http://ComePlantChurchesinAnnArborMichigan.com came about because of the lack of gospel-centered churches and gospel-centered church planting in Ann Arbor. My vision is to see dozens of churches planted here in Ann Arbor that are centered on the gospel in all areas and missional in their practice. For that to happen, local churches, regardless of their size, should be planting churches. There’s really no excuse for a church to not plant a church. A healthy church should plant. An unhealthy church should either let itself die or replant. Ray Ortlund and Immanuel Church in Nashville, while only two years old with 150 people on a Sunday, have already planted a church, which means a 30 year old church with 500 people should be planting churches as well. Ray recently wrote a great post on Ed Stetzer’s blog about Small Churches Planting Churches and I’m reprinting the whole thing because it’s so good.

Immanuel Church is small – growing but small. We’re about two years old and averaging around 150 people on Sunday morning. And we are involved in a church plant. Jeremy Rose is pioneering The Axis Church, another Acts 29 church, in downtown Nashville. Jeremy served with us at Immanuel the second half of 2009, and now we are committed to his new work in prayer, fellowship and money – 10% of our regular offerings. At Immanuel, we’re stoked about this.Why not wait until we’re bigger before committing to another church plant? Well, why not wait on every aspect of obedience? I don’t know about you, but I almost never feel ready to obey the Lord Jesus Christ, except in those routine areas of obedience I already have some handle on, like “Ray, read your Bible and pray each day” – and I’m not even good at them! But real obedience, new risks for the name of Christ – that’s part of the “newness of life” the Bible calls us to (Romans 6:4). If all the obedience I offer the Lord is stuff I’m already okay at, where’s the newness? What am I, what are we, doing in obedience to him that we’ve never done before and that we don’t feel entirely ready for? That’s newness. That’s our real growth. We always want to be out there on that edge. Church planting is one way to stay there. So it doesn’t matter how small or how big our church is. If we believe that church planting is a matter of obedience to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for his greater glory in our time, then right now is when we should start taking steps toward jumping in. He will be with us.

Plus, it’s a joy to help give birth to a new church. It fills our own sails at Immanuel with a larger sense of purpose and fulfillment. Every church has a purpose. The stated purpose is almost always gospel-centered, expansive, outreaching. That’s great. But sometimes churches also have an unstated purpose, a functional purpose not in writing but in routines. The functional purpose is the pattern the members default to without thinking. And the functional purpose always wins out over the formally stated purpose. The real purpose of some churches might be something like, “Your best comfort zone now.” But it isn’t comfortable. It isn’t even alive. It’s death.

But when a church’s stated purpose and functional purpose converge as one, and that church really is reaching out in sacrifice and innovation and solid accomplishment, it’s thrilling! That church starts feeling like God’s kingdom coming and God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven. An awareness comes over that church, “Wow, by his grace we are involved! We’re not just talking big. We’re actually doing it. What a privilege!” It’s one of the ways a church’s corporate conscience and sense of responsibility ease into a settled happiness. Not complacency, but real happiness in Christ. A small church can get traction for growth when everyone can see they mean business about unselfish kingdom expansion.

We live in such a great time for church planting. Practical guidance is now available to churches of all faithful denominations and non-denominations. Ed’s blog is itself a tremendous resource. Hey brothers and sisters in churches small, medium and large, let’s go for it – now!

This article is a clarion call to church leaders to be faithful to what is clear in Scripture and to lead their people outside of the comfort of their current church body for the kingdom bounty that awaits with the planting of new churches and the conversion of the lost.

From a sermon on Acts 2 by Bob Thune of Coram Deo in Omana, NE.

1. Gospel dis-inculturation (the gospel confronts the attitudes and beliefs inherited from culture)
2. Biblical and theological depth
3. Rich community
4. Joyful, reverent worship
5. Missional flow

GCR refers to the Great Commission Resurgence, the Southern Baptist task force that is attempting to influence a huge denomination to be more missional and have more kingdom impact. Nathan Akin recently wrote about how the church he attends is a model GCR church. Here are some highlights.

First, my church strives after the glory of God in all things with a strong emphasis on the Scriptures and Gospel-Centrality.

This works itself out in a commitment to expository preaching

In addition, this has led us to a focus on discipleship

First, there is a membership process; this comes directly out of our belief in the Baptist distinctive of “Regenerate Church Membership.”

Next, members are integrated into a small group, which is the primary means of discipleship and community in our church.

Finally, in the context of Gospel-Centrality, there is a focus on being as diverse as the community around us.

Second, our church is adamant about the primacy of the local church

Shepherd’s Training

The elders invite these men that they have identified into the 2-year program; it is not open to everyone. He is then paired with an Elder or leader in the church, along with one other trainee. This leader focuses on personal development and maturity with him. In addition, there is a focus on accountability and the character necessary for an elder. He meets with this Elder/leader every other week to go through these things and to work through memorizing the Pastoral Epistles. In addition, he also meets every other week with all those in the program and all the trainers. Each “semester” during the 2-year cycle focuses on a different aspect of pastoral ministry and leadership. The every other week meeting focuses on the portion of the Pastoral Epistles that was to be memorized that week. One of the Elders then leads through an exposition of that passage and the other elders add thoughts on the passage as well. Next, all the trainees are required to read a book for the week, examples of books read are Baxter’s “The Reformed Pastor,” Dever’s “Nine Marks of a Healthy Church,” Spurgeon’s “Lectures to My Students,” and Bonheoffer’s “Life Together.” Each week, two of the trainees deliver an oral book review of the book for that week and then ask questions of the book that the elders answer and discuss. Finally, the night ends with one of the elders lecturing on an area of pastoral ministry and then discussion of that topic among the elders and trainees. The topics range from “why we employ small groups” to “regenerate church membership.” In addition, during the semester the trainees write two position papers on topics of interest in pastoral ministries. The topics of these papers are things like, view of spiritual gifts in ministry, use of alcohol in ministry, view of divorce and remarriage, and view of church government. Finally, each trainee is to work on a ministry project in some area of church life.  The goal is to lead to the training of future elders and church planters through life on life training. This is the best way to evaluate whether a man possess the qualifications of an Elder and if they are ready to take on a role such as that.

Finally, in the focus of church primacy, my home church does church planting and missions “in house.”

This focus on the primacy of the local church does not mean that my church does not seek to be aided by the convention structures, but it means that they do not farm out missions’ work or church planting to an outside organization.

Finally, how does my church focus on missional living?

First, there is a focus on the small groups being missional. They are all to carry out community projects in our “We Love North Raleigh” campaign

Second, as has been mentioned, we focus on missional living through church planting

In addition, the church has worked hard at overseas and cross-cultural missions

How do church plants know when they’re ready to go very public? Here are the indicators that 2 Pillars Church in Lincoln, NE is using

1. 30-40+ committed adults.
   1. Signed a launch team covenant.
   2. Demonstrating commitment.
2. Evidence of intentional engagement with non-Christians.
3. Everyone on the launch team is in a Gospel Community.
4. Gospel Communities are meeting and healthy with a growing sense of unity and clarity around the mission.
5. Sunday gatherings are smooth: worship, kids, facilities, etc.

“But when we begin to see that our life is in Jesus and not success, we can pursue our expectations, however high and lofty.  We may reach them or we may not, but we are now free to try, without our success or failure ultimately saying something about us.  We don’t need to lower the bar to prop up our ego.

So today are you tempted to lower your expectations about what you want to accomplish because it will preserve your ego?  If so, then remember, it wasn’t your definition of success that is the problem, it is that you think accomplishment is what defines you.”

Thanks, Tim Dunn, for this post today. I needed to hear this. I have big dreams for a movement of the gospel in Ann Arbor (planting 25 churches in 25 years, creating a training and equipping center, etc), yet I worry about “dreaming too big”. What if I fail, and I plant nothing and no one gets equipped? If my identity is found in Jesus, then I haven’t failed. I’m still on the path God ordained for me, it’s just a different one than I thought.

The hardest thing for a church planter is to fight alone in this world. So we look for the accolades and the attention and affirmation of others, forgetting that we are not fighting alone, but we are fighting a war that is beyond ourselves, and in that war we are united with all church planters and pastors, and believers who are actively living out the Great Commission. Let the gospel be your affirmation and your foundation.

From Tim Dunn at Planting Ohio. This post is very encouraging to me. I have felt rather alone, both going through Re:Train and looking towards planting a church. I would love nothing more than to have brothers here in Ann Arbor join me on this journey. However, that can’t approach the comfort I have through the Eternal Comforter and I get to rejoice in that. Hallelujah, All I Have is Christ!

Sovereign Grace is “a family of churches passionate about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We are devoted to planting and supporting local churches, with a strong doctrinal basis that is evangelical, Reformed, and continuationist.” Outside of their church polity (elder-rule), I’m a proponent of everything that they do. Dave Harvey, who heads up their church planting efforts, recently blogged about their “governors—things that help us pursue opportunities at the speed limit our values will allow.” The first governor is the qualified guy

What do we mean by a qualified man? A qualified man is one who has sensed a clear and enduring call to plant a church. But there’s more. That sense of call has been confirmed by mature leaders who know the man, warts and all. A qualified man is revealed by the grace on his life. How do we know if there’s grace? Because there are character and abilities that match the eldership qualifications of 1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9, and other passages. And not just to attain them, but to maintain them as well.

In Sovereign Grace Ministries, we organize these qualities around five essential criteria, which we call the “e5.” First and primarily there is preaching. That’s the BIG E. A qualified guy must be an expositor who knows how to handle God’s Word in clear and compelling manner. In our experience, the training and evaluation involved in this component just takes time. It slows the process. We realize that dialing this one back, maybe just downgrading from expository skill to sensible Bible teaching, would speed things up considerably. But we’re called not just to win converts but to make disciples. Disciple making requires exposition.

It doesn’t end there; here are numbers two through five. The qualified man displays (2) a leadership gift, (3) faith towards God, (4) a shepherd’s heart that cares for people, and (5) a determination to “do the work of an evangelist” (2 Timothy 4:5).

Those are outstanding qualifications and thoroughly biblical. As I look towards planting, the primary “e5″ that I’m lacking is the preaching one. Lord willing, there will be opportunities possibly at Grace or other local churches to preach. It’s an area that I need to grow in and to do that you need experience.

As I look towards the fall and starting an Ann Arbor-focused church planting cooperative called Planting in Tree Town, one of the things that I’m starting to think about is the level of co-operation between the different churches and organizations involved. Of the people on my radar so far, I would categorize them all as broadly Evangelical, but there are differences as far as church polity, Reformed vs. Arminian understanding of salvation, and others. At some level, co-operation may be simply praying together, encouraging one another, and sharing resources. Might there be possibilities for actual co-operation in planting? Possibly, but that will require determining what are the non-negotiable issues that would prevent partnership. Tyler Jones, of Vintage21 in Raleigh, recently talked with Scott Thomas of Acts 29 about Vintage’s level of relationships with other organizations in their city. These are helpful categories and could provide a framework for our work here in Ann Arbor.

1. Family
   • Have the same “DNA” – agree theologically on the authority of Scripture, Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and what that accomplished, etc.
   • Can plant churches together
   • Highest level of sharing resources and interaction
2. Friends
   • Christians who clearly love Jesus.
   • Have differing views on things like church polity, etc., which affect how closely they can work together.
   • Some activities and resource sharing is possible.
3. Partners
   • Ministries that may not be Christians at all.
   • Often social justice groups.
   • Provides an opportunity for evangelism to happen with those who they are serving alongside as well as those they are serving directly.

From the Sojourn Kids blog.

Easter Lesson “He is Alive!”
John 11:35; 20:1-18; 1 Corinthians 15:20-22; 1 Timothy 3:16

THE BIG IDEA: An Introduction for the Teacher and Liturgist:

He appeared in a body,
was vindicated by the Spirit
was seen by angels
was preached among the nations,
was believed on in the world,
was taken up in glory.
(1 Timothy 3:16)

What makes Jesus different from every other religious leader in history?  What makes him different from every other human being in history?  He lived a sinless and righteous life.  So, death had no claim on him.  It could not hold him.  Jesus was, as the apostle tells us, “vindicated by the Spirit.”  Jesus Christ was raised from the dead.  He is alive!  He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

This is the great truth that we celebrate during Easter.  Jesus was dead.  But now he is alive!  But this is not all!  Because Jesus’ resurrection is the central event in our own vindication and salvation, we can also have life:

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive (1 Corinthians 15:20-22)

Today, we will introduce our kids to the one who is himself the Resurrection and the Life, and we will challenge them to trust him alone for life.   Here are our keys for this lesson.  When the lesson is through, each child will know…

• Jesus was dead
• But God raised him from the dead
• Now we can have new life in him

GATHERED STORY (5-10 minutes): Don’t just read it.  Know it and bring it to life!

Good morning, boys and girls! (Good morning!).  Let me tell you a story.  This is a story about what happened after Jesus died on the cross.  Jesus died on a Friday.  It was a very sad day.  It was sad because Jesus’ friends didn’t know what was going to happen.  They didn’t understand why Jesus had to die.

Late on that Friday afternoon, Jesus’ body was taken down from the cross.  It was wrapped in long strips of cloth.  And it was buried in a rich man’s tomb.  A large stone was rolled over the entrance to the tomb, and soldiers were standing outside to make sure that nothing happened to Jesus’ body.  Jesus was dead.

The Bible tells us (hold up your Bible or open to John 20) that this is what happened next:

Early on Sunday morning when it was still dark, Jesus’ friend, Mary Magdalene, went to the tomb and saw that the large stone that was rolled over the mouth of the empty tomb was gone!  So, she ran away.

Why do you think Mary ran away?  (Let the children answer:  Was she afraid?  What could have happened?  Jesus’ body was not there.  The stone had been moved.)

Mary ran to two more of Jesus’ friends, Simon Peter and another friend that Jesus loved very much.  So, Peter and the other friend that Jesus loved ran very fast to the tomb.
(Have the children stand and run in place.)

The second friend ran so fast that he beat Peter there.
(Have the children stop and sit down)

Why do you think the friends ran (really animated)?   (Let the children answer:  Were they shocked?  Was it hard to believe what Mary had told them?)

The friend and Peter looked inside the tomb.  They saw the strips of cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ body.  They saw the cloth that had been put on Jesus face.   It was neatly folded in a corner of the room.  The second friend saw and he believed.  What did he believe? Jesus was dead, but God raised him to life.

Do you believe that Jesus is alive?  (Pause).

Mary didn’t believe.  She was sad.  She thought Jesus was missing.  The friends went back to their homes, but Mary stayed at the tomb, and she cried.  Why do you think that Mary cried?  (Let the children answer: She thought that Jesus was dead, and now his body was missing too!)

A man came to Mary.  He said, “Why are you crying?  Who are you looking for?”  Mary said, “If you took him away, please tell me where he is.  I’ll go and get him.”  He said her name, “Mary.”  It was Jesus!  He had been dead.  But now he was alive!  Now Mary believed!  She wanted to touch him and hug him!  Jesus said, “Not yet.  I’m going to the Father.  And he is your Father too!”  Then, Mary ran away.

Why do you think Mary ran this time?  Let the children answer.

Mary had good news!  She was going to tell her friends, “I have seen Jesus! He was dead!   But now He is alive!  He is risen!  And he is giving us life, so that we can live with the Father again!

I have had a number of opportunities to share with people about my vision for a gospel-centered church plant and a movement of church-planting churches. Some people have seemed interested and responsive, others seem appreciative for the information and content to go their own way. I haven’t put much thought into trying to categorize the various responses that I might receive, which is why a recent blog post by Todd Bumgarner has been so helpful. In it, he presents “six categories into which someone falls.  Evaluating people through this grid is helping me to determine where to focus my time and energy as well as wake-up to the reality that I don’t want to face which is that some people, despite their excitement and interest, simply are not on-board.” I will definitely be using something like this in the future.

Family

The first category is what I call “family.”  These are the folks that are all-in.  They’ve caught the vision and want to help in any way possible.  They are servant-leaders and their commitment is apparent via a verbal conversation in which they express their commitment.  It is important to realize that simply showing up at things does not make someone part of the family (consistency does not necessarily equal commitment).  A better gauge is to combine their consistency with their language.  Folks who are in the family use phrases with first-personal plurals like “our church” or “we can do this…”.

Fence

The second category is what I call the “fence.”  These are people that are interested in what we’re doing, excited about what we’re doing, have come to one or more of the vision meetings, or expressed their interest/excitement over coffee or lunch.  People in this category require patience.  Often times people on the fence are plugged-in to other church communities and asking them to up-root from that to join what we’re doing is a complicated decision and process. I tell these people all the time that we are not in the business of stealing people from other churches, but that my role is to cast the vision and trust that the Holy Spirit will do his job.

In a church plant, people on the fence ultimately have to be called by the church planter to commitment.  A church plant consisting of interested and excited people (but with no commitment) will fail.  This is the category where the most time and prayer is to be spent.  In addition, a prayerful ear to the Spirit’s prompting of when to call them to commit must be discerned.  The goal is to move people from the fence to the family or discern if perhaps they are simply a “friend.”

Fans

On Facebook, having a lot of fans is great.  In a church plant – not so much.  Fans love what you’re doing, express their excitement, follow you on Twitter, meet you for coffee, let you buy them lunch, but never come to anything that you organize.  Fans are typically podcasting Driscoll, reading John Piper, and can give you the latest update on Chandler’s cancer faster than it takes for you to find it on the web.  Fans will suck the energy out of you.  Often times people in this category are another “F” word I like to use – “floaters.” Meaning they don’t have a church home, they float from one church to another, avoid commitment, and really see themselves as getting “fed” from guys they podcast.  Fans love to talk about the terms “gospel-centered” and “missionally-focused” but fail to ever translate their talk to their walk.

Fans need to be quickly moved to the fence or the farm or they will consume your time and distract you from the mission.

Friends

Friends are typically gospel-centered people that are playing in the same league but just on a different team.  They are interested in what you’re doing, realize the importance of it, want to support you in ways they can, but in the end are plugged-into and committed to another church.  Friends are brothers and sisters in Christ.  Friends are great, but they’re not family.  You can call on friends for practical help and outside advice, but when you’re trying to build a family, sometimes you have to limit your time with friends.

Farm

The farm is made up of people that were on the fence that turned out to not be in the family when you called them to commit or else folks that were fans that you simply had to move to farm as they were much more interested in hanging out in the grandstands than ever making it onto the field.  Instead of being “all-in,” they’ve verbally or non-verbally stated that they are “all-out.”  As much as it can sometimes hurt, the sad reality of a church planter is that once people are on the farm, it is typically a distraction from the mission to continue to pursue them.  Call them like you see them and move on.  If they want to rejoin the fence – trust that they will on their own.

Foes

Foes are the critics.  These are the opposite of “family.”