I would like to encourage you to attend the “Cultivate Gathering ‘07″ on April 21 from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. This will be held at Freeway Coffee House. Visit http://www.cultivategathering.com to register and for more information of the said event.
Books
•Church Planting Landmines: Mistakes to Avoid in Years 2 through 10. By Tom Nebel and Gary Rohrmayer. ChurchSmart Resources, 2005.
•Planting Missional Churches: Planting a Church That’s Biblically Sound and Reaching People in Culture. By Ed Stetzer. Broadman and Holman, 2006. This has an excellent bibliography for books, websites, articles, and resources for church planting in North America.
•Planting Mission-Shaped Churches Today. By Dr. Martin Robinson. Monarch Books, 2006.
•Seven Steps for Planting Churches. Tom Cheyney, J.David Putman, and Van Sanders, eds. North American Mission Board; SBC, 2003. Download
PDFaat:http://www.churchplantingvillage.net/site/c.iiJTKZPEJpH/b.816393/k.FC7F/A_Church_Planters_7_Steps_for_Planting_Church.htm
•Starting Reproducing Congregations: A Guidebook for Contextual New Church Development (There is an additional workbook as well). By Daniel R. Sanchez, Ebbie C. Smith, and Curtis E. Watke. ChurchStarting.net, 2001
Websites
• www.newchurches.com. This site is produced by Ed Stetzer’s organization (see above, Planting Missional Churches).
• www.ethnicharvest.org
• www.churchplantingvillage.net/
• www.acts29network.org. Includes free audio/text downloads.
Thank you for attending the Church Planting Roundtable Discussion. It was so encouraging to meet people from different churches who are doing church plant in the city. The sharing of ideas and experiences in our respective fields were so educational. Indeed, God is moving so powerfully in imparting His Shalom in the community.
A special thank to Ian for facilitating the discussions and to Tim and Mark for sharing their thoughts and experiences in the field. I also would like to say thank you to Pernell for joining the group.
We are inviting everyone out there who is doing church planting initiatives in the city to come and share your thoughts at the Church Planting Roundtable Discussion. This is just one amongst many seminar/workshop topics one can choose from at the TrueCity Conference 2007 on February 23, 24.
This blog is created for purposes of sharing, collaboration, discussion, and learning from each other. If you are planning to plant a church in the future, or in the process of planting a church, and maybe just interested in giving your thoughts on the subject, you are all welcome to this forum.
The most important question one must ask even long before going to a targeted place to plant church is, “Why church plant? Our answer to this question is imperative, for it will shape our philosophy, values, and attitude.
Biblically, the burden for planting of the church was born of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit empowered early believers to obey the Great Commission (Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:19). I remember the church of Thessalonica when Apostle Paul mentioned about receiving the Gospel with joy from the Holy Spirit and becoming witnesses to people everywhere. And the result of this spontaneous working of the Holy Spirit on the believers was the planting of new local churches (1 Thess. 1:6,8).
Therefore, the Holy Spirit revives the church both collectively and individually and put the burden for a lost world as their love for God and for one another increases. Yes, it is the work of the Holy Spirit that causes His servants to desire to plant a new church. It is a Divine Initiative, regardless whether it is an individual, a church, a mission organization or denomination that wants to plant a church.
