Earlier this week, we sent a ministry update to everyone we know via e-mail. Did you get it?
In case you didn’t, you can click on over and read it here. Check it out!
Author Archive
Global Church Advancement Update
Thursday, August 5th, 2010Calvin Rejects Privatized Faith and Promotes Vulnerability in Church Planting Networks :)
Sunday, July 18th, 2010
“In the church, as Calvin conceived it, every man helped every other man. If in Christ Jesus all believers are united, then a private believer is a contradiction in terms. Not only are the blessings and the virtues given for the common good, but the faults and the weaknesses concern the other members of the body. There was to be no hypocrisy of pretending to be other than a sinner, no dissembling or cloaking of sins; but, just as God is completely honest with men, and men must be honest with God, so also believer with believer must be courageously honest and open. The quarterly meeting was a little day of judgement when, flattery and convention laid aside, each man saw himself through the eyes of his fellows and, if he were wise, harboured no resentment but knew the uniquely joyful release of voluntary humiliation.”[1]
[1] Herman J. Selderhuis, John Calvin: A Pilgrim’s Life [Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 2009], 30.
2010 West Africa Update – Part 2
Monday, May 31st, 2010This just in: Another update from Steve Childers! It sounds like things are going really well so far. Please pray for the remainder of Steve’s time in Africa – which he will spend with his team in Togo – that the team will be safe and that God’s glory will shine through their work with church leaders there.
Here’s what Steve had to tell us:
I learned today that most of these pastors have been taught (and have been doing it) to be “praying down Gods wrath on all pagans/poor/etc. NOW they have openly repented of this practice and have PLEDGED to pray the Lords prayer (i.e. the exact opposite), praying fervently instead that Gods will on earth (their part of it) will now be done as it is in heaven … through their radical acts of mercy & justice!
I’m so in awe and humbled by all this. Your prayers are being answered! Thanks again.
West Africa 2010 Update
Thursday, May 27th, 2010We’ve finally heard from Steve, who is in Africa this week for the 2010 GCA West Africa Church Planting Institute. He’s been keeping busy with his team. It sounds like things are going well, though. Here’s a summary of what he had to say (it’s a little stream-of-consciousness):
All three team leaders are doing well so far. We’ve been eating a lot of rice and chicken.
The first day of training went GREAT! The church we’re mtg in is not enclosed – just a metal roof totally open sides with wood poles. So we’re exposed to the weather, which is extremely hot and very humid. Also, we’re in the rainy season, and that and that means we get to do a lot of walking in mud. We have electricity, but mainly through use of a gas generator because electricity often off in village. We made a makeshift PowerPoint screen using bedsheets and sticks the locals carved with their machetes for us. It works great even when wind blows it!
The sessions haven’t been without distractions. A goat bleated so loudly while I was teaching we had to stop and get rid of it. Goats are everywhere!
A few prayer requests: Nathaniel tried to drive to Togo 2 times today-to prepare for the next conference. Both cars broke down so he’s still here. The roads here would break down a tank! Please pray as well for several painful blows I’ve taken to my head since getting here due to short doorways. I’m not used to ducking and it feels like someone periodically keeps hitting my head with a bat. It would be funny if didn’t hurt so badly. Finally, please pray that our team would be able to serve well despite our lack of sleep.
Thanks for your prayers, everyone!
Prayers For GCA 2010 West Africa CPI: Part 1
Monday, May 24th, 2010Editor’s Note: We’ve already shared that GCA President Steve Childers is currently in West Africa, leading a group of indigenous church leaders in the GCA 2010 West Africa Church Planting Institute. Some supporters have known about this for awhile and have been kind enough to commit their prayers to writing and share them with us. In the spirit of coming together as an online community in prayer, we are passing along some of these prayers with you. Please take this opportunity to join with us in prayer!
Gracious and Powerful Lord,
We commit Steve, his travels, his teaching, his partners on the journey, and his family as they remain to you.
We ask for wisdom as he teaches, sensitivity to the workings of the Holy Spirit, insight into the gifts and challenges of his translators and images that teach in powerful pictures the lessons you would have the pastors who hear learn.
Allow the lessons to be woven into the hearts of all who participate. Open Steve’s heart to the messages with which you would have him bring home. Join hearts together in the Hope of your Kingdom Come and in the work that is here now.
Protect all the families who remain and lend your travel mercies to those who join together. Fill up the participants with a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit that they might be refreshed, encouraged and empowered.
Provide good soil for the seeds which are sown. Send water and sun to nourish them. Raise up harvesters to reap the Word in deed and in their thoughts. Hold back the thorns that would choke your harvest. Protect the footpaths of those who would work and not damage the fields. Allow patience for your timing and what you will bring forth. Let there be rejoicing in all that you provide. We give you the Glory!
“O Taste and See that the Lord is Good!”
We lift all these things up in the name of Jesus,
Amen.
Steve Childers In West Africa This Week!
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010A team of missionaries led by GCA President Steve Childers are making their way to West Africa for the 2010 GCA West Africa Church Planting Inistitute. We’ve already shared details about GCA’s goals and aspirations in holding this summit. Now we want to give you specific details (i.e. dates and places) so you can pray with us. Steve has also asked us to pass along some personal prayer requests.
West Africa 2010 Dates:
- Depart USA: Sunday afternoon/evening, May 23, 2010
- Ghana, West Africa Summit: Monday, May 24, 2010 to Saturday, May 29, 2010.
- Togo, West Africa Summit: Saturday, May 29, 2010 to Wednesday, June 2, 2010.
- Return USA: Wednesday evening, June 2, 2010
Mission Team 2010 Leaders:
- Steve Childers
- Dick Brown
- Allen Hunter
Steve Childers’ Personal Prayer Requests:
- The health and safety of the African church leaders I’ll be training, as well as their families and churches while they’re away. Many of them will be traveling long distances in remote areas of Africa in order to receive the training.
- Wisdom for me to know what to teach: even though the training topics are already planned I often find that I need to change some topics, put down the prepared notes and address real needs that have surfaced during the training.
- The ability of my French translators in Togo to understand accurately the concepts I’m teaching and communicate them with great effectiveness—resulting in not only renewed minds but renewed hearts. I’ve learned the hard way that my translators can make or break the learning experience.
- My relationships with the African leaders would be deepened resulting in new levels of mutual trust, love and ministry partnership.
- God would be glorified and His invisible kingdom would be made visible through starting, growing and multiplying gospel-centered churches in West Africa (starting in Ghana, Togo, Benin & Senegal) that result in the spiritual, social and cultural renewal of all West Africa (15 countries) AND that West Africa would become a major sending sub-continent to ALL nations.
2010 GCA West Africa Church Planting Institute
Sunday, May 23rd, 2010You’ll be hearing a lot from us over the next week about the West Africa Church Planting Institute. In particular, Steve will be sharing his prayer requests with us. We will also be sure to pass along any updates we get from the field from day to day.
So, since we’ll be talking about it, we should probably get you acquainted with what the Church Planting Institute is – namely, what are GCA’s goals and aspirations. This is a pretty exciting time for us; and we want you to be excited too! Because there is so much to share, this post will be longer than usual. So, without further ado …
GCA West Africa 2010 Church Planting Institute (CPI) Goals
During the early GCA Leadership Training Summits in a nation, we intentionally do not focus primarily on church planting methods and programs for the indigenous leaders such as “practical steps to planting a church in Africa” or “how to develop and manage a church plant core group”. Instead, the initial, primary focus is on laying a strong, biblical foundation among the indigenous national leaders and churches—from which these more practical church planting methods will emerge. The four foundational goals (pillars) of the initial training are:
I. Uniting around a National Kingdom Vision for Church Planting
- A Vision for the Glory, Kingdom & Will of God to come with great power through the Church of God in all it’s various forms (denominations/agencies).
- A Vision not merely for individual church plants but for regional church planting networks that form kingdom alliances with other like-minded denominations that birth true gospel renewal movements and spiritual awakenings.
- A Vision for developing a common church planting training curriculum (“practical steps to planting a church in Africa, etc.”) through a Kingdom Partnership with GCA and other denominations that share this vision.
II. Renewing the Church Leaders through the Power of the Gospel
- Almost every great awakening in the history of the church has been started by a great awakening in the hearts of the church leaders. If we long for an awakening in our churches and nations, it must first begin in the hearts of the church leaders.
- So there is a strong focus on the need for the release of the transforming power of the gospel in the hearts of the leaders through their ongoing repentance (from heart idols) and faith in Christ—setting their heart affections on Christ in worship.
III. Renewing the Churches through the Power of the Gospel
- Like a spreading flame, the personal renewal of the leaders must spread to the churches. The leaders must return to their churches as agents of personal renewal that will lead to church renewal and reproduction of new churches.
- For a church to parent other churches (new church plants) it must first be strong and healthy itself. If not, it will birth sick babies—unhealthy church plants that have little or no true Kingdom impact. So we must have a strong, healthy base of leadership churches in these emerging movements or we will be reproducing unhealthy churches.
- During this training church leaders will study the “Vital Signs” of church health/growth and participate in practical exercises where they evaluate their present church plant or established church in order to help these churches become healthy (especially in evangelism, discipleship and mercy/justice ministries) so they will grow and reproduce new transformational churches.
IV. Raising Up Church Planting Movement Leaders
- For there to be true movements born in these nations, God must raise up movement leaders. So during this training we are asking the Lord of the Harvest to begin raising up church planting movement leaders from all the denominations represented.
- We need what we call “Movement Champions” in several critical areas: We need Vision Champions, Prayer Champions, Worship Champions, Preaching Champions, Discipleship Champions, Small Group Champions, Evangelism Champions, Mercy Champions and Leadership Development Champions. As we spend time studying these areas, we’re asking the Lord to begin raising up key movement leaders who will become champions for strengthening these areas in their own emerging regional and national movements.
- These movement champions will then begin to work in partnership with GCA to develop a common curriculum that will include contextualized church planting methods and programs that can be used effectively by all denominations and agencies in the movement.
GCA West Africa 2010 Church Planting Institute (CPI) Aims & Aspirations
This 2010 GCA West Africa Church Planting Leadership Summits (Ghana & Togo) are designed to equip key West African national leaders to strategically partner together to glorify God by advancing a movement in the West Africa that is multiplying churches and disciples through the transforming power of the gospel. Our purpose is to use this forum as a catalyst to help start strategic church planting movements in West Africa that will advance God’s kingdom in word and deed over every sphere of life by starting, growing and multiplying churches in West Africa that share a passion for the glory of God to be manifested in and through His Church for all nations.
Through these Summits, we aim to foster:
- Kingdom Vision: Helping to develop kingdom-minded church leaders throughout West African with a strong focus on transforming cities, towns and villages through deeds of mercy and justice as well as words of truth.
- Servant Leadership: Equipping leaders to better understand the capacity of the indigenous church to minister to and serve well their own people—leaders who will think and act strategically in spreading the gospel in West Africa.
- Church Planting Networks: Fostering a vision for leaders to develop cooperative Church Planting Networks that recruit, train, and mentor emerging their own indigenous church planters that will help multiply churches among their regions’ diverse groups of people. These networks will work in strategic partnerships with other ministries and NGOs to form alliances, create resources and facilitate more and better church planting movements in West Africa.
- Kingdom Collaboration: Creating platforms for dialogue with various regional leaders to explore new strategies and best practices for working together in their regions.
- Community Development: Fostering a vision of developing creative, entrepreneurial and passionate leaders who are constantly working to create a process of problem solving and improvement in the community that is sustainable through the leadership of different alliances and networks both at the regional level and abroad.
Through these Summits, we also aspire to:
- Explore and learn new strategies and best practices for working together in various West African regions
- Bring church leaders together to build alliances with various like-minded groups who are strategically involved in the same regions and are seeking partners to join them in their efforts.
- Share ideas and models with national leaders regarding how to foster church planting movements through establishing regional church planting networks and alliances.
- Examine holistic ministries and deliberate, proven models that foster social transformation by providing employment, encouraging social change (justice/mercy), influencing government and key national leaders, and helping church leaders provide a credible platform for demonstrating the love of Christ.
- Share proven business strategies that work well hand in hand with church planting, growth and multiplication movements.
Great “Keeping the Heart” Quotes from John Flavel (17th century)
Sunday, April 25th, 2010
“There are some men and women who have lived forty or fifty years in the world and have scarcely had one hour’s discourse with their own hearts all the while.”
“He who will keep his heart must take heed of plunging himself into such a multiplicity of earthly business that he cannot manage it without neglecting his main business.”
“Take heed of losing the liveliness and sweetness of your communion with God, lest thereby your hearts be pulled off from God. The heart is a hungry and restless thing; it will have something to feed upon. If it enjoys nothing from God, it will hunt for something among the creatures, and there it often loses itself as well as its end. There is nothing that more engages the heart to a constancy and evenness in walking with God than the sweetness which it tastes therein.”
Steve Childers At Exponential Conference This Week
Monday, April 19th, 2010Steve will be speaking this week at the national Exponential Conference (“Largest gathering of Church Planters on the Planet”) in Orlando, FL. On Monday, April 18 (TODAY!) he will be speaking at the afternoon Pre-Conference Workshop called “Best Practices in Church Planting Forum” hosted by author and missiologist, Dr. Ed Stetzer. Here’s the link.
On Thursday morning, April 22, Steve will be leading a workshop during the main conference called “How to Start & Strengthen a Regional Church Planting Network.”
Please pray for Steve and the Exponential Conference this week!
Steve Childers Preaches at Bethlehem Baptist Church
Tuesday, April 13th, 2010This past Sunday, Steve Childers preached at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN – the home of John Piper. You can download the sermon by clicking the link below.
Please pray for Steve this week as he works with Bethlehem to train their church planters.
A Gospel-Planted Life Blog Reviews GCA Conference
Friday, February 5th, 2010The folks over at A Gospel-Planted Life were kind enough to share their experience at last week’s North American Church Planting Conference. You should check it out!
GCA 2010 Conference Attendee Tweets
Saturday, January 30th, 2010
Culture + Gospel + Church = Transformational ministry. #gca10
“Beneath the demographics of your community are the lifestyles that are an expression of beliefs.” -Bob Orner #gca10
Allender: If you don’t need the Gospel more than the people you are sharing it with, you ought not to be sharing it with them #gca10
Half of the fun of #gca10 has been meeting people. There are a lot of great people here!
Round 3. “who will pray with and for us?” #gca10
With Bob Orner thinking through the “whom” and “where” of church planting focus. #gca10
“If any of you should ask me for an epitome of the Christian religion, I should say that it is in one word — prayer.” C.H. Spurgeon #gca10
Dear Presbyterians who are (like me) into God using appointed means: prayer is one of them. Gospel effectiveness depends on it. #gca10
I’m really encouraged that my prayer life doesn’t always have to be as mediocre as it often is. Thankful for this session at #gca10
Church Planting: Using Technology and Social Media #gca10 Very informative and helpful.
It’s the beginning of another busy day of sessions at #gca10. Please pray with us and for us!
day 2. round 4. “developing a philosophy of ministry” #gca10
“The work of faithful evangelism is to identify with the world without losing your identity in Christ.” – Stott #gca10
Great training session on philosophy of ministry tailored to local context by a guy with lots of story-arc similarities as me. #gca10
Seminary student Casey Johnson shares his thoughts with us on last night’s Worship module taught by Jason Sears. http://bit.ly/bI5fk2 #gca10
“When you do church planting, you can’t blame the previous pastor for your church’s problems.” -Bob Orner // Humorous and humbling #gca10
Why do church planting anyway? #gca10 listening to this Guy right now
Hotel excitement. These are burglars posing as pizza marketers w/ fake flyers looking for unlocked doors http://twitpic.com/1039pu #gca10
Doing some hard thinking about ministry style contextualization led by a black pastor, Andre Rogers from Columbia. #gca10
Hilarious. There’s a white pastor’s wife in a cross-cultural church here. The black attendees call her the First Lady. #gca10
“Your first 20 people will dictate your next 100 people.” – Andre Rogers #gca10 //very-true church planting statement.
@andrerogers I’m not @RickWarren but I’m glad to follow you. Good word at #gca10
Looking at ministry models—how church ministries in a plant will work together—with Bob Orner. #gca10
Great lunch-time panel…#gca10
“Giving always comes back to forgiveness of sins and life eternal.” Fred Marsh #gca10
“Too often the church is composed of a consumer-driven clientele.” – Fred Marsh #gca10-
Benevolent and missions budget allocations do not keep pace with operational and building expenditures as churches grow. #gca10
“I’m firmly convinced that God calls the church to bless the poor. It’s still hard for the rich to enter heaven.” – MNA $$ guru #gca10
Really enjoying my first conference experience at #gca10. Meeting with Ted Powers and @ARStager in 10.
Just finishing up our last sessions of the day. Looking forward to Steve Brown tonight! #gca10
Listening to Dr. Steve Brown (Key Life) for the 1st time. Sounds like God. Topic is “3 Free Sins.” #gca10 http://twitpic.com/108asv
If pastors think their job is to keep their people from sin, then you are playing a sick game that will eat you alive. -Steve Brown #gca10
Brown: I’m so screwed up I can hardly stand myself, and Jesus loves me, and he’ll love you too. #gca10 (via @PlantInBoston)#fb
gearing up to finish out the @_gca conference. ten sessions down; two to go. #gca10
Tools and diagrams are helpful, but it never works out the way you plan. Every church plant is a unique work of the Holy Spirit. #gca10
Ted Powers: Diff B/W Planter & Pastor: Planters gather those who are 2 be shepherded, Pastors Shepherd those who have been gathered. #gca10
Powers: Small Churches, 150 & Down are 1600 times more effective evangelistically than mega churches. #gca10
Most churches do not go beyond 200 because of the natural change from relationship to program driven #gca10
Powers: What is critical to a church plant is not only the people you attract and keep, but the people that move on. #gca10
A church is more than a bunch of people gathering for worship. A church is a biblical functioning community. – Ted Powers #gca10
Great truth frm #gca10 Lead people to have general conversations with unbelievers and they will eventually beg you to teach them how to do evangelism
Powers: the goal of church planting is not to get a church up and running. It is to reach people with the Gospel. #gca10
Notice how Jesus planted a church… 12 (Matt 4) > 72 (Luke 10) > 120 (Acts 1) > 3,000 (Acts 2) #gca10
Wishing I had attended #gca10 when it was #gca09… good stuff, lots to process
It’s amazing how a conference can both energize and drain you all at the same time! #gca10
Whether you realize it or not, you have a specific def. of personal success. It greatly affects your life…(LK 10:20)-Steve Childers #gca10
“Your joy in life must not be found in what you do for Him, but in who you are in Him” @stevechilders #gca10
“Jesus knew the time would come when his disciples would feel subject to the demons, not vice versa” Identity in Christ essential #gca10 #fb
It is THE best CP event/class/conference I have ever been to. It’s a bootcamp on gospel steroids. #gca10
Visionary church planters: what’s your vision for your marriage? For your family? – @stevechilders via his wife. #gca10
Church planters/pastors (every1 4 that matter) R in danger of offering to their “idol of success” their children, wife, time & sleep #gca10
“In repenting and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling. Is 30:15 #gca10
it’s one thing to start your ministry well; it’s another thing to finish it well. – @stevechilders #gca10
“Take a nap, REST! The Kingdom of God will go on. You may be surprised to find Jesus on his throne when you wake up.” @stevechilders #gca10
Sleep, sun, solitude, sabbath, sex, sweat, sustenance. Steve’s 7 S’s of success. Funny and true. #gca10
Differentiate between goals & desires. Desires you cannot control…goals you can. Work for goals, pray for desires. #gca10
Is God a means of grace in your life, or is grace a means to God? – @johnpiper via @stevechilders #gca10
“Don’t merely see God as useful, see Him as beautiful” – Bill Bright via @stevechilders #gca10
God will never really use you until you renounce your reliance & dependence upon God’s gifts & humbly rest only in God Himself #gca10
“God’s grace is like water, always flowing to the lowest place.” Puritan Statement #gca10
Church Planter & wife, like 2 people on a roller coaster: 1 puking over the side, the other hands in the air – roles can change daily #gca10
“Don’t let your living for tomorrow slay your living for today.” -Elisabeth Elliot via @stevechilders #gca10
(My wife) and I were just discussing the church plant, her comment: “I hope you have a green thumb!” me too, me too.
Welcome back to the real world–low in orlando 63, in boston 11 #gca10
Essentials: Worship
Wednesday, January 27th, 2010Note: Casey Johnson is an M.Div. student at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando. He is at the GCA Conference this week and is going through the “Essentials” course. He shared his thoughts with us on the Worship module, which was taught by Jason Sears. In very brief, bullet-point form, here’s what Casey learned.
Last night’s worship session was very enlightening. Here’s some of the highlights I took from it:
1. Don’t let others determine your vision. What he meant by this was not that you shouldn’t figure out what style of worship would hit your target group, rather, once you have a vision in place, don’t let the people who don’t agree with the vision determine your vision. (In my words, “the vision’s not for sale”).
2. When planting a church, don’t look for the rock star to be your worship leader. Too often new churches look for the rock star in skinny jeans, white belt, hair product, etc. to fit the look and sound they desire, but they don’t really hire a worship leader. Look for someone who has vision for this ministry and a heart for the church. Here are five things to look for in a worship pastor.
i. Ability to play and sing.
ii. Relational/Pastoral
iii. Teammate with you. Someone you could go to the movies with. You must have his back.
iv. Musician. Find someone who is passionate about music. Don’t look for someone who learned the beginning of a couple Coldplay songs, look for someone who loves music.
v. A Learner. Someone who is constantly reading magazines, books, listening to new music, going to hear other musicians. Always wants to get better themselves.
3. Without giving the whole talk away, here’s one last thing: The Four Stages of Presbyterian Hand Raising. You’ll have to ask Jason about this yourself. Go hear him next time he teaches.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Casey!
Research Findings on Church Planting Wives: 6 Primary Sources, 8 Secondary Sources
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
The following factors provided the greatest sources of satisfaction or stress for church planting wives. These findings are taken from a research study conducted in North American among PCA church planting spouses of various ethnicities in both urban and suburban settings. This research was conducted by Parakaleo—a gospel-centered ministry that is highly recommended by GCA and represented at all North American GCA training events. Parakaleo exists to strengthen the gospel spreading impact of church planting by coming alongside church planting movements and church planting couples. Through coaching, connecting, caring, and celebrating they facilitate training, encouragement and care of church planters and their spouses. For more information contact Parakaleo staff Shari Thomas, shari@parakaleo.us or Tami Resch, tami@parakaleo.us
Six Primary Sources
1. The Husband
The greatest source of satisfaction or stress for the church planter spouse was the person and work of the husband as he is involved/uninvolved with his wife. The lack of a support system not only increases loneliness and isolation for the wife, it puts added pressure on the marriage. If a clergy couple is relying primarily on each other for support, the marriage may function well most of the time, yet a narrow support system will become a problem when either one is not able to fulfill that role (McMinn 2004).
“We have a strong marriage and I know my husband is committed to me. If I weren’t called to do this type of work, he would quit. We both have a profound respect that God has called us together as one flesh and He will not pull us in different directions. My husband practices the scripture of laying down his life for me as Christ laid down His life for the church. I can submit to that kind of husband.”
2. Support System
The major factor which restricts clergy spouses from experiencing the support they need is that their primary support system comes from their husbands-men who tend to be absent from the home evenings and weekends. The study also indicates that wives do not talk about their husband since this could jeopardize his career (McMinn, 2004).
“It would have been most helpful if I had connection with other church planting spouses early on.”
3. Sabbath Rest
“The highest levels of exhaustion were caused by overextending ourselves because of perceived expectations that we feared we were not meeting. Overall, we were not trusting the Lord.”
“We did not take regular days off or vacations. Nor did we know about keeping boundaries. So a lot has been learned and changed over the years.”
4. Reliance on Christ
“I attribute my spiritual and emotional health to daily repentance, and to understanding how great my sin is, to the ability to laugh, and balancing my heart for the church with the fact that the church is not my life or my significance.”
“…it is God alone, salvation, prayer, his goodness, his very presence in the Spirit.”
“While I give head assent to relying on Christ, my life style shows my functional belief system which is in myself and human effort”.
5. Boundary Ambiguity
Ambiguity is endemic to ministry. To the clergy family, the system is not clear. All members of the family participate either directly or indirectly in the church. There is some role expectation of the congregation which must be fulfilled by the minister, his spouse, and even his children. This level of ambiguity causes high levels of stress for clergy spouses (Lee, 1988).
a) Role Ambiguity
“My greatest challenge has been how the ambiguous role of the cp spouse would affect me. The struggle of knowing church planting was my passion, being trained in ministry, and yet not knowing how to interface this without having a defined position was difficult. I often functionally operated as an assistant minister yet without title, pay, or decision making power.”
b) Emotional Ambiguity
“How much should my husband tell me? I realize I am his primary support, but it’s hard to love people well when I know how they have hurt him.”
c) Physical Ambiguity
The constant unknowns of facility and where we will be located coupled with the constant unknowns of who will stay and who will leave the church plant has been my biggest challenge.”
6. Physical health
Having balanced or unbalanced health
60% of church planting spouses reported leading more than one major ministry in the church plant or community along with being involved in 2-3 other ministries. It is no surprise they report exhaustion and often burn out in ministry.
Eight Secondary Sources
1. Changed lives
“Walking with people in their journey and seeing their lives changed because of the existence of our church is incredibly exciting.”
“Transformed lives, mine and others, have been the greatest source of satisfaction.”
2. Commitment and sense of call to church planting
“What is our major calling if we have other passions? How do we balance this with the demands church planting places on us?”
“I feel just as called to church planting as my husband. We are both in this together.”
3. Family Time
“My husband keeps his day off and is intentional about building a relationship with our boys. We work hard to build a family focus, identity, and history.”
“I don’t show the kids my unhappiness with their dads lack of participating in our family life. I feel like he spiritually takes care of the church and I take care of the family.”
4. Raising kids
“I really suffer here…often my husband is not a part of what we do as a family. When the church is struggling, the less my husband does for and with the family and the more he wants me to focus on helping him with the ministry.”
“He helps us apply the word to our lives as we go…in devotional time, in the car, around the table.”
5. Church growth
“Having come from a large church it has been discouraging to see the slow growth.”
6. Expectations- from/of self and others
“I didn’t realize how high my expectations were of others. It took me time to realize not everyone has the same calling I have but also that some may not be passionate about seeing others come to know Christ.”
“I have been disappointed with the lack of responsibility and loyalty some people have”.
7. Finances
“Church planting is like starting a business only after the hard work we don’t get the financial payback. It’s hard to give our blood, sweat, and tears to this type of work and not have some sort of financial outcome that we can then pass on to our kids.”
8. Use of gifts and abilities
“I thought I would have an opportunity to use my gifts but with the exhaustion my husband experiences, the needs of our kids, and without having other leaders, most of my time is spent in areas the church needs but not where I’m passionate.”
Shari Thomas (GCA Blogger) has been involved with her husband, John, in church planting for over 25 years both in North America and abroad. Shari serves on Mission to North America’s church planting staff as the Director of Parakaleo, a ministry primarily to church planting spouses. Shari and/or Tami Resch (also on staff with Parakaleo) lead the Women’s Forum (6 Sessions) at the North America GCA Conferences & Seminars. John is the director of global training for the Redeemer Church Planting Center in Manhattan, NYC. They have 3 children who amazingly still claim them as parents. They love sailing, only do legal drugs, and are known coffee snobs.
Multi-Generational Church Planting: An Observation, Concern & Suggestion by Martin Ban
Saturday, September 5th, 2009
Great trends are developing in church plants. New plants are emphasizing all means of grace (word, sacrament, prayer) in balanced proportions in liturgies. Right on! Also, new plants are sprouting in non- traditional domains– right on with that as well.
Here’s my observation and my concern. Many planters are mono-generational in their friendships and that is reflected in the core groups and eventually in the church. Instead of invading post-modern ideologies, we’re imitating them in this mono-generational tendency. But the Gospel breaks down barriers and church planters (and prospective church planters) have to model this gospel virtue. I suggest the following:
Church planters should have a conscious 8-10 year buffer in mind when it comes to visible friendships. For example, if a planter is 33, he should focus on friendships with folks who are 23 and folks in the mid -40′s to 50′s. Of particular import is the empty nester crowd. I believe that empty nesters are the secret ingredient to long term, healthy church plants. Empty nesters have great long term relationships in the community, they are stable, they are financially generous, and they have time and energy to help out.
I speculate that the reason young church planters don’t befriend empty nesters is that they are intimidated by them. When a planter has great relationships with empty nesters, I believe the church plant will thrive.
Martin Ban has 20 years of church planting and senior pastor experience. He is a graduate of Austin College and Westminster Theological Seminary. He has planted churches in the San Francisco Bay Area and Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is currently the Senior Pastor of Christ Church Santa Fe PCA and is a GCA trainer (outreach, contextualization, evangelism). Martin and his wife Mari Anne have 5 children (ages 22 thru 9) and have been married for 25 years. They also have a dumb bloodhound named Ocho.
Check out the homepage of the last church Martin planted and now pastors: Christ Church of Santa Fe