Hello planters,
Are you doing what God wants?
Be faithful & courageous,
Peter Roennfeldt
CHURCH PLANTING NEWS – 9 Mar10 (check out www.newchurchlife.com)
Stories & news
Over 100 attend church planting summit in Western Australia: In 2006 the leaders of Western Australia’s Adventists organized the first ‘church planting summit’ with about 15 people attending – with 4 or 5 potential church planting teams. Each year support seminars have been conducted – along with an annual ‘summit.’ In 2009 approximately 45 attended the ‘summit’ – with all encouraged to return with others. Last weekend (Feb 26 – Mar 1) over 100 church planters and others seeking resources came to exchange stories, pray, worship and review principles for planting house churches, café churches, or community churches. Leader of Adventists in Western Australia, Glenn Townend, says, ‘I have the vision of the church being a movement again – and that can only happen if we are a church planting movement!’
New plant helps at ‘blue light disco’: When looking for a venue to gather a new church plant in Joondalup, on the northern beaches of Perth, David Butler-White and Gillian Michel met organizers of a ‘blue light (police) disco’. They casually asked whether they could help – thinking maybe they could help with set-up. They were told, ‘We need staff helpers!’ When they asked what that could mean, they were told that they could be there as helpers to meet the kids who come. The mission of their new church plant is ‘reach out – reach up – reach across’, and they sense that the Holy Spirit has opened a great opportunity for they to connect with where he is working in the community.
House Church – brings spiritual growth! Although fully involved in established churches, two years ago Sandi and David Maxwell faced the reality that their unchurched friends were not going to connect to God in these situations. So they started a house church in their home with their own family – and quickly observed spiritual growth in themselves and their teenage girls. Each week they start with a meal (Sat lunch) – and then spend about 3 hours in fellowship. They have learnt to include children, their unchurched friends – and see that simple fellowship around food opens the hearts of their friends to spiritual discussions. In Western Australia their Adventist denomination has appointed a pastor, Peter Fowler, to affirm and cultivate house churches. ‘We really appreciate having Peter to encourage, share ideas with,’ say Sandi & David. ‘He provides a link to established churches.’
Church Plant Keeps Multiplying: Five years ago the Koondoola church of All Nations was planted – with John Horvath as their planter and pastor. From Koondoola new believers ‘hived off’ to Queens Park to plant another new church, and then another group planted a third church into Maddington. John is now cultivating another church plant into Rivervale. Preparation for this plant has been a ‘kid’s club’ in nearby Belmont – and a breakfast club in Rivervale. Also Abby Aviles, now the planter pastor working with Koondoola and the established in Morley, has fostered a ‘3H club’ (happy, healthy, holy) for kids in Belmont. Now Abby with his churches are planting into the suburb of Ellenbrook – as well as supporting a new Pilipino church.
Kojanup Church replaces Bible class with Kid’s Club: Few of their friends ever attended their church in the Western Australian wheat-belt town. One couple living in the town suggested to other members who came in from the country that they all start a children’s club – in place of their usually adult Bible class. All agreed – and on their first day seven community families attended with 21 children!
Conversational Prayer idea from Planting Summit changes life! One participant at the Western Australian Church Planting Summit has written: ‘I’ve got to tell you … We’ve introduced this new prayer style into our family worship and the kids love the interaction in prayer – and we’re just getting more real and deeper with God than we have before.’ Being a teacher at a Christian school, this participants says, ‘… this morning I introduced it in our worship time with the staff and everyone noticed the difference. Not only with the staff, but in my Bible time with the kids, I noticed that the non-Christians felt more comfortable … Wow, I never thought that prayer could be this fun!’
Resources, websites & equipping
God’s Kingdom Growth Conference – Saturday, March 20 (2.00-6.30 pm) @ the Dandenong Adventist Church (TRANSLATED ENGLISH TO POLISH): Dialogue with Peter Roennfeldt on …
The six-steps in ‘church formation’ (gathering)!
A case-study in church planting (Acts 11)
Multiplying like Ephesus (Acts 19)
What it would mean to be a ‘planting hub’? What can a hub look like? How would we skill and release others? What do we learn from families?
For more information write to – [email protected].
Adventist Fresh Expressions Conference – May 2-8, 2010 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA) with Monte Sahlin and Peter Roennfeldt: Andrew and Mayda Clark will host the event at their church plant and community service project in Pittsburgh. You will be able to worship with their PULSE congregation on Saturday and tour the many projects they have completed in the Carnegie neighborhood—housing rehabilitation, a community park, small-business development, eradicating hunger in the community, help for teens and young adults, community organizing, etc. This is one of the most innovative outreaches in America today—the Pittsburgh Metro Initiative. For details on registration, fees, accommodation etc write to –
Monte Sahlin: [email protected]
William Peterson: [email protected] . This event is sponsored by the Pennsylvania Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and the Ohio Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
Interesting! When asked what the ‘sign’ of his second coming would be, along with wars and famines Jesus mentioned earthquakes as ‘the beginning of birth pains’ for the world (Matthew 24:7). Check this from the US Geological Survey – http://www.thehorizonproject.com/earthquakes.cfm
CHURCH PLANTING NEWS
Peter Roennfeldt