Connections: Blessings in a Backpack Since joining Leadership Network's Missional Renaissance Leadership Community, Pastor Mike Kessler of Trinity Baptist Church (Mount Pleasant, TX) has observed a movement in his congregation from volunteering and invitational events to more concentrated ministry efforts. The following is an excerpt from "Good to Great Church Planting: Accelerating Growth and Effectiveness in Church Planting"--a concept paper from Leadership Network s European Church Planting Network. Leaders of the Antioch Movement in the Ukraine still remember the day denominational leaders in that country decided to trade their independent church-planting efforts for a united national plan. It was the first time since the fall of Communism ushered in religious freedom in the Ukraine that religious leaders had banded together for the purpose of widespread church multiplication. "We tried to help churches understand that it is our country and we are responsible for it; it is our people and our churches who need to deliver and give birth to other churches," says Victor Kulbich, who helped train church planters in the country. "And it is our responsibility to bring the Gospel to each man, woman and child and plant the churches. It is a huge vision and we need God s help." Search Is On: Best Book on Church Leadership We want to know what our readers are reading in the area of church leadership. Which of the many books available have you read that really struck a chord for you? Which of those books did you recommend to your peers? In other words, what are the must-read books for church leaders on leadership? The culmination of the collaborative work of the Antioch Movement was when Baptist, Pentecostal and independent church leaders came together to sign a historic plan to... FREE Guest Teaching for Your Church Kids Online Time Skyrockets: Where is the Church? English Language Has Most Words; Chinese Second English contains more words than any other language on the planet and recently added its millionth word, according to the Global Language Gone Mobile? Twittering in Church?
Monitor, a Web site that uses a math formula to estimate how often words are created. My Business, My Mission The Age of the Unthinkable Christian Donors Are Nearly Double the National Average One in four (24.6%) of all U.S. donors in 2008 gave to faith-based charities, according to Campbell Rinker research. Within this group of faith-based donors, 76% identify themselves as Christian. Among Christian donors, 29% support faith-based charities, 55% plan to give the same amount in 2009, 27% to give less, and 14% to give more. On average, Christian donors gave $4,180 to charity in 2007 vs. $1,353 by donors of other religions. The amount donated by Christian donors is nearly double the national average of $2,140 for all charitable households. With over 500 responses, ranging from church attendances of 500 to 30,000, this unique survey provides the insider scoop on the priorities, strengths, time usage, and staffing issues for senior pastors. Want to know what large-church senior pastors say keeps them awake at night? That s one of over 50 questions we asked. Most replies are clustered by size range so that pastors can best understand their peer group. This report reveals many interesting insights on the unique role of large-church leadership. The Multi-Site Practicum August 17-18, 2009 Community Christian Church Naperville, IL If you are thinking of becoming a multi-site church, this is for you! The Practicum will help you and your team develop a step-by-step strategic plan for how to reach your goal of implementing multiple worship sites. Learn how to: Cast a Vision for Multi-Site Identify Key Leaders Develop a Launch Team Create an Unstoppable Culture You can peruse 100+ past issues of Leadership Network Advance and get valuable information on a variety of ministry topics in our Archives. Select VIEW FULL ARCHIVES LIST to see what's there. Here are a few topics of interest we covered recently: The Practicum will be lead by the NewThing staff of Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL. Over the years, Community Christian has become an innovative multi-site church that has grown in attendance from 5 to more than 5,000 attenders at nine locations.
"We tried to help churches understand that it is our country and we are responsible for it; it is our people and our churches who need to deliver and give birth to other churches," says Victor Kulbich, who helped train church planters in the country. "And it is our responsibility to bring the Gospel to each man, woman and child and plant the churches. It is a huge vision and we need God s help." The culmination of the collaborative work of the Antioch Movement was when Baptist, Pentecostal and independent church leaders came together to sign a historic plan to plant 28,000 churches across the Ukraine in their lifetime. "Even today, they have pictures on their walls of the day they signed the document," says Chad Smith of the Antioch Movement. "They had never sat together at the table before--this was the first point of seeing a movement in this nation." This church planting network illustrates one of four strategic stages that a group of churches and networks have deployed the past few years to fuel church planting movements across Europe. Since 2007, when Leadership Network s European Church Planting initiative was launched, participating churches have strategically planted more than 340 churches and missional communities. The following four strategic stages have been observed in Europe s blossoming church planting movement. They could also translate into church-planting and church growth efforts in North America: Finding an outward focus Implementing vision Building momentum Generating national and international influence The following is an excerpt from "Good to Great Church Planting: Accelerating Growth and Effectiveness in Church Planting"--a concept paper from Leadership Network s European Church Planting Network. Leaders of the Antioch Movement in the Ukraine still remember the day denominational leaders in that country decided to trade their independent church-planting efforts for a united national plan. It was the first time since the fall of Communism ushered in religious freedom in the Ukraine that religious leaders had banded together for the purpose of widespread church multiplication. Outward Focus Finding an outward focus was instrumental in the Antioch Movement, according to Victor Kulbich. "It was a revolutionary thought that the main role of the church is to give birth to daughter churches," Victor says. Implementing Vision The Message Trust in the United Kingdom (www.message.org.uk) focuses on reaching youth from some of the most deprived parts of Manchester. When the group realized that young people who were coming to faith didn t fit into the traditional model of church, it had to alter its vision to meet the needs of the community. The result was the creation of the Eden Project (www.eden-network.org), which partners with local churches throughout the city by physically moving Eden workers into the community sharing both their lives and the gospel as they create new churches. There are now 10 Eden plants in Manchester, with a plan to partner with other organizations in other cities around the UK. "We did four plants in the first four years working in partnership with others--we weren t necessarily sitting and thinking that we were going to do this, but we got moving and gathered momentum," says executive director Matt Wilson. Building Momentum Saint Thomas Philadelphia Church UK (www.stthomaschurch.org.uk), led by Paul Maconochie, has worked hard to build momentum for growing missional communities. Steps have included getting the right people on the leadership team, understanding who they are and what they are about, and maintaining a culture of discipline.
To get the right people in the right positions, Maconochie replaced all but one member of his entire senior team over the last 3½ years. They strategically hired staff who would no longer be responsible for doing each aspect of teaching and pastoral care, but would train and resource community leaders to use their spiritual gifts to serve each other. Since making these moves to generate more momentum in their communities, the church s youth group has more than quadrupled with about 450 now attending. Generating State, National and International Influence Saint Andrews Chorleywood in the UK began hosting conferences on church planting, because they were overwhelmed by the number of churches approaching them for strategic help in church planting. In order to keep up with the requests, they recognized the need to decentralize training, and utilize technology to accelerate growth and learning. The result was the creation of a learning community to help other churches share best practices and learn not just from St. Andrews, but from each other. The group s influence is even extending internationally--a church plant in Brazil connected to Saint Andrews deployment model has just launched four "mission-shaped" communities. "The idea of giving mission-shaped community leaders that level of responsibility and ownership is new in Brazil," said Andrew Williams of St. Andrews. "By raising up new leaders to lead missional communities, they have released the potential of significantly more growth. In simple terms there is only so much growth that will arise around a single pulpit." Foreign Inspiration: What North American Churches Can Learn from European Church Planters Post a Comment View Comments Rate this Article: Average Rating: 0 Connections: Blessings in a Backpack Since joining Leadership Network's Missional Renaissance Leadership Community, Pastor Mike Kessler of Trinity Baptist Church (Mount Pleasant, TX) has observed a movement in his congregation from volunteering and invitational events to more concentrated ministry efforts. Case in point is the church's backpack program, run by Michelle Woodruff. The program provides students who would otherwise go hungry with weekend meals. The add-on benefits have been unexpected, and it's clear the program is about more than good nutrition. Search Is On: Best Book on Church Leadership We want to know what our readers are reading in the area of church leadership. Which of the many books available have you read that really
struck a chord for you? Which of those books did you recommend to your peers? In other words, what are the must-read books for church leaders on leadership? Leadership Network wants your nominations for Church Leadership Book of the Year. Submit your nomination HERE before August 25. Then, beginning September 8, we'll list the main nominees and open the polls for you to vote on the best book for church leaders. English Language Has Most Words; Chinese Second English contains more words than any other language on the planet and recently added its millionth word, according to the Global Language Monitor, a Web site that uses a math formula to estimate how often words are created. "English has the tradition of swallowing new words whole," says Paul J.J. Payack, president and chief word analyst for the Global Language Monitor. "Other languages translate." The Internet, global commerce and global travel have accelerated the trend by putting English in contact with many other linguistic groups. This has made English more rich and more complex--hence all of the new terms, he explained. Payack said he doesn't consider his to be the definitive count, just an interesting estimation based on set criteria he has helped develop. Mandarin Chinese comes in second with about 450,000 words, he adds. Christian Donors Are Nearly Double the National Average One in four (24.6%) of all U.S. donors in 2008 gave to faith-based charities, according to Campbell Rinker research. Within this group of faith-based donors, 76% identify themselves as Christian. Among Christian donors, 29% support faith-based charities, 55% plan to give the same amount in 2009, 27% to give less, and 14% to give more. On average, Christian donors gave $4,180 to charity in 2007 vs. $1,353 by donors of other religions. The amount donated by Christian donors is nearly double the national average of $2,140 for all charitable households. The Multi-Site Practicum August 17-18, 2009
Community Christian Church Naperville, IL If you are thinking of becoming a multi-site church, this is for you! The Practicum will help you and your team develop a step-by-step strategic plan for how to reach your goal of implementing multiple worship sites. Learn how to: Cast a Vision for Multi-Site Identify Key Leaders Develop a Launch Team Create an Unstoppable Culture