Skip to main content
Category

Church Planting

Do You Love Your Church?

By Church Planting, Missions

Years ago I participated in a one-day medical clinic in a slum near Rio, Brazil that remains nameless, because the government has yet to name it. It is literally built on the side of a steep mountain. Simply walking to the clinic was a huge task. My job was to evangelize the crowd waiting to see the doctors. My translator and I had several decisions to accept Christ, but remarkably we also encountered a good number of professing believers. When I told them that the desire was to eventually start a church in the slum, they were ecstatic. One lady began to jump up and down with excitement. They wanted a local church!

Read More

Reflections on Losing a Staff Member

By Change, Church Planting

Daniel Doss, the amazing worship leader who helped launch Grace Community Church, announced to the church this week that he is leaving to help plant another church. Daniel has one of the most gifted voices I have ever heard and could easily find a position anywhere, including staying at Grace, but he is excited to be pursuing the dream of planting again (it does get in your blood) with a high school friend in Northern Indiana. Daniel is our first staff member to ever leave and we are surely going to miss his and Emily’s energy and passion for what we are doing at Grace.

Read More

I Hope My Church Never Sings This Song

By Church Planting

This is a word for me as a church planter. This passage is not talking about a lack of growth, it’s talking about the failure to produce a good harvest. The goal at our church is the same as any other Bible-believing, Christ-honoring church. We want to produce growing disciples of Jesus Christ. We want people to look, act, and sound more like Jesus. We want to be lovers of God and lovers of people. We want to be holy, because He is holy. If we keep that as our aim, and allow God’s Spirit to work His way in our midst, we will never have to sing the Song of the Vineyard.

Read More

Keeping Core Members In A Church Plant

By Change, Church, Church Planting

I often hear church planters say to expect to lose half the original core members within the first year of a new church plant. While I agree that is the trend, I don’t think it has to be that way. I am now in my second plant. With this second church we went about the core selection in a very methodical way, fully intending to keep all original core members if possible.

Read More