Tag: church planting movements

Stetzer on Movements

Posted on July 22, 2008

Ed Stetzer lists at least 10 Elements to Christian Movements:

  1. Prayer Prayer must be a conviction that establishes its priority. Before we see movemental Christianity, we will have to be praying, asking God to change us.
  2. Intentionality: We will also need to show the intention of being movemental (see the next 8 elements). As of now, I believe our focus is primarily defensive and incremental, not intentional and exponential.
  3. Sacrifice: Change will not come without giving something up.
  4. Reproducibility: Movements do not occur through large things (big budgets, big plans, big teams). They occur through small units that are readily reproducible.
  5. Theological Integrity: Churches wanting to be involved in transformative, movemental Christianity hold firm and passionate positions on biblical views.
  6. Incarnation: Movemental Christianity recognizes that the gospel is unchanging, but the expressions and results of the gospel will vary from culture to culture.
  7. Empowerment: Movements only occur when the disempowered are given the freedom, and then take up the responsibility, to lead.
  8. Charitability: A movement of God cannot be contained in a single movement or theological tradition. Therefore, movemental Christianity requires charity to maintain our firmly held convictions while rejoicing for and speaking well about those with whom we differ but are being greatly blessed by God.
  9. Scalability: When God begins to move, and believers allow movement Christianity to begin to grow, structures must be able to rapidly re-size to not stifle such movements.
  10. Wholism: Movemental Christianity will practice wholistic ministry much in the way of Jesus.

Read the whole post here.

City-wide Church Planting Networks

Posted on March 20, 2008

We are in the foundational stages of establishing the Austin Area Church Planters Network. The network has grown out of a group of cross-denominational planters intent on learning from one another and catalyzing a church planting movement in the Austin area. After eight months as a grassroots movement, the AACPN is now formalizing in order to strategically facilitate a Christ-centered, context-sensitive church planting movement for social and spiritual renewal of Austin and beyond. The purpose of this emerging network is to inspire, network, and resource church planters.

The potential of this organization is inestimable. There is an incredible level of kingdom-mindedness among evangelicals in Austin. Our board is comprised of a diverse group, four church leaders and four planters, including representatives from Hill Country Bible, ABBA, First Evangelical Free, & ABA. Here are some of the benefits for developing a network like this in your city:

 

Benefits of a Network

· Offering City-wide Planter Assessment

· Networking with other planters

· Shared cultural, demographic knowledge of the city

· Shared Best practices

· Learning the church planting landscape in the city

· Kingdom Cooperation

  • Developing strong pastoral relationships and accountability

· Connecting established missional leaders with new planters

· Directing visitors who don’t fit your church to other church plants

· Catalyzing a cross-denominational church planting movement

If any readers are aware of similar networks in other cities, please feel free to leave a link in the comments section. We are eager to learn from others who are doing similar things.