» 2006 » April

I’ve just flown out of the land of the MegaChurch for Trinidad. According to a missionary friend here, Trinidad has over 1000 churches and over 100 denominations.

But back to the US, the land of MegaChurches.

According to theweekmagazine the hottest sector of American religious life is the megachurch. The US now has 1,210 churches with congregations [...]

Church planting and church planting movements are definitely on the agenda in the US. Big time.

Here at the 2006 National New Church Conference.

Spent the first day stunned. Felt like the Spirit hit me with a cricket bat. Not sure what it means yet.

God is up to something. Healthy partnerships between the different streams—organic church, multi-site [...]

Allan Anderson provides four more reasons behind 100 years of Pentecostal advance:

4. Contextualization of Leadership
The overwhelming majority of Pentecostal missionaries have been national people “sent by the Spirit,” often without formal training. In Pentecostal practice, the Holy Spirit is given to every believer without preconditions.

One of the results of this was, as Saayman observes, that [...]

We’re in the month that celebrates 100 years since the Asuza Street revival that launched Pentecostalism as a movement. Towards a Pentecostal Missiology for the Majority World by Allan Anderson does a great job of unpacking what it is about Pentecostalism that makes it such a dynamic Christian movement. Perhaps the 20th Century’s most [...]

After 24 hours travel made it to Orlando, Florida for the 2006 National New Church Conference. Tired.

That’s me on the right with Wayne Krause, up the back of the Acts 29 pre-conference sessions. There’s a wireless network. Joy.

The photo was taken by another Aussie, Tim O’Neil. He’s got a new MacBook Pro with a built [...]

Mark Sayers is blogging. Check out: Will being cool save the church in the post-Christian culture?

He writes well.

Emerging church

Another in the series on how God shapes the heart of movement founders. This story comes from Sam Metcalf who heads up Church Resource Ministries (CRM).

In February of 1985, about 40 staff and friends of Church Resource Ministries (CRM) gathered at Glen Eyrie, for our annual conference.

Several months earlier, Chuck Singletary (then president of CRM) [...]

Books on church planting movements are hard to find. Here’s a list to get you started. . .

“The Master Plan of Evangelism” (Robert Emerson Coleman)

“Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours?” (Roland Allen)

“Spontaneous Expansion of the Church” (Roland Allen)

“Acts of the Holy Spirit” (C. Peter Wagner)

“Church Planting Movements: How God is Redeeming a Lost World” (David [...]

Heading out today for the 2006 National New Church Conference in Florida.

Don’t feel sorry for Michelle. It’s her fault I’m going! See: Keep her away from your blog!

Thanks to everyone who helped get me there. Expecting great things.

I’ve set a few posts to drop automatically. Hope to have some internet access along the way.

If you’ll [...]

Those whom God would use greatly,
He first wounds deeply.
AW Tozer

This is the story of John Wesley’s broken heart.

In August 1748 John Wesley rode into Newcastle where he stayed at one of his homes for orphans. He fell sick. Grace Murray who ran the orphanage cared for him.

The more he grew to know her [...]