Anyone doing the work of planting churches will meet unpredictable cultural challenges. By definition, you are going into uncharted turf. You will have to listen, encounter new issues, interpret, translate and engage in ways you never would have to in established churches. Anyone wishing to lead a traditional (attractional) church into contextual engagement will face the same challenges and tasks. …
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 …
When it comes to disciple-making, church-planting movements often use a tool known as the Four Fields. Field One (Go) is the entry strategy. Typically, it involves discovering a person of peace, as in Luke 10:1-12 (for a great description of the role of a person of peace read JR Woodward’s article, “The Person of Peace and Their ‘Oikos’”). Field Two …
The Most Difficult Things to Count Starting from the small church of my youth, winding through my last 20 years of vocational pastoring, I have had a decent vantage point on the church growth narrative. When I was in a booming attractional church, we took pride in our voluminous of felt-needs programs. When I was in a liturgical church, there was …
In my first 10 years as a pastor I became accustomed to resources. I worshiped and served with a charitable portion of resources as unidentified supports around me. I had great worship facilities, great budgets and decently funded programs to suit any need or stage of life. I had on-hand artists to paint canvases for my sermons and quality writers …