Decision Card for Today's Church Plant

New tract cover

Should we order a case for our plants?


from http://betweenthetimes.com/2009/04/23/front-cover-of-a-new-gospel-tract-published-by-sebts/

This Month's CPN

We will be meeting at the Acts 2 House in Roanoke once again for April's CPN meeting. We will share, and discuss items that you feel are relevant and helpful to our planting efforts, but our main topic of discussion will be "The Priority of Preaching?"

The basic application is similar to last month's- how are we going to organize and prioritize our resources as we begin our church plants, whether those resources be monetary or time, etc.?

If the Sunday morning message is simply one of several means by which we draw crowds, then perhaps it should be put on the back burner and not even bothered with until some time down the road- and, even then, not given a priority of time- not to mention the style of preaching and sermonizing would be chosen based upon what is most appealing to the non-Christian crowds we are seeking to reach.

However, if the sermon is the main course that God uses to build up the saints, then we are talking a whole different perspective with different priorities which will affect time use, personnel development, how we present ourselves to the community, how the Sunday morning is orchestrated (is it primarily evangelism and crowd gathering or is it primarily equipping the saints?), etc.

All this is to say that I think this is a very practical question for church planters to wrestle with.

Please do some thinking, reflecting, and come prepared to make your case with suggestions for reading, etc.

Thanks,
Doug

I don't tend to get discouraged in ministry...

This is an excerpt from an interview that C.J. Mahaney did with David Powlison. If you don't know either of these men, you should get acquainted. The interview in full can be found here.

Where in ministry are you most regularly tempted to discouragement?

I don’t tend to get discouraged in ministry. I think that I was convinced early on that evil is incomprehensibly deep and tangled, and that life is shadowed by death. The fewer the illusions, the less prone to disillusionment. Jesus came for all this sin and suffering, continues to enter in with light, mercy and power into imperfect and broken lives, will return to make right all that is wrong. “Tis mercy all, immense and free….” Kyrie eleison. I do get discouraged simply as a man, by my own shortcomings, lovelessness, and weakness/astheneia. But time after time the place of discouragement has become the door for the mercies of Jesus to delight and refresh me.