Missio Dei Suburbia

Before You Go Out To Plant a Church

Some sound advice from my boy Keith Watson, lead pastor of New City Church in Macon, Georgia.

At the end of 2008 New City would have been considered a very successful church plant. We were pushing 150 in attendance and growing. We were connected to the city in amazing ways. The 567 was nominated as one of the city's best new businesses. Three guys were in the process of changing their entire lives in order to join us - moving from as far away as Spokane, WA.

Today those guys are here and we are creeping up to 200 in weekly attendance. I am daily amazed at the new doors opening in the city. We didn't win the best new business, but our events are at the 567 are generally a success and things are going great.

And I am exhausted.

Podcast with Tyler Jones and Daniel Montgomery

Two of my favorite men in Acts 29 are Tyler Jones - Lead Pastor of Vintage 21 Church in Raleigh, NC - and Daniel Montgomery - Founding and Teaching Pastor of Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, Ky.

Here is a recent podcast they did along with JD Greear and Sean Cordell when we were all in Raleigh a few weeks. Covers a wide range of topics and well worth your time.

Driscoll Interview at SEBTS - Culture, Planting, Pastoring

Mark Driscoll has received a lot of recent media attention due to the seemingly incongruous topics of sex and Jesus but here's a change of pace - an excellent interview done with Mark by Dr. David Nelson of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary on culture, church planting and pastoring.

Being Missional Is Trendy

Some really great stuff from The Resurgence:

Attractional and Missional by Tim Chester

The problem with a lot of attractional churches is not their missiology, but their ecclesiology. Church is seen as a meeting. Attracting means attracting people to an event or even a performance. But biblical mission is about a community life, ordinary life, lived under God’s Word that attracts people to God.

What's In a Name by Steve Timmis

The idea of missional communities has become trendy. This enables larger churches to devolve the routine stuff of church life to smaller groups throughout the week while retaining a central teaching session, usually on a Sunday. But why call them “missional” when we have a perfectly good word at our disposal in “gospel”? Gospel communities is exactly what they are: communities that are all about the gospel because they are formed by the gospel and exist for the gospel.

Gospel & Community at Work by Jonathan Dodson

Although some vocations are not as sociable as others, the gospel compels us to work for community and reconciliation. To honor, serve, and love those that are different from us, even the employees that get on our nerves. What if you became an agent of reconciliation and community in your workplace? Company morale and output would likely increase, and so would the glory of God in your life. Perhaps some repentance from go-it-alone work is in order. The rural wisdom of work swapping could take us a long way in cultivating better work, better relationships, and better communities. Wouldn’t it be great if Christians led the way?

Matt Chandler - Amen

Acts 29 - We Are A Movement

This is the last session from the A29 Boot Camp in Raleigh a couple of weeks. I thought Mark did a really nice job laying out where we seem to be going as a network. If you're part of our church and looking to learn about A29, take the time to watch this:

Driscoll on CNN

The Mark Driscoll national media tour continues - NYT Magazine, Nightline and now he's on CNN this weekend with comedian DL Hughley.

What I liked about this exchange is that Mark was able to take a dude who's going to approach a topic like sex flippantly and get his respect and open the door to a conversation about Jesus. If DL was living in Seattle, I'd lay money that he'd be sitting in one of the Mars Hill worship gatherings this weekend.

Foundations of Church Planting

Scott Thomas, Director of Acts 29, listed out seven things he would do differently if he was planting a church today. You can also approaches that list as foundations for missional, Reformed churches that plant churches.

1. Expose the gospel to the fullest extend possible in every context, relationship, conflict and teaching.
2. Connect with God as you connect with culture.
3. Develop missional communities as expressions of the gospel in as many contexts as possible.
4. Develop young men for the mission of Jesus.
5. Train leaders relentlessly.
6. Get a coach.
7. Enjoy the journey of church planting.

Read more - Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Mark Driscoll on ABC Nightline

Mark was just in the New York Time's magazine and now he's on ABC Nightline.

Good interview - can't expect much more out of one of the major networks.

Single Dudes and Church Planting

We've got a growing number of guys who are at UGA or just finished up who are seriously thinking about church planting. Most of them aren't married and would be the first to admit that there are no immediate prospects to change that in their world. Knowing how much I need my wife and love my boys, I get asked if a single man can and should plant a church. I'll let Scott Thomas, Director of Acts 29 (one of the groups we're partnered with along with the PCA), answer that question...

Parts 2 and 3...