You’re a church planter. You’ve been working on your vision documents for months. You’ve been spending lots of money having coffee and meals in your home with potential team members. You finally feel like you’re gaining some momentum. It seems that this is the culmination of a lot of things God has been doing in your life for years, and …
We live in a 24/7 culture of endless productivity, workaholism, distraction, burnout, and anxiety–a way of life to which we’ve sadly grown accustomed. Church Planters live in this exhausted world and by nature of starting a new church from scratch feel the pressure to make an impact immediately. It is easy to give into this urgent system of survival and …
When I moved to California to plant a church I knew that I needed to have some kind of goal. I didn’t want that goal to be one that measured how fast we would grow numerically because I felt like that would put unhealthy pressure to grow at any cost and, potentially, hijack the vision for the church. But I …
A couple years ago I remember reading a job description for a new church planter. A mega church was embarking on their first planting foray. My eyes widened at the qualifications list. The only person who could meet the criteria was a man (had to be a man) more qualified than Jesus. I didn’t apply. It’s common in church culture for the best …
I remember the first morning I woke up after I had moved to Syracuse, NY. My family had spent the previous year discerning the Spirit’s voice with friends, family and our faith community. My wife and I had served in full-time vocational ministry for 15 years, and we were sensing a growing call to start a new faith community in …
Is it possible to plant a church with a budget remarkably lower than normal? I’ve done it–twice. Before I share that story, a brief look at church planting in North America over the past 20 years. Church planting has entered contemporary church practice as an attractive and practical way to address decline. Globally, church planting in countries like China or …
At the V3 Church Planting Movement we get the question all the time “Why do we need to plant more churches?” It is a valid question. Certainly in most cities we can see a church edifice every couple miles and in some cities every few blocks. It might appear we don’t need any new churches. Additionally, the church currently does …
If I am being honest, I’m not generally a big fan of books on church planting. My lack of enthusiasm stems from two primary observations. First, many books on church planting are authored by people who actually have surprisingly limited experience in church planting or whose credibility rests on a single (relatively meaningless) criterion—their ability to draw a large crowd. …
It’s that time of year when we revisit the resources from the V3 blog that garnered lots of responses from readers/missional practitioners. You all shared the movement in powerful ways this year, and we thank you so much! Church planters and place-based missiologists used these posts to experience the movemental power of the Kingdom in their neighborhoods, church plants, businesses, and …
Sometimes I just need a good “kick in the seat of my pants” to get me going. That phrase – kick in the seat of the pants – has always been a reminder that I need to open myself up to new ideas and get outside the box of my thinking, even in church matters. Roger Von Oech wrote a life-changing …