Scripture is quite clear about the Church’s responsibility to the foreigner: “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt” (Lev 19:33-34); “He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the …
As of Saturday morning, June 2, 2018, the population of India was 1,352,795,014, making up 17.74% of the world’s population. In other words, approximately one out of every six people in the world live in India. This is important to consider in this third post of our series exploring the best places to plant churches. (see our first post here …
Some church planters want to go “Where No Man Has Gone Before” (the title of the second pilot episode of the Star Trek television series). If you would prefer to go with something biblical, try the Apostle Paul’s words in Romans 15:20: “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I …
Many future church planters ask, “where’s the best place to plant a church?” The most brilliant response? “It all depends.” Are you looking for the places with the fewest number of churches, the fastest growing, the most millennials, the largest retirement villages, the best college towns, the largest Asian population, the densest, walkable communities… or something else? This entry is …
Currently I am teaching a church planting class at Gateway Seminary. During each session, the class interviews planters who are in start-up phases. One conversation was with a leader who is planting in a fairly wealthy community in the Silicon Valley and the plant will be fairly well funded. After class, one student, clearly stunned, took me aside and asked …
Every day, hundreds of sleek, double decker buses hit the streets of San Francisco, driving 10,000 Silicon Valley tech workers to and from home. As soon as they step onto these Wi-Fi enabled buses, they are able to start their workdays, and many also find community during their rides to Google, Facebook, Apple and other companies. Many eat breakfast at …
For at least three decades now, the church starting world has embraced high-level business start-up principles. We value particular successful franchising models, good branding and marketing principles, excellent customer service, strong management teams, scalable ways of acquiring customers, measurable results, and a work ethic that reminds us that good enough is never really good enough. These and other principles have …
I still remember a day thirty years ago when I walked out of a large, new master planned community in Southern California. The gates were being installed, and because I didn’t live there, I thought I would never get back inside again to meet people and share Christ. On the way out, though, I noticed a small note posted to …
Recently I read an article by a person I highly respect about gathering a team for a launch. The ideas were solid, but every suggestion offered was dependent on a culture that was seeded with enough Christians to make it easy for churches to borrow or enlist people who are already Christians. How the Church Planting Scene Has Changed I remember …
One of the key characteristics most church planting assessors look for in potential church planters is teachability. Over the last three-and-a-half decades of starting churches and supporting church planters, three aspects of this trait stand out to me the most: knowing one’s self, practicing humility, and seeking wisdom. Knowing One’s Self A few years ago, I coauthored a book based …