AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCH PLANTING AND MULTIPLYING: THE NEXT GENERATION

AFRICAN AMERICAN CHURCH PLANTING AND MULTIPLYING: THE NEXT GENERATION

Expo 2015 Spark Booklet Path 1

Mon, April 27 | 1pm – 5pm
Idlewild Baptist Church | Tampa, FL
Attend this Free Bonus Session by Registering for a Pre-Con Forum or Lab as part of Exponential East for only +$59

Hosted by Path 1 and AACPI facilitated by Dr. Candace Lewis and Rev. William T. Chaney Jr. 
Featuring Olu Brown, Lia McIntosh, George Ashford and Alex Shipman

Connect with successful African American Church planters and receive insights on planting and multiplying Ministries in a new church reaching African Americans as next generation leaders!

Our forum includes planters leading new churches of various sizes! What they have in common is a calling from God to share the gospel, impact their community, and multiply ministries. Come hear succinct Ted Talk style presentations w Q & A and receive cutting edge research & resourcing in African American Church planting.

In this session you will experience:* The importance of Vision & Momentum as you Plant & Multiply

* Connecting w your community & creating successful partnerships
* The Heart & Soul of an African American Church Planter
* Making Disciples & Multiplying Leaders
* The mindset and essentials of a multiplying movement
* The Emerging Black Church & The Next Generation

 

Entrepreneurial DNA for Pastors

Entrepreneurs Don’t Need Work-Life Balance

This is a good article that outlines the DNA of high functioning entrepreneurs. It also outlines principles that are diametrically opposed to everything that we teach pastors.  Life balance is one of the major emphasis that we encourage pastors to develop in early interviews as potential ministry candidates are beginning their journey.

As entrepreneurs, we have zero sense of balance. We’re all in, all the time. It doesn’t matter if it’s day or night, weekday or weekend — each of us focuses on our vision with a single-minded passion.

JEFF STIBEL  Chairman and CEO of Dun & Bradstreet Credibility Corp. and author ofWired for Thought.

 

Mainline churches are in desperate need of entrepreneurial pastors who will plant and redevelop churches.  The behavioral DNA of entrepreneurs are nurtured out of a candidate so they will be effective as a pastor in our average churches. The ordination committees really need to rethink their approach to identifying church planters and redevelopment pastors.  We see these entrepreneurial pastors being successful in non denominational settings and as they grow with the congregation most of them develop the life balance necessary to be effective pastors.

A paradigm shift is necessary to attract and support entrepreneurial pastor.  I believe that this has significant implications for all mainline churches.

 

Why Churches Should Plant Churches

Why Should Churches Plant Churches?
By Phil Longmire

·        Young Churches have the potential to bring many new people to our faith

·        Our church to population ratio is declining. This is based on the US census

·        America is still one of the greatest mission fields in the world

·        Because We Are Losing a Generation

Read The Entire Article

This is a good article by Phil.  I have not written much about new church plants lately but I believe that church multiplication is more important than membership multiplicaiton. Changing the established mainline church DNA will be a challenge.  The change will include celebrating new churches, intentionally seeding new churches with discipled tithing members, supportting new ministries financially and training senior pastors to encourage and nurture new church pastors. 

 

Refocusing on Making Disciples

I have been approached by several people who are concerned about the church taking on characteristics of the popular culture. This concerns me because a congregation that is not in touch with the culture and the times are missing some pretty significant opportunities to introduce people who do not have an experience with God to the One who transforms lives through grace.

 

As disciple making pastors we are challenged to help people with a secular worldview see the world through the eyes of God.  Taking the events of history, events of today and the prospects of the future and walking future believers through the process of experiencing spiritual disciplines, teaching them how to engage the scriptures and how to embrace the people that they meet on a daily basis as God’s people who can be transformed because God loves them and wants to be in a vital, interactive relationship with them if they are willing to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. 

 

When a church is out of touch with the culture they are focused on membership through worship rituals rather than worship that introduces people to the presence of God. 

 

When a church is out of touch with the culture they are focused on committees that report the past rather than ministry teams that are focused on how to fulfill the mission, accomplish the vision and maintain integrity in the scriptural values that guide our faith.

 

When a church is out of touch with the culture they can not respond to the current events of the times.  They are unable to recognize the deep impact of the financial crisis stress.   The church misses the wave of people searching for significance because the jobs that gave them a sense of significance are now gone.  Churches out of touch are not able to respond to the rising suicide rate among the society, and the increasing oppressive conditions that the poor in the projects, trailer parks and working poor are enduring.

 

When a church is out of touch they are unable to respond to the growing diversity of the nation and the globalization of the world’s social economy, financial economy and global cultural influence.

 

When a church is out of touch they are unaware of the growing numbers of families that have invited their grandparents to live with them because they do not have the finances to afford a retirement facility.  They are unaware of the vast numbers of people who are struggling with hidden addictions and wear the masks of “I’m ok with the world so don’t bother me right now.”

 

Disciple making churches can not afford to be out of touch with the culture and be effective in connecting people to the risen Christ.  Disciple making churches engage their congregation and also move beyond the church walls to provide ministry to people who have needs in their community. 

 

The challenge is to make disciple making central to the life of the church rather than another program or a side show to the “real ministry that we have always done.”  I enjoy coaching and consulting but I realize that churches that are beginning to adopt disciple making as their central ministry must transform the structure and the culture of the church to be effective. 

 

Organic Church Conversation

The Organic Conversations
The Organic Movement is a kissing cousin to the Incarnational movement and a distant cousin to the Emergent movement. Like the other two it doesn’t see as much of a need for the institutional church has had traditional Christianity. But unlike the Emergent movement it is more literal in its interpretation of Scripture and truth. Neil Cole has long been one of the leading voices for the organic church. In his view the house church is the primary form of church. I have no problem with this view because Cole doesn’t dismiss the institutional church. In fact, one of my partners, Bill Tenny-Brittian, has extensive roots in the house church movement. I see it as a kissing cousin to small groups that multiply.  However, a new voice on the scene is Frank Viola and his book (with Barna), Pagan Christianity. This book stands in direct opposition to the Emergent folks because it takes a more literal approach to the Scripture. His book documents the problems with the institutional church that functions more like a business than the living organism it was created to be. Pagan Christianity is not only a logical sequence to Barna’s recent book, Revolution, it also is an interesting and accurate account of the historic events that have shaped today’s counterfeit form of Christianity.  

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REST OF THE CONVERSATION

 

THis is an excellent article by Bill Easum.  His observations and challenges are valid to the Organic Movement.    I am evaluating the emerging movement, organic movement and house church movement.  I would like to share some conversation about the three especially for those involved in urban ministry.

Is There Room At The Table is an article that articulates my frustrations and I want to develop a framework to discuss the hopes of an urban ministry paradigm that extends beyond the tokenism to the multicultural, gobal neighborhoods where we do ministry.