In anticipation of being assessed as a church planter, I wonder how I will respond if my “grade” on the assessment indicates that church planting isn’t the most appropriate ministry for how God has made me. Maybe I’m better suited to pastor or replant an existing church. I don’t know, but I’m definitely praying about it.  This post from Scott Thomas on the Acts 29 Network Blog provides helpful thoughts when Envisioning a Replant.

1. Envision what the worship gathering could be (Acts 2:42-47).
   • Attitude of body during worship
   • Music
   • Prayer
   • Teaching
   • Communion
   • Children
   • Exaltation of God
   • Incorporation of arts
2. Envision what the evangelism could be (Matt. 28:18-20; Acts 1:8).
   • Who can you reach immediately?
   • What attitudes toward evangelism need to change?
   • Where or how could you boldly make an impact with the gospel?
   • What steps of faith need to be taken to reach the unchurched and the unsaved?
   • How could your youth evangelize?
   • How could households evangelize together?
   • What worldwide impact could you make as a body (i.e. foreign missions)?
   • How are you going to be an eternal value to your community?
3. Envision how education and discipleship could be effective (Acts 2:42).
   • How will it become a passionate pursuit of the body (“continue steadfastly in the Apostles’ doctrine,” Acts 2:42)?
   • What resources (people, qualities, gifts) do you have in place to launch greater disciple-making?
   • How will the fathers and heads of households (single moms, etc.) be trained to be the priest and spiritual head of their homes?
   • How will the older men and women teach and interact with the younger men and women? (Titus 2)
   • Will the age groups be segregated (children, youth, singles, college, married, etc.) or will they be integrated into the body?
   • What role will small groups play?
   • What training will be needed to help develop disciples who are passionately pursuing Christ?
4. Envision an Acts 2 commitment to fellowship (Acts 2:44-45).
   • In what ways will the body seek to meet the needs of one another (spiritual, social, financial, physical)?
   • What attitudes need to change to be sacrificially generous with time, money and resources for the encouragement and edification of the body?
   • How will the body serve one another actively and responsively in an unprompted way?
   • What will the membership requirements be? How will it communicate a covenantal commitment?
5. Envision an effective youth and children’s ministry.
   • Will they be integrated into the church ministry? If so, how?
   • How will families be strengthened through the student ministry?
   • How will the youth be encouraged and trained to evangelize their friends?
   • What role will the heads of households play in the student ministry?
   • Who (person or groups) will lead the youth and children’s ministry?
   • What facility changes are needed to communicate the value of children and youth?
   • What other positions of leadership need to be filled to be effective?
   • What leadership development with the students will be put into place?
   • What programs or customs need to be extracted from the youth and children’s ministry to avoid distractions from the ministry goals?
6. Envision an equipping staff (Eph. 4:11-13).
   • What changes need to be made with the staff (paid or volunteer) to meet the church’s goals?
   • Are the staff members doing the ministry or leading people to do the ministry? If they are doing the bulk of the ministering, how will they develop the body to do the work of the ministry?
   • Are you over-staffed or under-staffed to meet both financial obligations and the development of lay people (taking responsibility for ministry)?
7. Envision a body not reacting to finances to determine God’s call (Matt. 6:24).
   • How will faith in God calling a body to reach out to the community and world be weighed against financial responsibility and stewardship?
   • If mortgages or debts exist, how will they be paid off in a realistic way over a reasonable time period?
   • What attitudes or practices about money and finances need to be changed?
   • Is a budget in place? Is it a true reflection of the church’s giving and spending (balanced budget)?
   • What expenses can be cut immediately to be redirected toward the church’s mission?
   • Is the body (especially the leadership) making decisions based on finances or on God’s calling?
   • What creative ways can you generate more income without sacrificing resources, biblical principles, or expending paid personnel?

This week is our second Re:Train class, Missional Christology, taught by Dr. Bruce Ware, a professor of Christian Theology at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Our pre-class work included reading four books

• Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ by John Piper
• Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, and Relevance by Bruce Ware
• Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution by Jeffrey, Ovey, and Sach
• Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective: An Introductory Christology edited by Sanders and Issler

This class will be intense, but I’m really looking forward to learning more about Missional Christology. But, you may ask, what is Missional Christology? Well, here’s Dr. Ware’s explanation from TheResurgence.com.

“Missional Christology” focuses on aspects of the Person and Work of Jesus Christ which are central to the mission he fulfilled, by the ordination of the Father, in the power of the Spirit. Christology is relevant to the mission of the church because we are called to express and extend the mission of Christ. His mission is now ours.

The Father’s Plan

Understanding the Person and Work of Christ as missional is crucial and central to understanding Jesus and his work correctly. The mission of the Son began long before his going to the cross, or his baptism, or even his incarnation. The mission of the Son began in eternity past when the Father devised his plan by which the Son would be preeminent over the created world the Father designed, planned, and willed to create.

As the Father chose the Son to be his Agent by which creation would come into being, so the Father chose the Son to be his Agent by which re-creation also would come to pass. The Son’s mission, then, was from eternity past the mission of one thing—he sought in all that he thought and felt and said and did to do the will of his Father.

Divine Empowerment

But to accomplish this mission, the Son had to take on human nature and live as one of us. While he was fully God, he also was fully man. And as man, he needed divine empowerment to obey the Father, resist temptation, and fulfill the mission the Father sent him to carry out. The Spirit’s indwelling presence and power on the Son was necessary for the Son to accomplish what he did. Only as the Spirit-anointed Messiah could this Christ be our Savior.

To see the mission of the Son correctly requires that we see him in Trinitarian context. Both the Person and the Work of the Son are fully inexplicable apart from seeing the Son’s relation to the Father and the Spirit. Getting the Trinity right is crucial to getting the mission of the Son right.

Christ’s Mission

So, the Son was sent by the Father and empowered by the Spirit—but to do what? Here we realize that the Son’s mission was about regaining the lost creation through the salvation of the elect and his victory over the powers of darkness. At the core of the Son’s accomplishment are the dual biblical themes of penal substitution and Christus Victor. His payment for sin and victory over sin constitute the basis for the fulfillment of all that the Father sent the Son to do.

Spirit-Empowered Disciples

Amazingly, the mission of the Son does not end, though, with his efficacious death for sin or his victorious resurrection from the dead. Rather, this is where the mission of the Son moves more clearly from “singular” to “plural.” His singular sinless life and singular substitutionary death now give way to plural ministry as he now completes his mission with, and only with, the joint-work of his followers. Jesus’ last words to his disciples instruct them to wait in Jerusalem for what the Father has promised. They will be granted the very same Holy Spirit invading their lives as had been indwelling and empowering Christ throughout his life and ministry. They will proclaim his message, display his character, perform his deeds, and further his mission only as they are Spirit-empowered followers of the Son.

The Great Drama

In the end, he will return to complete his mission of remaking everything such that it becomes more glorious and magnificent than it was originally. Just as the second Adam surpasses the first, the new Eden surpasses the original. Christ will take his rightful place as Supreme Victor over all, and we, his saved followers and friends, will reign with him forever and ever.

What a story this “missional Christology” is! What drama. What majesty. What glory. To see the mission of the Son as his-mission-become-ours should result in stirring within us the longing to do as Christ did. As his mission was the mission of one thing—to do the will of his Father in the power of the Spirit—so ours likewise should be the mission of one thing—to follow our Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit, doing all we do in obedience to him, to the praise and glory of the Father.

The Point Community Church in Frankfort, KY is a member of Acts 29 and committed to planting churches. Here’s an overview of what they do

Church Planting Initiatives (CPI) is our focused and intentional effort to be a church planting church. Church planting is a key strategy of The Point Community Church.

Through church planting we aim not just to plant a church, but to plant churches which are committed to our Core Values of Teaching Truth, Worshipping Jesus, Living in Community, and Missional Living which are expressed through members and extended to the community.

Our church planting vision is to plant new churches led by a plurality of male elders who share our mission and vision, who gladly embrace our statement of faith, and who are committed to identifying with being evangelical, reformed and missional.

CPI includes

• Monthly Lunches and Roundtables for Church Planters
• Quarterly Meetings with regional Acts 29 Network churches
• A Church Planting Residency Program

Their residency program is something that I would love to model someday at Ambassador. Here’s their description

The Church Planting Residency is a specialized training track focused on developing an appropriately gifted and qualified man into a lead church planter. Success in this leadership development endeavor requires:

• Identifying the core competencies that are crucial to successful church plant leadership
• Assessing the resident’s current capacity in these areas
• Implementing an customized action plan tailored to the specific needs of the resident

Pray for The Point Community Church as they seek the kingdom’s growth in Central Kentucky

A tip of the hat to the Sojourn Church Planting blog for this link.

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.

As a past, and future, community group leader, I know that sometimes the discussion flows and sometimes it’s like pulling teeth. It’s the responsibility for all members of a group to participate fully in the discussion, but sometimes people don’t know how they should participate and what makes a “good” community group member. Coram Deo in Omaha has provided these helpful indicators in “evaluating your participation as a healthy MC member”

LISTENING

• Lots of people can talk, not many are skilled at listening. If people are listening well, the following indicators will come much more naturally.
• Do you find yourself easily distracted, thinking about other things, or pondering what you are going to say next?

SPIRITUAL INQUIRY

• Put simply, this is following up, digging in, and inquiring into how people are doing spiritually.
• Does the way that you respond to people draw them out and encourage deeper conversation?

ENCOURAGEMENT

• If you see that someone handled a situation in a spiritually mature way, make note of that by encouraging him or her. If you see that someone is taking a step of faith in a new area of their life, encourage them with words of affirmation.
• Do people feel encouraged by you during a Missional Community discussion?

PRAYER

• One of the ways to model the Gospel to Christians and non-Christians is by revealing your dependence upon God and the unique relationship you have with God as your heavenly dad.
• Do you stop in the middle of your MC discussion to pray for what is being shared?

CHALLENGE/REBUKE

• Speaking truth in love while confronting others with a spirit of humility, calling them to turn from sin and trust in the finished work of Christ.
• Is your Missional Community tolerating unrepentant sin?

STUDY SCRIPTURE

• 2 Tim. 3:16-17 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”
• Do you talk about the Bible naturally in the context of conversation?

GOSPELIZE

• Helping each other apply the good news of Jesus and the work that was accomplished on the cross. The Gospel is for Christians and non-Christians alike and is a message that you will never outgrow or mature out of.
• When someone asks for insight or counsel, do you respond with good advice or good news?

From Michael Dennis of North Village Church comes this very helpful list of how to move from “a burden for something different within the local church” to activity

Observing Context: Spend time in a community, neighborhood, city getting to know their rhythms. Ideally, you are already from this context and it is just taking the time to articulate what you already knew was there, however, if not take the time to listen and learn. Talk to people. Talk to strangers. Ask them questions about their community. Most people love where they live and they will enjoy talking about their community.

Gathering Others: If your burden is something that doesn’t peak curiosity in others then it might not be a burden but more so just something fun to blog about! This can’t be done alone. There must be others. It will make it messy, complicated, slow it down, but without others you are just some weird person.

Common Vision: After taking the time to connect with others and find like minded people we began to spend some time sharing our vision and dreams with one another. We Gathered with meals once a week in our home and spent time looking through scripture, discussing spiritual backgrounds, spiritual perspectives, and encouraging one another. The intention is to share and build community at the same time. Most people don’t accomplish something purely because of a common vision. There has to be relational connections and we wanted to spend the first 1-2 months establishing a common vision.

Common Values: After spending time discussing and sharing our vision and burdens we wanted to begin to establish common values. What is most important to us? What do we want to replicate? What do we want to avoid? For our group we are big on Jesus and getting to know him and live like him so we spent the next 1-2 months establishing common values. We continued to share a meal together, dialogue, involved a little more teaching from scripture and even invited others to participate in this journey with us.

Implement and Activity: After 2-4 months of talking about something, finding common language, sharing ideas, and understanding one another it is time to implement. It can’t remain ideas forever. We need activity. For us it was a huge bonding moment when we partnered together to expose some of our vision and values to the community. For our group one of the biggest values was being a benefit to the community so for us we wanted to do something for the community. In the end it was something that added momentum to our group and helped us to refine our vision and values even more.

Neighborhood Gatherings: At this point we would began to find others who were intrigued and interested by our vision and values and we wanted to provide a place for them to go through this experience with us. We created “neighborhood gatherings” which is simply meeting in someone’s home, sharing a meal, and continuing in this journey with us. We spent 2-4 months in this phase.

Public Gatherings: As we continued to meet in homes, continued to refine our vision, and implement activity it became appropriate to host public gatherings. We meet every Sunday morning at 10am to encourage one another and continue to make progress toward our vision and values. It has been a lot of fun.

I just posted Ed Stetzer’s training for Missional Small Communities, but what gets you to that point? A Core Team needs to grow together and closer to God. Here are the Stages of Growth that Austin City Life, planted by Jonathan Dodson, followed

1. Meals & Mission: time spent cultivating community over shared meals, missional conversation, and being on mission together socially and evangelistically.
2. Vision & Mission: time spent in community discussions around vision and values, while continuing to practice mission.
3. Commitment Night: an evening in which I gave a charge, we prayed for our city, had first communion over a meal, and celebrated God’s work in our Core Team.
4. Bible Study & Mission: spent time teaching through Luke-Acts, identifying the themes and challenges of gospel, community, mission.
5. Strategy & Missional Community: time spent in more strategic conversation and planning to be a church in the city and for the city through what came to be called City Groups (aka Missional Communities).
6. Low Profile Public Gatherings: our first public gatherings which included preaching and primarily built up the existing Core Team
7. High Profile Public Gatherings: our first attractional, public gatherings in a city centre location
8. City Groups Multiply: existing City Groups multiply through mission and leadership development

From Ed Stetzer, used during the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma’s One Day Event

Missional Leadership

1. Reconsideration of Leadership
   1. From superman to everyone
   2. From church to kingdom
   3. From me to we
   4. From personal power to people empowerment
2. Rejection of “Clergification”
   1. From three tiers to one mission
   2. From “called to the ministry” to “called to ministry”
   3. From “called to missions” to “sent on mission”
   4. From exceptional to ordinary
   5. From “priests” to a “priesthood of believers” codependence
3. Renewed focus on mission
   1. From “full service” to “simple mission”
   2. From “pay, pray, and get out of the way” to “join God on His mission”
   3. From decisionism to disciple making
   4. From “mission statement” to “Jesus mission”
      Luke 4
      Luke 19:10
4. Realignment of priorities
   1. God is a missionary god
   2. I personally join Him on mission – modeling
   3. I lead others to join Him on mission – leadership
   4. I equip others – multiplication

From Joey Shaw,  the Minister of International Mission at The Austin Stone Community Church.

Matthew 28:18-20, And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The passage above is commonly known as “The Great Commission”. Jesus spoke these words to his followers before ascending back to heaven to be with the Father. His followers were left to discover the Holy Spirit and to change the world through one simple process – making and multiplying disciples [learners] of Jesus. Many people teach on this passage… most of us don’t regularly obey it. Below are five of the more common myths about the Great Commission that lead us to miss out on disciple making.

1. The myth of accidental discipleship.
   The bottom line here is that the Great Commission will be completed only by intentional action and resoluteness. Jesus commands us today to set our eyes on the goal of disciple making and pursue that goal with stubborn focus. This means, that unless you pray and plan to make disciples, you won’t do it!
2. Crossing cultures is a step beyond the general mandate.
   Jesus left his home (with the Father), his culture, his language, his people (the trinity) to come to our home (earth), to our people, to speak our language, to grow up in a Jewish culture, and so on. Jesus was a cross-cultural missionary and he commands us to follow in his steps, cross any boundary, live incarnationally and make disciples.
3. Jesus wants converts.
   The most interesting thing about the Great Commission is that it does not command us to make converts of Christianity. Instead, we are to make disciples of Jesus. The difference between convert making and disciple making is crucial. Converts change religions. Disciples change masters. Converts follow a system. Disciples follow a Person. Converts build Christendom. Disciples build the Kingdom of God. Converts embrace rituals. Disciples embrace a way of life. Converts love the command to “baptize them” in the Great Commission, but that is all. Disciples baptize others but only in context of “teaching them to observe all that I commanded you”. Converts love conversion. Disciples love transformation.
4. When I am ready and able, I will start making disciples.
   I think Jesus knew the gravity of the command that he was giving in Matthew 28:19-20; he was asking his followers, most of them unlearned and lower/middle class, to go every conceivable people group on earth by multiplying disciples of a Person who is physically unseen (after giving the Great Commission, Jesus ascended to heaven). This is a heavy-duty command! The reason I think that Jesus knew the gravity of this command is that he buffers his commandment here with two powerful promises of His authority and presence. Matthew 28:18, “And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’” Matthew 28:20b, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age”. In the Great Commission, Jesus gives a command along with a promise of His power and presence.To completely put off practicing the process of making disciples now in your life because you claim that you need more equipping or growth, therefore, is actually unbelief in God’s promises!  Is having the promise of Jesus’ power and presence not good enough for you to get started in the process of making disciples?
5. Making disciples is great advice.
   The fact is, though, that the Great Commission is a commandment coupled with the commissioning of Jesus. Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15). Jesus expressed the same truth inversely, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life;whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36, italics added). In other words, the measure of one’s love for Jesus is one’s obedience to Jesus!You cannot love Jesus and not obey him. Stated inversely, you cannot disregard the Great Commission and claim to love Jesus. The command is simple, “go and make disciples”. Ask yourself, “Am I currently making disciples of others?” If not, why not ask yourself, “Will I today commit myself to beginning the process of making disciples of Jesus?”

Notes from Mark Driscoll’s talk on Jeremiah

1. What has God revealed to you ? (Nehemiah 1:1-11a)
2. What must you walk away from to pursue God’s calling? (Nehemiah 1:11b)
3. How will you communicate your vision to others? (Nehemiah 2:1-3)
4. Who must you ask for what resources? (Nehemiah 2:4-10)
5. Count the cost (Nehemiah 2:11-16)
6. Recruit strategic leaders first (Nehemiah 2:17 – 20)
7. What do we do first? Do it well (Nehemiah 3:1-32)
8. Where are the gates? Letting in those who want the Gospel, keeping out the wolves (Nehemiah 3:1-32)
   • Theological
   • Physical safety
9. How will you respond to critics? (Nehemiah 4:1-23)
   • Proximity of critic is painful
   • Have selective hearing
   • Turn critics into coaches
   • Don’t meet with critics in group
10. How to them show the gospel with mercy? (Nehemiah 5-1-19)
    • Criticism follows success
11. How to handle escalation opposition & threats (Nehemiah 6:1-14)
    • Sword and Trowel
12. What generational legacy are you building for? (Nehemiah 7:4-73)
13. How will you connect ground war (small groups, congregational care) and your air war (preaching and teaching) (Nehemiah 8:1-18)
14. Will you courageously call your people to repentance? (Nehemiah 9:1-38)
15. What are your terms for covenant membership? (Nehemiah 10:38-11:36)
    • Participation in small groups, tithing, attendance, etc
16. How will you track who God is bringing and assimilate them? (Nehemiah 11:1-36)
17. Who are your trustworthy priests who can work in the mission while you work on the mission? (Nehemiah 12:1-26)
18. How will you celebrate your wins? (Nehemiah 12:27-47)
    • Conversions
    • Babies
    • Baptisms
    • Building campaigns
19. How much will you demand of your men? (Nehemiah 13:1-22)
20. What closed-hand, practical life issues will you go to war for? (Nehemiah 13:23-31)