Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY recently hosted a conference called The Gospel, Counseling, and the Church.  There was also a pre-conference “family track” for leaders in children’s, student, and family ministry.  Patrick Aldridge, Pastor for Children and Youth at Redeemer Fellowship Church, St. Charles, IL, took notes for the SojournKids.com blog and here are some highlights.

Four things that need to be considered when putting together a Gospel centered ministry (Mark Prater from Covenant Fellowship)

1. Know what you are building
   1. Start with philosophy of ministry tied into ministry of church
   2. Craft a clear simple Gospel-centered philosophy of ministry statement and community it often
   3. Write Gospel-centered objectives for the ministry
2. Role of pastor or leader needs to be clearly defined
   1. Scripturally parents are responsible to teach and discipline their children (Deut. 6:5-7 and Eph. 6:4).  Pastors and leaders need to find ways to come along side parents and equip them for their biblical responsibility.
   2. Pastors and leaders need to be aware that they are responsible for the message they present.
   3. The role of pastors and leaders is help parents see their families in the larger community of faith and use that community to help them and their families.
3. Choosing a curriculum., which needs
   1. To effectively teach the Gospel – the message that never changes.
   2. To help equip parents to teach the Gospel at home.
   3. A theological framework that agrees with the theological framework of the whole church
4. Place our confidence in the Gospel

For an example, read how Sojourn keeps their children’s ministry Gospel-centered.

Also included in Patrick’s excellent notes are thoughts on youth ministry and family-equipping ministry. Check out the whole post, it’s incredibly helpful.

Nate Navarro, Director of Missional Community for Austin City Life, recently blogged about changes to their City Group (missional community) leadership structure. They went from a single leader in each CG being responsible for everything to the following

1. CITY GROUP LEADER – facilitates  a community that is growing in Gospel, Community, and Mission.
2. MISSIONAL LEADER – We serve our neighborhoods together monthly. This leader takes the lead on all the details: the when, where, and how of the monthly service project.
3. PRAYER LEADER – This person records all the prayer requests and sends out a weekly update, reminding the community to pray for one another and the city.
4. HOST LEADER – This leader opens their home/apartment/dorm room to be an inviting place for the community to share meals, discuss life and truth, and to pray for one another and the city.
5. HOSPITALITY LEADER – We eat together. This leader coordinates the meal schedule and the “who is bringing what?”

This is an excellent model and one that is worthy of being copied by every church. Nate lists a few of the benefits

Fewer leaders will become casualties of burnout.

Five leaders gives your group more people, with more buy in, creating a stronger core.

New Christians can begin to serve right away. Last I checked, your theology doesn’t have to be nails to be in charge of the meal schedule. New Christians can become involved in leadership early on, and can grow along the way, instead of standing on the sidelines watching all the tired people lead.

Future City Group leaders emerge as they thrive in their roles leading MISSION and PRAYER, etc……

We avoid the “personality-driven” City Group. Gospel Community is  center and forefront in our groups, rather than the talent, charisma, and drive of a leader.

Nate closes with the following line

More Leaders; Less Work. Share Leadership; Grow in Community. Strengthen Mission; Advance the Gospel.

I couldn’t agree more. It’s encouraging to see churches rethinking leadership as they seek to equip more believers and reach more people with the Gospel.

From Mike McKinley, who was sent by Capital Hill Baptist in DC to replant Guilford Baptist Church in Leesburg, VA. This answer was to the question How important is the assessment process and should the sending church be involved?

The assessment process is extremely important, but there is a danger here.  Some church planting organizations have so elevated the work of the church planter that it seems like some dark art that can only be performed by those with a certain mark on their soul.  While the failure rate for church plants is very high, I think that many (probably even most) qualified pastors could be church planters.

There are special pressures involved in church planting, and so the assessment process is important.  I would suggest that you evaluate him along six lines:

1. Motivation — Why does he want to plant a church?  Does he resist authority and just want to be his own boss?  Does he have delusions of grandeur?
2. Independence — Can he work well on his own?  Is he disciplined, entrepreneurial, and self-motivated?  After all, no one will be looking over his shoulder on a day to day basis.
3. Home life — Planting will be stressful on the family.  Is his marriage solid?  Does he understand what it means to love his wife and children?  Is he open to being held accountable in these areas by the sending church?
4. Teaching and evangelism — Is he qualified as a teacher to be an elder in a church?  If not, he’s not a church planter.  Can his teaching build, feed, and sustain a church?  Is he passionate about reaching the lost?  Is he comfortable around non-believers?
5. Discouragement — Does he exhibit abiding trust in the Lord’s providence and guidance? Is he easily discouraged?  How does he deal with apparent failures and set-backs?
6. Godliness — Is he qualified morally to be an elder?  If not, he’s not a church planter.  Are there secret sins in his life?  Is he faithful with money?  Is he humble and open to criticism?  You are not going to find the perfect guy with respect to these six categories, so you need someone who is constantly growing in Christ and changing in areas of weakness and sin.

Acts 29 has the best assessment process I’ve seen, and it is certainly appropriate to use the expertise of groups like that to help with the process. Ultimately, though, I think the local sending church can’t outsource their responsibility to assess, call, train, and launch the planter.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to be the Church Planting Resident at Grace Ann Arbor because it gives Sung lots of opportunities to see into my life and provide me needed correction and rebuke. It’s a little nerve-wracking looking forward to the Acts 29 Louisville Boot Camp in November and our plan to get assessed, wondering if I’ll “pass the test”. I know I shouldn’t look at it that way, as a “dark art that can only be performed by those with a certain mark on their soul” as McKinley writes, but it sometimes feels that way, especially as I take lots of tests with no real idea of what the results actually mean. What I need to trust God to continue to do is give me confidence in His sovereign plan. He may not be calling me to plant a church, but if I am faithful to Him and His call on me to cling to Him, then I need not worry.

Update: As of 10-13-2009, I’m no longer the Church Planting Resident at Grace Ann Arbor

As quoted by Mark Dever, of Capital Hill Baptist, from Richard Bewes’ The Top 100 Questions – Biblical Answers to Popular Questions

1. Does the Bible actually get opened here?
2. Is this the kind of church you could take an uncommitted friend to?
3. Is there a recognisably New Testament feel to the church?Here’s what he meant in this question:  “Is it Trinitarian in its emphasis on Father, Son and Holy Spirit as equally God?  Is the saving death of Christ at its centre (I Cor. 2:2)?  Do the hymns reflect this?  Are baptism and the Lord’s Supper . . . a proper part of the church . . . ?”
4. On the whole, are the arrows pointing outwards from the church?

These questions are extremely helpful. Julie and I asked similar questions of the churches that we visited during our church search. I would also hope that people are able to ask these questions of both Grace and, Lord willing, our future church plant and would respond in the affirmative.