Recently I met with Mark McGeever, the lead for SENT Network out of Annapolis, MD. They have planted four churches since they started 3 years ago. Downtown Hope in Annapolis illustrates there vision for new churches. Downtown Hope, led by Pastor Joey Tomassoni, has a culture of focusing on encouraging believers to develop relationships and take initiative to reach out to people in their neighborhood and their circle of influence.
They have seen many far from Christ begin to search and many make decisions to trust Christ with their lives. They have developed small discipleship groups to develop these new believers in their faith and impart to them the same vision for being "missional" in their sphere of influence.
Mark and I met with Tally Wilgis of Captivate Church in the Towson area of Baltimore and Scott Ancarrow who just moved to the Federal Hill area of Baltimore to plant a church. Most new churches start in the suburbs. But the most difficult areas to reach are the older established communities of the city. With Accelerate we want to bring together pastors to pray and brainstorm how to best reach their communities.
Pray for Mark who is training new planting pastors.
Pray for Tally who is seeking to reach people far from Christ.
Pray for Scott as he and his wife gather a core to start a church.
Pray for Joey who is discipling new believers.
Pray for me and Accelerate as I seek to be an encouragement and catalyst to planting pastors.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Every month I highlight a new church plant and their ministry to reach people with the message of jesus Christ. One pastor friend is Sam Sadek of the Arabic Baptist Church in Manassas. Read this quote from his latest letter.
"A Muslim Moroccan lady came to know Christ after many months of questions and searching at a home Bible study over the last two years. She has been interested in Christianity for a long time, but had many struggles with Christian teaching, especially the doctrine of the Trinity. Since she was saved, she has been attending our worship service faithfully every Sunday, driving more than 50 miles one way despite the hardship and danger that her Muslim family could pose if they knew she was a follower of Christ. She has been growing in the Lord through the teaching of the word every Wednesday morning with a group of believers, some of whom are also former Muslims."
Pray for Sam and his church as they seek to reach Arabs for Christ. They also ask for prayer for the Christians in Egypt who suffer great persecution under the Muslim Brotherhood.
"A Muslim Moroccan lady came to know Christ after many months of questions and searching at a home Bible study over the last two years. She has been interested in Christianity for a long time, but had many struggles with Christian teaching, especially the doctrine of the Trinity. Since she was saved, she has been attending our worship service faithfully every Sunday, driving more than 50 miles one way despite the hardship and danger that her Muslim family could pose if they knew she was a follower of Christ. She has been growing in the Lord through the teaching of the word every Wednesday morning with a group of believers, some of whom are also former Muslims."
Pray for Sam and his church as they seek to reach Arabs for Christ. They also ask for prayer for the Christians in Egypt who suffer great persecution under the Muslim Brotherhood.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Five Evaluation Questions for Your Church Plant (or soul)
by Marty Schoenleber Jr
17Jul, 2012
Five Evaluation Questions for Your Church and You
Allow yourself to be impressed with this fact and impress this fact upon your core group for your church plant or your church. People all around us need the gospel. And they need us to love them enough to tell them about Jesus. Let this fact bend your knee to God for the boldness to proclaim the gospel unashamedly.
“The United States is now the third largest mission field in the world. Only India and China have more non-believers.” —Mission America Monthly
Companion Post: How to Fall in Love with Pagans
17Jul, 2012
Five Evaluation Questions for Your Church and You
- Does your church (and you) love pagans?
- Does your church know any pagans?
- Do the people in your church know how to meet pagans?
- Do the people of your church know how to talk to pagans?
- Do the people of your church know how to care for pagan?
Allow yourself to be impressed with this fact and impress this fact upon your core group for your church plant or your church. People all around us need the gospel. And they need us to love them enough to tell them about Jesus. Let this fact bend your knee to God for the boldness to proclaim the gospel unashamedly.
“The United States is now the third largest mission field in the world. Only India and China have more non-believers.” —Mission America Monthly
Learning to Care for Pagans
15Jul
Monday Discussion
Five foundational principles to transform your relationships with non-Christians.Cultivate the value of caring. Luke 10:25-37 —Many of us think that we care for others because we have no animosity toward others. But Jesus knows better. He knows that caring is only proved in the willingness to sacrifice for others. We are all familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan but the pivotal interpretive clue for why Jesus told the parable is in verses 25-29, especially verse 29. Take a look. Real care is sacrificial and costly.
- Emphasize Obedience. Emphasize obedience in your own life and in the lives of those you equip. Basic, generous hospitality is not an issue of giftedness or talent, it is an issue of obedience. We are to consider others as more important than ourselves. Period. (Cf. Phil. 2:3)
- Be Real. Authenticity is a rare quality these days. Just be yourself. There is no need to be mushy or maudlin but there is a need to be genuinely concerned and caring. Neighbors respond with good favor when they are shown basic kindness. Retrieving a wind-tossed recycle bin, tomatoes from a garden, prayer offered for comfort when a loved one has died, shoveling a sidewalk or driveway, are all simple gestures but they open doors to greater things.
- Be Boldly and Humbly Confident. The two qualities are not mutually exclusive. We should be bold (and praying for boldness) all the time on the basis of the truth of the gospel. But we also should be saturated with humility. God saved us; we didn’t save ourselves. We have no claim to greatness. Humility is disarming. Care is disarming. Unashamed boldness coupled with humility is attractive.
- Know that You Will be Ripped Off. After having numerous homeless men stay in our home I can tell you that not every situation has a happy ending. Getting ripped off or taken advantage of will happen. It’s part of the price of living for Jesus. But you will be surprised too by the generosity and thankfulness of some of those you seek to care for and reach for the sake of Christ.
Companion Post: How to Fall in Love with Pagans
Friday, July 13, 2012
The Value of a Sabbatical
by Shawn Lovejoy
Many of you know that my family and I were away on a Ministry Sabbatical. Why did we need a Sabbatical? The word Sabbath, of course, means rest. That's what we needed this month. I actually do believe that Senior Pastors need MORE of it, because of the tireless schedules and demands on us. Every year, as soon as school is out, my entire family pulls back a good bit for a few weeks. We use this time to rest, replenish, and re-energize for the Fall!
What did I do on Sabbatical?
Shawn Lovejoy
Shawn Lovejoy is Lead Pastor of Mountain Lake Church; Directional Leader of churchplanters.com; and
author of The Measure of Our Success: An Impassioned Plea To Pastors.
Many of you know that my family and I were away on a Ministry Sabbatical. Why did we need a Sabbatical? The word Sabbath, of course, means rest. That's what we needed this month. I actually do believe that Senior Pastors need MORE of it, because of the tireless schedules and demands on us. Every year, as soon as school is out, my entire family pulls back a good bit for a few weeks. We use this time to rest, replenish, and re-energize for the Fall!
What did I do on Sabbatical?
- I rested. Truly rested.
- I played with my kids.
- I hung out with my wife.
- I read. A lot. I read three books while I was away and started two more.
- I still did some work. It was just more of the Strategic and futuristic stuff. I worked ON IT, not IN IT. This kind of work inspires me, not drains me!
- I actually exercised some!
What made it
replenishing?
- I didn't teach for three weeks in a row. I finally miss it!
- I got away from home. When I'm at home, I can't relax like I want.
- I went to places where I wouldn't feel like we needed to "run" all the time (aka Disney World is not a great Sabbatical destination).
- I spent extended time with God each day. God and I had some great, unhurried, heart to heart'
What did I learn while on my
Sabbatical?
- Jesus can run His church without me. HE is bigger than ME!
- We have a dream team of leaders on our Staff these days who can lead well in my stead!
- God is louder in my life when I am away from the daily grind!
Shawn Lovejoy
Shawn Lovejoy is Lead Pastor of Mountain Lake Church; Directional Leader of churchplanters.com; and
author of The Measure of Our Success: An Impassioned Plea To Pastors.
Friday, June 22, 2012
4 reasons why you'd better discover and deliver the one big idea as a communicator
Rick Duncan
Aside from receiving an anointing and filling from the Spirit of God, what is your biggest challenge in public speaking? Finding content? Overcoming nervousness? Maintaining interest? Staying passionate? Sharing illustrations?
These are all important factors. But not the most important.
When we are giving a presentation / message / talk it's important to establish and then relentlessly communicate one compelling big idea. All the other ideas we share should flow out of that one. When teaching a paragraph from the Bible, we have to study the passage so thoroughly that we discover what the one big idea was for the original audience. Then we are ready to teach the idea - the truth - to our people.
Why is this so important?
1. The big idea makes us relevant.
Once we discover the big idea we can communicate it in a compelling way that actually connects with our audience. We must seek to understand and care about the hurts, fears, and hopes of our listeners. Once that happens, them we can "marry" the big idea to the real needs of our people.
2. The big idea keeps us focused.
If we don't uncover and communicate the one big idea, then we will simply be stringing together a bunch of unrelated, rambling comments about the text. And we will doing a real injustice to the Spirit's inspiration through the author of the text. Scripture doesn't violate the principles of literary structure. Paragraphs in good literature have a subject and a complement - one big idea. There were not two or more big ideas in a paragraph for the original audience and there are not two or more big ideas in a paragraph now.
3. The big idea helps us study.
Once we know the big idea, we can find content, illustrations, applications, and supporting texts that truly support the one point we are seeking to make. Identifying the big idea will make it easier to eliminate the material we will inevitably find that won't help us make the point.
4. The big idea gives us passion.
Once we know the big idea and connect it to the needs (felt or unfelt) of the audience, our passion will grow. We will care. We will clearly see that what we are saying matters to the people in the room. Scattered, rambling communication lessens passion. Focused, pointed communication increases zeal.
We want to hit the hearts of people with a sniper-like rifle shot of truth, not the scattered buckshot approach of a running homily method of communicating.
Finding the big idea and connecting it to the people in relevant ways is sometimes easy but often tough for me. I need the prayers of God's people to communicate God's word in clear, practical, and relevant ways. Please pray for me and for anyone you know who seeks to communicate God's truth.
Question: Apart from gaining the anointing and filling of God's Spirit, what do you think is the most difficult task in communicating?
Aside from receiving an anointing and filling from the Spirit of God, what is your biggest challenge in public speaking? Finding content? Overcoming nervousness? Maintaining interest? Staying passionate? Sharing illustrations?
These are all important factors. But not the most important.
When we are giving a presentation / message / talk it's important to establish and then relentlessly communicate one compelling big idea. All the other ideas we share should flow out of that one. When teaching a paragraph from the Bible, we have to study the passage so thoroughly that we discover what the one big idea was for the original audience. Then we are ready to teach the idea - the truth - to our people.
Why is this so important?
1. The big idea makes us relevant.
Once we discover the big idea we can communicate it in a compelling way that actually connects with our audience. We must seek to understand and care about the hurts, fears, and hopes of our listeners. Once that happens, them we can "marry" the big idea to the real needs of our people.
2. The big idea keeps us focused.
If we don't uncover and communicate the one big idea, then we will simply be stringing together a bunch of unrelated, rambling comments about the text. And we will doing a real injustice to the Spirit's inspiration through the author of the text. Scripture doesn't violate the principles of literary structure. Paragraphs in good literature have a subject and a complement - one big idea. There were not two or more big ideas in a paragraph for the original audience and there are not two or more big ideas in a paragraph now.
3. The big idea helps us study.
Once we know the big idea, we can find content, illustrations, applications, and supporting texts that truly support the one point we are seeking to make. Identifying the big idea will make it easier to eliminate the material we will inevitably find that won't help us make the point.
4. The big idea gives us passion.
Once we know the big idea and connect it to the needs (felt or unfelt) of the audience, our passion will grow. We will care. We will clearly see that what we are saying matters to the people in the room. Scattered, rambling communication lessens passion. Focused, pointed communication increases zeal.
We want to hit the hearts of people with a sniper-like rifle shot of truth, not the scattered buckshot approach of a running homily method of communicating.
Finding the big idea and connecting it to the people in relevant ways is sometimes easy but often tough for me. I need the prayers of God's people to communicate God's word in clear, practical, and relevant ways. Please pray for me and for anyone you know who seeks to communicate God's truth.
Question: Apart from gaining the anointing and filling of God's Spirit, what do you think is the most difficult task in communicating?
How Does Accelerate Measure Success?
I was asked the other day, "How do you measure success with Accelerate?"
To determine this we must look at our mission, who we serve, what they need and our vision
We Serve: church planting pastors
Our Vision:
Healthy church planting pastors developing healthy reproducing churches resulting in
What Church Planters Need:
Common Best Practices for Equipping Church Planters
1. Assessment
2. Church planting training
3. Internship, residency, or church planting experience
4. Sponsoring churches involved in helping the plant
5. Administrative and strategic support
6. Coaching/mentoring relationship
7. Peer-to-peer relationships
8. Ongoing training opportunities
9. Exposure to available resources
Measuring success:
Our success will be through raising up the leaders and structures that make possible the equipping, encouragement and accountability new pastors and churches need. These are illustrated in the Common Best Practices for Equipping Church Planters. We provide some of these through coaching networks and some through creating collaborative efforts with other organizations.
We can measure:
1. Number of coaches raised up to lead coaching networks
2. Number of coaching networks
3. Planting pastors participating
4. Number of church planting churches and sponsoring churches
5. National network involvement in city
6. Survivability rate at 4 years of participants
7. Financial sustainability at 4 years of participating churches
8. Number of new churches that reproduce in 4 years
Anecdotal responses from pastors and leaders will illustrate life, church and community impact
To determine this we must look at our mission, who we serve, what they need and our vision
The Accelerate Mission is to:
Attract, inspire and equip Kingdom-minded leaders and
Connect them so they can
Collaborate with their time, talent and treasure so we
Accelerate the creation of healthy, reproducing faith communities resulting in
transformed lives and transformed communities
We Serve: church planting pastors
Our Vision:
Healthy church planting pastors developing healthy reproducing churches resulting in
transformed lives and transformed communities
What Church Planters Need:
Common Best Practices for Equipping Church Planters
1. Assessment
2. Church planting training
3. Internship, residency, or church planting experience
4. Sponsoring churches involved in helping the plant
5. Administrative and strategic support
6. Coaching/mentoring relationship
7. Peer-to-peer relationships
8. Ongoing training opportunities
9. Exposure to available resources
Measuring success:
Our success will be through raising up the leaders and structures that make possible the equipping, encouragement and accountability new pastors and churches need. These are illustrated in the Common Best Practices for Equipping Church Planters. We provide some of these through coaching networks and some through creating collaborative efforts with other organizations.
We can measure:
1. Number of coaches raised up to lead coaching networks
2. Number of coaching networks
3. Planting pastors participating
4. Number of church planting churches and sponsoring churches
5. National network involvement in city
6. Survivability rate at 4 years of participants
7. Financial sustainability at 4 years of participating churches
8. Number of new churches that reproduce in 4 years
Anecdotal responses from pastors and leaders will illustrate life, church and community impact
Monday, June 18, 2012
How worship smashes the idol of lust
Rick Duncan
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (II Corinthians 3:18).
Recently, a friend trusted me enough to share with me his struggle to be free from lust. He hates the fact that he can't consistently overcome the temptation to linger long in looking at what he knows will bring momentary pleasure, but lasting shame. He knows it's hurting his marriage.
We talked about the normal approaches in the fight to overcome lustful thinking. Accountability? Check. Read Every Man's Battle? Check. Prayer? Check. Tell your spouse about your struggle to gain accountability and support? Check.
All these tools and techniques are good. They help my friend for awhile. Then he falls back into the sin that he wants desperately to overcome. His spiritually informed willpower to win isn't working.
I said, "What if your problem isn't really lust, but idolatry? Maybe what you really want is to be valued, prized, pursued, desired, and empowered. What if your fantasies run deeper than the simple rush from lust? What if what you really long for are things like being affirmed, respected, touched, received, and accepted? The lusting is rooted in the fantsy that some beautiful woman values you so much that she seeks intimacy with you. What if the problem isn't lust, but idolatry?"
An idol is something that we put in the place of God. It's something that we love, serve, and allow to dictate our behavior more than God. In the case of lust, it's not the picture that's the idol. It's the sense of vitality that comes from the fantasy accompanying the lust.
In the Old Testament, the saints of God were praised when they took down the high places of worship and smashed the idols. We have to do the same. We have to be idol smashers.
How? We repent and replace.
We receive the grace and mercy that comes from the gospel of Christ. We embrace the fact that Jesus already paid the price for our forgiveness when He died on the cross in our place for our sin. We refuse to live in shame. Past, present, and future lust has already been forgiven.
Then, we realize that that the most real, most powerful, most imporant Person, Jesus, truly values, prizes, pursues, desires, and empowers us. The King of kings and Lord of lords, Maker of heaven and earth, the Sovereign God, the Beautiful One actually affirms, respects, touches, receives, and accepts us.
We realize that we don't need the fantasy from a fake flickering image to feel vitalized. We are valued by God. Knowing that we have great worth to Christ makes lust become cheap and tawdry in our eyes. Why would we settle for a fantasy when we could have reality with God?
While reading books about freedom from lust might help, I suggested that my friend read books about Christ and the gospel. I suggested that he try The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness by Tim Keller and Hunger for God by John Piper.
Ultimately, it's worship that sets us free from lust. It will be a lifelong battle to worship the way Jesus deserves and the way that sets us free. We will have advances and set backs. But as we prize Jesus more and more, we will be set free. We will be able to say, "Christ is my all in all" and "For me to live is Christ."
We can learn to meditate on how Jesus truly values, prizes, pursues, desires, empowers, affirms, respects, touches, receives, and accepts us. We can learn to love Him more for all that. We can turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth, even lust, will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
Question: What are other idols in your life that you have seen worship smash?
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit" (II Corinthians 3:18).
Recently, a friend trusted me enough to share with me his struggle to be free from lust. He hates the fact that he can't consistently overcome the temptation to linger long in looking at what he knows will bring momentary pleasure, but lasting shame. He knows it's hurting his marriage.
We talked about the normal approaches in the fight to overcome lustful thinking. Accountability? Check. Read Every Man's Battle? Check. Prayer? Check. Tell your spouse about your struggle to gain accountability and support? Check.
All these tools and techniques are good. They help my friend for awhile. Then he falls back into the sin that he wants desperately to overcome. His spiritually informed willpower to win isn't working.
I said, "What if your problem isn't really lust, but idolatry? Maybe what you really want is to be valued, prized, pursued, desired, and empowered. What if your fantasies run deeper than the simple rush from lust? What if what you really long for are things like being affirmed, respected, touched, received, and accepted? The lusting is rooted in the fantsy that some beautiful woman values you so much that she seeks intimacy with you. What if the problem isn't lust, but idolatry?"
An idol is something that we put in the place of God. It's something that we love, serve, and allow to dictate our behavior more than God. In the case of lust, it's not the picture that's the idol. It's the sense of vitality that comes from the fantasy accompanying the lust.
In the Old Testament, the saints of God were praised when they took down the high places of worship and smashed the idols. We have to do the same. We have to be idol smashers.
How? We repent and replace.
We receive the grace and mercy that comes from the gospel of Christ. We embrace the fact that Jesus already paid the price for our forgiveness when He died on the cross in our place for our sin. We refuse to live in shame. Past, present, and future lust has already been forgiven.
Then, we realize that that the most real, most powerful, most imporant Person, Jesus, truly values, prizes, pursues, desires, and empowers us. The King of kings and Lord of lords, Maker of heaven and earth, the Sovereign God, the Beautiful One actually affirms, respects, touches, receives, and accepts us.
We realize that we don't need the fantasy from a fake flickering image to feel vitalized. We are valued by God. Knowing that we have great worth to Christ makes lust become cheap and tawdry in our eyes. Why would we settle for a fantasy when we could have reality with God?
While reading books about freedom from lust might help, I suggested that my friend read books about Christ and the gospel. I suggested that he try The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness by Tim Keller and Hunger for God by John Piper.
Ultimately, it's worship that sets us free from lust. It will be a lifelong battle to worship the way Jesus deserves and the way that sets us free. We will have advances and set backs. But as we prize Jesus more and more, we will be set free. We will be able to say, "Christ is my all in all" and "For me to live is Christ."
We can learn to meditate on how Jesus truly values, prizes, pursues, desires, empowers, affirms, respects, touches, receives, and accepts us. We can learn to love Him more for all that. We can turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth, even lust, will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
Question: What are other idols in your life that you have seen worship smash?
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