Friday Church Planting Resource: Community Needs Tools

Posted by on Nov 5, 2010 in Community Engagement, Resources | 0 comments The last several Wednesdays have focused on Understanding Your Community as a foundational step for planting a missional church.  If you missed it, here are links to the posts: Pt. 1;  Pt. 2; Pt. 3 Pt. 4 Today I’ll highlight two resources for helping you understand your community. The first is a tool developed by Passion 4 Planting and Compassion by Design.  It is called a Community...
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Missional Wednesdays: Understanding Your Community pt. 3

Posted by on Oct 27, 2010 in Community Engagement, Missional | 0 comments Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 focused on how we can learn about our community through study.  Most of the ideas suggested could all be done from a distance.  But to really learn a community you have to live there.  You have to live life with the natives.  This is the incarnational side of understanding your community.  Those of you who move into a new community to start a church will struggle the most...
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Consumerism Leads to Death

Posted by on Oct 11, 2010 in Community Engagement, Discipleship, Missional | 0 comments I spent some time yesterday in the Old Testament Walk Through the Bible seminar.  It was a great Old Testament overview and I plan on using what I learned to help me teach my kids better.  The instructor made an interesting observation about the Dead Sea.  He stated that the Sea of Galilee flows into the Jordan River, which then flows into the Dead Sea.  The problem is the Dead Sea has no...
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Feeding Hungry Children Through Church Planting

Posted by on Sep 27, 2010 in Community Engagement, Missional | 0 comments I ask all my church planters, “What is good new to your community?”  It’s a questioned aimed at determining how to be the gospel within a community.  Church planting is more than just gathering Christians, it’s planting the gospel in a community to reveal Christ to that community.  Chad Simpkins, lead pastor of Varsity Church in Chapel Hill, NC, determined that one of...
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Before You Name the Church Plant

Posted by on Sep 13, 2010 in Community Engagement, Missional | 0 comments One of the first things that church planters want to do is name the church.  It’s natural, but not missional.  Naming the church plant at the very beginning of the process may be a mistake.  Let me explain. 1.  Cultural Analysis. Church planting is missionary work.  Many are planting in cultures that are familiar, but culture is a complex thing.  While you may think American suburbia...
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Research Reveals that Attractional Events Work

Posted by on Jul 20, 2010 in Community Engagement, Strategy | 1 comment I just found a post by the Baptist Press that talks about research they did that proves that attractional events events are an effective form of evangelism.  The study revealed that churches that were growing and were effective evangelistically (measured by number of baptisms) sponsor several attractional events.  It’s worth your time to read.  So do you think attractional events caused...
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