Church Planting with a Purpose
The Gospel when centralised and grasped in a persons life can be infectious and a surefire way of hardening peoples hearts or melting hearts. The puritans believed that the same sun that melts the ice hardens the clay. Not everyone will accept Jesus Christ as Lord, but If you don’t model, preach, teach or disciple people in the gospel, then you will be left with a people that are shaped by their culture and context rather then the gospel.
It is the grace of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross that we daily need to be reminded of, this gospel is our hope, it’s our identity and if we forget this first love; the love that pulled us into a relationship with Christ, then whatever we replace the hope with will be short lived, fickle and ineffectual in comparison.
Acts29 is a fantastic organisation of Men and Women who are passionate about the gospel impacting and changing the culture around them. Their vision is to plant churches, that plant churches, that plant churches – you get the idea. It is this bold ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel’ attitude that has made Acts29 so impacting across the globe. That and their ‘Antioch Church’ type heart in sending out gifted leaders to plant. They send their best, as should any that seek to plant or re-plant etc. As a people of God we are in for kingdom team, not our own little Eco system Church team… Sharing resources, finances, information, people, thats an Antioch type Church!
My time at the Acts29 Europe conference from the 4-5th of March was an incredible time were God impacted the hearts of the bold men and women I was standing with worshiping HIM. As I looked around I saw men and women of different ages that would be the future Church planters. The talks and seminars hit right to the core with bold truth. It was like a rallying call to battle for the gospel, not just in your Church plant, but within your family and your own heart.
I had the privilege to chat with Matt Chandler and Steve Timmis about how they coped with starting ministry life off as a young leader, how they took risky faith steps and the current spiritual state of the UK and how we can step out with courage for the gospel. They were real and down to earth, sharing truthfully the hardships of Church leadership.
I have a strong handshake but Matt has a vice grip of handshake and I was left battling to keep structural integrity of my hand for 3 seconds. These guys were a real blessing and fountain of wisdom, who I gleaned a lot from. Other then my father (a retired Church Elder & Chair of Cutting edge ministries) it has been men like these who have modelled shameless, unashamed, bold gospel living to me. I thank God for them.
So would I recommend you attend an Acts29 conference ? Wether you are called or not I would highly recommend it. Healthy Churches will ultimately plant Churches, as I said earlier, we are in this for kingdom growth, not empire building of one Church. You will also network with fellow brothers and sisters and glean a lot from the speakers.
I pray that you would be bold and courageous for the advance of the gospel, keeping it central to family life and ministry life, for its HIS precious name we praise. Amen!
http://cuttingedgeministries.info/Cutting_Edge_Ministries.php (Cutting Edge Ministries URL)
Below is the Acts29 Europe photo Video. These are their photo’s and not mine.
http://acts29europe.com/
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