» 4. Rapid mobilization

Ralph Moore believes in “simple church”—it has to be simple and it has to reproduce.

1. MiniChurch

At the heart of Hope Chapel’s strategy of reproducing disciples, leaders and churches is the “MiniChurch”. Ralph intentionally name his small groups MiniChurches and their leaders “undershepherds”. The MiniChurch is the primary place of pastoral care and disciple-making.

MiniChurches meet weekly [...]

A key characteristic of a dynamic movement is the capacity to rapidly mobilize workers.

But you can’t sustain rapid mobilization without adequate support systems. That means you have to build a coaching movement as you multiply leaders in the field.

If you need advanced coach training, Keith Webb is running one of the best courses available in [...]

The Age reports that, the Roman Catholic Church is launching a comic strip this week to attract teenagers into the priesthood.

It is using the art form in an advertising campaign to combat the dramatic decline in applicants for ordination. The church hopes its comic, with pictures of nuns and monks playing pool and surfing the [...]

In Raising Up Church Planters, Glenn Smith, examines a number of effective models for growing pioneering leaders. One is based on the GE model of a leadership pipeline.

The leadership pipeline model provides a system for always having the leaders you need. The model entails a series of passages that come with very specific values, compulsory [...]

I’m blown away by the quality and potency of the research papers that Leadership Network are cranking out with persistent regularity. Did I also mention how well they are presented and the zero dollar price tag?

The latest offering is “Models for Raising Up Church Planters” by Glenn Smith, a veteran church planter and church multiplication [...]

It took $US250 million to lure David Beckham to sign with the Los Angeles Galaxy. He is already being touted as the saviour of US soccer. I wonder.

Christian ministries have a David Beckham saviour mentality to leadership development and selection. Hire a superstar and our success is assured. I wonder.

I prefer AC Milan’s approach to [...]

Here’s an email I received recently from “Tom” and my response to it.

Steve

I’m reading through your ebook and curious about something. I looked at Ridley’s 13 characteristics in preparation for some training in North Africa, but while there I sensed that while there are a few pioneer church planters like that, most people aren’t and [...]

Planned to be at the fourth day of the Boxing Day Ashes Test today. Never got there. The Poms didn’t last beyond day three.

Apologies to any Americans since you’ll never understand cricket. Apologies to the English because 5-0 looks likely. Apologies to other cricketing nations who are tired of being beaten by Australia. Apologies for [...]

Sherwood Lingenfelter’s reflections on non-formal leadership training as pioneered by Paul Gupta and the Hindustan Bible Institute:

1. Non formal training vastly expands the potential recruits. Some of the most successful church planters won’t make it into or through formal training.

2. Practical engagement quickly sifts out those who are not wired for, or committed to, the [...]

I’ve just finished Paul Gupta’s account of the church planting movement that has emerged out of his Hindustan Bible Institute (HBI). Good case studies of contemporary church planting movements are rare. Everyone is too busy to take the time to write up the story and the lessons.

It’s also rare for an established ministry to reinvent [...]