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 until we begin to train church planters.
I want to encourage you to just get started with a class to train church planters. There are people you know already and people you are going to meet in the near future who can plant a church. Just gather some people and start training them.
There are many ways to get started, but here are two ways that you can get started immediately:
1. You can use the Omega Church Planting course that is available for free from Bruce’s material. This is a five volume church planter training course that has been used to train thousands of planters around the globe.
2. You can also get started by gathering a group and using Bruce’s “Member Mobilization” materials. This is an eight week course that trains people in the basics of following Christ and assists participants to start their own group over the eight weeks. Larry and Jack have been using this in Walton, NY. After the eight weeks you will have a good idea which members of the group have demonstrated faithfulness and are worthy of investing time in formal church planter training.
Both the Omega church planting material and the Membership Mobilization course are available free on the Reframe website. Go to www.Reframeconference.com and click on “Overview” to get access to Bruce’s materials.
It is better to start a class and fail than to never have tried to multiply churches at all (or however that statement goes!)
Bruce is Returning
June 9-11, 2013 are the dates for Reframe Conference. Bruce will be returning to continue teaching us and we are working on bringing the Free Methodist Superintendent from Ethiopia to speak also. I want to encourage you to bring as many people from your church as possible to Reframe Conference. I believe that there are many people God wants to call to the ministry of church planting, but most of them are not yet aware of the need for new churches and have not yet considered the possibility that God may be calling them to plant. God calls people to ministry that see the need. Reframe is an excellent opportunity for you to help your people see the need.
Opportunity for peer learning
Do you want to share stories with others who are trying to start a church planter training class? Do you want to discover what is working and what is not working? I would like to schedule a day in the second week of December to do this. We will meet Waverly Community Church, 101 Carbondale Rd, Waverly, PA, from 10:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. This church is just a few minutes off Interstate 81.
- I am using Doodle.com to choose the best day for this meeting. Please click on this link: http://doodle.com/f355si9ttku2sfcu and select which day would be best for you to attend. I believe you will have to enter your name and then select which day(s) you would be available to attend
You are welcome to bring anyone from your church with you. Lunch will be provided.
Be With Him
“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” Luke 18:14
One of the great goals of spending time with God is to learn how to submit fully to him. As we are with him, God more and more delivers us from needing to exalt ourselves and heals us so that we can humble ourselves and submit to him in more and more areas of our life. As we submit more and more God exalts us, both in terms of giving us greater spiritual authority in the world, and in making us a more effective part of achieving his will on earth. If God is calling you to be part of a multiplication movement, he is calling you to be with him in a way that enables him to exalt you and your ministry.