Tuesday night and Wednesday morning’s sessions have been focused on understanding and defining the “ministry focus group” that a church plant hopes to reach with the gospel. Tim Rice of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Lakeland, FL, and Bob Cargo from Perimiter Church in Atlanta, have been challenging us to be honest about who we are, what cultural environment has formed us, and to what degree our mission is cross-cultural. We’ve been thinking hard about the hopes and dreams, as well as the idolatries, of our communities. We’ve been struggling to think of how the gospel alone can bring our communities’ stories to a happy ending.

Tim and Bob come to this training event with a wealth of personal experience, not only from their own church plants, but from having trained and deployed dozens of apprentices heading to diverse contexts.

What’s so important about GCA’s training is that it’s principle-based. There’s no such thing as a plug-and-play, cookie-cutter, silver-bullet model for a successful church plant. No matter where the mission of God takes us, we’ll always have to struggle to discern the intersection of gospel, culture, and church in order to make the most of Jesus and see the greatest transformation by his Spirit.

God loves to manifest his presence and pour out his power on those who will dare to align their purposes more with his.
- Steve Childers

The GCA North American Church Planting & Renewal Conference commenced at Erskine College and Seminary in Due West, South Carolina this afternoon. Before 3 days of trekking through the principles and processes of conceiving and multiplying gospel-centered churches, Steve Childers cast a vision of the invisible kingdom of God being made visible on earth as it is in heaven.

Someone has said that the church is God’s “Plan A” for the renewal of the earth, and there is no “Plan B”. Steve took this observation from being a discouraging indictment of the church’s ineffectiveness to a grand vision of God’s delight “to manifest his presence and pour out his power on those who dare to align their purposes more with his.”

According to missiologist Christopher Wright, “It’s not so much that God has a mission for his church, but that God has a church for his mission.” Steve’s opening message helped us realize at the outset that God’s choice of his church for his mission is a glorious privilege and–because the church has good news for the lost, the found, and the community–a divinely wise choice.

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Dear Sir,

. . . You ask whether your verses are any good. You ask me. You have asked others before this. You send them to magazines. You compare them with other poems, and you are upset when certain editors reject your work.

Now (since you have said you want my advice) I beg you to stop doing that sort of thing. You are looking outside, and that is what you should most avoid right now. No one can advise or help you – no one. There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself.

Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write. This most of all: ask yourself in the most silent hour of your night: must I write? Dig into yourself for a deep answer.

And if this answer rings out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must”, then build your life in accordance with this necessity; your whole life, even into its humblest and most indifferent hour, must become a sign and witness to this impulse.

. . . Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try to say what you see and feel and love and lose. . . Describe all these with heartfelt, silent, humble sincerity and, when you express yourself, use the things around you, the images from your dreams, and the objects that you remember.

If your everyday life seems poor, don’t blame it; blame yourself; admit to yourself that you are not enough of a poet to call forth its riches; because for the creator there is no poverty and no poor, indifferent place.

And even if you found yourself in some prison, whose walls let in none of the world’s sound – wouldn’t you still have your childhood, that jewel beyond all price, that treasure house of memories? Turn your attention to it.

Try to raise up the sunken feelings of this enormous past; your personality will grow stronger, your solitude will expand and become a place where you can live in the twilight, where the noise of other people passes by, far in the distance.

And if out of, this turning within, out of this immersion in your own world, poems come, then you will not think of asking anyone whether they are good or not. Nor will you try to interest magazines in these works: for you will see them as your dear natural possession, a piece of your life, a voice from it.

A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it. So, dear Sir, I can’t give you any advice but this: to go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows; at its source you will find the answer to, the question of whether you must create.

Accept that answer, just as it is given to you, without trying to interpret it. Perhaps you will discover that you are called to be an artist. Then take that destiny upon yourself, and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking what reward might come from outside. . . as I have said,  if one feels one could live without writing, then one shouldn’t write at all…

Yours very truly,

Rainer Maria Rilke

Paris

February 17, 1903

This is the seventh in a series of blog posts called, “My Top Ten Mistakes in Ministry (That I Can Share Publicly.)” After many years of ministry experience as a church planter, pastor and seminary professor, I think I’ve finally learned that one of the best kept secrets to surviving well in the ministry is to stop making the same old mistakes that others (like me) have been making for decades. Instead, let’s all start making some brand new, bold, innovative and creative mistakes!

We began this series with an introduction called, “Ladies First” in which veteran church planter wife, Shari Thomas, addressed the tough topic, What I Wish I Had Known About Church Planting from the perspective of the church planter’s/pastor’s spouse. We then took a look at:

Mistake #1 (these are in no intentional order), “Failing to Understand the Importance of How I Define Ministry Success.”

Mistake #2 Managing My Time and Not Managing My Life

Mistake #3: Not Understanding the Difference Between my Goals and Desires.

Mistake #4: Not Understanding the Difference Between Pursuing the Grace of God and the God of Grace.

Mistake #5: Not Understanding the Way Up is the Way Down

Mistake #6: Not Understanding the Priority of People Over Programs

Mistake #7: Not Understanding Product Living VS Process Living

I have to confess that I belong to what Pastor Mark Buchanan calls the Cult of the Next Thing. Buchanan writes, “It is dangerously easy to get enlisted. It happens by default–not by choosing the cult but by failing to resist it. It is dangerously easy to get enlisted. It happens by default–not by choosing the cult but by failing to resist it.”

For me the Cult of the Next Thing is sinful discontentment cast in religious terms.  It has its own sacred terms like: our ministry vision, our mission, our goals, our objectives. Please don’t misunderstand, these are good things, but we begin to believe that we can’t ever really be happy until we get them.

This Cult also has its own Mantras we church planter types often quote: I’ll be happy when we have a certain number of people in worship every Sunday. Or I’ll be happy when we are self-supporting financially as a church. Or I’ll be happy when we are self-governing with our own elders or deacons. I’ll be happy when I’ve been able to pass this baton (you name it) to another leader. I’ll be happy when I’m not sick anymore…when the kids are older…when the kids are gone….

And this Cult has its own shrines in other ministries that are doing better than ours.  And it has its own ecstatic experiences: those fleeting moments when you finally reach a goal you’ve been living for and looking to for so long. It feels great. But like sand through your fingers it ever so quickly slips away from you. So then you must look ahead to the next experience.

Author Isaac Rubin writes, “The joy and happiness from the process lasts much longer and can be much more satisfying over the duration of your life. But if you are totally goal-oriented in a success-oriented culture, and if the product is the only goal, you will destroy much of the possibility for true joy and happiness in life. That is because almost all of your life has to be the process and not the product. If you can’t learn to appreciate and enjoy the process of living itself, there goes your joy in life.

If you get nothing out of the doing, because you are always looking for the high that will come at the end, you’re in serious trouble. But if you learn to be nourished by the whole process, that result at the end of the road, positive or negative, is not terribly significant. You just go on to the next process. You must learn to understand and appreciate “Process Living” because the process is really what life is all about. We are in process 98 % of the time. If you are living for that final 2%, you’re in trouble. And the truth is most of us are in serious trouble.”

The story is told when Alexander the Great conquered the entire known world, he wept because there were no more worlds for him to conquer. The opiate of winning the next battle was now gone and he was left trembling in withdrawal, unable to live and love life in the present.

Elizabeth Elliot summed it up well, “ Don’t let your living for tomorrow slay your living for today.” If you’re not very careful you will always be living for tomorrow and find yourself being robbed of all of your todays. I wish someone had talked straight to me about that common and so costly mistake in life and ministry.

Steve Childers is the President & CEO of Global Church Advancement, an inter-denominational ministry that provides church planting training, consultations, and resources for church planters, pastors and missionaries throughout the world. Steve has trained Christian leaders from more than 50 countries (curriculum in five major global languages), representing over 200 denominations and mission agencies in 5 continents (& 5 languages). Steve is also an author, Professor of Practical Theology (since 1995) and the Director of the Doctoral program at Reformed Theological Seminary, in Orlando, Florida, where he teaches church planting, missions, evangelism and spiritual formation. To learn more about GCA:

Browse the GCA Website: http://www.gca.cc

Join the GCA Cause: http://bit.ly/X5bZC

See the GCA Blog: http://www.gca.cc/blog/

Follow GCA on Twitter: http://twitter.com/_gca

Follow Steve on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stevechilders

Check out upcoming GCA Events: http://gca.cc/Seminar_Overview.htm

Support GCA: http://gca.cc/Support_GCA.htm

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!