7 Vital Online Church Planter Resources
Written by Lauren Hunter // May 19, 2011 // General // No comments
Church planting is always a hot topic. As I comb the web, it seems as though new and valuable resources are cropping up every day to help pastors with a heart for planting churches. Today, I’m sharing with you the top seven resources I’ve found online worthy of sharing with you:
1) ChurchMultiplication.net: Church Multiplication Network (CMN) is
the church planting department for the Assemblies of God (AG) and has just partnered with Fellowship Technologies to offer new church plants free web-based church management software for a full year. Fellowship One, which already supports over 1,800 church and non-profit organizations, will help CMN’s 275+ new church plants get established and grow their respective congregations. The web-based system allows a church of any size, from new church plants to multi-site mega churches, to be more effective in ministry, more efficient in administration, and engage the community. For more information, visit www.fellowshipone.com/churchplants.
2) Church Planter Candidate Assessment Online Tools.
The Church Planter Candidate Assessment (CPCA) is a statistically validated online assessment instrument which helps potential church planters and their respective organizations identify areas of established strength and other areas needing development as they prepare to plant a church.
Ed Stetzer, President of LifeWay Research, and his team at LifeWay Research developed a tool called the “Church Planter Candidate Assessment” (CPCA) to aid churches and other church planting sponsors in evaluating strengths and weaknesses of candidates who desire to establish new churches.
3) ChurchPlanting.com: ChurchPlanting.com aims to equip and encourage church planters who are aimed at winning others into relationship with Christ. Bloggers on the site include a Who’s Who list from the Church Planting World comprised of coaches and authors. These are people who think beyond typical conventions and who are interested in seeing lots of people won into relationship with Christ through church planting.
4) Church Planting Villiage: One stop shop for church planting run by the North American Mission Board (NAMB).
5) The Acts 29 Network: Over the last ten years Acts 29 has emerged from a small band of brothers to almost 400 churches in the United States and networks of churches in multiple countries. They want to allow a unifying, uncommon move of God to happen through Acts 29 — all centered on the gospel and advancing the mission of Jesus through obediently planting church-planting churches. It is their desire to see this leading to millions of lives changed by the power of the Spirit for the glory of God.
6) ChurchPlantingMovements.com: Best church planting practices from across the globe.
7) Church-Planting.net: Passion for Planting is a not-for-profit church planting support ministry started in 2002 by a group of church planters from New Life Christian Church in Centreville, Virginia. New Life was started as a church planting church, and, through God’s blessing, they have helped start many additional growing churches. In 2002, their vision was to help start one new church every year and to be actively working with at least 4 church planters at any given time. Through God’s blessing, they’ve helped over 100 new churches. Passion for Planting is an outgrowth of their local church experience and their passion to help start healthy new churches.
So there you have it, seven great resources to aid you as you walk along your church planting journey. If I have missed any other good church planting resources, please leave a comment with an additional resource.
Lauren Hunter is a freelance writer, church technology consultant (http://laurenhunter.net) and founder of the blog ChurchTechToday (http://ChurchTechToday.com), Technology for Today’s Church.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
7 Vital Online Church Planter Resources
Killing My Cool » Wayne Francis
Killing My Cool
God is killing my cool.
There is an uber-creative side of me that is definitely a part of everything I do, but for some reason my creativity has assumed a recalcitrant posture, like a stubborn child sent to time-out because he wouldn’t behave. I’ve reached an impasse where cool doesn’t cut it. I’m not sure if it ever did. The more I understand the redemptive mission of the Spirit, and the more I try to partner with it, the more I figure out that it doesn’t have to be cool. It often isn’t cool…at least not primarily.
God is killing any coolness I thought I might have had.
For the first time in a very long while, I am totally dependent on Christ to make me successful in the things that I’m doing (and not just with our church). As I’ve immersed myself back into a secular employment, I’m learning to adapt to a new environment that isn’t a bit passive and where success is determined by performance. My work determines my stability. What a juxtaposition of realities. In one context, I’m judged by what I produce and by what work I bring to the table, and in the other, my work[s] means nothing. The cool things I’ve made in my professional portfolio is only good for yesterday in my secular career, leaving me to find solace and dependency on Christ for all things…not just spiritual things. I need Christ to make me excel in all my endeavors. Sounds strange, like a no-brainer, but this feeling has not been as familiar up until recently. Everything that I’ve done up until this point has come quite naturally for me.
God is killing all of my cool.
Leaving me to wake up desperately needing the grace given for that day and, most times, to feel so awkwardly unprepared for the position of leading. Killing my cool and making the large and grandiose claims I’ve shouted from my gut feel like mere platitude. Killing my cool all day long. No place to hide from the sword of the Spirit, executing all my idols.
Don’t get me wrong, God is not killing my cool to replace it with having a poor looking website or shabby artwork for thrown-together publication pieces. He’s killing my need to be considered cool, my hunger to do things because it’d be cool, my addiction to be affirmed as cool. He’s captivating my attention in a way that feels so fresh.
I’m not left without direction, I’m drawn to deeper devotion. My confidence to lead is empowered by His power to work in me without restraint.
God is killing my cool, and maybe that’s why I’m starting to feel so alive.
