ChurchPlanting.com

I recently took the online inventory commonly referred to as the APEST put together by Alan Hirsch and company. The notion behind this quiz is that all leaders have some measure of all five of the Eph. 4 office gifts resting upon them – Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd and Teacher. Based on a series of [...]

I read a statement a while back in Dan Kimball’s book They Like Jesus but Not the Church that burned me with conviction. He asked something like, “When you go to a movie or go to hang out with friends, do you do so only with your Christian friends?” All my adult life I have [...]

I’ve been deeply challenged by the tireless efforts of the men and women that advance the cause of the “new atheism” into the empty hearts of postmodern westerners. Nature abhors a vacuum so in the absence of faith, unbelief or atheism becomes the anti-cause. The mission of these atheist crusaders is to rid the world (especially the [...]

Years ago, studies circulated that showed that new churches tended to be more evangelistic than older, more established ones. The axiom followed, “The greatest form of evangelism is the planting of new churches.” The fruit of this has been the proliferation of new churches across America. The question in the West is this: Why hasn’t the number [...]

We’ve all heard the church planting leads to evangelism but I don’t think that’s necessarily true. It’s evangelism that leads to people coming to Christ. It’s entirely possible to plant a church with next to no evangelism taking place. That’s not my original insight. Fifty years ago Donald McGavern said, “It’s entirely possible to come [...]

In my last entry – “Evangelism is not just relationship” I submitted that we must not hesitate to share the Gospel even if we don’t have a relationship with the person. My hope is to get people talking about the Gospel. Yes, preaching the Gospel to those we come in contact with. If we try to build a genuine [...]

A consistent question I often get is related to whether or not Christians should be liked by the culture.  My simple answer has been that Jesus was liked by the commoner, the peasants, and sinners.  Thus if we follow Christ, Christians should also be, for sure respected, appreciated, and yes…even liked.  This response or challenge [...]