About a month ago, I wrote about the action of the Executive Presbytery to create the new Church Multiplication Network. The purpose of the Network is to serve the AG family with a set of resources/systems to assist districts, parent churches, church planting networks and church planters to start more, vigorous churches than ever before.

A “hot button” issue in the area of starting new churches is funding. How, where, what and when… all these questions apply to money and finding answers is tricky. So, as the first act of the Church Multiplication Network, we decided to “pay it forward” to help interested parties find answers to funding questions. The Creative Funding Forum was a free conference featuring a rather amazing variety of non-traditional fund raising practitioners. The seed for the idea came from Joel Hunter, Pastor of Northwood Assembly in Houston and Dave McNaughton ,Church Planting Coordinator for the North Texas District.  Here’s the text of the original email that went out inviting people to attend. Read the rest of this entry »

I just received and read a new book by Jim Griffith and Bill Easum. “Ten Most Common Mistakes Made by New Church Plants” will now be on my short list of books that every church planter, parent church pastor and district leader should read before the start a new church. This book is loaded with time/experience tested practical wisdom that can help the leaders and overseers of new church starts avoid “rookie” mistakes.  Here are just a couple of the mistakes they suggest you avoid. “Neglecting the Great Commandment in Pursuit of the Great Commission.” ” Failing to Take Opposition Seriously.” Each chapter describes the mistake followed by some great counsel on how to avoid the mistake. Tips for supervisors and coaches are included. Outstanding. Check it out here.

I’m typing this on my laptop as my plane gains altitude over Louisville, Kentucky. Last night, I had the privilege of speaking to a “catalytic” group of pastors, board members and congregants representing some of the 18 churches that are part of the Central Section of the Kentucky District. I came at the invitation of Presbyter Neal Gordon (he’s the guy in the picture) who pastors Abundant Life Assembly of God in Lebanon, Kentucky. We met at Calvary Assembly of God in Elizabethtown, Kentucky where Jeff Schexneider is pastor.

It was an extraordinary night. To be honest, I had very low expectations for this event. It is the middle of the summer, on a Monday night, and I’m not a “known” commodity. This was not a district-wide event so the “pool” of potential participants was small. The event was promoted as two 45 minutes teaching sessions interrupted by an offering and some announcements. And Todd Bentley (of the Florida Outpouring fame) is coming to town on Thursday night. So I was fully prepared to speak to a massive crowd of 3 or 4 people, enjoy the interaction and go home. Instead, I found myself speaking to over 100 people who are clearly don’t want anything to do with “church as usual.” They are deeply concerned about the spiritual well being of their friends, families and neighbors and they are eager to turn their concern into action.

So, I did my best to inform them regarding the crisis we face in America and encourage them with stories from across the nation of how God’s grace is abounding where sin threatens to prevail. It’s probably impossible to accurately measure the impact of this event on the lives of the listeners, but I came away encouraged by the level of interest and passion they manifested. This is a trend I’m seeing everywhere I go. “Same old, same old” just doesn’t cut it anymore. People intuitively know that we can’t keep doing the same thing we’ve been doing and expecting different results. And they are intentionally making changes in their behavior. They are worrying less about style and more about substance.

So God bless you, Pastor Gordon and my new friends in Central Kentucky. I look forward to seeing what God does next as you faithfully follow Him where he leads!