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The Calling of a Church Planter – Mark Driscoll

The first one is mandatory. One other is needed as well (not every one).

  1. Have I responded to the gospel call & received the Spirit? 
  2. Is the Holy Spirit out ahead of me planting the church?
  3. Is my church planting call obvious to other godly leaders? (Acts 2:14)
  4. Has God confirmed my church plant by showing up in miraculous power? (Acts 3 & 4)
  5. Am I reaching lost people to start my plant? (Acts 8:5-9, 12)
  6. Has Jesus showed up & told me to plant? (Acts 9:15-16)
  7. Has God called me to plant through a vision? (Acts 10-11:18; 16:9-10)
  8. Has God providentially relocated me to plant? (Acts 11:19-21)
  9. Is God sending me to plant because my church does not much need me? (Acts 13:1-3)
  10. Is God calling me to plant because I am wasting my time in a toxic place? (14:1-7)
  11. Am I called to be a catalytic church planter or plant a church planting church center?(Acts 14:23-26)
  12. Has God called me to plant by giving me a deep burden for a city/people? (Acts 17:16)
  13. Has God called me to plant by giving me a core group? (Acts 18:7-8)

From Acts 29

Examining myself for these, #1 is a definite.

#4 and #8 – Mom getting healed of her tumor was definitely miraculous and that pulling us back to Ann Arbor  is the relocation part

#9 – I think our departure from New Life goes here. There wasn’t much need for me at a college student church when I feel called to reach people like my neighbors and co-workers

#11 – The latter “church planting church center”. One of my dreams is to be the pastor of a grandparent church.

#12 – Most definitely. I can’t imagine planting anywhere but Ann Arbor, MI

I can’t wait to see how God will move over the next months and years.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 12:16 pm and is filed under Acts 29, Church Planting, Faith, Pastoring, The Church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “The Calling of a Church Planter – Mark Driscoll”

  1. Logan Says:
    March 23rd, 2009 at 1:23 am

    I’m glad someone wrote down the scripture references, I listened to Driscoll’s message and found it resonating within me. I think God is calling me to be a church planter after going through each of those, but I’m only twenty years old and not married so the timing probably isn’t right.

    Here are two resources that have helped me a lot:

    Puritan sermon on the call to ministry (very convicting and very biblical): http://tinyurl.com/cxgafh

    Are you a child, a young man, or a father of the faith? And the differences of the aforementioned: http://post.ly/AGl

    I posted them up on my twitter account so that’s why they look a little weird.

    Let me know what other resources, books, articles you’d recommend for a young single guy who knows he wants to be in ministry but not how or which one.

    much thanks

  2. Chris Says:
    March 23rd, 2009 at 5:12 am

    Logan,

    I’d recommend

    Pray
    Pray some more
    Find a good church, get involved, seek out mentoring relationships with older men
    Try to intern at a church, to see if full-time ministry “suits you”
    Pray that God would put a burden on your heart for a particular location / people group. That will help to focus the call
    Be patient. That’s the toughest part, knowing that God is sovereignly in control and your view into His plans and will is rather obscured. Trust in His goodness, faithfulness, and mercy.

    Enjoy the journey brother. God is good.