From Jonathan McIntosh at Rethink Mission. Read Part One here and Part Two here

1. What is this sermon about?
2. What do I want people to leave with?
3. What issue, tension, or core problem does this sermon address?
4. Why should people stay awake for the next 40 minutes?
   • if my people don’t believe this truth, or embrace this, or follow through with this – what will happen?
   • Why will this truth change them? What will most likely result if they fail to get this?
   • Answer that question and then tell them. Tell them why it is so important that they are there on this day for this specific sermon. And then here’s the key – tell them in the first several minutes of the sermon.
5. What do I want people to know or believe?
6. What do I want people to feel or experience?
7. What do I want people to do or act on?

Here are some ways to become a church-planting church From Jonathan McIntosh at Rethink Mission. Even though we’re very new at Grace Bible Church, I praying that the elders and the new senior pastor get a vision for Grace to become a church-planting church. Ann Arbor needs many more gospel-centered churches that seek to missionally engage the lost.

• Meet area planters
• Do a study
  • Read Tim Keller’s paper, Why Plant Churches
  • Read Glenn Smith’s article Does the U.S. Need More New Churches?
  • Quote from keller “The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for the numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city, and the continual corporate renewal and revival of the existing churches in a city.”
• Budget appropriately
• Vision from the pulpit
• Join a church-planting network
• Begin a church-planting internship
  • Have interns raise their own support
  • Assess potential interns well
  • Mentor interns well
  • Send them out with money & people
• Show your congregation

From David Putman and Shawn Lovejoy

1. Rushing ahead (without meeting milestones)
   • Vision is clear and communicated.
   • The staff team has been recruited.
   • The core group is in place.
   • Worship leader and team have been recruited.
   • The meeting place has been secured.
   • A marketing plan has been implemented.
   • Pre-school and children’s ministry plans have been made.
   • A small group and volunteer system is in place.
   • An assimilation strategy is in place.
2. Underestimating the cost
3. Violating the Sabbath
4. Hanging on too long
5. Not having a coach

During our most recent Re:Train class, Scott Thomas, director of the Acts 29 Church Planting network, shared about his formal accountability relationship with five pastors, four of whom focus on specific areas of his life (Leadership, Marriage and Family, Theology and Personal Revival, Professional) and one of whom looks at the whole picture. Here are forty questions that Dr. Bruce Wesley asked Scott with regard to Leadership.

Self Leadership

1. How are you unique? (calling, gifts, passions, personality, experiences, sin patterns)
2. How do you stay inspired? How often do you practice this?
3. How do you preach the gospel to yourself?  (What’s the message in your mind?)
4. What are the rhythms of grace in your life? (scripture practices, worship, community, Sabbath)
5. What idols are calling for your worship?
6. How do you forsake each idol?
7. What are the lies that you believe in your head?
8. How is the gospel applied to those lies?

Interpersonal Leadership

1. Who gets you and why? Who are your guys? (2 Timothy 2:2)
2. Who do you pray for?  What are you praying for them?
3. Who are you considering to become one of your guys and what is your plan?
4. Are you telling the “truth in love” to your guys, consistently?  When do you tend to “spin” something?
5. Are you “on time” and following through with promises?
6. Do you say “yes” and “no” with clarity? Who are the people you tend to “please” and why?
7. How are you discipling each of your children and your spouse?
8. Who KNOWS you?

Organizational Leadership

1. What mission and vision has God entrusted to you?
2. Are you aligned to this mission and vision?
3. To what extent is your identity wrapped up in your position or your mission?
4. Where is there “sideways energy” in your life (schedule)?
5. Do people in your organization know with clarity what you expect of them?
6. What do you expect of others in your organization?
7. How do assure that each person under your charge connects expectations to mission?
8. In what ways do you personify vision and values?
9. What opportunities did you decline for the sake of mission, vision or values?
10. What are the stories that define the culture of your organization?  How do you capture these stories?  How are the stories being shared?

Team Leadership

1. Who is your team?  (Roles, Styles)
2. Who is going to replace you?
3. How do you demonstrate your love for each team member?
4. What dysfunctions on your team are you addressing?
5. With whom do you sense the most synergy?  How can you maximize that?
6. With whom do you sense the least synergy?  Why? How are you minimizing that?
7. Who do you struggle to trust?  Why?  Do you address issues of trust with them?  Why or why not?
8. What inspires each team member?  (Ask each one, “What aspect of your work brings you the most joy?  What stories do you tend to tell most often?)
9. Do team members feel empowered to exercise their greatest gifts and talents on the team?

Pastoral Leadership

1. What does faithfulness in your calling look like for you?
2. In what new areas are you learning to apply the gospel?
3. Describe your system for managing your availability and “interruptability.”
4. How do you develop men by involving them in ministry and making decisions?
5. What opportunities have you had / taken to herald the gospel in serving others?

From Ed Roberts on the 9Marks Blog

missiology is the intentional, ongoing, purposeful, biblically controlled, serious and prayerful reflection on the doing of God’s mission in the world

As I look to plant a church, I’m very upfront with my plans and vision so that people don’t think I’m trying to poach members from Grace. I’ve also reached out to all the evangelical pastors in town to initiate dialogue about any way I can serve them in their efforts to plant churches. So far, only Kirk at 2|42 has responded, but I am committed to working to build up the other evangelical churches in town while I look to plant a new church.

J. D. Payne recently posted proposed Ethical Guidelines for Church Planters, which are quite helpful. These guidelines touch on issues like transfer growth, church unity, long-term commitment to planting, family care, personal spiritual disciplines, and integrity.

• Guideline #1: Since the global need for the gospel is so great, unless God reveals otherwise, we will begin our ministry among people with the greatest need andwith a high level of receptivity to the gospel.
• Guideline #2: Since the world consists of four billion unbelievers, with two billion who have never heard the gospel, our strategy will involve the use of highly reproducible church planting methods.
• Guideline #3: Since biblical church planting is evangelism that results in new churches, we will not prioritize transfer growth over conversion growth by designing ministries that will primarily attract believers.
• Guideline #4: Since unity among churches in a geographical area is a powerful witness to the gospel, we will be concerned with other evangelical pastors laboring in the same area as our team, and will take the initiative to meet with them to share our calling, vision, and ethic.
• Guideline #5: Since we desire to respect other evangelical pastors in the area, and desire sanctification in the lives of any transfers from local churches, we will have a systematic plan to respond to the transfers who want to become part of the new church.
• Guideline #6: Since our calling to this ministry, people, and location is from God and not based on money, we will not end our church planting ministry in this area simply if our financial support ends, but rather will make appropriate plans for the future of our personal finances.
• Guideline #7: Since the biblical model for church planting is a team approach and many liabilities come when working as a solo church planter, a team will be developed before the work begins.
• Guideline #8: Since one of the most critical issues in missionary circles is that of the stress on the family, we will not neglect our families for the sake of church planting and will begin our work with a strategy for nurturing our family life while serving as church planters.
• Guideline #9: Since we are Kingdom Citizens, we will not neglect our daily devotion time with the Lord by allowing ourselves to be distracted by the numerous tasks to be accomplished in the ministry.
• Guideline #10: Since the task of missionary work involves effective communication, we will work diligently toward contextualization rather than bringing our preferred church traditions to the people.
• Guideline #11: Since integrity and accuracy are important when reporting statistics related or our missionary labors, we will strive to report only those numbers and descriptive details which are truly reflective of what the Holy Spirit is doing in our context.

Now that we’ve started an Engage Group at Grace, I want to start posting items that may be of benefit to the group and that can provide encouragement to start additional groups at church. To kick things off, here is a challenge from John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis about why churches need small groups and community

Here are 10 tips for Missional Communities from Austin City Life and Jonathan Dodson

1. KNOW GOD
   • cultivate a steady devotional/prayer life
   • participate in a fight club
   • serve with the strength God supplies
2. KNOW YOUR PEOPLE
   • pastor your city group
   • notice when somebody disappears
3. KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
   • know the culture
   • know your neighbors
4. DON’T GO ALONE
   • share leadership, i.e. host, meals, prayer, mission
   • participate in monthly meetings
   • participate in monthly coaching
5. SAY WHO YOU ARE (AND WHO YOU AREN’T) EVERY WEEK
   • Deconstruct small group/biblestudy/social group
   • Reaffirm our Practices (Engage God, Engage Each Other, Engage Ann Arbor)
6. GET OUT OF THE LIVING ROOM
   • on mission
   • in celebration
7. LIVE THE 8 WAYS TO EASILY BE MISSIONAL
   • Out loud, let gospel talk be ordinary talk. Don’t hide your faith. Here’s the link and below are the 8
   • Eat with Non-Christians.
   • Walk, Don’t Drive.
   • Be a Regular.
   • Hobby with Non-Christians.
   • Talk to Your Co-workers.
   • Volunteer with Non-Profits.
   • Participate in City Events.
   • Serve your Neighbors.
8. EAT, LAUGH, PRAY, and  SERVE TOGETHER
   • a healthy group will do all 4
9. TELL YOUR STORIES
   • In the living room
   • On the blog
   • Use twitter/FB to facilitate community(not replace it)
10. COME TO SERVE (NOT JUST GET) ON SUNDAYS