Supporting Church Planting Efforts in Crooks and Baltic.

Dave Glader and Central Valley Community Church (River Community's "mother church") are seeking funds for a church planting effort that is already underway in Crooks, SD.

Would you pray about whether God might be calling you to support this gospel-advancing effort?

If you would like to contribute, checks should be made to Central Valley Community Church, 800 Cressman Trail, Hartford, SD 57033 and clearly marked so that the church knows that the money is intended for the effort in Crooks.

And funds are definitely needed for the church planting effort in Baltic. If you would you like to contribute, please make checks out to Christ Fellowship and send them to River Community Church, PO Box 71, Dell Rapids, SD 57022.

Block Parties

In South Dakota, now is not the time for a neighborhood block party. Apparently that's not the case in Las Vegas. Check out Vince Antonucci's description of their block parties here. Below are some of the things he mentions:

• We have water (with Verve labels), hot dogs, popcorn, snow cones, and cotton candy (all free).
• We have face painting and tattoos for kids.
• We have a huge Bounce House.
• We have corn hole.
• We have a couple of footballs and frisbees laying around.
• We have a watermellon eating contest after the midway point.

Get 4 books for $10 at DG

So, if you haven't seen this bargain yet, you should check it out.

For $10 and free shipping if you order $25 worth of stuff you can get:

1. This Momentary Marriage
2. Finally Alive
3. Don't Waste Your Life
4. Portrait of Calvin

Stunning.

Ryan Franchuk Sermon at SDA NABC Meeting

The South Dakota Association of North American Baptist Conference churches met this past weekend. Ryan Franchuk preached a stirring message from 1 Samuel 14 on Friday night, aiming to stir our churches towards great things for the glory of God. You can hear the sermon at Central Valley Community Church's website here. The sound quality is pretty poor, but it does get better a little ways into the message.

BTW, if you are in the Columbus, NE area, consider attending Shell Creek Baptist Church where Ryan will be speaking at 9:45am. Get more info here.

New River Community Church/Christ Fellowship Website

You can check out the new website for RCC and CF here.

Here's the company we used.

Young preachers

Being in a context where we are trying to train up new pastors, I love this quote from Russell Moore and think it is exceedingly helpful and encouraging:

Young preachers, your first few sermons are always terrible, no matter who you are. If you think your first few sermons are great, you’re probably self-deceived. If the folks in your home church think your first few sermons are great, it’s probably because they love you and they’re proud of you. If it’s a good, supportive church there’s as much objectivity there as a grandparent evaluating the “I Love You Grandma” artwork handed to them by the five year-old in their family. So your first set of sermons, unless you’re very atypical, are probably really, really bad. So what?

Read the whole thing here.

BTW...I'm convinced of the old adage, "if it's gonna be bad, at least make it short". New preachers should probably aim for a sermon that is 10-20 minutes long.

HT Expository Thoughts

Clover Website

River Community Church and Christ Fellowship are in the process of launching a new website. If you are looking for a website company, check out Clover. Their websites are super affordable, offer massive amounts of storage space, and are insanely easy for anyone to design and upload information into.

October 12, 2009 Church Planting, Etc. Round up

Jeff Purswell of Sovereign Grace, who oversees the Pastors College, highlights the core convictions behind the theological training here.

Here's what I like about it: 1) He emphasizes character and spiritual growth 2) He emphasizes the role of the local church.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Acts29 Seattle church planters Andrew and Tanya Pak

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Check out a new Converge church plant--The River Church in Arkansas.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

The churches in our little network are always looking for guys who want to do ministry, get ministry experience, get mentored and in many cases get paid. Just this week, I talked to 2 people/churches who are looking for men to do ministry and to be in an apprentice-type role. And in our little network we are hoping to have a more formal pastor training program up and running in 6 months. So, if you are looking for a ministry position where you can get training and do ministry and possibly get paid, let me know! And if a formal pastoral training program (that would be an alternative to seminary) interests you, let me know!

------------------------------------------------------------------

I just talked to Dave Glader. On Thursday, he is hosting the first meeting for those interested in being a part of a church plant in Crooks, SD. If you or someone you know is interested, let me know and I'll get you in contact with Dave. And please pray for this meeting.

Church Planting News Roundup--October 8, 2009

Steve Addison reports on the state of church planting in Australia here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check out Ed Stetzer on denominationalism here.
HT Walt Moser

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Read about a new Converge church in Franklin, Indiana.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't forget the that International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church is November 8.
HT Paul Veal

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Acts29 network's Ambition bootcamp is November 10-11

The Verge Conference is in Austin, TX in February. The theme of the Verge Conference is The DNA of Gospel Movements.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

James McDonald shares the story of Harvest Bible Chapel planting churches and going multi-site here and here.

Here's one thing worth observing: He made it clear that planting churches did not help HBC with their growth problems. Every time they sent out there best leaders, the church would grow and they would develop new leaders. That seems to be a pattern of God's blessing on fruitful, church planting churches.

Check out more takes on going multi-site here.
HT 9Marks

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check out Timmy Brister take on third place evangelism here.
HT Vitamin Z

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here's what I'm excited about in ministry...

• High school guys who are going to begin mentoring/discipling middle school students.
• We had a stellar men's night of ping-pong, foosball, 4 square, pizza and conversation.
• Lots of young men in our circles who are zealous for ministry.
• The iron keeps getting hotter and hotter for some sort of pastoral training that will be an alternative to traditional seminary. If you are interested, let me know.

October 2, 2009 Church Planting Roundup

Here's a rundown of happenings and things that interest me:

Steve Addison raised the super interesting question of whether church planting movements are really an effective missions strategy. He explains that in midst of genocide, Rwanda was the most Christianized country in Africa, with 90% of the people being "Christian". Being "Christian" didn't prevent genocide.

He then posted David Watson's answer. Here's part of it:

Church planting definitely did not fail in Africa. Every denomination and independent church has succeeded in replicating their brand of church. What has failed is Gospel Planting and obedience-based discipleship. We have made converts to various flavors of religion, but we have failed to make disciples who know the mind of Christ and obey him regardless of the consequences.

Here's what I think is important for any context: church planting is not enough. In fact, church planting can be detrimental to the gospel. What's needed is the planting of the right kind of churches. In my opinion, we need churches that are God-Centered, Spirit-Empowered, Christ-Exalting, Bible-Saturated, and Outward-Focused. And of course we need to be forming real, obedient disciples.

And here's more David Watson on whether denominations can fulfill the Great Commission.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Check out the audio from the latest national Desiring God Conference here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From Brains on Fire via Steve Addison: "Movements start with a small group of deeply passionate and deeply dedicated people who believe. "

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Acts29 Louisville Church Planting Bootcamp on November 10-11

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meet an Acts29 church planter here.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's what's happening in our little network of churches: Dave Glader is talking to tons of people in Crooks about getting involved in the church planting effort there, and lots of people are responding positively. He recently met with the leadership of what will be the mother church, Central Valley Community Church. He also met with the executive of the South Dakota Association of the North American Baptist Conference in order to request funding. He preached at our church, River Community Church, in order to let us get to know him a little bit. So, things seem to be going forward. We continue to gather as pastors monthly to pray through Crooks.

And...
Several of the churches in our little network already use a pastoral apprenticeship model to help train pastors. Now there is lots of positive buzz about networking together to formalize the process and to add a focused academic component. I'm super excited about seeing pastoral and theological training becoming church-centric again.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's what I'm excited about at River Community:

• People are mentoring youth (and lots of youth are growing like mad).
• Monthly family night and a renewed interested in family discipleship.
• Life group.
• 6am men's Bible study.
• Several groups of women's Bible studies.
• Youth group activities.
• FPU class.
• Monthly women's scrapbooking.
• Upcoming men's ping-pong and pizza event.
• And lots of other activities (just like every other church, of course).