I was christened as a baby, but when I made a serious commitment to Christ, I decided to get rebaptized by immersion. As Pamela commented on a previous post, salvation consists of hearing the gospel, coming to faith in Jesus, repentance, and baptism. Acts 19: 3-5 says this about Paul's encounter with some new believers… Read More
Category: Church planting
You can! If you lead someone to Christ, you baptize them. In most legacy churches, only the trained professional baptizes new believers. There is nothing in the Scriptures to indicate that only a trained professional or a leader can baptize. John 4:1-2 says this: Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more… Read More
After the last post I wrote on the Roman Road pattern of leading someone to Christ, Jared commented: "I wonder if we should be encouraging people to confess the "Romans Road", or focus more on following Jesus. Not that the two are mutually exclusive, but which ever we lead with will (purposefully on inadvertently) be… Read More
We are currently part of a fairly new simple church with about 30% new believers. The other evening, one of them mentioned that a friend had approached him to find out more about his faith. As we discussed how he might handle the situation, it became apparent that only a few of those present had… Read More
"I've seen several cases of cholera today," the Red Cross worker said, "and two yesterday." Our hearts sank. We knew what that meant. We were at the beginning of a cholera epidemic. Several cases today meant a dozen tomorrow, and in a few days there would be hundreds. We were in Mozambique. It was the… Read More
The church is built on the foundations of the apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20). How do they work together? Neil Cole says prophets see the destination; apostles develop the route to get there. Prophets hear from God. They are visionaries who see what God is doing. They often receive divine intelligence that informs the strategy… Read More
Mega churches are starting missional communities in many areas around the country. (Exponential, the largest conference available for church planters, has several organic church people speaking at the main sessions this year –I've even been asked to take a workshop!) But I haven't yet heard that many stories from slightly smaller churches. However, here's a great story… Read More
Why it is that very capable people do not take more initiative when it comes to things of the Kingdom? Check out this brief video. Within simple/organic church we can be like those fleas. If we are from a traditional church background, we may have become accustomed to passivity. We have become conditioned not… Read More
Many of today's simple/organic churches start when a Christian with a vision of a group meeting in a home or other culturally relevant context invites his/her friends to start a church. The problem is that usually those coming only know the person who invited them; they may not know the other people involved. It takes… Read More
There were some great comments on my last post on whether to create community at the expense of being missional. I recommend especially clicking through to Chris Jefferies article. I'd also like to respond to a couple of posts about the organic nature of mission. Few of us enjoy the prospect of programmatic mission, and… Read More