Church Planting

I am so grateful for the gift of a silent retreat and for all the folks that made it possible. I only wish I hadn’t waited so long to build this in.

What should we know about church plants so the CRC can work better together to spread the gospel and disciple believers in our communities? Church planters shared these 10 insights.

Resonate Global Mission and Pastor Church Resources have compiled a resource to assist classes, as well as parent churches and church planters, in their church planting efforts.

Church planters are leading their congregations to love God and love their neighbors in creative and practical ways. To share a glimpse of how one church plant is doing this and to perhaps spark your own creativity, let me tell you about a recent event hosted by Iglesia Sunlight Español, a Resonate partner church plant in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

The Classis Chatham Church Planting Team developed a questionnaire to spark discussion about our Classis' next church plant. Feedback showed this instigated good discussions about the congregation's mission and revealed some congregations that are eager to support a church plant.

Steve was a salesman at a local car dealership, and I bought my first Malibu from him in 2009. When I heard about his severe cancer diagnosis, I was overwhelmed with a deep compassion and a nudge from the Spirit. 

The expression of unique gifts is the local congregation’s work of art: creating beauty, seeing the other, being reconcilers and healers, reminding our neighbors who they truly are as images bearers of God.

Throughout the history of Christianity, I've observed two models of church planting that I will label Frontier & Immigrant. Each model has implicit strengths and weaknesses. What is your congregation?

Using “missional” as an adjective doesn't change the church's identity but attempts to serve as a reminder of what she's always been. The term neither excludes evangelism nor is synonymous with social justice efforts.

In Dr. George Hunsberger’s last lecture at Western Theological Seminary he asked the question, “What difference does it make when you put the word missional in front of the word church?”

This past week the division in our nation has been illuminated by the election process, not created by that process. But as the church, we must follow Christ in offering a posture of submission to the other. 

We are challenged to discern God's activity by asking: Who in the community is working on behalf of the infants so they won’t die? Who is standing up for the worker? Who is working on behalf of the old?