Blog
This week, my wife, Marty, and I had the honor of attending a church planter's retreat sponsored by the Converge Northwest District and held at the beautiful Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center on the rugged Pacific coast in northern Oregon. Read on to discover just a small amount of what was seen and heard at that relaxed gathering. Maybe you and your church can learn from my observations.
I will never forget an initial coaching session over the phone with an ethnic pastor. I was born and raised in the US and he was born and raised in a Middle-eastern location where Christians are frequently persecuted. I had known him for about a year and wanted to establish a coaching relationship to help him in his ministry. The purpose of my first coaching call to him was to establish a relationship with him as his coach. I also wanted to explain what our coaching conversations would be all about. After our conversation, it dawned on me that sometimes, coaching ministry leaders will not work, at least initially. My story and commentary may help you understand more about when coaching may not work.
The church planting proposal is a document that serves as the "business plan" for the new church. It generally covers the first two years of new church development. In the proposal, the church planter puts into writing what God is laying on his heart. It spells out the initial vision or dream, the initial ideas of the culture of the new church, and its launch strategy. Keep reading to find out what content is needed in your proposal.
What is happening now in the culture of the world around us and the culture of the church will affect the local church in the next ten to twenty years will not only affect us, they will shake the local church as we know it in the Western world. Our churches are not insulated or isolated from the world in which we live, but they are affected and infected by it. Let's take a look at a few shakeups that are already beginning to happen.
What would you learn about your church if you could do a DNA test on it? Every church has a unique DNA embedded in it that shapes its culture and actions.