Church Planting Resources

Here are some key sites for resources, training, and more. Please remember that I may/may not agree with all the views and ideas these sites present. However, I've learned that there are many good resources, websites, books and seminars, so long as you are willing to keep what fits your ministry and discard what you can't use. As a former professor once said to our seminary class, "You don't swallow a hog whole; you always spit the bones out."

Ok, here they are...churches, networks, training ministries, and more for the church planter...

Our church site: www.stjoecommunitychurch.org Go to our resources page and look for the church planter's link. I try to keep an updated list of active church planting sites.

Church Leader Insights with Nelson Searcy Purpose Driven church planted post 9/11 in NYC, free podcast training and more.

Here are a few I browse from time to time...
Church Planting - Real Hope for the World

Growing Healthy Churches

Leading Edge Ministries - Church Planting and New Church Support lots of links to church planting resources.

National Community Church » Washington, DC

Off The Map Home Page

Steve Addison’s blog » World Changers

Steve Sjogren the early champion of servant evangelism

T O P F I V E . O R G another Steve Sjogren site

The Malphurs Group Envision Tomorrow Today church planting author referred to frequently by the North American Mission Board

Vision Quest We actually got to meet Dr. John Jackson this fall. Great encourager. Look for the link to his blog. I found him when looking for Breaking Growth Barriers on Google.

Welcome to KNCSB Downloads & other resources Great resources for mentoring, leadership training and more, developed to multiply house churches.

www.churchplantingvillage tons of resources, maintained by North American Mission Board

http://www.newchurches.com/

Sitting in Basic Training for Church Planters

I always come away challenged and changed when teaching at Basic Training. These new planters ask tough questions that force me to process what we are doing at St Joe Church.

Mat (our Life Development Pastor) is taking this training right now. We are wordsmithing our vision and mission statements, and learning how to create a communication piece to give potential partners for our church and for our future church plants.

New day for us

We begin a new day at St Joe (church). New staff member. Spike up in giving and attendance. Numerous spiritual decisions.

I am hopeful of our new day. We are poised to realize the dream we had when St Joe first began. After several months of stagnant growth and flat attendance, we are now on the rise.

This has not been without problems. Every time we push forward we experience magnified problems. As we initiate the leadership process defined since our inception, there has been some pushback.

Overall, I am extremely excited about our immediate future!