Hello Church Planters,
Healthy churches multiply. Last week more than 20 new young adults chose to join Alfa Gospel Praises, which is at the heart of an innovative approach to church planting for postmoderns in the Záb?eh, Czech Republic. Alfa Gospel Praises has multiplied out of the Nová Šance plant. “It is impacting our town,” Martin Veselý, church planting coordinator for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, told me by Skype. “More than 60 community people – parents and young people – came to an Alfa Gospel Party to hear what Alfa Gospel Praises is all about. There was plenty of music and good food.” On Saturday many observed an immersion baptism for the first time.
The short stories in this NEWS will inspire. I have kept them short to make them easier to scan quickly. Learn more about The Kingsway@ the Queensway, the vision of the next 1,000 church plants in Australia and the excitement of a church planter who has led her own family to Jesus. And, check out the equipping events, websites and resources available. What do you need to do to make your church plant a multiplying plant?
Peter Roennfeldt
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CHURCH PLANTING NEWS – 19 Sept 06
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NEWS STORIES –
· Pub Church Continues!
· Church Planter Leads Her Family to Jesus!
· First Child Dedication at Re:vive
· Church Plant Throws Party for City!
· Frogs for Father’s Day
· Launch of Next1000 in Australia
· 200 Dutch Planters in Germany
· Participation in the Autumn Festival
· Insights from the Anglicans – Is it time to move out of church buildings?
· Student Church Plant in Ljubljana
· New Life on the Mornington Peninsula
· French Pastors & Leaders Visit Dutch Church Plants
RESOURCES, WEBSITES & EQUIPPING EVENTS –
· INNOVATIONewsletter (USA)
· Re-Church Network Gathering (USA)
· EMPOWER meeting (Western Australia)
· Mission Churches (Queensland)
· Helpful Websites
· House Church Resources (Australia)
· CONNECT
· GODencounter Retreats (USA)
NEWS STORIES –
Pub Church Continues! ‘The Kingsway @ the Queensway’ (the name of the pub in Scunthorpe, England) has been running since mid-January, every Saturday at 3 pm. “We have 7 regulars besides the Café Church team,” say planters Isobel and Bryan Webster. “The last two weeks we have had a further 6 new visitors, including two gentlemen who came up from the pub with their pints. They have said that any time they’ve been to church before, they’ve felt they had to pretend they didn’t drink or have any bad habits.” It is very informal – but Bryan is teaching his way through Ephesians, they sing from worship CDs and pray for each other. They have had anointing – and will have their first Lord’s Supper in a couple of weeks.
Church Planter Leads Her Family to Jesus! Imagine the excitement of church planter Ermira Kollarja who has had the joy of leading her parents, a sister and brother to Jesus – and preparing them for their baptism a week ago. Guests for a day of celebration held at the Ali Demi church plant (Tirana, Albania) included Steve Wilson who was the founding planter of Ali Demi and is now planting in Dublin, Ireland.
First Child Dedication at Re:vive. “The mother comes to our seeker services and the father comes to some social events and they are both in a small group,” explains Fiona Selvage from re:vive (Grantham, England). “The two girls one aged 12 the other 2 go to re:vive youth and re:vive kids. The parents wanted the girls christened and it was explained to them about dedication. They were happy with that so one of our seeker services was solely dedicated to a child dedication. The 12 year old girl had the dedication explained to her and then she was given the option which she was more than happy to go through with. The family had other family members come and join them. After the service we all had a meal together followed by a family games night – all in the scout hall that we hire. It was a really great day.” Church
Plant Throws Party for City! “A few months ago one of our young adults came up with a brilliant idea to throw a party in downtown Seattle,” says Matthew Gamble – teaching pastor for the church plant called 24-SEVEN (see www.24-SEVEN.org ). “She had a desire to show the people of Seattle that they could still have fun, minus the alcohol. As she shared her vision with the rest of the young adult group that she is involved with called The Well, the passion began to spread. Next, they needed money. Did they come to the pastors or the church? No. They decided to hold an auction-banquet. It was there, after obtaining many amazing items to auction from private people and businesses that they raised over $7,000USD in one night! I could hardly believe my eyes! Then on July 29th, they threw a party that they called Bold Face Hype in a venue located right in the heart of the Seattle party scene. They offered free sodas and juices, sushi, and live music (three of 24-Seven’s resident bands played). They created an environment where relationships were formed. Over 85 people registered that night that were unaffiliated with our church. Once again, I saw a team of young people take the church to the people!”
Frogs for Father’s Day: Loren Pratt, planting Northpoint (close to Melbourne’s airport), reported that they had a very positive community response to their door-to-door visitation on Father’s Day – giving out chocolate frogs!
Launch of Next1000 in Australia: In the last couple of months the vision of another 1,000 churches being planted in Australia has been growing. A simple email was sent out to those who might be interested, stating, “We have a vision for the next 1,000 churches. Who wants in?” This short notice resulted in about 30 key people turning up in Sheffield (Tasmania, Australia) to share a vision of what an Australian church planting movement could look like. “We threw ourselves headlong into prayer and worship,” reports Steve Addison – one of the facilitators. “We got out the whiteboard, the butcher paper (Australian for big sheets of paper), the Post-it notes and pens – and did some serious thinking and planning.”
200 Dutch Planters in Germany: In the last week of July over 200 Dutch church planters and friends went to Friedensau (Germany) for inspiration and equipping. The theme was In Step with God’s Passion. Rudy Dingjan reports that there were 8 workshops of 14 hours each. Most planting teams joined Ian Hamilton in his track called ‘Refocus – and other workshops included: Sharing faith with Muslims, Giving Bible Studies, Revitalising Your Church, Personal Evangelism, Drama, Church Planting and Small Groups. Participation in the Autumn Festival: On Saturday September 2 the people of Lofoten (a delightful, small community in northern Norway) celebrate the end of the Autumn Festival. Arne-Kristian Andersen, pastor of the Adventist church, reports that all the churches on the island met on the lawn outside the Adventist church at 12.00 noon for a musical worship time – providing the festival crowd with an opportunity to share in music and testimonies. (Note: It is time for church plants and new groups to get all plans in place for Christmas programs for their communities.)
Insights from the Anglicans – Is it time to move out of church buildings? Peter Jeynes (pastor and church planter from Middlesbrough, England) is always after new ideas. He has learnt that the evangelical Anglicans at St. Barnabas Church in Middlesbrough hold their regular Sunday evening 6:30 service in a hall away from their perfectly serviceable church building for they have found that unchurched people won't go into a church – but they will go to a hall next to the church. The group is active and growing. Another Anglican friend (engaged in village outreach) finds that he can get a large crowd into a tent in the village next to the church – but hardly any into the village church.
Student Church Plant in Ljubljana (Slovenia): Planning for a new student church in Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia, has been ongoing for over a year. This new church will be ‘launched’ in October. “We have a place in the centre of the town for a cheap price,” says Gorazd Andrejc. “We plan to have many community seminars and workshops, such as how to study abroad, how to build a web home-page and how to live a successful life and cope with stress. Every month or two we will have a spiritual celebration.”
New Life on the Mornington Peninsula: Heather & Ken Raymond have been visiting friends and SEARCH contacts in their neighborhood (On the south-eastern side of Melbourne) – and now have a group meeting in their home on Saturday mornings. They meet at 10 am, work their way through a Prophecy Seminars and share lunch together. There is another group of 8-10 people a short distance away that could form into a second group.
French Pastors & Leaders Visit Dutch Church Plants: During this northern summer 18 people (12 pastors and 6 members) went to the Netherlands – where they visited 10 of the new Adventist church plants. “They came back very excited about the church planting concept,” says planter and planting coordinator, Pierre Kempf. “It's a good thing for France.”
RESOURCES, WEBSITES & EQUIPPING EVENTS –
INNOVATIONewsletter (USA): INNOVATION is hosting a National Conference on Innovation (USA) – 1-3 October 2006. For more details write to [email protected]
Re-Church Network Gathering (USA): Following the National Conference on Innovation (1-3 October) there will be a Re-Church Network gathering (3-4 October) for pastors and leaders of faith-based ministries to discuss change in the church with Alan Roxburgh – author of The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World. For more information call (800) 272-4664 or go to www.re-church.org.
EMPOWER meeting (Western Australia): For those interested in training and inspiration for church planting – the next EMPOWER will be held at the North Perth Seventh-day Adventist Church, (7 Oct 06, 3:30 – 6:30 pm). For more details contact Phil Brown [email protected] .
Mission Churches (Queensland): For pastors, planters, churches or groups that wish to be healthy or multiplying – there will be two days of training (Sept 23 & Nov 11) at The Pines Training Centre (near Brisbane, Australia). The training will be conducted by Colin Stoodley – the associate director of the centre. For more details contact Colin Stoodley by email [email protected] or phone 07 54775070. (A great definition of missional churches is that they are reproducing – reproducing disciples, leaders and congregations.)
Helpful Websites:
• NxCD: For excellent ideas on developing Natural Church Development principles in emerging churches and groups go to http://www.ncd-australia.org.au/nxcd/imagine.php
• Leadership: For leadership ideas go to http://www.pastors.com/pcom/leadership/LeadershipSkills.asp House Church Resources: Check out the OIKOS newsletter at www.oikos.org.au or email [email protected]. Phil Brown (coordinator for Adventist church planting in Western Australia) recommends these books –
• Rad Zdero, The Global House Church Movement (2004)
• Felicity Dale, Getting Started and An Army of Ordinary People
• Tony & Felicity Dale, Simply Church
• Wolfgang Simpson, Houses that Change the World
CONNECT: cat/a/lyst is the cyber communiqué of the CONNECT network, a grassroots movement of young adults committed to revealing Jesus Christ to the world and each other. You can subscribe at http://saltyfish.net/listserv/
GODencounter Retreats are springing up across the USA. Here are opportunities to deepen your passion for Jesus and gather with other young adults who share your reckless pursuit of GOD. To find out more about this young adult spiritual movement go to www.GODencounters.org or write to A Allan Martin, [email protected]