Exponential Conversations

Matt’s House

Fri, 25 May 2012 05:20 GMT

Here is a great story of perseverance in prayer, and sudden provision! ELI asked Rob Benson, of Matt's House in Maryland, to give us the details.

One of our prayers for Matt's House when we launched, was that God would guide us to the needs He wanted us to meet. Allison and several others with a passion to reach young moms established a young mom's support group, in partnership with Metro-Maryland Youth for Christ.

Through this experience, Allison began to volunteer with the Center for Pregnancy Concerns in Baltimore, a center that has been around for over 35 years and provides excellent free services to woman facing unplanned pregnancies. She has been volunteering for over 2 years and has received countless hours of training as a peer to peer counselor. The center provides sonograms for expectant moms, peer to peer counseling, health screenings with a nurse, and material assistance: baby clothing, maternity clothes, baby formula and food, diapers, cribs, blankets, and more – all for free. They also provide parenting classes, and help moms connect to government service providers.

We at Matt's House believe that this is a direction that God has been calling us, so we have been working toward and praying for a partnership with CPC. I was invited to join the Advisory Board last year and this year was asked to join the Board of Directors. After much prayer and dialogue, the Board of Directors invited Matt's House into a partnership to open a Pregnancy Center in Arbutus, providing services to an underserved area in and around Baltimore.

On Friday, April 6, a letter was sent out to CPC supporters to raise the $20,000 necessary to launch and fund the Arbutus Center through the first year. Monday, April 9, Carol Clews, the Executive Director for CPC, received a phone call from a supporter for a Matching gift of $10,000 to go toward opening the new center. On Tuesday, April 10, a check arrived in the mail for $10,000, so God raised $20,000 in 2 days!

When Allison sent out the good news about the $10,000 matching gift via email, she received a multitude of responses, and 17 of those responses were from individuals who want to either financially support the new center or personally volunteer.

Later, Allison when was introduced to the 80 person advisory board of the CPC as the new center coordinator, they also announced that another $12,000 had come in, making the total $32,000 for the new center!

We look forward to renovating our storefront space, the Community Connection Center, so that it can now serve as a Crisis Pregnancy Center. Our hope is to open the doors to the new CPC @ Matt's House this summer!

This is an answer to our prayer that our hearts would break for the broken hearted, and our lives and ministry would adapt to meet their needs. Our prayer is to give them a tangible demonstration of God's love – and that is what this new center will do.

8 Essentials of a Church Planting Center

Fri, 25 May 2012 04:00 GMT

Church planting centers are environments where multiple disciples are intentionally cultivated, developed, selected and supported to make disciples, resulting in new churches.—Greater Orlando Baptist Association

Based on the definition above, what are the key elements of a church planting center? Check out this list and add your own suggestions.

1. Practical experience and God’s blessings in fulfilling the Great Commission through the multiplication of disciples, small groups, indigenous leaders and churches.

2. A pastor or leader who is the driving force behind the center and a center director with practical church planting experience to implement the strategy.

3. A clear definition of success. The leader has identified the attributes of a disciple, church planting leader and a multiplying church.

4. A clear understanding of the role of the center in the development of church planting leaders and a clear set of objectives for each role.

5. Confidence in the fact that they have something of value to offer, that they have healthy systems and processes in place and are following biblical principles that effectively advance the Kingdom of God that would benefit church planters.

6. A set of missional foundations which are integrated into the process and resources that support the roles of the center in the life of a planter.

7. A commitment to the development of leaders that addresses their calling, character, competency, convictions and contextual fit.
8. A network of partnering churches and leaders who help the center fulfill the objectives for each role.

To see the full presentation on church planting centers, go here.

Preparing for Parenting

Fri, 25 May 2012 03:28 GMT

The top ten things your church can do to prepare to parent or partner to plant a church.

10. Encourage your intercessors to form a prayer team focused on praying for new church plants.

9. Invite an outside consultant to help you ascertain the organizational health of your church. Any healthy church can parent a new church. Size is really not the issue. It’s about health and desire.

8. Connect with other pastors who have led their churches through the parenting process. Ask them to share with you what they learned through the process.

7. Approach parenting like you would a building program. Develop architectural plans (have planning meetings with your church leadership team to cultivate agenda harmony and envision together what kind of church you will plant). Gather people and financial resources. Set realistic long and short term goals. Work your plan. Deciding you will build someday does not get the job done. Neither does deciding to plant. You’ve got to get started. What can you do today that will prepare you to parent or partner?

6. Sponsor a Partnering Party by inviting neighboring pastors to meet together and discuss how partnering would work for the churches in your area. Usually, one church will need to accept the responsibility of the lead role for partnering to be successful. Is yours the lead church?

5. Identify potential church planters or site pastors in your church. Consider your best staff as potential candidates (remember the Biblical principle - give and it shall be given to you!). Have potential planting candidates assessed to confirm their readiness to plant or to discover where they need to develop so they can be sent out later.

4. Attend a church planting training event. A common misconception is that experience with leading an existing church adequately prepares a person to lead the starting of new work. Usually, that is not the case. Participating in a proven church planting training process will broaden your horizon and help further develop your understanding of how church planting works.

3. Read Viral Churches by Ed Stetzer and Warren Bird. This book is a comprehensive look at everything you need to know for your church to be fruitful and multiply.

2. Write your parenting strategy into your annual budget. Parenting a church is a lot like parenting a child- you are never ready for it. You’ll never have enough money when you begin the process of parenting or partnering. Just as parents restructure their lives to provide for their children, you will need to restructure your church budget to enable you to parent or partner.

1. Trust God and go for it! There are literally millions of people in the United States who, due to a variety of factors, will never be touched by existing churches. New churches are the best form of evangelism. Let’s choose to parent or partner and change our world forever!