Preparation for Bootcamp

I am just finishing my preparations for the Church Planting Bootcamp class that is being held on the Trinity Western University campus in Langley, BC, Canada beginning tomorrow and running through Friday for 8 hours each day.

The Bootcamp is a relatively new training tool for church planters, sponsoring churches and denominational leaders. The goal of the instruction and Bootcamp experience is to train church planters and candidates in the essential steps that a new church progresses through as it begins, develops, launches and grows into maturity. Experienced church planters take the students through a number of different modules of instruction. The nineteen students who will be there will have read three key church planting books. I will be there as the Professor of Record to grade papers of students who take the class for credit.

While I enjoy the academic interaction, I am most looking forward to coaching the students as they interact in small group discussions and in-class application assignments. This means I will be asking them questions rather than providing answers. My goal in coaching is to help them develop the church that God has already planted in their heart. I go as a Barnabas, an encourager and helper who, like the character in the New Testament, helped Paul become the great Apostle, New Testament author and church planter.

What a great privilege it is to be a helper in the ministry of multiplying new churches that will reach new people who will become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.

You can read more about the Church Planting Boot camp experience at http://www.efcastartchurches.org/boot-camp/

Church Planters I Know

As I develop my new ministry as a church planting coach, it’s encouraging to know the “who” of my work in God’s kingdom. Here’s a new and growing list of “front line” warrior-servants in God’s army with whom I am beginning to work.

Chad is a young 30something who is attempting to plant a church in British Columbia. He is married with two little sons and another child on the way. After serving as a youth pastor in existing churches, he sensed it was time to begin working on a dream that God has put in his heart years ago, a vision for a new church that will reach those who long for true community and a life-changing experience with God. Chad is sacrificing the security of an established ministry with its accompanying salary and benefits for a low-paying, part-time job, some personal support raising and lots of faith and courage. He and his wife are very appreciative to have a coach to come alongside them in their faith-stretching journey.

Mike is another 30something who is currently in seminary, but looking forward to planting a new church in the Seattle area. He is married with a small child and another on the way. Mike probably won’t move to the Seattle area until summer of 2011 but he is responding to coaching as if his future depended on good preparation, and it does! He too is discovering the church that God has planted in his heart. We had our first coaching session this morning in which we talked about laying a good spiritual foundation for planting, his assessment needs, how he might support his ministry and why he is thinking about a certain part and people of Seattle as his future ministry focus. This is foundational stuff for planters.

Sammy is from the Congo in Africa by way of an Uganda refugee camp. He and his wife now live in Vancouver, BC, Canada, with their six children. Yesterday Marty and I attended the first anniversary of his new church named Jesus Grace International Church, a small but growing Pentecostal church plant. I have known Sammy and his family for over a year. This is a man of God with a heart for lost people. Tomorrow we have our first coaching session. I look forward to helping him evaluate his new church and discover the knowledge and resources he needs to be a successful church planter in his new Canadian context.

We can’t wait to see who else God will connect with us and how he will use us in his kingdom. Whoever these dear people will be, they will be an answer to prayer (Matt. 9:36-38).

Making Progress in Building a Ministry Support Team

The first responses from my letter of invitation to join our Ministry Support Team are beginning to come in for which we praise the Lord.

One friend in Missouri sent us a one-time ministry support gift of $500 and a commitment to pray regularly for us. Another friend in Nebraska sent us the first installment of $25 toward a monthly support commitment and a commitment to pray regularly for us. Still another friend in Nebraska sent us their response card indicating they were not able to financially support us but would pray for us on a regular basis. And, as I mentioned in my last Blog entry, our 5-year old granddaughter gave $.35 out of her piggy bank to help support us. We know she is praying for us!

To date we have sent 122 invitation letters to people in 19 states. I am hoping to be able to add friends in Canada and to recruit friends from the church we have just started to attend.

This week I hope to begin making phone calls to follow up the letters and responses.

Enlisting Support Team members who will pray on a regular basis, especially daily or weekly, is of utmost importance. My goal is to have 100 people who will pray for us and our ministry.

We need friends, like the persistent widow in Luke 18:1-8, who won’t stop knocking on heaven’s door on our behalf and for those whom we serve in kingdom ministry. Here are some ideas on how to pray for us right now:

1.Ask the Lord of the harvest with us to send workers into his harvest fields of the Pacific Northwest and Canada (Matt. 9:36-38).

2.Pray for Marty to find a good job that fits her gifts and talents and will provide health insurance for us.

3.Pray for God to lead people to support us in our ministry as a Church Planting Coach through their prayers and finances.

4.Pray for me and other trainers and students as we make the final plans for the Church Planting Bootcamp to be held on the Trinity Western University and Seminary campus on April 26-30th.

Thank you for your prayers and your support.

Why Are You Doing This?

Last week I was asked a question by a church planter that I was coaching. The question was simple, “Why are you doing this?” Now that’s a good question and one that forces some healthy reflection.

My first attempt to answer his question went something like this: “Because I heard your story and wanted to help you.” I meant it. My heart and passion is to help church planters do well what God is calling them to do. That was the heart of Barnabas in the New Testament as he “adopted” Paul in order to disciple him in the faith and ministry and help him do what God had called him to do. And that’s why I welcome the opportunity to be a church planting coach in the Pacific Northwest. I want to be a Barnabas.

Then I added something like this, “Because I love church planters.” Marty and I have “been there and done that” and we know that church planters and their families need lots of love and understanding. Church planters and other missionaries are often targets for Satan’s attacks and for criticism by God’s own people. Those who are called by God to start and multiply new churches have to deal with the dark clouds of discouragement, depression, loneliness and unrealistic expectations. They need lots of love and encouragement. I want to be there for church planters, the pioneers of the kingdom.

But I’m writing this on Good Friday. As I reflect on the meaning of this day, I am reminded of the most important reason for why I am doing this. Jesus died for sinners like me because he loves us enough to pay the awful price of sin - my sin, and the sins of millions of people who do not yet know him personally.

Church planters are those people who carry the message of Good Friday and Easter Sunday to other people who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. As this wonderful message of the gospel spreads throughout the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada, followers of Jesus are being multiplied and new churches are being planted.

In the end, it’s all about Jesus and his kingdom. Jesus crucified, Jesus buried, Jesus raised from the dead and Jesus’ church. That’s why I do what I do. To God be the glory!

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died He for me, who caused His pain—
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?
Amazing love! How can it be,
That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine;
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine,
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
Bold I approach th’eternal throne,
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.

- Charles Wesley 1738