A Gospel That Feels Like Good News

When our Gospel is focused merely on the after-life, today’s unchurched find our message irrelevant, and possibly intolerant. In this webinar, discover a clear, field-tested way to present a larger vision of the Gospel — one closer to what Jesus taught. Learn why the big story — including the essential phrases designed for good; damaged by evil; restored for better; and …

Why Planters Are Equipped for Racial Justice

“If you are doing ministry in America and you don’t understand race, you’re not going to be an effective missionary.” – David Bailey As we witness this volcanic eruption of racial unrest spill out across the country, the urgency to end systemic racism has never felt greater. Yet the Church has never seemed so ill-equipped to live out God’s vision …

The 5-Fold Church Startup: A Resilient Planting Approach

God has wired all of us for ministry. When we uncover and awaken the five-fold typology (apostles, prophets, evangelist, shepherds, and teachers mentioned in Eph. 4) in our faith communities and our neighborhoods, we will not only be able to live out our calling, but also help others discover theirs.  If you want to plant churches that are resilient and …

Five-Fold Proclamation: Part 2

In my previous post I suggested that after years of teaching students to preach the way I was taught to preach (assign a text, which fit me well as a “teacher” on five-fold), I started to wonder, “Am I trying to force apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds, to preach like teachers?” To put it more positively, I began to imagine, …

Five-Fold Proclamation

I was trained by one of the 20th Century’s “Princes of Preaching.” And, “no” that isn’t an exaggeration.   In 1996, Haddon Robinson was named in a Baylor University poll as one of the “12 Most Effective Preachers in the English Speaking World.” In 2006, he was recognized by Christianity Today in the top 10 of its “25 Most Influential Preachers of …

Why Listening is the First Step of Evangelism

Normally we think of evangelism as a process of telling. We are proclaiming or sharing something. And it is that, of course, but I’ve become more and more convinced that effective evangelism starts with listening. Here’s the thing: most evangelism strategies focus only on the telling part. They help people figure out what to say, how to present, the right things to proclaim. One size does NOT …