In this season of Advent we learn about waiting. Waiting is painful. It brings anxiety and sometimes causes us to wonder where God is or if he cares. The prophet Malachi spoke of the Messiah’s coming in an eponymous Old Testament book: I have loved you, saith the LORD…Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before …
When Church Planting Is Really Tough
My husband and I recently returned from vacationing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a highly multiethnic city of 1.67 million people in a metro area consisting of 7.9 million people. The city itself is predicted to grow to 2.2 million by 2020. Kuala Lumpur is a global city, offering international financial services, headquarters to multinational corporations, a center for new ideas and …
Top Ten Must Read Books on Spiritual Leadership
The V3 Movement is committed to helping you make disciples, plant churches and start a movement. Such an endeavor will, of course, require you to grow in your leadership skills. But what differentiates a V3 leader from a business leader, military leader, or other kind of leader? V3 disciple-makers, church planters, and movement starters are not simply charismatic speakers or …
Ten Books from 2015 Every Pastor and Church Leader Should Read
Although the following books are all excellent, my Ten Books from 2015 list is not a broad, “best books of the year” list. These books are ones that I believe will draw us deeper into the challenges of our day and deeper into faithfulness to the way of Jesus. This list reflects a diversity of authors, genres, and perspectives, but I …
A Mind Full of Story or a Head Full of Doctrines?
In Paul Murray’s novel Skippy Dies, there’s a point where the main character, Howard, has an existential crisis. “It’s just not how I expected my life would be,” he says. “What did you expect?” a friend responds. After pondering, Howard replies, “I suppose—this sounds stupid, but I suppose I thought there’d be more of a story to my life.” If you strung …
Advent: 5 Life-Giving Tips for You and Your Church
Advent is here, the wonderful season marking the beginning of the liturgical church year. Many of us look forward to this season with mixed feelings. We want to simplify and take time for spiritual practices that help us refocus and prepare for our celebration of the birth of Christ, but for many churches it is the busiest time of the year. …
You Can't Reproduce What You Aren't
Here at the V3 Movement, we cannot encourage enough the importance of planting churches from a place of community. In fact, we’re not sure it’s even possible in church planting to create something that doesn’t already exist. That is, there’s this funny thing about creating true community: you can’t reproduce what you aren’t. In light of our conviction, we bring you …
Leadership Is a Community Affair
The V3 Movement being a communal movement, we’re excited to bring you another personal interview from a series of interviews with church planters who are embracing place-based church planting in a fruitful manner. These planters are using V3 Learning Cohorts to ground their leadership and their missiology in community. [Tweet “Leadership is a community affair. http://thev3movement.org/learning-cohorts/”] Today we’re speaking with Jared …
Funding Opportunities–One Huge Mistake Churches Are Making
Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.” ~ Mark 12:43-44 A few years ago, I was sitting with a lovely elderly woman in …
Kairos Community Pastor Noah Stepro on V3 Learning Cohorts
The V3 Movement is a communal movement. As such, we are excited to bring you personal interviews with other church planters who love what is happening in the church today, are engaging it in a fruitful manner, and are utilizing V3 Learning Cohorts to help ground themselves and their missions in the communal reality of church planting. Discover how being …