This is a great idea from Andreas Köstenberger, about his church, Richland Creek Community Church, and its Kingdom Family Sunday School class, which is

focused on households, whether families, singles, widows, divorced, and others. We are a multi-generational group of believers because we believe that in this way we can best reflect the type of learning and growing Christ desires for his church in the body of Christ. We study the Bible together, are interconnected with each other during the week through prayer and fellowship gatherings, and actively engage in and support evangelistic and missionary efforts through outreach, prayer, giving, and help. We would love to have any interested individuals or families join us. We are looking for a few kingdom families who share our vision of multi-generational, aimed at reaching entire households.

This Kingdom Family Sunday School class grew from this:

I believe that the purpose for every family should be exactly the same as for the church: families devoted to worship, discipleship, evangelism, fellowship, and so on. If so, church leaders should ask themselves the question: How are we encouraging families to grow in their worship? How are we helping parents to become more committed disciples and to help their young people grow in their discipleship? How can we help make families evangelistic units where service of others and sharing their faith becomes a way of life, a genuine desire, and a matter of commitment and priority?

Looking toward planting a church, this is a very interesting idea. How different would the church look to the world if entire families spent more time togehter worshipping and learning and growing?

From Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice-President for Academic Administration at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He also serves as a preaching pastor at Highview Baptist Church, where he ministers weekly at the congregation’s Fegenbush location.

The best way to outwit the Evil One is to anticipate how his powers will seek to counter-act your preaching. It’s helpful for me to think as I’m preparing to preach of all the ways my own heart seeks to evade the truth of the text. Once, as I was studying to preach on a Beatitude, I realized that I was treating the text exactly the way a liberal would treat a passage forbidding women in the pastorate: “Well, it can’t mean that, what it appears to say, so…”

The more you know your people, their struggles and triumphs, and the more you know human nature, the better you’ll know how to preach sermons that can pierce through strongholds, and gain attention. That doesn’t guarantee that people will like what you say; but it helps ensure they’ll hear it being said.

Also, remember you are speaking for Christ. There’s a passion and a gravity that ought to come with one standing in the place of the One who has been granted all authority.

Beyond that, but a sermonic information dump—with PowerPoint outline point by sub-point by sub-sub-point can “safely” distance your people from Christ. A sermon that simply collates and regurgitates what you’ve read in commentaries can make the Word of God a matter of cognition not submission. A strung-together list of life tips can make it easy for your people to disregard this word just like they disregard the weight loss plans commercials on television or the flossing ad campaigns they see from the dentist’s chair.

The devil doesn’t mind boring sermons, so long as you allow him to preach too. He’s doesn’t mind the Word being heard so long as it’s the appetites that really enliven his people. And he doesn’t mind the gospel going forward as long as God’s people hear his accusations of them (and they’re all expository and biblically-based!).

But if you grip people with the drama of the gospel of Christ, if you jolt them into seeing the ancient newness of the Word of God, then you’ll have a demonic insurrection on your hand.

You preach verse-by-verse through the text? You do well. The demons, they preach also—and they’re boring.

Great post from Bob Kaufflin on how to lead worship in a church plant

1. Because people will be coming from different churches, backgrounds, and experiences, I’d plan to take extra time  to explain our philosophy of worship. Every other Sunday I might take 3-5 minutes to talk about some aspect of what we’re doing. I’d want guests to understand that worship is more than singing our favorite songs. I’d cover topics like  why we sing about Jesus dying for our sins so much, the importance of God’s Word when we sing, why we sing songs with lots of words, the place of physical expressiveness, and how the primary sound we want to hear on Sundays is the congregation.
2. I’d start with a list of about 60 songs that included hymns, meatier songs I thought we’d sing a lot (In Christ Alone, Before the Throne of God Above, etc.), and a few familiar songs (Passion, Paul Baloche, etc.)
3. I’d plan to repeat songs frequently so that we could build a “musical memory” together.  If I was introducing a song most people were unfamiliar with I’d try to sing it 2 or 3 more times in the coming month.
4. I’d build music team membership slowly. I wouldn’t feel pressure to add people to the team because of musical gifting or past experience. Itʼs always easier to wait to add people than to have to remove them later for character reasons.
5. At some point in the first six months I’d invite any interested musicians over to my house for a meal. I’d lay out a vision of what kind of team we’re seeking to build, and then we’d probably jam and spend some time worshiping the Lord in song.
6. In that meeting (and there might be more than one) I’d want to establish a culture of biblical values, including humility, encouragement, servanthood, and excellence, all in the context of wanting to live a life worthy of the gospel. I’d stress that anyone who is front of the church on a regular basis needs more than a musical gift as a reason to be there. I’d also try to encourage every one I could in any way I could without making it sound like they were going to be playing on the team next Sunday.
7. hile the church is small, I’d be willing to sacrifice a degree of musical excellence. What I wouldn’t be willing to sacrifice is the pursuit of humility as a group.
8. If I was a pastor planting a church with an inexperienced worship leader, I’d mention all these things, but play a more pronounced role in song selection and what was said between songs, hoping to train my worship leader in the process. I’d also give a message or two to unpack the part congregational singing plays in the broader category of biblical worship. Probably use a passage like Col. 3:16-17 or Ps. 150.

Here are audio lessons for each chapter of Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, as taught by Dr. Grudem and others at Scottsdale Bible Church. This is an excellent companion to the book, which I am greatly enjoying reading.

As I dive into the Acts 29 Network Application, one of the questions that is proving challenging to me is “Outside of the Bible, what is the most theologically-intensive book you have read cover-to-cover?” Because I didn’t go to seminary, and haven’t been in churches that place much emphasis on theology (excluding our current church), I don’t have a good answer to this question. I’ve decided to remedy this deficiency and read Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology. It’s highly recommended and seems to be the go-to Systematic Theology textbook for many of the New Calvinists. To help me stay diligent in my reading, I made a 28 day reading plan for the book. The plan is to read around 40 pages a day. Lord willing, I’ll start tomorrow and end on May 13. I’m including in this post a generic reading plan in case anyone else wants to read this book but needs the occasional prodding of a checklist Click here to download a PDF of the plan or click on the image below.

Please contact me if there are any changes I can make to this plan to make it more useful.

Scott Thomas’ message from the Acts 29 2009 Raleigh Boot Camp

Acts 11:19-25

19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists  also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 22 The report of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23 When he came and saw the grace of God, he was glad, and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose, 24 for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a great many people were added to the Lord. 25 So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26 and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.

Acts 13

1 Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger,  Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. 2 While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” 3 Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

4 So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia, and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

9 But Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him 

10 Qualifications of What a Church Planter is

Missionary, Apostolic Leader

Leading Men Into Mission

1. Spiritual Vitality
2. Theological Clarity
   • Guard the doctrinal door with winsome authority
3. Clarity and Strength of Calling
   • Church needs to commend you for ministry (planting) and send you
4. Strong marriage and family life
5. Relationship Building
6. Leadership Abilities
   1. As a church planter, do you prefer mules or stallions in your church? We need stallions
   2. Mules are sterile, won’t reproduce
   3. Must be willing to let the stallions run past you
7. Emotional health and stability
   1. A man who is not teachable and not coachable is not usable
   2. Know you weaknesses and strengths
8. A Missional Lifestyle
9. Disciple-making Skills
10. Entrepeneurial aptitude

Church stoppers

• Arrogance
• Betrays trust
• Unethical lifestyle

Part 1

Preparation

1. What does the Bible say?
2. What does the Bible mean?
3. What is the takeaway point? What’s the hook?
4. Why or how is there resistance to what is true in Scripture?
5. Why does this matter? How does this relate to my church, my marriage, my family, my city?
6. How is Jesus the hero?

Seeing Jesus in the OT

1. Prophetic Promises
2. Christophany
3. Types
   1. Last Adam
   2. Prophet
   3. King
   4. Sacrifices
   5. Shepherd
   6. Judge
4. Like ministries
5. In events
6. Titles for God

Church Growth is a movement within Evangelical Christianity which emphasizes missionary work combined with sociological awareness of the target population. The “seeker sensitive” label for this approach characterizes the would-be converts as “seekers”. (Wikipedia)

The 1980′s saw the explosion of the “church growth” movement, which was led by people like Elmer Towns and churches like Willow Creek and Saddleback Church. It has been criticized as being shallow theologically, program-driven, pragmatic, and demographically targeted.  Churches identify who their target audience is, then seek to design a service and programs to reach that target. It has proven “successful”, if viewed through the lens of attendance. However, some “seeker” churches have recently made changes to their programs that will hopefully facilitate deeper discipleship.

I think that we are now seeing the next generation of Church Growth. CG2.0 still have the same characteristics of the first gen of Church Growth, but there seems to be an even greater focus on cultural contextualization, even to the point of crassness. Whether it’s Perry Noble publically using censored profanity to refer to “reformed guys” or Granger Community Church’s recent I’m Not Buying It series, these churches are pushing the envelope, and not in a good way. It sure doesn’t seem like it’s a new way of presenting the Gospel, but a way of “getting eyeballs”, of being noticed. Many of these “Shock Churches” are growing, but they seem to be clustered in the South and Midwest, locations that I would consider more churched than other parts of the country. Is the growth simply transfers from other churches? I have no clue. But I do have a hard time seeing churches like these reaching people in places that are less familiar with the Gospel, like NYC or Miami.

Will Church Growth 2.0 go the way of 1.0, eventually realizing that giving people what they want isn’t what God calls the church to do? That church will be messy because it is lived out in community with sinners like us? That we are called to be different, in but not of? I pray yes, and sooner rather than later.

From David Fairchild, who planted Kaleo a church-planting movement in San Diego.

1. Church planting is often an exercise in idolatry.

   Our love for Jesus has to be more intense and powerful than the love for the idea of our church plant.
    

2. The Church is not a stage to showcase our gifts.

   If we’re willing to simply wash the feet of the disciples and serve the Bride of Jesus, we’ll ensure that we keep Jesus in the spotlight and not ourselves. The church doesn’t exist for me to be made much of. The Church exists to make much of Jesus.
    

3. Never forget that it is Jesus that will build His Church.

   In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says to Peter, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” There is much controversy about what role Jesus was giving Peter and how this has played out historically through Apostolic succession. But this often misses the point. Even if Jesus was saying that Peter is the first Apostle, it is still Jesus that is the one who promises to build His church. Though He may use Peter (a miracle in itself), it is Jesus who builds and it is Jesus who gives victory against the gates of hell, not Peter. Not Paul. Not James. Not Augustine. Not Luther. Not Calvin. Not Spurgeon. Not Piper. And most certainly not you or me.
    

4. Be more about what you are and less about what you’re not.

   If Jesus is building His church and the church exists beyond our local church, than I should be very careful tearing anything down for I might be fighting against His work. Our posture in criticism should always be characterized by humility. If we’re honest we should confess how far we still are from being a perfect gathering of perfect people.

5. A missional leader should desire influence, not control.

   If we want neat and tidy churches, we’ll tend towards control. But missional churches are never neat or tidy. Instead they are messy and often unkempt because they allow growth to occur organically as they push the missional agenda to the fringes.

6. Plant churches that grow planters organically.

   Anyone looking to plant a church should be willing to get involved in an existing (and recent) church plant to learn what it looks like. This means we may plant fewer churches, but if we train longer (specifically church plant training) we’ll end up with a larger movement because we won’t have as many failures.

7. We believe in sola Scriptura, no sola pastora

   We should fight with all our might to ensure that our people realize we are a team of leaders. This will effectively displace the guru mentality that assumes all problem are solved and solutions given only by one leader.

   But this requires…
    

8. We are all living for the same mission and vision together.

   If our agendas are divided then we’ll find our mission stagnated. This doesn’t mean a homogenous expression of mission, it simply means we agree with the foundational truths of Gospel-Community-Mission.

9. We have to be willing to lead in community not above it.

   The days of pastors acting as a CEO and giving orders from the top down should be well behind us. The truth is we all tend towards telling others what they should do before we’re actually doing it ourselves. Community and mission are two ways of being that every planter and leader must be willing to demonstrate. If not, reproducibility and discipleship simply will not happen.

10. Seek outside counsel from leaders who have gone before you.

    Be willing to submit your thoughts, ideas, and decisions to your community as well as seeking the counsel of older men and women that have loved Jesus longer than yourself and share similar values.

 

Dr. Wayne Grudem’s talk on 1 Corinthians 16:13 from the 2009 Acts 29 Bootcamp in Raleigh, NC. Dr. Grudem is the author of Systematic Theology, among many other books that have helped The Church greatly.