Church-Planting Essentials Training
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Missional Training Community Church Planting Essentials Hill Country Bible Church – Round Rock MISSIONAL CHURCH PLANTING ESSENTIALS 2011 The Art and Science of Planting a Missional, Gospel-Centered Church Session #1 Seven Questions Every Church Planter Must Answer • Who is God and What is He Doing in the Universe? • Who is Man and What Does He Really Need? • What is Going on in the World (Cities)? • What is the Gospel? • What is the Church and What is Our Mission? • Who is a Leader and What is His Purpose? • Why Do We Need to Plant Churches? (Break away & prep a 7-10 minute biblical presentation) #2 The Church Planting Pastor’s Inner Life • Ridley’s 13 Characteristics -- A panel of church planters unpack the most common qualities of effective church planters. • Understanding Myself – (DiSC, Strengthsfinder Strengths Assessment, Spiritual Gifs) • The Spiritual Life of a Pastor • Developing a Prayer Network #3 Determining Your Strategy • Missional Church/Missional Living • Doing Neighborhood Research • Paul’s Gathering Strategy • Exegeting a Community • How to Study Demographics #4 Engaging Culture in Context • Engaging Culture • Establishing a Missional Community -- Missional Core Development (Gospel Enlisting, Equipping, Engaging) • Missional Gospel Networking (E-1, E-2, E-3 Relationships) • Forming the Faith Community • When is it time to Create a Structured Community of Faith (Public Worship) • Social Networking Strategies – Gathering – Tracking – Targets #5 Public Gatherings and the Structured Community • Distinguishing between Missional Core and Ministry Teams • Ministry Design -- Seven Core Systems 1) Children, 2) HUGs , 3) Worship, 4) Groups 5) Assimilation and Membership, 6) Finance , 7) Communications #6 Developing a Ministry Plan 2 • Strategic Planning (Tactical vs. Strategic Planning) • Developing a Project Plan • An Eleven Point Business Plan with Deliverables • Creating and Celebrating Mileposts • Developing a Budget #7 Developing a Comprehensive Communication Plan • Intro to Communication Planning (Website, social networking, blogging, elevator speech, timeline) • Mission, Vision, Values, Branding and Positioning • Starting with a Blog and Club Cards #8 Leading the Church • Casting Vision, Building Team, Creating Morale and Buzz • Leader Development Systems (Based upon Seven Core Systems) • New Believer Follow-up • Disciple making plan • Missional Community Leader Development • Elder enlistment, envisioning, equipping • Principles and Practices • Measuring Church Health with the 7 CMCs • Daughter to Sister Church – Becoming Part of a Movement 3 Session #1 Seven Questions Every Pastor Must Answer 1. Who is God and What is He Doing in the Universe? 2. Who is Man and What Does He Really Need? 3. What is Going on in the World (Cities)? 4. What is the Gospel? 5. What is the Church and What is Our Mission? 6. Who is a Leader and What is His Purpose? 7.Why Do We Need to Plant Churches? THE SEVEN QUESTIONS THAT EVERY PASTOR MUST ANSWER The planter needs to have clarity on the biblical imperative of planting churches, the biblical description of a local church, and the biblical values and convictions that shape church ministry. Without biblical certainty in these areas the planter will lack courage to face the task. 1. Who is God and What Is He Doing in the Universe? God’s Sovereignty and Human Responsibility 1) God is revealing himself. • General Revelation – Romans 1:18,20;Eccles.3:11 • Special Revelation - John 1:1-2,14;8:41-42;58 2) Theology is what we know about God. • Attributes- Romans 2:11; 4:21; 9:16; 9:20-21; Ps.121 • Purposes- Job 42:2; Ephesians 1:9-12;2:10 3) God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. Ultimate sovereignty is God’s. • God is the ruler of everything. I Chronicles 29:11-12 • God is the owner of everything. Job 41:11 • God is the controller of everything. Job 42:2 Immediate responsibility is ours. • Our primary responsibility is TO God, not FOR others. • To glorify God is to “enhance His reputation.” 4) God sovereignly places men... • At particular times Acts 17:26 • In particular geographies Acts 17:26 • For a particular reason: Redemption of the Nations 4 2. Who is Man and What Does He Really Need? Understanding the Doctrine of Man • Man is lost, and needs to be reconciled to God and given purpose. Ephesians 2:1-5. • Man suppresses the truth. Romans 1:18, 21, 25 • Man is stubborn, unrepentant. Romans 2:5 • Man is immoral, even perverted. Romans 1:24,26-27 • Man is self-seeking, rejects truth, pursues evil. Romans 2:8 • Man is headed for trouble and distress. Romans 2:9 • Man is unrighteous, does not understand, does not seek God. Romans 3:10-18 More than anything, people need what R.C. Sproul calls, “a revelation of the true identity of God.” When they do, they at least understand what it is they are rejecting and what is at stake. Human beings need more than practical help at being better people; they need to understand the ultimate seriousness of sin, the ultimate price that was paid so that their souls could be converted, transformed by the power of Jesus Christ. 3. What is Going On in the World? Developing a Theology of Culture and Historical Context Current Worldview Context The Post Modern World view: (from “Post Modernizing the Faith”, Millard Erikson, Franky Schaffer, Stephen Grenz.) • Detachment from Christian World view. • Disintegration of Community. • Distrust of old paradigm leadership. (access to information) • Denial of objective truth. • Dismantling of gender. • Disappointment with life. A Biblical View of Cities (from Tim Keller, “Why New York City”, 1995) • God began history in a Garden, but is ending it in a city. Hebrews 11:10; Revelation 21:10-11 • Under God, the city was designed to be a place of refuge from animals and enemies. Cities are a place of diversity where minorities, the weak and powerless are able to survive. 5 • Under Sin, the city becomes a place of refuge from God, where people with deviant lifestyles can run and hide because of the natural tolerance cities foment. • People are pouring into the cities all over the world. BELLAGIO, Italy -- Will Planet Earth be able to handle the mega-surge of people pouring into the cities of Africa, Asia and Latin America? Back in 1950, there were 2.2 billion of us, mostly spread across the world's rural areas. Today the United Nations estimates world population at 6.6 billion. Half live in cities where an accelerating human flood of rural people -- many desperately poor -- generates slums, endangers water and sewage systems, and breeds local misery and potential pandemics. If today's birthrates continue unaltered, U.N. figures suggest there could be 11.7 billion people by 2050. The problem is that the global population base has increased so radically that even seemingly modest birthrates can have momentous consequences. Cohen calculates that if we do add 2.5 billion people by 2050, and virtually all this population increase, as expected, happens in poor countries, then the world will have to build one city of 1 million people every week for the next 43 years. "Is this," he asks, "feasible -- physically, environmentally, financially, socially?" One sort of shudders at the answer. One wonders how cities will receive the news. At current trends, Sao Paulo, Brazil, for example, will need a stunning 7.5 square miles and Shanghai an even more extreme 14 square miles of new development every year . The bottom line is clear: The developing world's cities -- and the developed world's cities still expanding significantly -- must plan early, much more carefully, or expect to be overwhelmed by a virtual growth tsunami. Sheppard sees a frightening tide of population growth enveloping cities. (Neil Pierce, Copyright 2008 , Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20071 6 • In every earthly city, there are two “cities” vying for control. (See Augustine’s City of God). • We are to redeem human families by spreading within them the family of God, so we are to redeem human cities by spreading within them the City of God. Why the Austin Region is strategic • Education: “Texas--What starts here changes the world.” • Technology: Dell, Freescale, et al • The Arts: Recently surpassed San Francisco as the #1 most creative city in the U.S. • Politics: Seat of State Government in one of the most populous states in the union, with an emerging Hispanic majority. • Spiritual Need: 8% evangelical, 83% unchurched. 4. What is the Gospel? Understanding Redemption Dallas Willard, Celebration of Discipline, chapters 1-3 “Bar Code Christianity” Tim Keller, “The Gospel in All its Forms,” Leadership Magazine, Spring 2008, p.75, Each Resident will make his own gospel presentation Residents will review and report on Willard and Keller EDIT THIS: See Hugh Halter’s Questions from Tangible Kingdom • Why are you planting your church? • Now describe how people are going to get to heaven. • And what will their appropriate response be? • How will you know they made that response? • Where will this transaction take place? • You are going to start a church so that you can preach the gospel, hope they believe your message, pray a prayer, and go to heaven? • What is the gospel? • So salvation is viewed as a gift you receive when you pray a prayer…and non-christians are those who are doomed to hell for eternity because they haven’t yet said the prayer? • This beautiful eternal wildly awesome place is only for those who have prayed a prayer. And hell, the fire, gnashing teeth, eternal torment is for everyone who didn’t come to your church, hear your sermon and pray the prayer? • “We have to be honest with ourselves and realize that if the message isn’t attractive, and the people of God aren’t attractive, then we must not be telling the story right, or we aren’t living the story correctly.