I think it is important to pause and reflect on the benefits of bivo/covo planting in the current "social distancing" climate we find ourselves in.
I think it is important to pause and reflect on the benefits of bivo/covo planting in the current "social distancing" climate we find ourselves in.
The net effect of Christendom over the centuries was that Christianity moved from being a dynamic, revolutionary social and spiritual movement to being a static religious institution with its corresponding structures, priesthood, and rituals.
God’s church doesn’t have a mission in your city; instead God’s mission in your city has a church — your particular, local church. He is calling your church to bring the good news of the Gospel of the kingdom to a world where bad news is depressingly infectious.
One way to recognize that God is a missionary God is to examine what is referred to as the “sending language” in Scripture.
This is one of the very best explanations of the social set theory referred to as Bounded Set and Centered Set. Deb Hirsch graciously applies the concept to the way we typically understand the church and helps us rethink a more missionary way to consider discipleship.
I have thought about the activities and practices that have shaped me the most over the past three decades. These lessons are simply descriptive of my own journey. While some of them may not fit who you are, I wish someone had shared each of these with me many years ago.
In the North American, post-Christian context in which we now live, we can’t plant churches by simply starting a Sunday morning worship gathering. There may have been a day when we could build a cool website, rent a meeting space, send out flyers, put up banners and “launch” a church by starting a Sunday service. But those days are gone, at least in many North American contexts.
“A Missional Community is a committed group of Jesus followers, the size of an extended family (12-25), empowered by the Spirit, to participate in God’s mission of redemption in a particular neighborhood and/or network.”
Many in the church today still believe that Christianity is in a place of influence and significance. Many still operate under the false assumption that Christendom is alive and well. While there may be some parts of the country that still cling to Christian values, the vast majority of the population is rapidly moving away from the things associated with the church.
When bringing about transformative change in the way people think and behave, I am convinced we must start with questions of “why” before considering the practical issues of “how.”
When someone asks me about how church planters should think about APEST and teams, I usually start with this simple progression:
I always struggled with how “non-pastors” fit into the mission and ministry of the church. The only lens I had in my early days of ministry was for “lay-people” to become pastor/teachers (like me and every other pastor), or to be available to volunteer for empty slots in my ministry plan. APEST helped me see that the five-fold gifts are given by Jesus to the body, not simply leaders.
Over the past several years there has been an increasing interest in church planting. As a result of declining attendance and the closing of many existing churches, every major denomination is focusing more resources toward starting new congregations. In the midst of this proliferation of church planting, one of the most significant trends is the starting of new churches by covocational leaders.