Message or Relationship

We are bombarded by messages each day: email, commercials, billboards, sales pitches. We know how to spot hype and mile a way. We get a sense that something is wrong when someone misuses our relationships to lure us into multi-level marketing scams. So, why do we try to start churches the same way? Relational church planting is about building authentic relationships with people because God loves them and we are trying.

Please listen to the following podcast and post your comments regarding "Message or Relationship"

Gabcast! The Church Planting Podcast #5 - Message or Relationship

20th Century churches focused on the message. Twenty-First Century humans are bombarded with messages everyday. We delete or ignore most of the messages that are sent to us, except for the relational ones.

For more on relational church planting, check out: http://everywherechurch.com/ and Hanging out on the EDGE

Mega or Micro?

So, are we advocating mega churches or micro churches?  Yes!

Alex McManus has an excellent post on his blog: Mega Church and Home Church Networks: Twin Trajectories and Why We Need Them Both.

So, What is a Simple Church?

November 1, 2006
10a.m. -3:00 p.m.
Apopka, FL
Free Event
Register Online

Quite simply, a simple church is one that focuses on loving God, loving people and making disciples of Jesus Christ. Simple does not necessarily mean small. Some simple churches are small and some are quite large. Simple does mean uncomplicated.

Sometimes we get so busy doing church that we fail to equip people to be the church in daily life. Simple churches evaluate all that they do in terms of loving God, loving people and making disciples. They stop doing or don’t do things that hinder them from fulfilling the mission of Jesus.

Simple Church Planting is all about intentionally multiplying churches that focus on keeping the main thing the main thing. In some contexts, simple churches will launch large with a paid staff and a full slate of mission opportunities. In many others, they will start as single-celled organisms that multiply quickly. Regardless of size, the principles are the same.

You are invited to spend 5 hours on November 1st with some simple church planters and others who want to learn. Simple Church Planting is not an event, it is a collaboration of people on mission together to evangelize Central Florida and the world with the good news that God came near. If you are interested in joining us click here for more details.

Marketplace Networking/Training Opportunity

Westpoint Fellowship Church is hosting their 1st business leadership conference to connect with and serve the business leaders of the Central Florida region. On November 14th, participants will get to sit in on a live simulcast as though in a board room doing Q and A with Jack Welch, Marcus Buckingham, Stephen R. Covey, and Ken Blanchard. This is a one-of-a-kind event that will have thousands of participants all across the country and in 32 countries. Westpoint is the host for Central Florida.

If you would like to participate, you have 2 options:
· You can view it live @ St. Paul's Presbyterian across from West Oaks Mall from 11 to 5 on November 14th. The cost is $100 per head or $75 per head for a group of 10 or more. Admission includes the in-depth learning experience, networking discussions and opportunities with other business leaders, an application workbook, lunch, a free gift, and the change to win a door prize.
· You can pay to have the feed streamed into your own conference room and have a private day with your own team.
This is an awesome chance to network with other business leaders in the community, as well as be challenged by 4 premier and proven national business leaders. For all the details, go to www.higherlevel2006.com. All proceeds go toward WFC being the church in the marketplace.
To find out more about how WFC is being the church in the marketplace, surf through Restoration Concept's website and share the vision with your friends in the marketplace.

Collaborate with Google Docs

OK, this is really cool and revolutionary. Google has released their online word processor aka writley. The new release, known as Google Docs is integrated with Google's online spreadsheet. With docs and spreadsheets, you can invite others to collaborate with you on a project and keep the project private. Each user logs in with their own Google account. Revisions are tracked, so it is easy to revert to previous versions. You can also publish your work to a unique url so that it can be viewed by anyone online, but not changed. The really cool thing is that you can track all changes via rss feed.

Simple Church Planting

Simple Church Planting Conference
November 1, 2006 10:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Camp Joy Chapel

I am excited to announce the line-up for Simple Church Planting at Camp Joy on November 1st. Alex McManus will get us started at 10:00 with “Effective Evangelism." He will be followed by Neil Hughes with a session on “Reproducing Disciples.” During lunch, we will hear testimonies of some local guys who are planting simple churches in Central Florida. The afternoon session will kick off with none other than our own Jim Collins talking about “Multiplying Leaders.” We will wrap things up with Mark Weible and Mike Hoffmann encouraging “Organic Development.”

We will have a cash book table with copies of Beyond Church Planting by Bob Logan, Organic Church by Neil Cole, Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Revolution by George Barna. These resources will be available in limited supply at 75% off the retail price.

We have a limited number of spaces available for this free event. If you would like to know more or wish to register online, visit www.goba.org/cpn.

What is a Baptist Church?

Not all New Testament churches belong to a denomination. Denominations are organizations and they have the right to choose their membership. Denominations have specific requirements for membership. Here is the basic definition of a Southern Baptist Church form the 2000 SBC Baptist Faith and Message…

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.

Matthew 16:15-19; 18:15-20; Acts 2:41-42,47; 5:11-14; 6:3-6; 13:1-3; 14:23,27; 15:1-30; 16:5; 20:28; Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 3:16; 5:4-5; 7:17; 9:13-14; 12; Ephesians 1:22-23; 2:19-22; 3:8-11,21; 5:22-32; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:18; 1 Timothy 2:9-14; 3:1-15; 4:14; Hebrews 11:39-40; 1 Peter 5:1-4; Revelation 2-3; 21:2-3.

Denominations have other requirements for membership such as financially supporting the organization and physical participation.

What is a church

A good friend of mine will tell you that I am asking the wrong question. My buddy would suggest that “Who is a church?” is a better way to phrase that question. I like it, but find it awkward. I wouldn’t ask “Who is a family” or “Who is a country.” It should go without saying that a church is people. We know that, but tend to act as if a church is an organization.

In its simplest form, a church is two or three people who follow Jesus. North Americans have a hard time getting this concept, because we often look at the Bible through western, modern lenses. I was always taught that the church of Jesus began on the day of Pentecost. You know… when there was a large crowd gathered, a sermon preached and a public invitation given to follow Christ.

I have grown to understand that church began when Jesus said “Come follow me…” and a couple of guys did. Jesus modeled church with his first crop of disciples. His emphasis was on growing and multiplying disciples and not gathering crowds. Now don’t get me wrong, crowds gathered but He didn’t gather them. I’ll blog more about this later, but I have an agenda….

I want plug our conference called Simple Church Planting. On November 1st, a small group of revolutionary church planters will gather to discuss church planting principles gleaned from the New Testament. We'll meet for 5 hours at Camp Joy in Apopka, FL. This is a free event including lunch. We will interact with practitioners who are old school church planters – way old school. We will talk about how to plant churches without money, public facilities, advertising and pyrotechnics. We will discuss the issues I’ve raised in this blog and we will build lasting relationships as gospel partners. You can come to this event if you Register Online before space runs out. BTW, I have confirmation that Alex McManus will get us started in the morning session with his thoughts on effective evangelism.