield Bevins

What do a bunch of dead white guys have to say to me about my family issues?

Winfield Bevins, lead pastor of Church of the Outer Banks in Nags Head, NC, spoke at the Raleigh, NC Boot Camp recently about the pastor’s family and he drew from the timeless teachings of the Puritans to remind us about the value and importance of family ministry. According to Bevins, “Family worship was one of the hallmarks of the Puritan era and one of their greatest legacies for us today.”

Richard Baxter said, “We must have a special eye upon families, to see that they are well ordered, and the duties of each relation performed.  The life of religion, and the welfare and glory of both the Church and the State, depend much on family government and duty.  If we suffer the neglect of this, we shall undo all…. I beseech you, therefore, if you desire the reformation and welfare of your people, do all you can to promote family religion.” 

Lesson 1: The Family is a Church

The Puritans believed and taught that your family is your church. Every man has a responsibility to pastor his wife and his children.  Jonathan Edwards said, “Every Christian family ought to be as it were a little church, consecrated to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his rules. And family education and order are some of the chief means of grace.” George Whitefield said, “A man ought to look upon himself as obliged to act in three capacities:

• As a prophet, to instruct:
• As a priest, to pray for and with;
• As a king, to govern, direct, and provide for them.”

Lesson 2: Love Your Wife as Christ Loved the Church

Pastoring your family begins with loving your wife as Christ loved the church. Through our marriage, we are examples of the gospel to our children and to our church. 

Lesson 3: Family is the Seminary of the Church

Puritan Thomas Manton said, “A family is the seminary of the church.” The Puritans believed that the home was the primary place of learning the Bible and moral instruction. They also believed that it was a parent’s spiritual responsibility to disciple and teach their children about the faith.  The Bible instructs us, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6).  It is important for children to begin learning about God and the Bible at home. 

Thomas Doolittle said, “Masters of families ought to read the Scripture to their families and instruct their children and servants in the matters and doctrines of salvation. Therefore, they are to pray in and with their families. No man that will not deny the Scripture can deny the unquestionable duty of reading the Scripture in our houses, governors of families teaching and instructing them out of the Word of God.”

Lesson 4: Regularly Practice a Family Day Off (this has personally saved my marriage and my ministry)

For the Puritans that day off was synonymous with family. Many church planters fail to take a day off by justifying their great ministry need. We are not leading our family well unless we take time to be together without work lingering in the background. This is a common sin that ministers need to repent for not keeping.

Ministers are burning out at an unbelievable rate. Nearly 90% of pastors feel overworked and 50% of those who go into fulltime service drop out in 5 years. Spiritual burnout occurs when we don’t give ourselves time to rest from our daily routine. Puritans were a great example for spiritual rest because they had a rhythm of work and rest and service and worship.

Lesson 5: We are Responsible to God for the Proper Stewardship of our Families

Puritans taught the gravity of the responsibility of shepherding your family. We are stewards of our families. Let us not sin in this area, let us repent for not leading well. Thomas Doolittle said, “If God be the Founder, Owner, Governor, and Benefactor of families, then families are jointly to worship God and pray unto Him.”

By Pastor Scott Thomas

Broken inside the Church

Broken marriages are far too common than we want to admit and the church cannot ignore the adulteries occurring among its members any longer. Married couples are sitting in church pews hiding in shame and experiencing anger, despair, fear, jealousy, guilt, relief and revenge. Restoration begins by placing hope in God and not in your circumstances and not in your partner (Psalm 46).

The following is a brief summary of Robert D. Jones, Restoring your Broken Marriage: Healing After Adultery (CCEF; New Growth Press, 2009).

Practical Strategies for Change (according to Jones)

What if I have hurt my spouse? The Offending Partner’s Path

Address specifically: 1) how you will change; 2) how you will handle temptation; 3) who you will invite into your life for accountability; 4) what disciplines you will incorporate; 5) how you will relate to your wife; and any other relevant situation-specific questions.

What if I my spouse has hurt me? The Offended Partner’s Path

The Four Promises of Forgiveness (from Ken Sande, The Peacemaker):

Conclusion: Next Steps

When ready, recommit to the marriage covenant and prepare to explore the problems that existed before the adultery. Commit to long-term, Christ-centered counseling.

When considering what you will tell others about the adultery, the key principle is that you and your spouse must agree how much to say.

Moving forward, hold fast to the gospel and God’s promises.

By Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29

Recently, another Mars Hill Church pastor came to me to ask for some advice. He needed an assistant, and the right hire was a young single gal. He wisely asked for some help in navigating a working relationship as a pastor, as my assistant is a single woman as well.

At Mars Hill Church, we have women who serve as deacons and many assist pastors. Much great ministry is done by these women in the capacities they serve – but with these kind of working relationships comes a great need for wisdom and careful boundaries to keep pastors and their assistants not only above reproach in the eyes of those watching, but also truly living with sexually and emotionally pure hearts before God.

Here are ten tips I shared with the young pastor:

1. Communicate to your assistant your extra security with this arrangement and ask her not to take it personally when you have to restrict your relationship—sometimes seeming cold or disinterested.

2. Never touch her, even casually on the hand as you exchange papers, etc. I occasionally high-five my assistant, but only when it is appropriate and around others. Seems small but every sin starts in the minutia. Compliment her work and never her appearance.

3. Be careful showing her a compassionate ear. Females are attracted more to a strong leader who is also sensitive than they are to big studly arms (like yours!).

4. Realize that age similarity may be a struggle. This is somewhat a non-issue for my assistant because, among other things, she could literally be my daughter chronologically.

5. Give her your wife’s email and phone number and urge her to call your wife if she ever feels disrespected in ANY way.

6. Arrange accountability for her with another female staff member.

7. Never be alone with her. Never give her a ride alone. Never be alone in an office where others cannot monitor at all times.

8. Keep it as professional as you can at all times. I care about my assistant and I have fun around her, but these are characteristics I have with my male friends as well. Your assistant has to see your consistency and not feel as though she is treated in a special way. Address anything that needs correction in her work and this has a way of bringing the professional goals to the forefront of your relationship.

9. Never talk to her about her dating life except as it negatively affects her work for you. Never talk to her about any difficulties you have in marriage. Only reiterate your commitment to your wife.

10. Review your commitment to these with her regularly and address your mutual commitments to stay above reproach.

Additionally, I asked my assistant, Adriel to reply to him as well, and the list she sent separately is almost amusingly (and reassuringly) similar.

Six Steps for Safely Serving a Supervisor

1. Scott had a conversation with me the first day I worked for him where he stated that, a), he loved his wife and his marriage and was not going to compromise them, and b), he wanted me to feel safe in working with him and asked what boundaries I needed enforced.

2. I don’t go anywhere with or meet Pastor Scott by myself. If I have to go to his house, I always make sure Jeannie is home.

3. I don’t close any doors to any rooms where I am with Pastor Scott by myself unless there are windows and anyone could look in at any time and see us.

4. I don’t go to Pastor Scott for pastoral help except on rare occasions. For me it’s a safety precaution, as I don’t want to form an emotional bond that is unhealthy. We work together a lot and get along well; I don’t need any more “connection.”

5. Early on, I wrote an awkward letter to Jeannie letting her know that I respected her and her marriage and would go out of my way to protect her husband’s reputation. I wanted to set that baseline immediately.

6. I also try to make sure Jeannie always knows what is going on with Pastor Scott’s work so she does not feel out of the loop on anything.

By Dustin Neeley, Acts 29 Pastor of Crossing Church

It was an old car but we loved it. It leaked oil and antifreeze, but hey, I was a church planter and thankful to have any car that actually operated without pedals. I will never forget the day that it almost caught fire--while I was driving it!

I will never forget the distinct smell of burning antifreeze. The billowing smoke in my old car began slowly and then impaired my vision like a horrifyingly blinding cloud at a Willie Nelson concert. I panicked suddenly when I realized that the car I was driving was now out of control on a busy road. I’ll never forget the helplessness I experienced.

Family on Fire

You don’t forget the moment when your wife looks at you and tells you that if things don’t change, she’s leaving; the moment when one of your children looks at you and tells you that they hate the church because you are never home. It’s the moment that you realize that your family is on fire and you are in the driver’s seat.

Stopping the Fires Before they Start

I believe that keeping our eye on the “Family Dashboard” can help us monitor the fires before they start. The “Family Dashboard” is the set of “gauges” that we monitor as we drive along to let us know how things are going in our journey through life and ministry and marriage and family.

Our Family Gauges:

1. The “speedometer.”

This is the “pacing” question. Are we moving at a healthy pace that we can sustain or are we running “in the red?” We can’t just monitor the things from ministry that directly include us, but we must also factor in the other things that make life what it is: soccer, gymnastics, the kids’ school, health, marriage, money and home repairs. I never make this health assessment alone. Men are not typically emotionally intuitive and can be blind to the relational redlining occurring. If you don’t believe me, just ask your wife. She will tell you the real truth.

2. The “RPM”s.

This is the stress question. How hard are we pushing to make this thing go? Are we shifting gears smoothly in our relationships or are we “grinding the gears” like a 16-year-old boy driving a stick shift for the first time with his critical Dad in the passenger seat? Do Mom and Dad need more time together--alone? Is more time or energy needed with a particular child? You can usually “listen to the engine” through the tone of the conversations taking place in home to monitor the stress level in the home.

3. The “gas” gauge.

This is the margin question. Every ministry family I know is strapped for time and often other resources. The families that go the distance are the ones that have enough gas in their tank for the long haul. They are consciously and consistently refueling through weekly days off, “Date Nights,” “Daddy Dates,” vacations and daily spiritual tune-ups to keep the engine running more efficiently. Again, if you want to know exactly how much gas is really in the family or marriage tank, ask your wife. She knows.

Watch the Gauges Carefully

Having your car that overheats and catch fire is never a good thing. 

Watching your family overheat and catch fire, is even worse.

If we will keep our eye on the “Family Dashboard,” we will spend more time on the road for the Gospel and less time in the ditch looking helplessly at a burned out engine.

By Chan Kilgore – CrossPointe Church, Orlando FL | Acts 29 Board Member

Chan Kilgore has planted numerous churches in Florida and has many years in church planting ministry. Here he recounts a moment of great conviction from God – in how he was putting the church before his wife.

After years of working long and unhealthy hours in ministry, God graced me with a defining moment of repentance. It happened during the core phase of our church plant, just weeks after I had moved my young wife who was pregnant with our third daughter to Orlando to plant a church.

It was a Sunday evening. I was about 30 minutes into lecturing about Gospel values to my core group when I noticed my wife was sitting in the room, feeling sick. She is an incredibly godly wife and would never complain. She never wanted to “get in the way” of what God was doing through me.

As my eyes connected with hers, God’s spirit spoke to me. He simply said, “taker her home now.”

I hesitated and thought to myself, “But this is important.”

“More important than what?” came the inaudible reply.

I wish now that I had not hesitated, but responded immediately. But years of ignoring that still, small, quiet voice and the commands of scripture to pastor my wife had hardened my heart toward her needs.

I struggled for a few seconds (which felt like minutes) and finally I broke. I stopped in the middle of my lecture and confessed to my core group that I had often neglected my wife for the pursuit of “ministry idols.” I looked at the men that night I told them if I was going to pastor them well that I needed to pastor wife and daughters well.

I turned the meeting over to Jay my co-planter and took my very pregnant wife home. My wife cried almost all the way home that night. She couldn’t believe that I would put her first.

Advance & Retreat of the Church

Over a century ago, Church historian Kenneth Latourette (1884-1963), pointed out that the church’s history is one of advance and retreat, advance and retreat. This oscillating influence over the centuries has resulted in various, new expressions of the Christian faith across time and cultures. It is exciting to witness these current expressions of the gospel in Africa and Asia.

The Incomplete Glory of God

These new expressions of Christian faith, in the advance of the church, are an expansion of God’s glory. But how can a glory that is infinite be expand? Isn’t God’s glory un-expandable and complete? Not according to Jonathan Edwards, who writes:

God looks on the communication of himself, and the emanation of the infinite glory and good that are in himself to belong to the fullness and completeness of himself, as though he were not in his most complete and glorious state without it. Thus the church of Christ is called the fullness of Christ: as though he were not in his complete state without her…

God in an incomplete state? His glory not full? Sounds awfully unorthodox. What is Edwards saying?

Missional Church is Not Enough

If Edwards is correct, the full expression of God’s glory can only be completed through the history of redemption. The history of redemption cannot be completed until “the end has come,” and the end will not come until “the gospel of the kingdom has been preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations” (Matt 24:14). God’s infinite glory, then, is expanded in finite expressions of the gospel in the many “nations” of the world. The church must advance. His glory hangs on thousands of expressions of the gospel through the church in space and time .

However, the church also retreats. Passion for mission wanes. Even with the resurgence of missional ecclesiology, we fail to share the gospel in our own cultures. Add to that: 80% of deployed missionaries are sent to areas already evangelized. Roughly 30% of the globe is unevangelized and untargeted by “missional” churches. 1.6 billion people have not heard the gospel in 38 different nations, representing 13,000 unreached people groups. This is a gospel issue, because this is a glory issue.

The Missional Church is not enough because when the focus of the Church is mission, we are destined to retreat, tire out, and fail. What then are we to do? Surrender and blend into our cultures with the hope of missional memory loss?

Completing the Glory of God

We need a greater, more captivating motivation. Imagine motivation for mission more certain than our oscillating passion for the advance of the gospel. If there is a motivation greater than mission, then there is hope.

There is hope. If the history of redemption will not come to a close until God’s glory has been completed, then the assurance of mission starts and ends, not with the church, but with God’s commitment to his own glorious expansion. It follows that to be increasingly motivated for mission is to be increasingly captivated by the God of expanding glory and beauty. Missional church is not enough. What we need is captivation with God’s glory, and with a God who is relentless in showing his glory to his people throughout history. This glory is complete. The challenge is to stand in awe, not merely of the missional task, but also of the God of mission. From this place of awe the mission of the church will advance and God’s glory will be completed.

Sources:

• Kenneth Latourette, A History of Christianity, Vol. I (Peabody: Prince Press, 2003)
• David Barrett & Todd Johnson, World Christian Trends: Global Diagram 34 (Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2001).
• Jonathan Edwards, The End for Which God Created the World, in Ethical Writings, vol.8 of the Works of Jonathan Edwards, ed. Paul Ramsey (New Haven: Yale Press, 1989)
• Gerald R. McDermott in "What If Paul Had Been from China?" in Max Stackhouse, ed. No Other Gods Before Me? (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2001)

In this video:

Ministry is not really to blame for its negative effect on the family; it’s truly due to personal sin.

Ultimately, when the pastor’s family and ministry are at odds and the family is suffering, this negative effect is rooted in a lack of faith in God by the pastor. Elliot says,  

“If God has commanded me to love my family and work rest into my schedule, then not doing that represents a lack of trust in Him. It also represents over-trust in my abilities and my involvement in His good, kingdom-advancing, Church-building activity… Even now I sometimes struggle with the ideas that Christ will build His church (and therefore I don’t need to give myself in an unhealthy way to the building of the Church) and that God doesn’t sleep (and therefore I don’t need to ignore sleep). I’m not God, and that’s OK.”

In this video, Elliot also discusses:

10 Practical Pastor Dad Tips

by Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29

Click here a for free Pastor Dad eBook from Mark Driscoll, Pastor of Mars Hill Church

 By Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29

1.  Fathers Pursuing Christ see their children as a blessing from God

Never give in to the notion that your children are anything but a blessing from God (Psalm 127:3-5; Genesis 1:28; 3:16; 4:1, 25).

2.  Fathers Pursuing Christ understand that their children are born with a bent toward evil

Children are born in total depravity (Romans 3:10-18; 5:12, 18 19; 8:7-8; Psalm 51:5; 58:3). All the potential for sin of every kind is already present in seed form in every child. Parental tolerance, passivity and lack of involvement will allow the seed to germinate (Proverbs 22:15).

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  • Legalism is not the answer
  • Behavior Modification is not the answer
  • Isolationism is not the answer (John 17:14-19)
  • Self-Esteem is not the answer
  • Regeneration is the answer (John 3:6-7; Romans 8:7-8)

3.  Fathers Pursuing Christ believe the Gospel is the Good News for Children

Leading your children to Jesus is a long-term, full-time duty given to parents (Deuteronomy 6:6-7; 2 Corinthians 5:11, 18-20). Genuine faith is prompted by God’s work in the heart of a child (John 6:44-45) and assured by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:15-16). The essentials of the gospel are the following:

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  • God is holy, hates sin, and demands perfection (Proverbs 1:7; Leviticus 11:44-45; Joshua 24:19; Exodus 20:5; Psalm 5:4; 7:11).
  • Mankind is born as sinners condemned by their deeds in violation of the law of God and are utterly helpless (Romans 2:16; 3:10-12, 20, 23; 5:17; 6:23; 7:7; 8:7-8; Hebrews 9:27).
  • Jesus is God who became man (John 1:1-3, 14), lived a sinless life (Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 2:22-23; 1 John 3:5) and became a sacrifice for our sin (2 Corinthians 5:21; Titus 2:14) by shedding His own blood as atonement for our sins (Ephesians 1:7; Revelation 1:5). His death was necessary for our salvation (1 Peter 2:24; Colossians 1:20). He was raised from the dead (Romans 1:4; 4:25; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4) to freely justify (Romans 3:24; 5:1-2, 9; Galatians 2:16) and make righteous those who trust in Him (1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 4:5-6; Philippians 3:8-9).
  • Faith in Jesus Christ is essential for justification (Ephesians 2:8-9). The repentant sinner (Acts 3:19; 17:30; 26:20) turns his heart from sin (1 Thessalonians 1:9 Ezekiel 14:6; 18:30) follows Jesus (Luke 9:23, 62; John 12:26) and trusts Jesus as Lord and Savior (Acts 16:31; Romans 10:9).
  • True faith perseveres to the end (Mark 8:34-37; 10:21; Luke 14:26-33; John 12:24-25).

4.  Fathers Pursuing Christ train their children to honor and obey

This principle of obeying parents lays the foundation for every other principle about how we should treat our fellow human beings. (Exodus 20:12; Ephesians 6:2). It also lays the foundation for how one is to obey the Heavenly Father (Ephesians 6:4). Below are some steps of training children to obey:

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  • Counter the influences of evil behavior with a deep, unconditional love for them
  • Use discipline as a means to communicate that love (Ephesians 6:4; Proverbs 3:11-12; Hebrews 12:5-11)
  • Train them to heed your instructions without delay or complaint and transfer that allegiance to God.
  • Help them to leave childish folly for Spirit-controlled wisdom (Proverbs 13:24; 19:18; 22:15; 23:13-14; 29:15-17).
  • Follow the example of Jesus (Luke 2:52).
  • Teach them to obey Jesus as their highest authority (Ephesians 6:1; Colossians 3:20, 23-24).
  • Discern the attitude of the child (Ephesians 6:2) and the attitude of the father (Ephesians 6:4; Colossians 3:21).

5.  Fathers Pursuing Christ practice and demonstrate submission (Ephesians 5:19-21)

•  
  • Father submits to Christ
  • Family submits to father
  • Father submits to wife’s needs
  • Wife submits to Christ
  • Wife submits to the leadership of the husband as granted by God
  • Children submit to parent’s authority
  • Parents submit to children’s needs

6.  Fathers Pursuing Christ love their wives (Ephesians 5:25 ff)

Love is the summarizing duty of fathers. Leadership flows from love. Love is sacrificial (Ephesians 5:25; Acts 20:28; 1 John 3:16; John 15:13; 1 Peter 3:7). Love is purifying (Ephesians 5:25-27). Love is caring (Ephesians 5:28-31; Genesis 2:24). Love is Enduring (Ephesians 5:31; Matthew 19:6)

 Previous Blog: Pastors Make Great Dads

Pastors Make Great Fathers – Part 1

By Pastor Scott Thomas, Acts 29 President

Pastors make great fathers. Perhaps the more accurate statement is that “great fathers could make good pastors.”

Pastors are to lead their congregation like their homes (1 Tim. 3: 4-5). The problem is that many pastor’s homes are as dysfunctional as their churches and problems always start at the top. But a great father is a leader, an encourager, a supporter, a shepherd, an evangelist, a Bible teacher, a gospel imager, a humble disciplinarian, a defender of truth, a provider, a protector, and a loving friend. In short, he is a lion-like lamb and a lamb-like lion. I would think that a Dad described above would make a good pastor. In fact, if a Dad shepherded his flock at home and the flock that God had appointed to him in that manner, he would be a great pastor.

I want to press upon you, dear pastor, to make a fervent commitment to pursue Christ in your fatherhood with a persevering, unrelenting faithfulness to the glory of God. I am encountering an inordinate amount of men who are in ministry that had terrible, sometimes horrendous relationships with their fathers. To compensate, some of them enter into ministry to either prove their fathers wrong or to receive surrogate fathering en masse from their congregations who support them, affirm them and help them deal with their ongoing insecurities. A few have redeemed the past. I’m afraid that future generations are not going to have a biblical model for fathering their children.

Father Hunger

Children (biological and spiritual) are hungry for a father’s relationship. They are hungry not particularly for answers or explanations, but simply for a relationship—a relationship with a father, with our Heavenly Father. Our world, our culture, and even our church suffer from father hunger. It manifests itself in countless ways—bitterness, insecurity, fear, anger, and lack of faith almost always in a self-repeating cycle.

Over 50% of children in the USA experience the pain of father abandonment before they reach eighteen.   In some inner city communities, it is a staggering 80%! The facts and statistics used in this article are found on the National Fatherhood Initiative.

Father absence is a contributing factor to both economic and social poverty. The majority of school dropouts, drug additions, criminal behavior and out-of-wedlock pregnancies can be traced to the absence of a healthy father in the home.  Father absence begins a cycle that leads to more father absence for future generations.  Father absence cuts across all racial and social/economic boundaries.  For some communities, the primary factor is out-of-wedlock births and in others it is divorce.  In either case, the effects can be devastating on children and often last a lifetime.  The vast majority of young people who become incarcerated for criminal activity have grown up without a father in the home. Seventy percent of kids with a parent in prison will end up incarcerated just as their parents were.

Violent crime, drug and alcohol abuse, truancy, teenage pregnancy and suicide all correlate more strongly to fatherlessness than to any other single factor. The majority of prisoners, juvenile detention inmates, high school dropouts, pregnant teenagers, adolescent murderers and rapists come from fatherless homes.

I am the father of two boys ages 21 and pause for sadness, four months shy of 18. The real test of my fatherhood will be my grandchildren—who are not yet born. But to date, my sons and I have walked together through every aspect of their life—diapers to discipline to driving to discipleship to dates to diplomas. They love Jesus, respect and adore their mom, have great attitudes and they have a better respect for the opposite sex than I did. I am a better man because of our relationship. I understand God a little better and I think I understand how a Savior could give his life for the good of another.

Part 2: Six Ways Fathers Pursue Christ in their Fatherhood

Interview with: Hunter Beaumont, Fellowship Denver, 3 years old, younger crowd.

1. No sex. The single Christian man has no place for any sexual expression.

2. No best friend. The single man lacks the deep companionship/emotional support that a wife provides.

If a single man is not able to handle these two areas of struggle well, he should not plant a church as the temptations and pressures only increase.

“We always tell guys: ‘planting a church puts more pressure on your marriage than is on it now, typically. So if you’re not doing marriage well now, you shouldn’t plant a church.’ It’s the same for the single guy; planting puts more pressure, especially in those two areas, on the single man.”

Advantages of a Single Planter

1. More time. Not having a wife or kids to care for gives the single planter more time to devote to the ministry.

2. Space for more relationships. The single planter can develop more relationships with people in and out of his church. This extra time knowing people – their thoughts, struggles, sins and questions – aids the single planter in rapidly improving his preaching.

Other Unique Issues for the Single Planter

• Ladies. Women often are attracted to a strong, spiritual man – much discernment and the help of a team of elders is needed to make sure that relationships remain pure.

• Married Men on the Team. Single men need to plant with a team, and have a married man (preferably with kids!) on that team to help with marriages.

• Intentional Openness. The single planter has to live very openly for the sake of accountability & fellowship. This looks like having the elders watch over the single planter’s life, someone receiving internet filtering reports, and not spending too much time alone.

Should a Single Man Plant a Church?

It boils down to how well a single man is able to live in sexual purity and fight loneliness. If he is doing these things well, then he can think about planting a church.

Hunter’s sermon on singleness here!

Parakaleo Ministries

Parakaleo was birthed out of a PCA research project that Shari Thomas, daughter of a church-planter and wife of a pastor, did on the major factors determining the health or death of church-planters’ marriages. Scott Thomas was able to meet with Shari recently in NYC for a brief interview.

Here are some results from Shari Thomas’ Study of PCA Church Planter Spouse Stress and Satisfaction Levels:

• 100% of church planting spouses surveyed have requested mentoring or coaching.

• 65% of church planting spouses say their husbands (men who tend to be absent from the home evenings and weekends) provide their primary emotional support.

• 59% of church planting spouses lead 1-3 major ministries in the church in addition to family, community and personal commitments.

Add to this these statistics per Focus on the Family:

• 80% of pastors’ wives report having struggled with depression

• 56% of pastors’ report having no close friends

Shari’s list of primary factors that determine the wife’s satisfaction or stress levels are as follows:

• The husband – the person and work of the husband as he is involved/uninvolved with his wife.

• Support system

• Sabbath Rest

• Reliance on Christ

• Boundary Ambiguity

• Physical Health

In this interview, Shari notes that in the church planter assessment process, the most important factor in assessing satisfaction of a wife of a church planter is not actually her relationship with her husband (originally the highest-rated factor), but in the wife’s understanding of the gospel for herself.

The wife’s understanding of how sinful she is, and how she is more loved than she can imagine frees her from being a slave to performance or having her identity rest on what others think of her. She is freed by the gospel to face the issues of being a church planter’s wife with truth and joy.

Parakaleo is a network that offers coaching and help for church planters’ wives. Read more here.

What are other reasons you might want to attend a boot camp rather than listen to teachings online later? Try any of these reasons from Scott Thomas.

Below are quick snapshots of what to expect from the Raleigh and Denver boot camps coming up:

See full schedule and register for the Raleigh, NC Boot Camp 

This "hybrid" boot camp combines the Advance The Church conference with a day of Acts 29-specific teaching on church planting. Tyler Jones, Ed Stetzer, Matt Carter, Scott Thomas, Jason Roberts and many other local, SE church planters will be speakers. Expect to hear a lot about revival and renewal in a nominally Christian culture that knows nothing of the power of the gospel.

Advance 2010 - What is the state of the church today? register for the Raleigh, NC Boot Camp

See schedule and register for Denver Boot Camp

Denver Boot Camp is going to be packed with Acts 29 planters from the Rockies, Texas and the Southwest. If you are in any of these regions and considering planting a church, we strongly recommend you attend.

Speakers will include Jeff Vanderstelt, Russ McKendry, Sam Storms, Scott Thomas, Dave Bahnsen and Jeffrey Ventrella, plus several other church planters and pastors.

Additionally, this is a boot camp to consider bringing other elders and leaders to if you are a church planter, as Mars Hill Church Albuquerque will be hosting coaching intensives for Community Groups and counseling, administration & executive leadership, worship and liturgy, as well as leadership development. 

We hope you will join us and begin new friendships, learn much through men who love Jesus and His Word, and be strengthened for your own calling.

By Ben Connelly

A planter’s wife told me a few months before we started our church, “You’re not a real church planter unless you have a kid within the first year.” She was joking, but my wife Jess and I apparently took her seriously. Four months into planting, we found ourselves preparing for both our first church and our first child. We’re thrilled, but in the middle of these busiest, most-stressful, “more-late-nights-than-college” months, the life change makes us wonder how we’ll balance it all. Again. Because it feels like we’ve just started figuring out how to balance life, marriage, ministry, jobs, etc. with just two of us!

Here are three things I’ve learned about marriage:

Be Intentional

I was amazed how quickly after our wedding, our relationship slipped to the back burner. Without realizing it, the time, thought, and effort that I poured into cherishing my wife decreased exponentially our first months of marriage. I had been the engaged guy who drove halfway across the country to see Jess; who spared no expense in phoning her regularly while she was in Europe; who left little gifts and notes. Now I was the newlywed guy who took last-minute meetings on already-scheduled date nights; who failed to call when getting home later than expected; and who poured more effort into church and grad school than my bride.

What do we do when folks in our churches go through tough times? When someone new begins getting involved? How quickly do we respond to emails? How much time do we carve into schedules for counseling, sermon prep, or discipleship? We don’t naturally fall into any of these; we intentionally make time for them. But we spend so much time being intentional with our week’s structure, great sermons, and dealing with people; we forget to be intentional with our families. How do you intentionally carve out time for the most important people in your life – every day, every week?

Ask The Right Questions

A new pastor once asked a more experienced one, “How do I lead my wife well?” The older pastor quipped, “Don’t ask me – ask her!” Our wives’ answers will be different, but lest we disqualify ourselves from eldership, we have to pastor our families before our churches. What questions do our families need us to ask that we’re not asking? What questions do we ask the men we disciple that we’ve never asked our wives?

While asking Jess about her Jesus, family, friends, her day, and her dreams, there’s one simple, profound question I’ve learned to ask often: “How am I doing as a husband?” It’s an open opportunity to let me know her every thought, feeling, and desire: anything is fair game. Some days her answers leave me shocked or hurt. But I can only know how to lead better if I know how she needs to be led. Strap on a cup and try it: it’s one of the best questions I’ve ever asked.

Pray for Her

Maybe I’m alone in this, but just as I failed to carve out time with my wife, and failed to ask meaningful questions, I sadly and often forgot to pray for her. Are you a praying husband? Are you a praying daddy? Do you daily present your family to God and beg for grace and mercy to lead well? For protection, blessing, and leadership? It seems too obvious, but we must be praying for and with our families!

Like I said, I’m still learning these things. I fail at all three. But I’ve at least learned to try. And I have men who push me toward them! Maybe by the time our baby is born, I’ll have it figured out – or at least I’ll be ready to start learning all over again how to lead my family well.

By Bruce Wesley

Angry All the Time

Church planting exposed my emotional brokenness on two fronts. First, I was angry most of the time. My anger fueled my workaholism. Church planting required undivided attention and a willingness to correct matters quickly. Since anger actualizes a person, it became my partner. I lived just below the boiling point. Most people were unaware of my tendency to boil over; they simply felt that I was driven to make things happen. But my children walked on eggshells at home.

Emotional Detachment from Family

Secondly, two years after we planted Clear Creek Community Church, I recognized a feeling of emotional detachment from my wife and kids. I don’t remember where the question came from, but I asked myself, “What if my wife and children never feel loved by me?” I thought about how much of a failure I would be if I planted a church successfully, but I did not know how to love my wife and kids in a way that they felt cherished, protected and connected to me. What if I reached the end of my one and only life and thousands of people became Christians, but my children wanted nothing to do with me. That would be such a farce. So I called a friend who could help me work through my junk.

Anger is Omnidirectional 

I hated the process of talking about what makes me tick. It actually hurt. But I learned so much about anger. Anger is omni-directional. It splashes on the people it was never intended to reach. Of the four basic emotions: mad sad, glad and scared, anger is the second emotion. We always feel one of the other emotions first, but we jump to anger because it’s the empowering emotion. That made sense to me since I stayed angry in order to stay engaged and solve problems. With anger, it was as if the house was always on fire.

Performance-Driven or Gospel-Driven?

My friend helped me see that my driven life and associated anger stemmed from my performance orientation. I was driven to perform and succeed because I believed successful people are loved. So anyone who stood in my way of success was cutting off my air and, thus, they were met with my wrath in response. I could morph from nice guy to killer in a nanosecond.

It was the gospel that changed me. One day my friend said to me, “There is nothing you can do that will make God love you more and nothing you can do that will make God love you less.” I had said the same thing many times. But when I heard the statement, God’s Spirit opened my heart to grace. I realized that I was trying to earn God’s love through hard work and success. That’s why I was angry and the people I loved were being pushed away. It’s when I learned to preach the gospel to myself that my emotional world changed. Under grace, in light of the gospel, I became self-controlled.

In retrospect, we were exposing the idols in my life. And the gospel continues to set me free more than a decade later. I’m grateful. So are my wife and kids.

By Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29

The most common metaphor for Christian community is “family” and “household” (Rom. 12:10; Gal. 6:10; Eph. 2:19; 1 Peter 4:17). It dawned on me that we rarely apply this to one’s marriage and family. I curiously wondered why we fail to act in families as a community of Christians when it seems so obvious that this is where it is practiced and refined and best illustrated.

Pastors are to manage the church in the same way they manage their home (1 Tim. 3:5-6). We are to practice gospel community in our families with at least as much intentionality as we do among fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

THREE WAYS TO PRACTICE GOSPEL COMMUNITY IN YOUR FAMILY

1. Sharing

As a family, we share a unifying belief in the gospel and we express this belief communally as we teach and admonish one another (Col. 3:16) and speak to one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Eph. 5:19).

We also share in one another’s burdens by carrying them for other members of the family (Gal. 6:2) and encouraging one another (1 Thes. 5:11; Heb. 3:13). We express the gospel vividly by relieving the pain for other family members especially when they don’t deserve it.

We share in physical needs of other family members—food, money, and housing. We are devoted to each other in brotherly love (Rom. 12:10), being hospitable (1 Peter 4:9) and doing good for others (Gal. 6:10).

2. Serving

Jesus took the form of a servant and made Himself nothing. He did not act on His own needs but rather suffered to serve others the greatest gift of an atoning sacrifice for our sins (Phil. 2:5-8).

We are likewise admonished to serve one another for the other person’s good and not our own (Rom. 15:1-2) with a brotherly love (Rom. 12:10; 13:8; Heb 13:1; 1 Peter 1:22).

A family serves one another through unconditional love, forgiving one another (Matt. 5:23-24; Eph. 4:2; Col. 3:13) and holding each other accountable to walk in harmony with the gospel (Rom. 15:4; Eph. 4:25; James 5:16).

In the context of a family, members should seek to outdo one another in showing honor. We preach this in the context of members of the family of God but often fail to practice it in our own homes.

3. Affirming

We affirm one another’s value in Christ by accepting them as Christ accepts us (Rom. 15:7), showing concern for them (1 Cor. 12:25) and demonstrating true humility (1 Peter 5:5). Even in a family we have varying degrees of skills and abilities and imperfections. Our value is in Christ’s acceptance of us in spite of our failures. Our family community understands this and affirms this in the daily life with one another.

Family members affirm one another through demonstrative affection. This seems natural for family members to greet one another with a “holy kiss” (Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor 13:12) but many homes are devoid of affection, kindness and compassion (Eph. 4:32).  This practice can be nurtured and developed and is not acceptable to be categorized as a cultural problem (1 Thes. 3:12).

Finally, family members affirm the strengths, abilities and gifts of one another. The opposite of this is criticizing one another (James 5:9) rather than honoring one another above ourselves (Rom. 12:10).

Continue to Practice Gospel Community

Practicing gospel community in our homes gives honor to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Pastor’s families lead the way a church and other families function in community. Our families are communities. We are not isolated individuals who share a common house and name. We are conceived in community, born into a community and nurtured through a community of family members.

We honor God as we die to self and humbly share, serve and affirm the members of our family community.

Recently Dave Bruskas, Pastor of the Albuquerque Campus of Mars Hill Church (formerly City on a Hill Church), answered some questions for Scott Thomas about his marriage and raising four daughters as a pastor.

Dave and his wife Kara have four daughters, ages 11 to 19, and it is clear to everyone who meets this family how much joy they have in serving the Lord together.

In this video, Scott asks Dave:

• How would you describe a healthy marriage?
• How does Kara help you not to hide sin, but confront and apply the gospel to it?
• What does it look like for you to serve one another as a couple?
• How did you nurture the joy that is evident in your daughters in serving on mission?

Noel Heikkinen

I had lunch with a Church Planter today who is being stretched way outside of his comfort level with his young church. He is discovering the inevitable: as the complexity of our church increases, so will the demands on our life. We will have to grow and change in ways that we can’t even imagine when our church begins.

For any entrepreneurial leader, it’s exciting to navigate these new waters. We read a ton, we network with other movers and shakers, and we develop systems and plans. Life is thrilling and we grow into the new position our job requires.

This very process (which is healthy for the church) can be one of the greatest pitfalls for our marriage. While we are growing by leaps and bounds, our wife is at home in a life that remains pretty constant. Sure, the kids go through different seasons of life, and sure there are fluctuations in her schedule, but life can easily remain status quo for her. Because of this, we can slowly drift apart.

It starts almost unnoticeably. Instead of asking her counsel on some issue affecting the church, we process alone or with others leaders. When a counseling issue is weighing on our mind, we don’t want to burden her. After a day of leading strongly, we just want to go home and veg. We become our wife’s roommate instead of her husband.

I can write this because this has been a struggle of mine. Luckily, my wife has called me out on this and I have gotten help from other godly men who have helped me put systems in place in my life. Here are a few practical steps that have made a huge difference for us.

You know the drill. You come home for the night and your wife asks, “So what did you do today?” “Nothing.” It’s the response we learned to say to our mom in Jr. High and we still use it with our wives. But your day wasn’t filled with “nothing,” your day was filled with something! Talk about it. I keep a list of random stuff I want to tell my wife and every night we talk through the list. She is my #1 advisor, confidant, and friend. But it’s not just about me, I ask her specific questions about her day and try to drill down for details when her day seems mundane to her. Even when I am traveling, I call home so we can talk about the “nothings” in our day. These “nothings,” by themselves, don’t seem like much. But added together, they make a life. We can’t build our lives apart from each other.

My wife recently called me out on this one. She reminded me about how driven I am at work and she said it was frustrating when I didn’t lead that way at home. So I am taking steps in this direction. I am trying to build systems and set goals for the family (although I would never say that to my kids).

Any good church planter must constantly exegete the culture around them. They need to figure out how to enter their city and represent for Jesus there. We need to do the same thing in our marriages. Find out what things you do that makes your wife feel loved and do them constantly. Become a missionary in your marriage; loving your wife the way Jesus loves the church.

We fell in love during college. Crazy in love. When we married, we were so happy to belong to one another fully. But at first, I (Ray) did not understand how to love Jani sexually to her maximum joy. I really did love her. I just didn’t understand.

After a while, she came to me gently and respectfully and said, “Honey, I think we can do even better. Here’s how I think it might work . . .” So we tried. I learned. And we went to another level. Here we are now, both of us sixty, and it keeps getting better.

Do not think that your sex life as a married couple goes into decline after 30 or 40 or 50.

It can keep getting better. It becomes more tender at heart and more expert in mutually satisfying performance.

1. Remember that God created your sexuality for his own glory. As you make love, you can pray, out loud or silently. You can pray for God’s blessing on your lover’s sexual experience at the moment, all the way to full satisfaction. And then in the afterglow, you can pray in thanksgiving.

2. Coach each other along the way. Not even a loving husband knows automatically how to put his wife over the moon. Nor does a loving wife automatically understand the wildly intense experience her husband desires. Anything this good takes time. Great sex is one of the rewards of a life-long romance.

3. Give yourself exclusively to your spouse, in glad obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. Shut everyone else out of your thoughts and feelings. Focus intensely on him or her. Give yourself away, so totally away that you cannot take yourself back. That’s marriage. And in that place of wholehearted commitment, sex is safe, sex is holy, sex gets better.

4. If your past sins hinder your joy and freedom today, look by faith to Jesus, the Friend of sexual sinners. When he forgave you, he made you a new creation. He gave you your virginity back. You’re free to live again, this time for his glory in your sexuality.

A lovely deer, a graceful doe.

Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;

be intoxicated always in her love. (Proverbs 5:19)

Blessings on your precious marriage!

Along with the majority of Christian leaders around the country, I took the news of John Piper’s 8-month leave from ministry with shock and then sobering reflection. I love the ministry of John Piper and I admire him greatly.   

I asked myself what we could learn from this decision. I read his article and watched the video of the announcement and I personally felt pain. John talked about the pains of his soul that primarily rested in his marriage, his family and in his relentless pursuit for productivity. In this month as we examine a pastor’s marriage and family, I want to offer some thoughts that all pastors are prone to fail. Piper  is not the subject of this article although his decision triggered the thoughts and will be used illustratively as a helpful example to us all.

How in the world did we get into such a mess?

John Piper and Noël, his wife of 41 years have not pretended that their marriage is perfect. In fact, Noël wrote in the foreword to This Momentary Marriage, that there have been moments in their marriage that made her ask, “How in the world did we get into such a mess? What happened to make us feel this kind of disagreement and unhappiness?”[1]

Elisabeth Dodds wrote a meaningful book about Jonathan Edwards, Marriage to a Difficult Man: The Uncommon Union of Jonathan & Sarah Edwards. Jonathan was "difficult" perhaps because he was so single minded in his calling to be a preacher. Sarah Edwards was "uncommon" because to support him in his calling she took over the running of their home, their farm and the raising of their ten happy healthy children.

In the case of Jonathan Edwards, the marriage was sustained through his occasional recognition that he had obligations to the family. In the case of other pastors, their public and private lives are incongruent. Verbal abuse is more common than we want to admit. A pastor is prone to ignore the children while self-justifiably pursuing responsibilities before God.

Driven by a Passionate Calling

I have dealt with suicidal pastors who tied their identity, worth and value to their ministry success. When they failed in ministry in their eyes, they did not see their marriage and family or relationship with God as worthy of their continued existence.

Pastors, we have to order our lives according to the gospel where God loves us without merit and continues to love us even if we are average or even insignificant from a worldly perspective our entire lives. Our marriages are portraits displaying the gospel where Jesus loves the church unconditionally (Ephesians 5: 22-32).

I have trampled over my marital relationship in an attempt to produce and succeed. My wife is “uncommon” in that she endured the stress I brought into the mariage and into the home. She never complained because she stopped expecting anything from me. She suffered silently and therefore squeakier wheels in the church received my attention. The boys were the recipients of my emotional affection. She occasionally got the leftovers.

I was praying before a sermon backstage and the Spirit of God prompted me to stop praying for the people who were in the church and start preaching to myself. I looked over my notes and found my message on repentance from idols as life transforming—for me, not them. I discovered the idol of pride hidden beneath the fruit of a driven life that was angry at times and stressful all the time.

I learned to rest in His acceptance of me and I am repenting continually for lusting for success and productivity. I am learning to pursue my wife from a pure heart of love for her.

Study Your Wife and not just Your Books

Generally, we are to love our wife like Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her. And since we verbalize that we are willing to die for our wife, we give ourselves a passing grade in the “love my wife like Christ” category. I was willing to die for my wife but I was not willing to live for her.

Specifically, we need to live with our wives in an understanding way (1 Peter 3:7). That means that we need to know our wife, not just women in general (as if that is possible). It isn't what you get out of marriage but what you put into it that brings glory to God. Do you know your wife's needs? Have you discussed them with her? Have you asked her what kind of husband she wants you to be?

Questions to get to know her better

[1] John Piper, This Momentary Marriage (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 2009), p. 10.

By Mark Driscoll

Two sides exist with every spiritual discipline. A Pastor’s healthy relationship with God involves both being and doing. On one hand, there is a contemplative practice, and on the other, a corresponding active practice.

Subsequently, anyone who practices one aspect of a spiritual discipline without the other becomes increasingly immature and imbalanced in his or her walk with Jesus.

This is true for the two disciplines of Solitude and Fellowship. German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote,

“Only in fellowship do we learn to be rightly alone and only in aloneness do we learn to be rightly in fellowship.”

Solitude

Solitude is fasting from people for a prescribed time to connect with God and replenish the soul. Solitude is not a punishment like that inflicted on prisoners, and it is not intended to be indefinite, as practiced by some extremist monks.

Instead, solitude is the recognition that just as we need time with those we love to build our relationship, we also need time with Jesus to build our relationship with Him. Like all relationships, this includes using the special times we get with Him to listen to Him as we read Scripture and speak to Him in prayer.

Despite the constant pressures family, friends, and fans placed on His time, Jesus’ own life was marked by ongoing times of solitude.

• Matthew 14:23, “After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone…”
• Mark 6:31, “Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”
• Luke 4:42, “At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place.”
• Luke 5:16, “But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”

Jesus used solitude for a multitude of purposes.

• Preparing for public ministry (Matthew 4:1–11).
• To mourn (Matthew 14:12–13).
• For intense and focused prayer (Matthew 14:23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16).
• To rest after a hard day of work (Mark 6:31).
• To pray and seek the Father’s will (Luke 6:12).
• Accepting a calling (Mark 26:36–46)

Fellowship

Fellowship is living life together with Christian brothers and sisters as the church. The first thing the Bible says is “not good” is for us to be alone. Even God exists as the Trinitarian community of Father, Son, and Spirit. We are made in His image and likeness and are therefore made for loving community. It's a common myth that Christianity can be practiced in isolation. It is sin that separates people and it is Jesus who takes sin away so that we can have fellowship.

In addition to regularly taking times of solitude, we also see in Scripture that Jesus spent considerable amounts of time in community with others. In fact, Jesus spent most of His time in community with His disciples and frequently had dinner in the homes of the people He was befriending. Jesus seemed to have particularly close fellowship with the youngest disciple, John (John 13:23), the sisters Mary and Martha, and their brother Lazarus, whom Jesus loved very much (John 11:5).

Jesus spoke of fellowship in community

• Mark 12:33 “To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
• John 13:34–35 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

AND

Through the spiritual discipline of solitude, we are reminded that our relationship with God is intensely personal. God called us to Himself alone, converted us alone, and one day we will die and stand before God alone.

Through the spiritual discipline of fellowship, we also see that we have been saved into the community of the church. We are reminded that on the final day when we rise from our graves, we will rise together to be with Jesus forever as a family with our spiritual brothers and sisters and our Father God.

A healthy pastor practices both solitude AND fellowship.

See full discussion of spiritual disciplines on The Resurgence website:

By Pastor Scott Thomas, Acts 29 Director

Every young man that considers church planting asks the question, Am I a Church Planter? It is the question I asked myself before planting a church. It is the question we ask every man who submits himself to our Acts 29 assessment process to be a lead planter in our network. Many times he is depending on our assessment process to confirm his calling. 

Not all churches have a vision for church planting and few have insight into what a church planter looks like. Our church leaders should be able to spot a church planter and then send him to plant as soon as he is ready.

I did a survey of pastors associated with a church planting movement in 52 countries of the world and asked them to describe the characteristics of a church planter. In order, they said 1) Leader/Visionary, 2) Missionary heart, 3) Preacher, 4) Generalist (can do many things as the lone pastor) and 5) Family Man (NewFrontiers July 2008 non-scientific survey conducted by Scott Thomas).

We believe strongly that the Bible teaches that this office of an elder and pastor is reserved for males. God is a God of order and balance. He has established order within the family (Gen. 3:16; 1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:22-33; Col. 3:18-21) and the church (1 Tim. 2:11-14; 1 Cor. 11:8-9). Even within the Trinity there is an order; a hierarchy. The Father sent the Son (John 6:38) and both the Father and the Son sent the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; 15:26). Jesus said, "For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent Me," (John 6:38). It is clear that God is a God of order and structure.

In creation, God made Adam first and then Eve to be his helper. This is the order of creation. It is this order that Paul mentions in 1 Tim. 2:11-14 when speaking of authority within the church. Being a pastor or an elder is to be in the place of authority. Therefore, within the church, for a woman to be a pastor or elder, she would be in authority over men in the church which contradicts what Paul says in 1 Tim. 2:11-14.

Although it seems a little reductionist and arrogant to list the characteristics of a church planter, I offer twenty characteristics based on evidence in the Acts 29 Network and a plethora of books and articles associated with church planting. After reading this list, some men may be more discouraged from church planting than drawn to it. But the fact is that church planting is tough for the most qualified men. If a man does not have the needed characteristics, he will frustrate himself and everyone around him.

There are lots of other ways a man can serve God in an established church or a church plant apart from being the lead planter. Some very good pastors would probably make bad church plant leaders. That call from God to do church planting might be a call to go join a team led by another man to help plant a church, or it might actually be a call to financially support so others can go. Please pray as you work through this list that God will either confirm a call or reveal if one is to lead a church plant.

I have summarized the 20 characteristics because of the length of the article and discussed them after the summary. Please see the link at the bottom for the complete article including elder qualification charts.

Summarized: 20 Characteristics of a Church Planter

1.    Am I a Christian? (John 3:16)

2.    Am I passionately in love with Jesus and is He the Lord of every area of my life? (Personal spiritual dynamics is the second most important area)

3.    Do I believe His word and does it affect my life deeply?

4.    Am I Spirit-filled, Spirit-directed, Spirit-led and Spirit-controlled? (Acts 1:8)

5.    Am I qualified as an Elder? (1 Timothy, Titus)

6.    Do I love the local church as the expression of a gospel community on mission? (Matthew 28:18-20)

7.    Am I a missionary to the city? Am I sent for the advancement of the gospel in the city (John 20:21)?

8.    Do I have a clear vision for this new work? (Nehemiah 1:3, 4; 2:11-18)

9.    Am I willing to pour myself out in obedience to the vision? (Phil. 2; Romans 6)

10.    Am I healthy? Physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually, relationally, maritally

11.    Am I the kind of leader many people will follow? Have I served as a church leader successfully? (1 Tim. 5:22; 3:6)

12.    Can I preach effectively?

13.    Can I guard the doctrinal door with Biblical clarity and tenacious confidence?

14.    Can I architect a new work with entrepreneurial skill?

15.    Am I called to plant a church at this time and in this place? (Acts 17:26; 1 Peter 5:2)

16.    Have my church leaders commended me for this calling? (Acts 11:22-26; 13:1-4; 16:1-2)

17.    Am I a hard worker? Am I persevering? (2 Thes. 3:10; 1 Tim. 5:17-18; 2 Tim. 2:3-4; 2:5; 2:6)

18.    Am I adaptable to new people, places and concepts?

19.    Can I raise the funds needed for my family’s needs? (1 Tim. 5:8)

20.    Am I humble enough to learn from others—particularly from those who have gone ahead of me in different areas?

Discussed: 20 Characteristics of a Church Planter

Acts 20:28 says that we must "Pay careful attention to ourselves" before we care for the flock of God. We must be prepared as God's man before heading into battle.

1. Am I a Christian? (Integrity is the number one value of a church planter).

This seems like an obvious characteristic. However, some men grow up in churches and are led to believe that they placed their faith in Jesus for salvation while they lack a personal relationship with Jesus. Jesus said that we must be born again or regenerated by the Spirit of God (John 3:16). It is possible that a man could build a church and not be a Christian, but it is not advised.

2. Am I passionately in love with Jesus and is He the Lord of every area of my life?

The gospel must be evidently at work in every area of a church planter's life: personally, maritally, domestically, sexually, financially, physically, relationally and ministerially. We are sinners who need forgiveness through repentance and confession. We have to practice this daily as examples of the gospel.

3. Do I believe His word and does it affect my life deeply?

It's not enough to just have good sermon material; it has to flow from your heart. The Word needs to speak to you, and you need to preach out of the abundance of his Word.

4. Am I Spirit-filled, Spirit-directed, Spirit-led and Spirit-controlled? (Acts 1:8)

We are eager to be witnesses, but we have tendencies to lean on our own ideas and abilities apart from the Spirit of God. The church planter needs to be an empowered man. The Spirit needs to be working in and through him and be consuming him. Jesus accomplished work on this earth through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit descended upon Jesus and rested or remained on Him (Matt. 3:16). Luke 4 said that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit, was led by the Spirit, and began His ministry in Galilee in the power of the Spirit and preached with the Spirit of the Lord upon Him. He rejoiced in the Spirit (Luke 10:21) and promised the Spirit to those who asked the father (Luke 11:13). The Holy Spirit longs to empower us to do our work as a missionary-church planter to the ends of the earth.

5. Am I qualified as an Elder? (1 Timothy, Titus)

Timothy and Titus talk about the qualifications. Study them carefully and assess yourself. Both lists say that to be above reproach is the overarching, summarizing characteristic. You will find a similar (but not identical) list in First Timothy. Being above reproach is the first requirement in both lists and Titus repeats it. The other items on the list explain what above reproach means. There isn't an exhaustive list of characteristics. They overlap, but the key is to be above reproach. The lists are some "for instances" of how to be above reproach: the husband of one wife with no one else in your hands, your head, your heart, your eyes, or on that screen-none. A church pastor must be totally focused and satisfied in that one woman God has brought to him. Marriage will be a struggle at times. But you cannot stray, even an inch. Practicing the gospel is required for a good marriage. Children should be in submission and pastors need to pastor their wife and kids first. If we peruse the two lists, as well as First Peter, we find 17 qualities of an elder who is above reproach.

6. Do I love the local church as the expression of a gospel community on mission?(Matthew 28:18-20)

Jesus loved the Church - enough to die for her (Eph. 5:25). A planter therefore is a Church lover. He may die for her, but if he doesn't love her, he is nothing (1 Cor. 13). Josh Harris exhorts the pew sitters to stop dating the church. The pastor may need to stop having a junior high affair with the church and make a lifelong commitment.

7. Am I a missionary to the city? Am I sent for the advancement of the gospel in the city?(John 20:21)

If you are a church planter, you have to be a missionary. Every pastor needs to see himself as a missionary for the glory of God and the good of the city. Don't be someone who wants to start something because of self-centeredness and pride and my desire to be recognized. It's not about the church planter or personal success. It's about exalting the grace of Jesus.

8. Do I have a clear vision for this new work? (Nehemiah 1:3, 4; 2:11-18)

Lacking a vision was the second most obvious void among aspiring church planters submitting to the Acts 29 assessment process. Nehemiah had to have a vision of a complete wall. Not take a survey. The city is in ruins; it's time to build. You know you have a vision when people around you say, "Let's do that." People need to be following your compelling, life-transforming vision.

9. Am I willing to pour myself out in obedience to the vision?

A planter if he is to follow Jesus, must manifest the death of Jesus. He must become less for Christ to become greater. A planter, like Jesus, is one who "aims low" in that sense. Philippians 2 is instructive in general of this pattern. We are to "Have this mind" -the mind of a Christ who emptied Himself out for the gospel. He, being God, humbled himself to the point of death - then he was exalted. Romans Chapter 6 describes the union with Christ in His death that precedes union with Christ in life.

10. Am I healthy?

Physically, emotionally, financially, spiritually, relationally, maritally
Most church planters get fatter, fussier, angrier, lonelier, poorer and at odds more with their mate and their Lord during the first two years of a church plant. Don't think that having a church baby will solve your deficiencies any more than a baby will solve the problems of a troubled marriage.

11. Am I the kind of leader many people will follow? Have I served as a church leader successfully?

Occasionally a man will aspire to be a church planter who has no experience as a church leader or an elder in another local church. Paul warns the church not to be hasty in the laying on of hands (1 Timothy 5:22) or appointing a pastor who is a recent convert who is prone to pride (1 Timothy 3:6). A church planter will be more effective with a few years of experience involved with the local church in a leadership capacity. The best church planters are those men who have led in multiple venues and people followed over a sustained period of time.

Even a cursory reading of the Bible reveals that when God wants to get something done He starts by selecting a man to lead that change. Examples include sparing humanity (Noah), founding a nation (Abraham), liberating a nation (Moses), establishing a throne (David), building a Temple (Solomon), preparing hearts (John the Baptizer), and redeeming all of creation (Jesus).

Church planting is no different. Simply, before God can build a church plant He must build a church planter who can lead others to follow the mission of Jesus.

12. Can I preach effectively?

You don't have to hit it out of the ballpark every time. But you do have to hit singles pretty regularly. The pulpit is the rudder that steers the church. We cannot make our preaching an idol. The key thing to remember in preaching, according to Mark Driscoll is to avoid freezing up at the pressure. Relax, connect with the Spirit and with your audience and the effectiveness will take care of itself.

13. Can I guard the doctrinal door with Biblical clarity and tenacious confidence?

When you start a church, you'll have new people with new ideas-some for which they got kicked out of their old church! You have to be able to guard the doctrinal door, refute doctrinal error-not arrogantly, but being sure of what the Word of God says and being able to articulate that in a winsome way with authority.

14. Can I architect a new work with entrepreneurial skill?

What have you started successfully? Some men can't see the vision of what is to come, and some-even if they see the vision-can't find the steps toward accomplishing their vision. If you can't be the architect, then you are in trouble. As an example, some very pastoral people are NOT the best people to start a church, or at least not as the main team leader. Be clear about who you are. If you're a shepherd, counselor, caregiver, and you could be a success doing those things in an established church or as part of a team, then that is where you should be. Someone who is called to plant a church is frustrated if they don't do it. Number two leaders rarely make good number one leaders.

15. Am I called to plant a church at this time and in this place?

Acts 17:26 says that God appoints the time and the place of our ministry. Titus was the apostolic leader over the churches in Crete. Before Paul appointed him to do that, he went through a progression of calling:

• 2 Cor. 7:6, Titus was a friend who encouraged Paul
• 2 Cor 7:13, Titus was overwhelmed by the ministry of the Macedonians
• 2 Cor. 8:6, Titus was a faithful worker carrying out the wishes of Paul
• 2 Cor. 8:16-17, Titus developed a heart for the ministry and initiated ministry on his own.
• 2 Cor. 8:23 and 12:17, Titus was a proven minister
• Titus 1:4-5, Titus was the senior overseer to appoint elders throughout the island of Crete. His proven faithfulness and calling allowed him to pioneer works in a hostile environment.

In 1 Peter 5:2, Peter exhorts the elders to "Shepherd the flock of God...not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you." A calling is necessary in a church plant to face the tough times because a hireling leaves when the wolf arrives. But a called shepherd stays with his flock through adversity (John 10:12ff.).

16. Have my church leaders commended me for this calling?

The Book of Acts lacks any reference to asking for volunteers. In Acts 11:22 the believers sent Barnabas. It was the congregation in Jerusalem that selected and sent one of its own gifted members. In all of the subsequent sending of missionaries in the Book of Acts, the emphasis is never upon an individual volunteering or upon his own subjective sense of call, but always upon the initiative of others.

Saul goes to Antioch because Barnabas takes him there (Acts 11:25-26). It is the whole group of prophets and teachers in Antioch to whom the Holy Spirit says "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them" (Acts 13:1-4). Barnabas and Paul parted company and we are told that Barnabas took Mark (Acts 15:39) and Paul chose Silas (Acts 15:40). Both "departed being committed by the brethren to the grace of the Lord." Subsequently Paul wanted Timothy to go with him (Acts 16:3). We are reminded that Timothy "was well spoken of by the brethren who were in Lystra and Iconium" (Acts 16:1-2) implying that the congregations were consulted and involved in his going out with Paul.

While western culture promotes and encourages the personal call and entrepreneurial spirit of the planter, the New Testament by contrast stresses the corporate initiatives of congregations in selecting suitable people for Gospel ministry. It cannot be justified from the New Testament and the best one can scrape up from the Old Testament is the call of Isaiah (Isaiah 6:8). The call of an Old Testament prophet should be not regarded as normative for a New Testament church missionary. The prophet was sent TO the people of God while the New Testament planter is sent BY the people of God.

When the church in Jerusalem heard of the need in Antioch, together as a congregation they expressed their sense of responsibility and they sent Barnabas (Acts 11:23, 14:22). We should select our best men (Acts 11:24) and send them. Instead of the initiative being left to the individual, churches should deliberately approach their best, most gifted Christian leaders to send them to places of greater need. The individual is still responsible to respond positively to the congregation's approach.

The individual's subjective sense of call is confirmed by the objective call of the church body, recognizing his gifts and qualifications. This reinforces the assurance of the Holy Spirit's call upon a man. Typically a man feels called and informs his church and the lead pastor terminates that man from employment rather than recognizing him as a man called and to be sent by that church.

The missionaries sent out from the New Testament churches were ministering in their local congregations already. We typically want to receive resumes when we should be examining the men in our own congregations. If no one in our congregation is qualified, it is a sad statement upon the leaders of that congregation for not preparing men to be sent into other fields. The chief work of church planting is the birthing, building and blossoming of congregations. Who will do this better than those who are already have considerable local church experience?

As members of the church, we should be going or training others to go at all times. This is an indication of a church with an enthusiastic and fruitful mission that is passionate about following the mission of Jesus.

17. Am I a hard worker? Am I persevering?

Church planting is hard work with no easy solutions or shortcuts. The verse, "If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat" (2 Thes. 3:10) is especially true in church planting. A man must be disciplined, organized, courageous, dependable, patient, well read, hard working, discerning, a man who gets things done in an effective and timely manner, which also means that he's passionate and self-motivated.

The Bible calls a pastor an ox (1 Tim. 5:17-18), a soldier (2 Tim. 2:3-4), an athlete (2 Tim. 2:5) and a farmer (2 Tim. 2:6). Those are laborious jobs and the Holy Spirit used them to describe the kind of man who is qualified to pastor a church.

To plant a church that honors God a man must preach and teach the Bible with all of the strength and fortitude of an ox that can pull a multitude of people in his wake (1 Timothy 5:17-18). Satan routinely sends heretics, nut jobs, and false teachers of all kinds into a church plant because it's systems are yet fluid, its leadership is yet settled, and it's relationships are yet cultivated.

To plant a church that honors God a man must fight like a dependable soldier of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2:3-4). Throughout his letters, Paul continually admonishes Timothy to fight a good fight. With the world, the flesh, and the devil conspiring to thwart the new work a church planter must continually fight. Weak men who are prone to avoid conflict or crumble under pressure will end up quitting prematurely.

To plant a church that honors God, a man must train and compete with the precision of a skilled athlete (2 Timothy 2:5). Lazy men who adore their comfort, food, and hobbies rarely plant an effective church because they end up wasting time, energy and creativity.

To plant a church that honors God a man must sweat at his labor like a farmer (2 Timothy 2:6). Many young men are attracted to ministry because, as one pastor said, it's an indoor job that does not require any heavy lifting. When done honorably, ministry in general and church planting in particular is extremely difficult work. Like the farmer who depends on the labor of his hands without a boss, a set schedule or a predictable paycheck, the planter must be self-disciplined, get up every morning and work hard gathering people, studying, teaching, raising money, locating facilities, building systems, training men and repeating that routine day after day.

18. Am I adaptable to new people, places and concepts?

If you don't like change, you don't like church planting! If you are the kind of person who goes into the fetal position with new challenges, you're probably not a church planter.

19. Can I raise the funds needed for my family's needs?

A church planter who won't provide for the needs of his family is worse than an unbeliever and has denied the faith (1 Tim. 5:8). Church planters often hide behind the cloak of "faith" and "calling" to shield them from taking responsibility with their family regarding finances. A church planter's own children need a father more than the city needs a new church. Money is not the key to success but a lack of money is a huge detriment. It is unbiblical to place our family on the altar of our idol of success.

20. Am I humble enough to learn from others-particularly from those who have gone ahead of me in different areas?

This is one of the issues we call "stallers" and "stoppers" in our assessments. A church planter needs to be coachable, teachable. If he is not teachable, his church will stay stunted in its growth. He needs to identify areas where he has weaknesses and blind spots and then seek the advisement of those around him that can help him to continually grow and learn.

Conclusion

Mark Dever has said the local church, in all its glory, makes the audible gospel visible (A Display of God's Glory (9marks: Washington, D.C., 2001). The gospel is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Jesus Christ died and rose again and ascended - people do not see Him. The Church is His Body here on earth. The place where Jesus Christ is made visible is His Body, not just by one individual. When one meets a congregation that is "displaying God's glory" faithfully, one encounters Jesus in one sense. So planting a church is an exercise in making visible the audible gospel of the Blessed God.

What if I am called? What if I am not sure? What do I do?
"Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers" (1 Tim 4:12-16).

For the complete document, click here.

One major aspect of Spiritual Vitality in a church planter is his deep commitment to Biblical authority.

Scott Thomas interviewed Dr. Sam Storms while he was in Seattle last week about what it looks like for a pastor to be under Biblical authority. Dr. Storms is pastor of Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma and recently published Convergence: Spiritual Journeys of a Charismatic Calvinist. (See also Dr. Storms’ interview on the Spirit-led Pastor).

In this video:

Functional Deists and Biblical Sterility

“There are people who say, “of course I believe in the existence of God,” but they are functional Deists. They don’t see God as being meaningfully active in their lives, and they don’t actually expect Him to answer prayer or to provide guidance in decision-making. We often approach the Bible in the same way.”

Coldness & Mental Arrogance

“We can become so committed to communicating the authority of Scripture that we forget we are dealing with human beings – people who are broken, weak and ignorant...”

“We can, in our commitment to the authority of Scripture, live out of the strength of our mind to such a degree that we forget that the Spirit of God is dwelling in us.”

Diving Board Preaching

“There are many preachers who practice what I call Diving Board Preaching. They open the Bible, they read a text, and then they dive off into the pool of their own thoughts.”

Why have Pastors Abandoned the Authority of Scripture in the Pulpit?

How Should a Pastor Learn to Handle Scripture?

Last week, Dr. Sam Storms was in Seattle and graciously took some time to talk with Scott Thomas about what it looks like to be a Spirit-led pastor. Dr. Storms is pastor of Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma, and recently published Convergence: Spiritual Journeys of a Charismatic Calivinist.

In this video:

How can a pastor be led by the Spirit?
“The Spirit-led pastor begins with a confession and heart-commitment to God saying, ‘Lord, I am open to the prompting, correcting and redirecting of my life, ministry and decisions by your Spirit in accordance with Your will.’"

Through the Scripture
“Most of all, pastors need to understand that the Spirit leads through God’s Word, principally and primarily.”

Nurturing a Spirit-led Life
1. Spend time alone with God.
2. Spend time with people who are as committed to the Spirit-led life as you are.
3. Be willing to take risks.
4. Keep in mind that Spirit-character is the point of all Spirit-gifting.

By Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29 Network

As Pastors we must first preach the gospel to ourselves before we proclaim to the world the necessity of a Savior.  How damnable it would be to die of malnutrition while we busily prepare food for others. 

Yet, many men in the pastoral ministry lack a true conversion. Young men may enter into ministry as a means to atone for their own sins and they live a religious life of morality so nobody notices their unregenerate spirit. He often reaffirms his own righteousness in an (unsuccessful) attempt to obtain the favor of God.

When we assess men for church planting, we assume nothing—regardless of their heritage, affiliation or great seminary degree. Men can learn the language of the gospel without truly applying the gospel in their own lives. We have no single check box that satisfactorily says, “I am a Christian and I read Tim Keller.” We ask men to explain the gospel including its implications in their own lives. For the sake of the man and the church he seeks to lead, we want to be sure that the work of the saving grace of God be thoroughly formed in his soul.

Dead Orthodoxy

Martyn Lloyd Jones warned his congregation of “dead orthodoxy” as the greatest danger in the church.[1] That is, ascribing to and generally defending the tenants of the faith without real transformation in their hearts. Pastors can easily spew verses out of their mouths, quote Piper, yell like Driscoll and mimic Mahaney or Chandler without true regeneration.

True Regeneration

“Regeneration is a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us,” according to Wayne Grudem. This is sometimes called “being born again” (using language from John 3:3–8). Grudem lists 6 results of true regeneration.

Grudem said, “We should realize that John emphasizes these as necessary results in the lives of those who are born again. If there is genuine regeneration in a person’s life, he or she will believe that Jesus is the Christ, and will refrain from a life pattern of continual sin, and will love his brother, and will overcome the temptations of the world, and will be kept safe from ultimate harm by the evil one. These passages show that it is impossible for a person to be regenerated and not become truly converted.”[2]

Beware

Pastors, we must preach the gospel to ourselves for the sake of our eternal soul and the effectual work of the gospel in our church. Only we personally and God know the true conversion of our soul. We must examine our hearts thoroughly before we preach the gospel to anyone else.

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-20).

[1] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 1987), p. 68-72.

[2] http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/regeneration_grudem.html

By Winfield Bevins and Scott Thomas

In the Book of Galatians, Paul gives a list of nine virtues called the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:16,22,25). The Holy Spirit endows the church with nine ethical qualities. Paul illustrates the difference between a person who is under the flesh and a person who is walking by the Spirit.

J. I. Packer reminds us that, “Holiness is the fruit of the Spirit, displayed as the Christian walks by the Spirit” (Keep in Step with the Spirit, Baker Books, 1994, p. 97). Therefore, the fruit of the Spirit is in stark contrast to the ‘works of the flesh.’ Business experts inform pastors with all kinds of strategies to lead the church. Most of them lack a biblical basis. Pastors must lead the flock with evidence of the fruit of the Spirit.

1. Love

The first and most important fruit of the Spirit is love. Pastors demonstrate this with both brotherly and sacrificial love. This is the greatest of the fruits (1 Cor.13; Eph. 5:2; Col. 3:14). Love is a spiritual anchor of truth in relationship with God and others. A pastor that does not demonstrate sincere love to his flock will fail to connect them to the love of God and will fail to lead them properly.

2. Joy

Joy corresponds to happiness in spite of outward circumstances. Unfortunately, joy is not the first characteristic that describes a pastor. Grumpy, moody, stern, demanding, irritated maybe, but happy in spite of present problems is not common among those who minister.

The Bible tells us that we are to serve the Lord with joy and gladness and that the joy of the Lord is our strength.

3. Peace

Peace refers to a harmony of mind, body, and soul—that only God can give a person. God is the only one who can offer total peace. This is the peace that surpasses all understanding in the midst of a storm. Pastors who lead with a peaceful spirit exalt a sovereign God who cares about our needs.

4. Patience

The Greek word for patience is also translated ‘long-suffering.’ It means to place or arrange under. Patient Pastors lead others to hold strong in the midst of personal or corporate trials and difficulties.

Leading a church requires pastoral steadfastness and endurance. We must be patient with others—even when they are difficult. We must patiently wait through the difficult times—even when we are severely tried, confused, or emotionally spent. The Holy Spirit will empower us to hold on under difficult situations and circumstances.

5. Kindness

Kindness is God’s honorable gift to respond positively to others who are hurting or in need. Kindness is a quality of God that we can express to those we lead in a world full of anger, selfishness, and contention.

6. Goodness

Goodness is the generosity that overflows from kindness directed toward others in a benevolent way. Pastorally, we demonstrate how to be the hands and feet of Jesus as a demonstration of the unmerited favor of God.

7. Faithfulness

Pastors must be those others can rely. Like a husband who is faithful to his wife, the pastor must be faithful to lead and feed and protect and shepherd the flock where the Holy Spirit appointed as overseer (Acts 20:28-31; 1 Peter 5:1-4).

8. Gentleness

Gentleness literally means to be mild or tame. The word is often used to refer to an animal, such as a bridled horse. Gentleness, closely associated with humility, does not mean that a pastor is taken advantage by his flock. Rather, it means that a pastor leads from controlled strength—especially when confronted by opposition and when refuting error (1 Peter 3:15-16).

9. Self Control

The final ethical virtue of the Spirit is self-control or temperance. It is Spirit-enabled victory of the desires of the flesh, passions and desires. Self control is closely associated to purity of mind, heart, and conduct. Pastors must exemplify how to crucify the flesh and walk in the Spirit in every area of their lives.

Biblical Qualifications

While this list is not provided as a context for a pastor’s qualification, the Biblical qualifications for a pastor found in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 are congruent with the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit.

By Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29

Pastors and church planters must be Bible guys. In order to be able to teach (as a biblical qualification of all pastors), we have to know our Bibles well and be able to defend its central truths with clarity and passion. A bit of winsomeness never hurt either.

In his book, Brothers, We Are NOT Professionals (Broadman and Holman, 2002), author and Pastor-scholar John Piper said that every pastor should become a biblical theologian. “If we are going to feed our people, we must ever advance in our grasp of Biblical truth,” Piper said. We have to be like Jonathan Edwards who among his seventy resolutions said:

“Resolved: To study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive, myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.”

Piper called out the common church today by claiming that its pastors turn away from the Bible to read what others say about the text. As a result, our sermons are regurgitated after another person has chewed on the text and our people are left without the nourishment that they need to grow spiritually because we are too lazy for “headache-producing meditation” on the texts that don’t make sense at first glance.

1. It requires a lot of time and energy to ruminate on the text and ask key questions. Piper’s advice: “Slow down. Query. Ponder. Chew.”

2. It is unfashionable to systematize things and seek for biblical harmony and unity. It is easier to dabble on the surface and remain anti-intellectual.

3. It forces us to wrestle with the problem texts to see how differing passages with seemingly theological discrepancies fit together. Piper said, “If we care about truth, we must relentlessly query the text and form the habit of being humbly bothered by things we read.”

Paul commanded, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Tim. 2:7). Piper contends that pastors and those who read their Bibles fail to understand Scripture because they fail to think. The gift of illumination does not replace meditation. It comes through meditation. Illumination is a gift to those who think.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success (Joshua 1:8) 

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night (Ps 1:2).

Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day (Psalm 119:97).

I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways (Psalm 119:15).

I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statutes (Psalm 119:48).

My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promise (Psalm 119:148).

I remember the days of old; I meditate on all that you have done; I ponder the work of your hands (Psalm 143:5).

Pastor Scott Thomas

The Bible specifically speaks about the qualifications for those who will lead a congregation of people. These qualifications have been the same for almost 2,000 years. Jesus is the perfect fulfillment of these qualifications as the “senior pastor” of the Church. 

Above Reproach (Titus 1:6, 7; 1 Tim 3:2)

This is the overarching, summarizing characteristic. You will find similar (but not identical) lists in First Timothy and Titus. Living a life above reproach is the first requirement in both lists and Titus repeats it. The other items on the list explain what “above reproach” means. If we peruse the two lists, as well as First Peter, we find 17 qualifications of an elder who is above reproach.

1. A Pastor must be devoted to his wife; one-woman man (Titus 1:6; 1 Tim 3:2).

The pastor’s marriage illustrates Christ’s love for His church—His bride (Eph. 5:22 ff.). A Pastor must love his wife exclusively with his mind, will and emotions and not just his body.

2. A Pastor’s children must be in submission, though not perfect (Titus 1:6; 1 Tim 3:4-5).

If a man does not know how to manage his own family, he will not know how to take care of God’s church. The first flock for a pastor is his own family as Pastor Dad. A Pastor’s qualification for the church starts in his home management as he leads them up in the discipline and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).

3. A Pastor is a faithful Steward (Titus 1:7)

Here the term used is overseer (Greek episkopos). It is not another office, but a functional title of the elder. It is what he does. He is a steward, a manager of God’s resources and Jesus’ flock. He takes responsibility, but not ownership.

4. A Pastor must be humble - not arrogant (Titus 1:7)

A pastor must constantly demonstrate the gospel by admitting when he is wrong and assuming responsibility and restoring relationships.

5. A Pastor must be gentle - not quick-tempered (Titus 1:7; 1 Tim 3:3)

No man will be of any use in the kingdom that is quick-tempered. The difference between how Jesus demonstrated anger is that He was angry at the abuse of others in the name of religion and the dishonoring of God. We get angry at how it affects us.

6. A Pastor must be sober - not a drunkard (Titus 1:7; 1 Tim 3:3)

This is not just overindulgence in alcohol but is idiomatic for any behavior that fuels addictive responses.

7. A Pastor must be peaceful - not violent (Titus 1:7; 1 Tim 3:3)

A pastor is prone to inflict violence through his words. He is to be a peacemaker.

8. A Pastor must have financial integrity - not greedy for gain (Titus 1:7; 1 Tim 3:3; 1 Peter 5:3)

A pastor is to be upright in his financial dealings and not accused of pursuing money over the kingdom of God.

9. A pastor must be hospitable (Titus 1:8; 1 Tim 3:2)

A pastor’s home is to be open for others to enjoy. A pastor’s home is not a heaven on earth, but rather a place of ministry.

10. A Pastor must be a lover of good (Titus 1:8)

A pastor genuinely loves what is good. He does not just think he should love it.

11. A Pastor must be self-controlled (Titus 1:8; 1 Tim 3:2)

Self-control is a characterization of every area of a pastor’s life: diet, time, mouth, exercise, relationships, sex, and money.

12. A Pastor must be upright (Titus 1:8)

He has integrity in his relationships and in how he treats others.

13. A Pastor must be holy (Titus 1:8)

His life is devoted wholeheartedly to Jesus externally and internally.

14. A Pastor must be able to teach (Titus 1:9; 1 Tim 3:2)

All of the other qualifications are character qualities. This is the only ability-based requirement. He is to be able to teach sound doctrine, not just be able to communicate in an excellent manner. His teaching can be to one or two, to twenty, to a hundred or to a thousand. Most of the churches in Crete were house churches. The elders were to defend the faith once delivered to the saints against the numerous false teachers that arose.

15. A Pastor must be spiritually Mature (1 Tim 3:6)

Positions of authority without spiritual maturity lead to the trap of pride. When pride grows in a man, sin abounds.

16. A Pastor must be respectable (1 Tim 3:7)

That does not mean that everyone must like him or even appreciate him. It means that there is no credible witness to an ongoing sinful behavior.

17. A Pastor must be an example to the flock (1 Peter 5:3)

Elders are examples of Biblical expressions sexually, time management, marriage, parenting, worship, relationships and any other way. A pastor should be someone your sons could pattern their life after and the kind of man your daughter should marry.

Conclusion
What would you do if an elder violates one of these requirements? 1 Timothy 5:19-20 warns us not to accuse an elder flippantly. Matthew 18:15-18 gives us the steps: 1) Go to the elder alone, 2) If still unsatisfied, go with another person, 3) If still unsatisfied, let the greater eldership know. If accusations are verified and the elder remains unrepentant, rebuking that elder before all is the next biblical step.

By JR Vassar

Healthy men pastor healthy churches. One of the keys to spiritual health and spiritual vitality is Sabbath rest.

Four Reasons to Sabbath

1. Sabbath rest will refresh our whole selves. When we Sabbath, we lay aside the demands and pressures of life and enter intentionally into a season of rest where we cease from our work. We cease from what is duty and we allow God to provide delight and new life to our souls.

2. Sabbath rest refreshes our hearts toward God. The Sabbath is a day to the Lord. It is a day tenaciously directed God-ward. In pastoring, it is easy to become a tour guide of places you have never visited, serving up meals you have not savored. God can be objectified – made an object of theological inquiry and discussion instead of a personal Being to be loved. Sabbath recalibrates our hearts to God relationally. On Sabbath, we give our attention to God in a more focused and sustained way. As you observe Sabbath, pray, read the Scripture or a devotional book, take a contemplative walk, sit in solitude and silence, or drop into the sanctuary of a beautiful church in your city.

3. Sabbath rest reorients our lives to grace. In Deuteronomy 5, God grounds the Sabbath command in Salvation. When God rescued Israel from Egypt, it was to show them that salvation is from the Lord, not man (Exodus 14:13-14). The Exodus prefigured a greater salvation: Jesus alone would save us. When we Sabbath we are saying to ourselves, “It is not my work that counts, but Christ’s work that counts.” I can rest from my work because my value, meaning, identity and joy are not rooted in what I do or accomplish, but rather in what God has done in Christ to save me. Jesus is our Sabbath. He is our rest from working to earn God’s favor and from the constant effort to establish our identity.

4. Sabbath rest refreshes our hope. An ultimate Sabbath rest is coming. When Christ returns, the Kingdom of God will be consummated. All sickness, sin, injustice, poverty, suffering, and death will be banished from this world. Mark Buchanan explains that Sabbath is a rehearsal of that coming rest. When we rest in the midst of a broken world and with our broken lives, we are rehearsing and reminding ourselves a day is coming when God will heal all that is wounded and He will raise up all that is fallen and He will restore all that is broken. This is why Jesus performed so many healings on Sabbath (like the man with the withered hand). Jesus is saying in essence, there is a final Sabbath coming that will bring glory to Me. I am showing you a glimpse now. Sabbath fuses hope into us because it reminds us of God’s story and our glorious future that He will bring about and that he wants to unleash more and more in the present.

Keeping the Sabbath Holy

1. Repent of neglecting the Sabbath. It is interesting how we talk about implementing Sabbath rest, but we don’t talk about implementing marital faithfulness or any of the other Ten Commandments. We don’t need to implement; we need to repent.

2. Prepare and Practice – Plan out how you are going to spend the day. What will you read? What will refresh and recharge you?

3. Remember that there is a cumulative effect to the Sabbath and to neglecting Sabbath. It might not seem like much when you spend a day in rest, but the results of a rhythm of work and Sabbath rest can be very rewarding.

4. Model dependence upon Jesus for the leading of your church. As a pastor, you model where the church is dependent. Is it in your ongoing work or in His finished work?

Listen to JR's boot camp session on Sabbath Rest.

By Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29 Network

I found myself saying (privately) that I was too busy to attend a worship service—and I was the lead pastor who was preaching! The truth is that I wasn’t too busy; I was too busy to worship someone other than myself. The one thing that drove me was leading people to follow Jesus. This was the wrong motivation. The one thing that should have driven me was my following Jesus.

What happened?

I don’t think it is a rare problem among pastors to become spiritually dry. I just don’t think we admit it. It’s like a doctor who ignored the Hippocratic oath or a mechanic who lost his tools. It’s unimaginable and so it’s ignorable. We keep working like nothing is wrong and we continue to hack at the tree more vigorously with a dull axe. Church planters may be the most susceptible.

What are the Symptoms of Spiritual Dryness for Pastors?

Let’s get His name out there and not our own. Let’s pursue Him relentlessly. Let’s repent of our self-sufficiency and find our thirst quenched only by Him.

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1)

Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” (John 7:37-38)

By Pastor Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29

David Powlison, in his book, Seeing with New Eyes (P & R Publishing, 2003) examines human motivation—why we do what we do by listing 35 questions that are practical, theological, psychological, motivational and convicting. (pg. 132-40)

By asking these questions, pastors can discover hidden (and not so hidden) idols in their hearts. I am deeply concerned about the spiritual health of pastors more than ever. We verbalize all of the right things about gospel-centrality and we mentally ascent to worshipping God whole-heartedly. Yet, functionally we bow before the gods of knowledge, achievement, success, creativity and prestige.

Tim Keller said:

"Remember, your career didn't die for your sins. Neither did your marriage. It's hard not to slip into idolatry if your marriage is good. But Jesus has to be your King, your Savior. Now you don't love your wife less. But you love Jesus more. Jesus is the only Savior who can help you when your heart is breaking” (2009 The Gospel Coalition conference).

A pastor’s functional savior can easily be his success—however he defines it. We know something or someone is a savior to us if it gives us worth, value, identity, peace, satisfaction, meaning and fulfillment. Only the gospel can provide this for us. Salvation, satisfaction, significance and pleasure is ultimately only found in Jesus and He will relentlessly pursue us to make that a reality in our hearts.

John Calvin wrote in the Institutes,

“The human heart is a factory of idols...Everyone of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.” 

Examine the following questions and ponder your heart for the existent idols and then crush the idols of our heart before they crush you.

35 X-Ray Questions for the Heart

By Dr Sam Storms
The easiest thing about praying is quitting. Giving up seems so reasonable, so easy to justify. It’s always been that way, which is why Paul wrote in Colossians 4:12, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” Persevering in prayer when no one seems to listen strikes many people as a sign of fanaticism, if not mental instability.

People in Paul’s day faced the same temptation to quit that we do. But too much was at stake. Though defeated at the cross, Satan and his demons are still active. The weakness of the flesh abides. The threat of schism in the body of Christ is ever present. Great opportunities to share the gospel are at every turn. So, don’t quit, says Paul. Continue steadfastly in prayer. Keep watch at all times lest you despair. Be thankful for all God has done and will do in response to your petitions. 

Fifth, endurance at the throne of grace purifies the content of our petitions. By repeating our prayers we are forced to think and rethink what we are saying. We are compelled to evaluate our motivation and aim for asking God for something in particular. It’s a bit like how I read, reread, and read yet again each of these meditations. It helps me identify mistakes, locate typographical errors, and rephrase something that otherwise might be false or misleading. I can almost envision God saying in response to my first articulation of a prayer, “Sam, are you sure you want me to answer that one? Think about it. Contemplate the long-term consequences of a yes. Then come back and ask me again in different terms, with a purified purpose.”

Sixth, perseverance cultivates patience. By withholding an immediate response, we learn how to wait on God. Waiting on the Lord is far from a passive posture. It’s an active, expectant, persistent pressing in to the heart and purposes of a loving God. How might we ever learn to do this were it not for steadfastness in prayer?

Seventh, oftentimes God wants to give, but not now. The answer will come in better circumstances, at a more opportune moment. By delaying his response, a greater and better and more God-glorifying end is secured than by an immediate answer.

Finally, even if none of the reasons given above makes sense to you, persevere anyway! God isn’t asking you to understand; he’s asking you to be faithful.

This is taken from The Hope of Glory: 100 Daily Meditations on Colossians, by Sam Storms, pp. 309-324, © 2008. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187.

By Dr Sam Storms
The easiest thing about praying is quitting. Giving up seems so reasonable, so easy to justify. It’s always been that way, which is why Paul wrote in Colossians 4:12, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” Persevering in prayer when no one seems to listen strikes many people as a sign of fanaticism, if not mental instability.

People in Paul’s day faced the same temptation to quit that we do. But too much was at stake. Though defeated at the cross, Satan and his demons are still active. The weakness of the flesh abides. The threat of schism in the body of Christ is ever present. Great opportunities to share the gospel are at every turn. So, don’t quit, says Paul. Continue steadfastly in prayer. Keep watch at all times lest you despair. Be thankful for all God has done and will do in response to your petitions. 

First, we are a presumptuous people. We just assume that God ought always to do what we ask, when we ask, precisely in the way we ask. By delaying his response, God awakens us to the gracious character of all answered prayer. In other words, that God says or does anything at all in response to our petitions is sheer, undiluted grace. Resolute continuation in prayer, watchful perseverance, is often the best way for us to learn this invaluable lesson.

Second, steadfast endurance in coming again and again to the throne of grace is God’s way of cultivating in us a sense of absolute and utter dependence upon him. We are by nature self-reliant, self-sufficient folk. If God were instantly and at all times to answer our every prayer, we would gradually lose our sense of urgency. Truth be told, most of us would soon lose sight of the fact that it is God alone who is the source of all good. By suspending his response, God is saying to each of us: “Just how desperate are you? How conscious are you that I am your only source, your sole and all-sufficient supply?”

Third, persistent praying puts us in that frame of mind and spirit in which we may properly receive what it is that God desires to give. In other words, it isn’t so much that God is reluctant to give, but that we lack preparation to receive. Try to envision what a mess your life would have been if your parents granted you everything you asked for as a child! God often delays his answers because, quite simply, we are in no shape to receive them. Few of us are willing to admit that, but deep down we know it’s true.

Fourth, steadfast, watchful continuation in prayer helps us differentiate between impetuous, ill-conceived, selfish desires, and sincere, deep-seated, Christ-exalting ones. Persistence in prayer thus enables us to weed out improper petitions.

To Be Continued...

Video By Terry Virgo on prayer click here

By Yancey Arrington

How often have we exposed ourselves as pretenders when it comes to battling indwelling sin? All of us have approached a certain temptation in our life with confidence only to wind up succumbing to its pain-inflicting consequences. We are often exposed – assuming ourselves to be contenders when we are truly impotent in our ability to defeat a seemingly unimposing sin.

How can we fight sin well and not fool ourselves? One of the ways we do that is by discovering what kind of repentance we employ in our fight against sin.

Repentance is the essential aspect of spiritual growth. Martin Luther penned in the first of his “Ninety-Five Theses” these words: “Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ…willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.” Pastor and author Tim Keller concurred, “Repentance is the way we make progress in the Christian life.”

REPENTANCE GONE WRONG

False repentance conflicts with the biblical pattern by displaying our pride and self-interest instead of displaying contrition. Consider the example of the nation of Israel in Psalm 78:32-35:

In spite of all this, they still sinned;

despite his wonders, they did not believe.

So he made their days vanish like a breath,

and their years in terror.

When he killed them, they sought him;

they repented and sought God earnestly.

They remembered that God was their rock,

the Most High God their redeemer.

Israel clearly experienced a severe discipline at the hands of the Lord. This judgment obviously produced a very unhappy situation for God’s people, driving them to seek God in repentance. They earnestly repented, remembered and sought the Lord. Surely this repenting would rectify their familial relationship with God. But notice how God views their repentance as the Psalm continues:

But they flattered him with their mouths;

they lied to him with their tongues.

Their heart was not steadfast toward him;

they were not faithful to his covenant. (78:36-37)

Here we see the illustration of pretender repentance: words without heart. Israel’s repentance was insincere. They told God that they were sorry with their mouths, but He knew that their hearts were still committed to slavishly following their sins.

Instead of real brokenness over their iniquities, God’s people feigned repentance to obtain rescue from the consequences of their sins, but not the sins themselves. As such, God did not recognize their repentance – because pretender repentance is not repentance at all.

Israel’s example should help us see that sometimes the greatest battle with sin is our very repentance of it. Listen to Paul’s encouragement to the church at Corinth:

As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved,

but because you were grieved into repenting. For

you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss

through us. For godly grief produces a repentance

that leads to salvation without regret, whereas

worldly grief produces death. (1 Corinthians 7:9-10)

Pretender repentance is a dead end. If we demonstrate anything but godly grief over our sin, we will experience a lifetime of losses. Therefore, if we would fight sin well, some of us may actually need to repent of how we have repented in the past so that the grace of God is exposed and not our arrogance.

By Scott Thomas, President of Acts 29

(Adapted from CH Spurgeon’s Lectures to His Students)

A pastor’s life is most effective as a sharpened tool in God’s hand by nurturing the spirit, soul and body and not just organizing information in a logical manner. We are God’s sword in a holy war and are not dependent as much on our talents as we are on our likeness to Jesus. A pastor that is spiritually out of order is a serious disaster to himself and his ministry.

Our first care must be our own soul and we must be regenerated men. This cannot be overlooked. Our faith must be personal and not just professional.

Secondly, a pastor must be vigorous in his personal piety and he must be advanced significantly beyond the typical Christian. His godliness must be vibrant, consistent, firm, faithful and exemplary. A pastor who has sinned grossly should step down until as Spurgeon said, “his repentance is as notorious as his sin.” Preachers must take heed to their holiness because Satan has a special eye on those who proclaim the gospel.

Spurgeon used prayer as a primary gauge for the piety of a person’s heart. A pastor’s prayers publicly and in counseling with others will fluctuate in effectiveness in accordance to that pastor's private prayers. A secondary gauge measuring the devotedness to God is a pastor’s sermonic influence among the hearers. Even clever words and orderly points will fall short if a pastor’s personal holiness is not vigorous. Spurgeon characterized piety as self-discipline, hospitality, sexual purity as well as what Spurgeon timelessly called “ministerialism.” This clergy sin is performing moral activities as duties of the profession and not delights of the heart. This is demonstrated through reading our Bible and praying and being nice to people because that is the job description to which we agreed.

A third area demanding personal monitoring is the consistency of a pastor’s public ministry and private ministry. “True ministers are always ministers,” Spurgeon noted. Dutiful professionalism without Divine passion is abhorrent. The preacher’s masterful word and doctrine cannot earn an exemption of one's inconsistent lifestyle. When we are in the pulpit, our words should compel others to curiously examine what kind of life we live and conversely, our life of good deeds should compel others to desire to hear our words.

Even in the seemingly insignificant issues of holy living a pastor must demonstrate faithfulness, uprightness and consistency. The Word of God must continually sterilize our scalpel or we will be in danger of infecting the body in our attempt to do good. Our lives should be consistently found above reproach. We should encourage and provide a means for the thorough examination of our life and character by others, including our web browser history, our bank accounts, our credit reports, our driving records, our private messages and our relationships. Spurgeon said we are not prisoners of the whims of every opinionated Christian who expects acculturated gentility rather than godly piety. But we must pass up sin’s allurement as we would a poisonous snake within striking range.

We nurture our spirit, soul and bodies by imitating the life of Jesus and leaning into the cross when we sin. Our preaching should profoundly demonstrate this.

By Steve Timmis, Acts 29 Western Europe Director

Character often gets overlooked, but it is the key issue in Christian ministry. Although more emphasis is placed on charisma or gifting, character is the key issue in leadership.

Every aspect of my life is to be lived for God’s glory

1 Corinthians 10:31: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.”

At first reading, this principle may appear something of a no-brainer. However, if taken seriously, we will find that no other principle is quite so counter-cultural and counter-intuitive as this one. This principle defines ‘me’ in relation to ‘Him’. It says that ‘me’ and my life is all about ‘Him.’ It is only about ‘me’ to the extent and degree that I relate to ‘Him.’ Even though the gospel assures me that there is no better place to be, my ego kicks and screams for self-identity.

What is radical about this truth is that it contradicts everything we’ve been taught, and everything we’ve wanted to believe. I am the center of my universe, and see everything and everyone from my perspective. So, my instinct, if I think about God at all, it is to think of and define ‘Him’ in relation to ‘me.’ For example, God is love if he expresses it in ways acceptable to me. In essence, God is put on trial every day for His alleged failures in ‘my’ life.

If my life is to be lived for His glory, then I no longer occupy that defining place of sovereign rule in my life. He does. If my life is all about His glory, then that becomes the great, unchangeable principle against which everything—good or bad—is assessed.

So what does it mean for God to be glorified by my life?

It means that the person I am, the life that I live, and the things I do, all convey God to others. It means I am a trophy of His grace: there is no other explanation for who I am and how I live except the sovereign and supernatural work of the triune God. A life lived for God’s glory is truly an extraordinary life.

Imagine the moment of your arrival in heaven. All the saints and angels are lined up to welcome you as you walk through the gates. The noise is deafening and the sense of coming home is almost too much to bear. You expected to be honored for your accomplishments, your charitable life and your ministry. You think they are there for you, and in a sense they are. But then you realize that no one is congratulating you. All the cheers are for God! All the praise is directed at Him for his magnificent work of grace taking a broken specimen of humanity and transforming it into a stunning and breath-taking creation. Just as no one stands in a gallery and praises the canvas or the frame, and says ‘What a fine work of art you are!’ so no one in heaven will look at the us and praise the creation for what a fine job the creator did. It is the artist who is applauded, as it is God who is praised. 

To What Extent Does This Apply?

Not only should every aspect of my life be lived for the glory of God, I should live my life with a radical and determined intentionality that ensures that every aspect of it honors the God who made me, saved me and created me to the praise of His glorious grace. All too often our actions and words are thoughtless of God. There needs to be a “glory intentionality” in everything we do and say. That would have a massive impact upon us and upon those we minister.

© 2009 Steve Timmis and Tim Chester/The Good Book Company. Used by permission.

Gospel Centred Life can be purchased online.

The Spiritual Man

Romans 8:5-11

by Scott Thomas, Acts 29 President

Spiritual vitality was the highest rated quality of a church planter as polled by Acts 29 pastors. What are the characteristics of a spiritually vital pastor? The following responses came through Twitter  and Facebook.

In 1681, one of the foremost Puritan theologians John Owen had a book published entitled, Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded. In 1989 it was first published in London England in an easier to read and shortened version by the title Thinking Spiritually. This is based on Owens’ work.

Church planters deal with the same problems and temptations as other people—they just do so in front of a community of people while they are struggling for identity, significance and ministry survival. A planter with a spiritually vital life has chosen a life of peace over a life of hostility and death. The two alternatives seem to suggest a simple choice. But the decision must be made every day.

“For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God…” (Rom. 8:6-7a.).

Two States of Mankind: Carnally Minded or Spiritually Minded

These two opposing forces are seen as the only two states of mankind. John Owen said, “When a man…is not spiritually minded, he is carnally minded” and they have contrasting results. Carnal-minded people can expect death and hostility (8:6-7) while spiritually minded people experience life and peace (8:6).

The Greek word for “mind” in verse 5 and its noun form in verse 6 means the action of the mind, will, and affections; to give attention, regard, pursuit. One translation (ESV) accurately says,

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (emphasis mine). 

We set our minds upon the spiritual or upon the flesh and we can expect its corresponding result: life or death. The Geneva Bible published in 1599 (the Bible of the Puritans) says, “For they that are after the flesh savor the things of the flesh: but they that are after the things of the spirit, [savor] the things of the spirit.” Where is our appetite satisfied? In what are you savoring? The spiritually vital pastor savors the things of the spirit.

Savoring things of the Spirit

When we savor the things of the Spirit, we are continually postured toward and repentantly focused on the things of God. We desire God as our only source of absolute joy and satisfaction. He is what we savor above all else. We are not able to maintain a mind set on spiritual things without the Helper, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us (Rom. 8:9-11).

Four Distinguishing Marks of the Spiritually Minded Person

1. I have made a noticeable commitment to progressively think more spiritually.

       Repentance to think spiritually has fruits of repentance:

• Balance in life
• Obedience
• Tenacious for a personal relationship with Jesus
• Teachable spirit
• Servant leader
• Graciousness
• Humility
• Dependently prayerful
• Embodies the fruit of the Spirit
• Godly wisdom
• Remains in community
• Resting in Christ
• Loving others

2. I maintain a gospel frame of reference.

When circumstances, trials, stress, health problems, financial issues, even successes, we frame them in the context of the gospel: admitting sin, quickly repenting and reconciling.

3. I have a contented satisfaction in things of the Spirit over anything else.

Owen said in his preface to the book, “Men walk and talk as if the world were all, when comparatively it is nothing.” Most Christians are oblivious to the joys that come from a life of abandonment of things of the flesh in exchange for a spiritual pursuit. Romans 8:8, “Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

4. I display a life of peace.

As we submit to the Spirit and set our affections, our savoring, our longing and our joy on things of the Spirit, we are promised peace, rest, quietness in our souls in spite of trouble, pain and turmoil.

John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Conclusion

Owen said, “To be spiritually minded is the great distinguishing character of true believers.” A pastor must be tenacious about a pursuit of holiness, a humble heart and a teachable spirit. To experience life and peace, he is utterly compelled to set aside extended time to repent of sin, read Scripture and worship earnestly to restore his spiritual-mindedness.

Barry Keldie (31), former student pastor at The Village Church in Highlands Village, TX (Dallas metro) and founder and former pastor of Providence Church in Frisco, TX, died Friday morning, March 5. He had long suffered from insomnia and had developed an addiction to prescription sleeping pills. In an effort to overcome the addiction and still get the necessary sleep, Barry had begun to take Tylenol PM. Doctors suspect that as a side effect of the medication, he became disoriented and consumed more than the recommended dosage. Confirmed by the toxicology reports, Barry’s death was a result of an accidental overdose of Tylenol PM.

He is survived by his wife, Charity, and their two children, Will, age 3, and Layla, age 1.

The Acts 29 board of directors and the Acts 29 pastors across the country mourn Barry’s death as we rest in the sovereign hand of God.

By Scott Thomas
Acts 29 President and Director

The qualities of a successful basketball player are consistent. He or she can dribble, shoot, pass, play defense, rebound, play as a team, think, move quickly and work hard. They don't have to do all of these at the same level but all of the qualities characterize a succesful player at the highest level.

Church planters similarily have qualities that determine their God-given capacity to plant a reproducing church.

Chuck Ridley, professor at Texas A&M University compiled the germinal research on church planting assessments with his Church Planter Profile (CPP).  Most assessment instruments start with Ridley’s 13 characteristics in mind as they formulate their own church planter p