All posts by Acts

Meeting with David Nelms Al Sones and I met with David Nelms and his assistant Greg Kappas this week.  David updated us on his church planting work, and our project in Ethiopia. (Their work can be seen at www.ttionlline.org). As you know, I first met David on an airport hotel shuttle at midnight in San…

Starting a Multiplication Movement… “Pushing forward while you wait” To create a multiplication movement takes great energy. It is sort of like trying to push a car.  Once you get it rolling it moves easily, but it takes all the energy you have to get it rolling.  But starting a multiplication movement also takes waiting;…

Want to start a church multiplication movement?  Start training “hospitalitists” instead of pastors. “Christianity spreads through the hospitality of believers” During my recent hospital stay I was introduced to a new word—“hospitalist.”  When I first heard the word I thought it was a strange and awkward word; it sounded dumb.  It turns out that a…

One thing we know for certain… There is a lot we don’t know about how to multiply churches.  When I think about that I take refuge in Bruce’s statement that, “we don’t have precedent, but we do have promises.”  But here is one thing that we do know for certain: we will not multiply churches…

Develop Strategies for the Four Fields Remember that creating a church planting movement requires that we have strategies for each of the four Fields: For an Empty Field we need entrance strategies such as mapping, prayer, and planning For a Seeded Field we need Gospel strategies such as finding the person of peace and ways…

Hospitality The Kingdom advances primarily through hospitality.  That is one of the key values for church multiplication. Bruce Bennett says that hospitality is the central message of the Bible.  Hospitality is not about inviting someone to our home for dinner, it is about the way we respond to people we don’t know. It is the…

Bruce Bennett’s Report I will attach Bruce’s latest report.  He is now reporting 1.76 million members and 21000 churches.  When he was at Reframe in June Bruce was using the numbers of 1 million members and 17,000 churches.  We pray that someday we will see these kinds of numbers in the U.S. Here is his…

Go to the communities Jesus want you to go to. Jesus told us how to choose the communities in which to plant new churches. In Luke 10 Jesus sent out disciples to find the persons of peace who could assist in starting new churches. Luke explains the process this way: After this the Lord appointed…

1. Have you been where the people are? A vision for Kingdom advancement comes from being among the people.  Jesus saw the people “harassed and helpless” and “without a shepherd.”  No one can multiply the church unless they GO to where the people are and “see” them the way Jesus saw them.  ALL church planting…

Sept. 21, 2012 Training Event Summary Thank you to everyone who attended and participated in our first training event.  We had 30 people attend the training. Nineteen people signed up to try and start a training for trainers group. Thanks especially to Storm Hutchinson who taught the Xcelerate discipleship model. Remember that Xcelerate can be…