National New Church Conference Intensives

On Monday and part of Tuesday I had the privilege of being a part of Ed Stetzer's preconference intensive "Best Practices Forum." I learned a bunch and it was great to be with so many people from different tribes sharing how they do some things real well. I am also thankful for the old guys that have blazed the path in church planting before church planting was "in". I am talking about guys like Steve Childers of the PCA who has such a passion for redeeming North America for Jesus Christ. Or, Bill Armstrong from the Church Multiplication and Training Center, Steve Ogne and others. These are men of God and men of wisdom.

Ed Stetzer started the intensive off with sharing some research he and others have conducted about church plants from different denominations. While there were many learnings here are a few that stood out:

• Funding does not necessarily correlate to higher attendance.
• If we do not have church plants fail then we are not taking enough risks.
• Church planters and people supervising church planters must have reasonable expectations. (Most church plants are not wildly successful so quick like the stories you hear about and that are celebrated at conferences like this).
  

Steve Childers from the Presbyterian Church of America and Global Church Advancement shared best practices next.

• A Gospel centered church will be concerned with Good News for the lost (evangelism), Good News for the found (discipleship) and Good News for the city (community transformation).
• No single church in a community can fully live out all that is necessary to be a Gospel centered church. It will take all kinds of churches.

...more to come