Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Myth Busters: New Church Survivability Rate


Ed Stetzer and the North American Mission Board have busted an urban myth about new church survivability. We’ve all heard the statistics, but few have offered any research to back it up. According to Stetzer’s research, the survival rate of new churches is much higher than has been rumored.

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Thursday, February 15, 2007

Early or Probably Never

Erick is a young church planter in Lakeland, FL and member of reproducingchuches.com. He has discovered a central truth in church multiplication – build reproduction into the life-blood of the church early. Check out his entire post at muse.voxtropolis.com:

The DNA of a new church plant, even before its launch, should be actively
seeking to identify new leaders in other areas within the same geographical
location or abroad to help support financially and with sweat equity. Reason
being that a healthy church plant gives itself away, not the other way around.
It doesn’t take a few years to establish itself, but at its conception it is a
selfless entity. The organization of the church plant should model to it’s
constituents that they too are a temporary resource for that gathering and
ultimately as much responsible for leading and furthering the kingdom.
Furthermore, every person who has connected in a love relationship with Christ
should be viewed as a potential church and sending agent, not a faithful member
or contributor.

Good stuff, Erick, I couldn’t agree more!