Church Planting
Living the Book of Acts
We understand the challenges involved in starting a new ministry from scratch. We also understand the amazing possibilities. If you’re considering planting a church or are in the early stages, we’d love to walk alongside you through the process.
We can help you understand the different stages of planting a church—from vision to team building to leadership development. We can help you think through the essential issues to consider along the way—including prayer, finances, structure, and outreach.
And if you have a vision for planting not just one church, but many churches– a multiplying movement of churches — then you’ll definitely want to connect with us to be better prepared and resourced for the amazing adventure that lies ahead.
Reflections of Jesus
Having been in this field of church planting for a long time, I have seen and experienced and been a part of that changing landscape. In my experience, I've seen the process of reaching people for Christ becoming more and more relational. It's a grassroots,...
The new apologetics
This morning I have an entry from guest blogger John Amandola: “I like the good feeling that I got when I came to church today. I am a spiritual person.” I was enjoying my conversation with a young man who was visiting our church plant this week. He is a grad student...
Fellowship on mission
One of the hindrances we have in church life is that we focus on fellowship as a priority. The result is an inward focus. We become myopic and don’t go on mission. We feel we need to get better and have a closer fellowship before we can go on mission. Yet if we...
There’s not enough money in the world to keep doing church the way we’ve been doing it.
There’s not enough money in the world to keep doing church the way we’ve been doing it. If you calculate the unchurched population, then you calculate how many more churches are needed and what each church would cost, there literally is not enough money in the world...
Fresh reflections on the book of Acts
It was great to reconnect with my friend Neil Cole at a conference we were both speaking at. Neil and I have partnered together on various projects in the past, and it’s exciting to see how God is continuing to work through his ministry. He has kept his focus on...
Farmer’s market
Note: This is part of a series that started with the March 28 post. House churches are like a farmer's market. Each stand represents a separate vendor. They each stand alone, but they're interconnected. They all show up at the same time on the same day because they...
SuperTarget
Note: This is part of a series that started with the March 28 post. Large churches are like megastores-- like a SuperTarget. There's everything under the sun there. Lots of options. They may not have really niche, artsy items, but you can get all the expected...
Trader Joe’s
Note: This is part of a series that started with the March 28 post. Small congregations are like Trader Joe’s—they have all of the basics: bread, milk, fruit, but there’s not a huge selection. They’re not going for huge; they’re going for specialties… things...
Three kinds of churches
There are three kinds of churches: Trader Joe's, SuperTarget, and the Farmer's market. If we want to be incarnational and missional, it doesn’t really matter what the forms are. There's nothing inherently good or bad about any of these models. The incarnational,...
A grove of aspen trees
Some of you may have seen this image before. It’s the root structure of a grove of aspen trees. This has become the guiding image for the network of missional house churches I’m helping start. The aspen grove is actually the world’s largest organism as the entire...