This latest issue of The Church Revitalizer Magazine deals with things that we all wish we learned in seminary about church revitalization. Get more information at http://churchrevitalizer.guru.

The latest books on Church Revitalization and Renewal from Renovate Publishing Group. 

A New Book by Mark Weible

Check Availability 

Fishing on the Other Side is about following Jesus and obeying His command to make disciples. Jesus told His first disciples that if they were to follow Him, He would teach them how to fish for people. They already knew how to catch fish, but now they would be catching people with the gospel. The principles for reaching people and catching fish are similar:

 1. You have to go where the people are.

2. You have to use different techniques and tools to reach different kinds of people.

3. In order to reach people who want to be reached, it helps to think like a spiritually lost person.

This book has a particular focus on utilizing the technological tools available to churches today to reach people whose lives are shaped by those same tools. In a time when the majority of churches are in a state of decline all over North America and the old tools and techniques of evangelism do not seem to be working as well, it is time that we adjust our techniques and start fishing on the other side.

Mark Weible is an experienced Search Engine Optimizer and Google Advertising professional. His new book, which comes out on Thursday, August 15th will help churches to improve their ranking on Google and the other search engines.

Job Summary: The worship leader will assist the lead pastor in planning and conducting weekly worship gatherings. This person will provide leadership and oversight to all worship teams, while creating Gospel-centered gatherings that motivate the church for the glory of God. They will also be a reproducing leader who helps the worship team to multiply.

The  Church Planter Top Performer Profile Assessment  is a Church Planting pre-assessment selection tool that is positioned at the very beginning of the Church Planter search process as an objective screening tool to discover qualified ministry leaders who have the capacity to plant a local church. This CPTPPA is based on our top successful church planters from all across the nation and can be utilized to qualify and to pre-select future top performers from incoming candidates for a specific local church and ministry.

Reproducing Churches Church Planting Assessment uses patent pending algorithms to find Core Values patterns in existing top performers of church planting. This validates and proves that the resulting CPTPPA will consistently identify new future top performers in the field of church planting, while screening out a vast majority of future low performers.

How this works:  When a church’s mission group is in the process of searching for and considering the calling of a Church Planter to lead out in the creation of a new church, the prospective candidate is sent an email with a link to the CPTPPA. The CPTPPA is then completed by the candidate and their score is automatically received by Reproducing Churches and will be shared within seven days of completion with the candidate and the local church. The report will be compared to the Church Planter Top Performer Profile Assessment. Those candidates who assess as a “high” potential for the successful planting of a healthy New Testament church are then recommended to local churches. The sponsoring church will still need to qualify the planter candidate in the areas of: character, doctrine, financial stability, and experience which is done on the local level. To take the online Church Planter Top Performer Profile, go to PlanterAssessment.com .

I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. (1 Corinthians 3:6-8)

I was talking to a young man who was interested in church planting and I asked him to tell me about his call to church planting. His answer surprised me, “I’m not sure that I am called to church planting.” My response, “Well, you have to be crazy or called to plant a church and if you plant a church without being called… you’re crazy.” Let’s face it; church planting is the most difficult thing that anyone could ever attempt to accomplish. It is pure spiritual warfare and no one should ever try it unless they sure that they are on a mission from God. I do more to scare people out of church planting than I do to encourage them into it. The truth is, that if I can scare them out of it, they probably are not called into it. Another question I like to ask prospective church planters is, “Would you be willing to die for this church plant?” If they answer yes then I will say, “Good, because it just might kill you.”

Not everyone who is called to church planting is called or gifted to be the lead church planter. There is room for everyone in church planting, but not room for everyone at the top. Church planting should be a team effort and the team needs to be made up of people with a diversity of gifts, personalities, skills and experience. Discerning each person’s place on the team is critical to church planting success. However, successful lead church planters have a unique set of gifts and personality traits. Not everyone who is called into church planting is called to be the lead church planter. Identifying a persons’ role in church planting and serving in that capacity is one of the key ingredients to church planting success. This requires prayer, reflection and self-awareness. An objective church planter assessment process can be an effective tool in aiding in this process.

Pre-Assessment

The assessment process can begin with an informal pre-assessment. I recommend that anyone interested in church planting should talk to those who have tried and failed as well as current successful church planters. Included in that mix should be church planting experts who will tell you the hard truth and not glamorize church planting. A Prospective church planter should tell his story and share his vision for church planting with anyone who will listen. He should be asking those in the know, “Do you think that I could become a successful church planter?” Yesses and noes should be followed-up with paragraphs of explanations as to why or why not a person should plant a church. A pre-assessment could be as simple as having these kinds of conversations with truthful people. A prospective church planter could use this kind of feedback to help him to determine if he is going to take the next step in the assessment process.

Online Assessment

At GOBA, we recommend that church planters take the following online assessment before requesting a formal assessment interview: www.PlanterAssessment.com.

Click the links below to take each of the of the following online assessments before scheduling your personal assessment. Send a copy of each assessment report to ChurchPlanting@goba.org.

Assessment Interview

Another part of the church planter assessment process is the behavioral interview. Some organizations use this as their primary or only means of candidate assessment. However others may include the behavioral interview as a part of a broader approach in a church planter assessment center. Dr. Charles Ridley developed the most widely used behavioral interview process for church planting organizations. His research-based approach focuses on thirteen primary characteristics that are shared by effective church planters:

• Visioning Capacity – the church planter candidates ability to project into the future, persuasively and enlist others to buy-into the vision and believing in God to bring the vision to fruition.
• Intrinsically Motivated – the extent to which the candidate is a self-starter with persistence to see a project through to completion.
• Creates Ownership of Ministry – the candidate’s level of experience in helping individuals move from non-involvement to vested involvement in ministry projects.
• Relates to the Unchurched – The candidate’s ability to communicate outside of the church culture, build relationships with the lost, lead people to faith knowledge of Jesus Christ and assimilating new people into the life of the church.
• Spousal Cooperation – Does the candidate’s spouse feel called to church planting? What will her role be in the new church? How does she help the planter connect with the community? How does the planter and his spouse build healthy barriers between family and ministry?
• Effectively Builds Relationships – Does the candidate have a history of developing and building relationships with new people? Is the candidate a relationship initiator? How effective is he at managing and resolving conflict?
• Committed to Church Growth – The candidate’s knowledge of and application of church growth principles.
• Responsive to the Community – The candidate’s ability to understand and appropriately respond to community needs.
• Utilizes the Giftedness of Others – The candidate’s history of helping Believers to discover, apply and serve God according to their Spiritual giftedness.
• Flexible and Adaptable – The candidates ability to respond and adjust to a changing ministry environment.
• Builds Group Cohesiveness – The candidate’s history of building effective groups that not only get along well, but accomplish their effectiveness.
• Resilience – Has the church planter shown that he can stick with a project and effectively deal with major setbacks?
• Exercises Faith – Has the candidate expressed a conviction of God’s call to ministry, church planting and church planting agenda?

For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers. 

(Proverbs 11:14)

Assessment Center

The behavioral interview can be used as a stand-alone assessment tool or in a larger church planter assessment environment known as a church planter assessment center. The center approach is a multi-day church planter assessment that involves multiple assessors and multiple candidate couples being assessed simultaneously. In the assessment center, it is common for church planters to be assessed on family health, financial responsibility, preaching and communication, group participation, team leadership, stress management, and more. The assessment center is like a life laboratory, where the candidate and his spouse are observed in as to close to real-life situations as possible. The assessors meet together and compare their observations before agreeing on recommendations for the candidates and their sending organizations.

The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out. (Proverbs 18:15)

Post Assessment 

A healthy assessment process helps a potential church planter and his wife to determine their role in the church planting process. A good assessment results in the candidates doing their own self-assessment, where they take in all of information provided by the assessment instruments while prayerfully considering their roles. Most church planters will leave an assessment process feeling grateful for the wisdom of others and for what they’ve learned about themselves. Some will discover that they are perhaps not best suited and not called to lead a church planting endeavor. They may find that serving in a supporting role is the most satisfying and effective place for them.

Others may emerge affirmed in their call to be lead church planters, but having discovered areas of strengths and challenges. These candidates may learn about areas that they need to strengthen before launching or in the early days of the church plant. They may become more self-aware and more clear on whom they need to serve along side themselves. They may realize what it means to “recruit to your weaknesses” and therefore build stronger teams. As a result of an objective assessment process, a church planter can become more accountable to his sending organization and more teachable through networking and coaching.

Being Sent

It is important for church planters to have a sending or sponsor church. In Acts 13:3, the church at Antioch sent out Barnabas and Saul before they departed on the their first church planting mission trip. The two men also returned to the church, as reported in Acts 14:27, and gave an accounting of what God had accomplished through them. GOBA requires that new church plants (missions) have a sponsor church that is connected to the association. The sponsor must be a member church in good standing that faithfully supports the association and the SBC cooperative program. For a church planter, a sponsor church can provide prayer and emotional support. Some sponsor churches provide administrative and financial support to new church plants. A sponsor church may even encourage planters to recruit team and core group members from their membership.

Church planter assessors should always encourage church planters to connect with other planters through a church planter network. Effective networks allow church planters and their wives to encourage one another while offering practical assistance to other church planters. It is through networks that church planters can discover how other church planters overcame obstacles and discovered resources. Pastors and other leaders of supporting churches often participate in church planter networks to discover more practical ways to be involved in supporting church planting.

As a result of the assessment process, a church planter should be encouraged to enlist a trained coach, if he doesn’t already have one. A coach is one who is tasked with helping the church planter to succeed at what God has called him to do. A coach in not a consultant tells the church planter what to do. The coach is not the supervisor who holds the planter’s feet to the fire. The coach is not a mentor who pours into the planter’s life. The coach is there to help draw out of the planter what God has already placed within him to succeed.

The assessment process should also help the church planter to understand what additional training the planter may need in order to plant a successful church. The planter may be encouraged to pursue further theological training or to attend a church planting conference or boot camp. Assessors to point the church planter to specific books to read or workshops to attend. Most church planters will appreciate the feedback that they receive and will want to take the necessary steps to strengthen themselves and the church that they will lead. Most planters will see the assessment process as one of the most valuable steps that they have taken toward ensuring the health and vitality on the churches that God leads them to plant.

For more information on church planter assessment, coaching and training opportunities, visit ReporducingChurches.com

From the Pastor:

Dear brethren,

Our local church is looking for a part-time Youth Pastor or Youth Leader to
help us to develop and work with our young people and to help them to grow
spiritually and numerical, as well. (Sunday morning and open to discussion,
one night during the week).

Will be better if he/she are fluently in English and Spanish.

It's mandatory that he/she be in good relationship with GOBA principles and
with the Southern Baptist Convention doctrines and bring a Letter of
Recommendation from his/her local pastor.

Please contact me to learn more about the open position.

In service to Christ and His Kingdom,

José E. Cardona, Pastor
Vanessa Cardona,  Pastor's wife
Templo Bíblico Bautista de Winter Garden

One of the biggest changes that I have observed in church planting over the past four decades is the shift from denominational funding to local support. My first involvement in church planting was in Texas in the early eighties. At that time, the Baptist General Convention of Texas not only provided funding and consulting to new church plants they also offered building services including architectural plans and a staff building contractor, who helped to save construction costs. When I moved to Florida in 2002, the Florida Baptist Convention at that time offered combined support for new churches up to 68,000. This included start-up grants, monthly support and a land grant for purchasing property. This denominational support was in addition to any funds from the sponsor churches and individual donations.

Denominational financial assistance for church planting has dropped considerably over the past several years with exception to the thirty-two NAMB Send Cites, which receive the majority of the national denominational support and state mission offerings. One former SBC leader commented on this trend in a national magazine back in 2015. In the Christianity Today article, Ed Stetzer, predicted that the trend toward lower denominational support would continue:

"The truth is: most denominations and church-planting networks run out of money for church planting every year—and every year, plants go unfunded due to financial restrictions. And so, we must consider other ways to plant churches, like organic church planting, and raising up leaders from the harvest who are intentionally bi-vocational along the way."[1]

Sending Church Supported

Some sending churches have responded to the decline in denominational funding for church planting by reclaiming church planting as the responsibility of the local church and taking a more proactive role in church planter assessment, coaching, training and support. For example, SBC President J.D. Greer’s The Summit Network, offers a residency program that helps church planters to be better prepared to face the challenges of declining denominational resources:

"Residents begin with the vision of a new church. Over 9 months, we share with them everything we’ve learned about building a healthy, thriving church. We help them develop their vision, build a strong team, raise the resources they need, and develop the strategies and systems of a gospel-centered church. We help them clarify what kind of church God has called them to build in their city and how to make that dream a reality."[2]

However, not every church planter has the opportunity to uproot his family to move into a residency program. Others have chosen to respond to the challenge by simply planting churches that require fewer financial resources. In Orlando, it can easily cost one-quarter to one-half million dollars to fund a new church for just the first year. Church planters who are not able to raise that amount of money are often forced to consider other options. Two of the options proposed by Ed Stetzer are bi-vocational and organic church planting.

Missio-Vocational Planting

I prefer the term missio-vocational rather than bi-vocational. Bi-vocational implies a dichotomy between work and ministry. Missio-vocational church planting involves the church planter intentionally seeking employment as a missiological strategy for reaching their communities and funding their salaries. Missio-vocational church planters are usually compensated on a much smaller scale than full-time church planters. They usually seek full-time employment, which provides a steady income and benefits such as healthcare insurance and retirement. The church planter’s employment is often referred to as a Creative Access Platform by international mission organizations. The church planter’s job helps him to gain and build relationships with people in the community while funding his salary so that he can plant a church without having to heavily depend on outside resources. Churches pastored by misiso-vocational church planters often start smaller and grow slower than churches that have full-time pastors and multiple paid staff.

Organic Church Planting

This type of church planting requires no outside resources. In organic churches, there are usually no salaries to be paid and very little to no overhead expenses at all. These churches meet in homes, offices, and other places where there is no cost for the church to gather. Organic churches usually start small and remain small with the goal of rapid multiplication. They depend very heavily on lay leadership and a simple, quick leadership development pipeline. Organic churches develop processes for growing the next generation of pastors from new crops of converts directly from the evangelistic harvest.  

Well...

Each of these funding models has their benefits and challenges. However, when you get down to it – it really does not cost anything to plant a New Testament church. If church planters and new church plants simply live within their means, denominational funding or the lack thereof is not an issue. I am a huge proponent for using all of the resources that God provides to His glory. However, only in our recent history did we rely upon denominational funding to plant churches and we can do without it in the future.

[1] https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/january/rethinking-church-plant-funding.html

[2] http://thesummitnetwork.com/plant/

Electronic Keyboard

Clarinet

Saxophone

Conga

Etc.

Contact:

Pastor José D. Gutiérrez

IB Hay Vida en Jesús ¬

7308 Pershing Ave, Orlando, FL 32822

Phone: (305) 240-9268

Email

PastorJoseGutierrez@hotmail.com

Web page: https://www.hayvida.org/

That is why we need your help. Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few" and we are asking "the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field" (Matthew 9:38). Are you ready to be sent? You just might be an answer to our prayer. If you and/or your spouse would like to help reach the most influential mission field in America, please respond with your information below. 

City Awakening

Where We've Been

We started City Awakening 2 years ago with 27 people, we've now grown to roughly 100 with 30 kids in children's ministry. 

We baptized 15 people who are now walking the streets of Orlando in the name of Jesus.

We sent 23 people on local and global mission trips, including to 5 different countries, and 2 in the 10/40 window. 

We had 8 people go on mission trips for the 1^st time. 

One team even lead an African Chief in Cameroon to Christ and connected him with a local church in the area.  

We had over 20 people help serve numerous UCF students last month by feeding them and helping them to move into their apartments at The Verge student housing complex. The Verge management and staff asked if our church can be a presence at their complex and their sister campus throughout the year as a result of us serving there. 

We helped provided 110 pairs of underwear and put 150 pairs of socks on the feet of homeless runaway teens in our city who are trying to reunite with their families. 

We provided a charter 1 school around the corner from us with multiple food and school supplies, which has allowed us to build relationships with them and has opened up the door for future serving opportunities with them which we are in the process of discussing now. 

We had over 40 people take our City Life class, become members of our church, and commit to living out our mission to reach people, and reach the world starting with the people in our city.  

We’ve also been committed to being a church that plants churches by helping to partner with Pastor Cam Triggs to start Grace Alive Baptist Church in West Orlando. We helped support and continue to support them financially, we’ve sent people to train them in areas they wanted help with, and they successfully started Grace Alive, recently celebrated their 1 year birthday as a church, and last year they baptized 8 people, which means our partnership together has led to a combined total of 23 people who are now walking the streets of Orlando that’ve been baptized in the name of Jesus.

Where We're Heading

Keep living missionally in our city through our code of "loving the few so we can love the many," meaning teaching our people to love a few people in our city so well that they can't ignore the love of Jesus for their lives. Also continuing to teach our people how to do what I'm doing above, meaning living missionally on the football field, MMA gym, etc. but in their own setting. 

Capitalize on the opportunity The Verge has given us to live missionally with their staff and UCF students in their housing complex. 

Strategically capitalizing on calendar bumps throughout the year by having community events and calendar bump sermon series during calendar bump times. 

Continuing sending people on local and global missions, with a global focus on a 10/40 window Muslim people group in Ethiopia. We are working with a team from IMB over there.

Continue supporting church planting by supporting other church plants with people and resources. 

Considering that we are the 9th most unchurched city, 6th most de-churched city in America out of 19,000 plus cities, I think we're off to a great start. We are at 70% self-sufficiency and are looking for some financial partners to help us make up the 30% so we can keep building on the momentum that's started.

How to Help

We are looking for churches to partner with us for the next two years as we move toward self-sustainability. We are accepting donations on our website at cityawakening.org/give

For More Information

Feel free to email me at louis@cityawakening.org or Download a copy of our Prospects. Also, here is a link to the summit network video we did before we launched that shares a little info about me and our city: https://vimeo.com/144807404.

Click here to download the job description.

September 14-15, 2018 

Grace Journey Community Church

 Packed with 10 hours of action-oriented learning followed by weekly online E-Lessons, Lead Like Jesus Leadership Encounter is a highly interactive, participant-driven leadership development workshop that exposes common leadership misconceptions and offers a practical model based on the greatest leader role model of all time, Jesus.

Workshop Times:

Friday: 5;00 - 6:00 PM Dinner (Included)

Friday: 6:00 - 9:00 PM Workshop

Saturday: 8:30 - 9:00 AM Continental Breakfast (Included)

Saturday: 9:00 AM - 12 PM Workshop

Saturday 12:00 PM - 12:30 PM Lunch (Included)

Saturday 12:30 PM - 4:30 PM Workshop

Workshop Location: Grace Journey Community Church: 10301 E Colonial Dr, Orlando, FL 32817

Click Here for Information and Registration

Saturate Orlando from Building a Difference on Vimeo.

RSVP at placeofworshipsummit@ocfl.net

Help us to revitalize churches by drinking high quality fair trade coffee. When you purchase your K-cups at www.Renovate.Coffee with membership code GOBAR, not only do you save 10% on your order, but you are also helping to revitalize churches. A portion of your purchase price will be donated to GOBA for church revitalization. 

Come to

• Monday, November 6, 2017 

• 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. 

• First Baptist Church of Winter Park - 1021 N New York Ave, Winter Park, FL 32789

• $49 per person

• Register at http://renovateconference.org/2017

1 The Church Revitalizer's Job of Changing Church Behavior
2. Snarling Wolves and Other Creatures Sitting in Your Church Pews
3. When the Junkyard Dog Makes it Impossible to Grow a Garden

The cost of this online training course is $79.99, however, the first 100 people who register will get it free!  Click the green button below to get this free course. 

For more information contact Linda Goans at lgoans@goba.org or 407-293-0450

Beloved brethren in Christ,

Our Hispanic congregation prepares to receive from God a growth in members. Gradually we see how the Lord continues to add those who He wants to enjoy His grace, love and mercy.

Our building has capacity for 64 people and it is staying small. For that reason we are considering to add a portable (modular) structures; one where we can have some of our activities, as a room for Bible Study, Fellowship Hall, etc., and another for the restrooms.

We are praying and requesting the cooperation of some churches or Christian organizations that have one or two that are not in use and want to give as a donation, or who know… donate new ones. We believe in an “All Mighty God”. If necessary, we are willing to consider the cost of relocate it to our ground and enable it.

If God direct you to help us with this matter, your cooperation is welcome and you will be very blessed.

In service to Christ,

José E. Cardona, Pastor
Vanessa Cardona, esposa del Pastor
Templo Bíblico Bautista de Winter Garden
Winter Garden, FL 34787

Physical address: 112 Tildenville School Rd. & W. Bay Street
(next to Lakeview Middle School)
Winter Garden, FL 34787

Mailing Address:PO Box 731
Gotha, FL 34734

(407) 802-2478 (work)
(407) 376-3652 (mobile) Pastorjcardona013@cfl.rr.com
(407) 721-1073 Vanessavanroddon@hotmail.com

Moody Radio has provided us with a helpful article on how to get church events listed on major Christian radio stations in the Central Florida area. You can download the article by clicking the link below. 

Free Listings on Christian Radio

Needed: language transmitter system to borrow or purchase. Contact Jack Parrott, pastorjack407@gmail.com at Dover Shores Baptist Church. 

The ACTS of Church Planting

Much is changing on the church planting horizon in Florida and we’ve been anticipating those changes at GOBA. We’ve been working diligently the past few months to make sure that GOBA churches still have access to the best church planting tools available. At GOBA, we’ve always believed that churches plant churches. The role of the association is to come along side and assist sponsor churches to help them to produce healthy church plants that become multiplying churches. To that end, we will continue to offer the ACTS of church planting to our member churches:

Assessment

We are encouraging sponsor churches to use the LifeWay online church planter assessment for church planter candidates. This objective assessment tool was developed by Ed Stetzer and has been used with great results for several years. The assessment tool is available at churchplanter.lifeway.com.

Coaching

Research has shown that church planters who meet at least monthly with a qualified coach tend to be more effective than those who do not receive the benefits of coaching. We have several trained coaches in our association who are willing to serve church planters in this manner. GOBA also offers in person and online coach training to our member churches. Visit goba.org/coaching for more details.

Training

GOBA will continue to provide training for church planters and sponsor churches. We also conduct national-level training events for denominational leaders, missionaries, and local church leaders. For more information, visit goba.org/church-planting-process.

While the Florida Baptist Convention will continue to offer church planting funding to sponsor churches, they will no longer provide training, assessment, background checks or any other services to support church planting in Florida. Sponsor churches are expected to provide these services to their own church plants. GOBA is here to help sponsor churches to be more effective at church multiplication. Contact Mark Weible at 407-293-0450 or churchplanting@goba.org for assistance.

The Greater Orlando Baptist Association recommends adding this to your Constitution & Bylaws for the church's protection. This will also apply to a church school.

Use of Church Facilities Assets and Resources

"The church staff and other appropriate leadership shall oversee implementation of a church policy regarding the use of church facilities, assets and all other resources. Such policy will ensure that all facilities, assets and resources of the church are used in a manner which is consistent with the Holy Scriptures and the Baptist Faith & Message, 2000. The policy shall be drafted to ensure that any use of all or part of the church grounds or facilities (whether by members or by outside interests or entities) will be done in a manner consistent with our beliefs as a church. Moreover, any and all use of church property shall be sufficiently documented and memorialized so as to protect the church from unnecessary exposure to liability."

Church planting is all about spreading the gospel, making disciples and establishing churches that reach underserved communities, people groups or population segments. While some churches may be started with a handful of seasoned Believers sent out from a sponsor or partner church, it is still possible to start churches totally from scratch using a missional approach. In this case, the church planter operates like a front-line missionary penetrating a new area or population where the gospel is lacking. Missionaries all over the world have found that a simple method taught by Jesus himself is still just as effective today as it was in the First Century.

Discovering People of Peace

When a church planter enters a new community he begins looking for people of peace. A person of peace can be a Christian believer, who is sympathetic toward church planting or a non-believer who is receptive to the gospel. In either case, they are people of influence and trust who help the church planter to sow the seeds of the gospel. Jesus taught this principle in Luke 10 when he sent out 72 disciples:

“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them; if not, it will return to you.Stay there, eating and drinking whatever they give you, for the worker deserves his wages.Do not move around from house to house. (Luke 10: 5-7)

A person of peace can be a neighbor who welcomes the church planter into their home, a co-worker who responds positively to an invitation to coffee after work, or just about anyone who is non-hostile towards the gospel and church planting. Jesus taught his disciples not to be discouraged if someone turns out not to be a person of peace. Nothing has been lost if a gesture of peace has been rejected. Like water off a duck’s back; church planters shouldn’t let discouragement soak in when they are rejected, because God has placed people of peace in the right places at the right time. As Jesus encouraged Paul while he was in Corinth:

“Do not be afraid;keep on speaking, do not be silent.For I am with you,and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.” (Acts 18: 9b-10)

Even when a church planter is rejected outright, Jesus said to shake the dust off and be reminded that it is not the planter who is being rejected, but Jesus himself:

“Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Luke 10: 16)

Gospel Soil

When a church planter is well received by a person of peace, he doesn’t have to look any farther for a place to start sowing gospel seeds. Jesus said not to go house to house, but to stay with the person of peace, enjoying whatever hospitality they bestow. When a church planter invites a co-worker out to Starbucks after work and the person accepts, offers to treat and offers to do it again; the church planter should recognize that as overtures of a person of peace. He should invest some time in a relationship with that person, because it is the person of peace who is going to reach the next generation of disciples. Instead of doing all of the outreach work himself, the church planter should look for Kingdom multipliers and disciple them to reach and disciple others. The process should be repeated so that the result is multiple generations of disciples making disciples resulting in exponential growth of the church plant and multiplication into new church plants.

Church planting begins with sowing gospel seeds and results in the reaping of a spiritual harvest, which is much larger than what was sown. Jesus used agricultural similes when conveying Kingdom truth to his disciples. Christian Schwartz contends that Jesus did this, not only because He was in an agrarian culture, but because agricultural comparisons are timeless and that they convey God’s “biotic” principles.[i] Jesus often said, “The Kingdom of God is like…” and then followed with an agrarian parable. In one such parable, Jesus spoke of the difficulty of gospel sowing – that not all soil will be a productive place to sow gospel seeds:

Then he told them many things in parables, saying:“A farmer went out to sow his seed.As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred,sixty or thirty times what was sown. (Matthew 13: 3-8)

The good news is that the gospel is productive and reproductive when it is sown in the right “soil.” A person of peace is good gospel soil for church planting and reproduction. Neil Cole states that this is for reasons that are counter-intuitive to modern Christian thinking. A person of peace is good gospel soil, not because of clean living, but because of all of the “fertilizer” in their lives.[ii] People who are hurting, who are looking for answers to life’s brokenness are often more susceptible to the influence of the work of Christ than those who think that they have life all figured out. Not only does the gospel take root there, it reproduces exponentially as Jesus also taught in his parable – “a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” The role of the church planter at this point is to look for receptive people, sow gospel seeds and plan for reproduction.

People of Influence

People of peace are also people of influence – when they have their “come to Jesus moment,” many other people follow them to the cross of Christ. The woman at the well in fourth chapter of John is an example of a person of peace who reproduced the gospel. She simply went into town and told others about her encounter with Jesus and hundreds flocked to see Him. The woman at the well not only had a lot of “fertilizer” in her life, but she also influenced many others to come to Jesus. Church planters should spend their time wisely realizing that the most productive people for gospel multiplication will be those who know the most lost people. While people of peace are also people of influence, they may not be the most obvious choice in building a church planting team.

The apostle Paul understood and utilized the person of peace principle on his missionary journeys. Paul usually went to the Jewish synagogue whenever he entered a new city and preached the gospel to those who were anticipating the Messiah. He usually found receptive people there and would stay as long as those who were hostile toward the gospel would tolerate him. After being ejected from the synagogue Paul would then take the gospel to the Gentiles – looking for “God fearers” and others who were open to his message.

In Philippi, however, there was no synagogue. Paul chose to go to Philippi after accepting the call of God to go to Macedonia because Philippi was an influential city. Since there were not enough Jewish males to form a synagogue, Paul had to look for a person of peace elsewhere. When Paul arrived at Philippi, he went outside of the city looking for a place of prayer. He found a group of women who were praying down by the river. It was there that he met Lydia. She was a Gentile woman who feared God, but had not converted to Judaism. Lydia was a person of peace and a person of influence. When she accepted Christ and was baptized, the people in her sphere of influence followed her - each into their own relationship with Christ (Acts 16:15). Lydia was the first recorded convert to the gospel on the European continent and a part of the core group of the first church planted in Europe.

We know that a church was started in Philippi, because we have Paul’s epistle to the Philippians in our Bibles. Where did that church start? Most likely, the church at Philippi started in Lydia’s home. People in Lydia’s household, which likely included family members, extended family, servants, and close friends, had accepted Christ as Savior. They had been baptized and they were meeting together with Paul and his band of missionaries. Luke tells us that after Paul and Silas were released from the Philippian jail, they met with the core group of the Philippian church:

After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house,where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.
(Acts 17: 40)

When Paul and Silas left Lydia’s house, they left behind a fledgling church that grew and multiplied all over Macedonia. They became an example to others in their faith and generosity. In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he expressed his love and affection for their partnership in the Gospel (Philippians 1: 5). Paul used the Macedonian Christians as an example of generosity, especially when it came to supporting the work of hunger relief in Jerusalem. When writing to the church at Corinth, Paul encouraged them to give like the Macedonians who had experienced the power of God’s multiplicative increase:

Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. (II Corinthians 9: 10-11)

Church planting is a team effort and effective church planters rely upon gospel multipliers who spread the good news to others in their spheres of influence. The planter can’t do all of the evangelism by himself. He must encourage those whom he reaches with the gospel to spread the gospel as well. Those who have close relationships with lots of lost people are often the most effective at bringing new people to Jesus. People of peace who are people of influence are critical to the growth and survival of church plants.

People of Trust

While a person of peace may be someone who has experienced many of life’s hardships, they need to be someone who is well trusted by their friends and family. They may have made mistakes in judgment in their past life of sin, but they have a reputation of transparency and truthfulness. The trust factor is important, because people of peace need to be believable when they share their faith story with people in their spheres of influence. Cornelius was a Roman centurion who feared God, gave to the needy and prayed regularly (Acts 10: 2). He was a trustworthy person who not only led military men, but his household followed his leadership and were receptive to the gospel when Peter shared the message of Christ in his home.

The gospel spreads rapidly among people of peace because of their relationships of trust. Their friends and relatives recognize genuine life transformation that has occurred as a result of the gospel and they want the same thing for themselves. My own father is a person of peace, who went through a radical life transformation in Christ that led to not only our family coming to Christ but to many friends and neighbors as well. Over the years, he has developed several relationships of trust and has often times found himself responding to people in times of personal crisis with compassion and sound Spiritual advice. This has led to many people of peace responding to the gospel while leading others in their spheres of influence to Christ. These new disciples are growing in unity with other believers resulting in the starting of at least seven churches.

Disciple Multipliers

When a person of peace becomes a follower of Christ, their influence and trust with people in their realm of influence is used by God to bring many more people to Christ. At this point, it is important for the church planter to release the second generation of new believers to do the same thing. Many of the people connected to the original person of peace will have their own relational networks that can be penetrated with the gospel. This is a critical point where there is potential for explosive growth or bogging down. Jesus’ strategy was to release people to go back to their families, friends and neighbors to share their story. When Jesus healed a demon-possessed man in Luke chapter 8, the man wanted to journey with Jesus, but Jesus sent him home instead:

Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away, saying,“Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.”And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. (Luke 8: 38-39)

Church planters need to release new Christens to share the gospel and make disciples as quickly as possible. Often churches have weeks-long discipleship courses that bog down new believers when they should be out sharing Christ with their lost family and friends. In an effort to protect baby Christians from the mean and dangerous world, some churches encourage new believers to remove themselves from situations and relationships that could be the most productive environments for gospel sharing. When a lost person becomes a follower of the Jesus, the most natural thing for him or her to do is to share the good news with the people closest to them. Therefore, the discipleship process for new believers needs to be done in a way that it does not bog them down and keep them from immediately sharing Christ and training new believers.

The focus of discipleship should be obedience and not knowledge only. It is possible to disciple new believers while they are putting into practice what they are learning. Discipleship can take place better in the field than the classroom. The first step of obedience for a new believer on day 1 is to share the gospel of Christ with the people in their household. The person of peace does not need to complete a class on the theology of the gospel in order to share their story. They do not need to memorize scripture in order to describe what happened to them today. Scripture memorization and biblical theology can come later, but in the early days, it is crucial that new believers evangelize others.

A discipleship system that focuses on obedience and on-the-job training can result in new believers leading people to Christ in the earliest days of their own new life in Christ. These people of peace can also be trained to be disciple multipliers. Since they are people of influence and trust, they may see many of their friends and family come to Christ. So what do they do with all of these new baby Believers? Do they send them back to the church planter to disciple them? No, they do the same thing that was modeled for them. They practice obedience-based discipleship by encouraging the new followers of Jesus to share their faith with their household on day 1. Discipleship is a never-ending process of growing new believers into the full likeness of Christ. In the early stages, baby Christians exist on spiritual milk. They cannot handle more solid teaching. As Paul wrote to Corinthians:

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ.I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it,and even now you are still not able;for you are still carnal. (I Corinthians 3: 1-3)

Baby Christians do not have to wait to mature before they are able to share the good news of Christ with others or to start discipling new believers. It is a mistake for a church planter to wait until the end of a multi-week discipleship study before he encourages new believers to start sharing with others. It is an even bigger mistake for church planters to encourage new believers to withdraw from the world of non-believers and get all caught up in a church environment where everyone is eating rich spiritual food. There is a time for deeper understanding as the writer of Hebrews explained:

For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.But solid food belongs to those who are of full age,that is,those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (Hebrews 5: 13-14)

The writer goes on to further identify basic Christian doctrines that are essential for new Christians. These doctrines are “milk” for baby Christians. These teachings can be easily grasped and passed on to other new believers all while the disciple is growing deeper.

Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.

At this point, the church planter’s role is to make sure that all generations of new believers are receiving spiritual milk from the previous generation. The planter also puts into place a second stage of disciple maturing for the perfecting of the saints. Growing disciples are trained to be less dependent by studying scripture for themselves while being held accountable for putting it into practice. Greg Kappas, Vice President of the Timothy Initiative trains church planters to develop both short-term and long-term discipleship processes:

While milk must be provided by the mother, maturity is dependent upon the ability to eventually feed oneself and then practice this over and over. In the same way, long-term discipleship must be driven by the disciple’s own pursuit of the Lord. The disciple maker should choose materials that promote a healthy walk with the Lord, capable of transforming one’s family and community relationships as well.[iii]

The person of peace church planting strategy is biblical and easily reproducible. It depends on relational evangelism and practical discipleship to be effective. It is a process that Jesus practiced and taught and it is being used by effective mission organizations all over the world today.

[i] Schwarz, Christian A. Natural Church Development: A Guide to Eight Essential Qualities of Healthy Churches. Carol Stream, IL: ChurchSmart Resources, 1996. 9.

[ii] Cole, Neil. Organic Church: Growing Faith Where Life Happens. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2005. 72.

[iii] Kappas, Greg. Disciples Making Disciples. The Timothy Initiative, 2013. 92.

Lead pastors who have not yet received their magazine subscription by email should contact Linda Goans at 407-293-0450. 

Next, follow the Examine, Encounter, and Engage process at PeopleGroups.Info. Become a part of the online community and contribute your knowledge to the database. 

Third, utilize the resources at EthneCity.com as you continue to evangelize, make disciples and develop leaders with those whom you are engaging. 

• Why Many Churches Just Might Treat Their Next Pastor Better!

• Shaking Up the Status Quo

The Ministry Area Profile provides you the most extensive foundation to make informed decisions about next steps for your church ministry. It has been a reliable information source in the hands of well-over 45,000 church leaders.Color graphic summaries, smart report layouts, faith-based Ethos data and thematic color InfoMaps make it easy to understand and easy to share the story of your ministry area with your leadership team.

David Platt and Matt Carter join Ed Stetzer to discuss how churches can reach their cities and the nations.

Platt is the head pastor of The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama, and he is also the author of the New York Times Best Seller Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.

Carter is the Pastor of Preaching & Vision at the Austin Stone Community Church in Austin, Texas. Carter’s latest book is The Real Win: A Man’s Quest for Authentic Success with Colt McCoy and Marcus Brotheron.

Is "Radical" Christianity a Form of Legalism?

Dr. Tom Cheyney and Mark Weible from the Florida Baptist Convention 2012 Evangelism Conference: 5 Non-Geek Tools for Online Evangelism.  You can listen to all of the conference sessions and view videos of the main sessions at flbaptist.org/econference.

View the PowerPoint presentation from this session:

Today's podcast is Martin Boelens, a Church Revitalization Assistant Team Member (CRAT), will discuss the spiritual principle & a business principle for merging congregations. If there is a message for church mergers today; it is to call the church to a new level of cooperation: "One Body in Christ for the sake of His mission."

Dr. Tom Cheyney talks How to Get Your Church Unstuck!

In today's podcast,  Dr. Tom Cheyney discusses strategies for church mergers and what it means to turn church's around and what it means to grow churches. It's upfront and may be uncomfortable for some, but Dr. Cheyney has many ways to help in this two part series.

Dr. Tom Cheyney, Executive Director of Missions, GOBA talks about the vision of Church Planting is a Biblical idea and it can help planters. The Church Planters vision is usually built in the Church Planters heart. It has to be his desire given by the Lord. This is the first of a four part series on Vision, based on the book, Steven Steps for Planting Churches.

Dr. Tom Cheyney talks about the significance of a vision and some key understandings of why is it that people need to have a vision and impart that vision to others. This is the third of a four part series of Vision based on the book, Seven Steps for Planting Churches.

Dr. Tom Cheyney talks with Ron Smith, Co-Leader of Church Revitalization Assistance Team about things that do not make you become stuck like: space problems, staffing problems, sense of sadness & more!

Dr. Tom Cheyney & Ron Smith, Executive Pastor, First Baptist Altamonte.

Learning from the past while living in the future, is one of the first steps on the path to revitalization. As a church, we should not live dominated by nostalgia for sure, but that doesn't mean that the past is not important.

Dr. Tom Cheyney & Ron Smith, Executive Pastor at First Baptist Altamonte. Uncovering some common misconceptions about Revitalization and Renewal. The typical congregational church revitalization planning process is overloaded with wishes,dreams, and myths that undermine effective decision making.

Jason Cooper, Pastor of The Church at Oak Level in Ocoee, FL.

Organ grinders, complete with dancing monkeys, were often seen on the streets of New York City from 1890 - 1920 and would draw substantial crowds. However, after a few minutes the crowd would disperse to other pursuits. In other words, the sight of a dancing monkey was not enough to sustain a crowd. The same principle is true in church revitalization. A pastor with a dynamic personality or a compelling communication style can draw a substantial crowd to a church in decline. Unfortunately, pastoral personality and style alone is not enough to sustain church growth. But what happens when God taps a young pastor to step in to a declining church to illustrate the principle that only God grows and sustains a local church? This is just the beginning of this story. 

Dr. Tom Cheyney talks about how to start a Church Revitalization Assistance Team in the local church.

Grant Hignight, pastor of Central Parkway Baptist Church, talking about Barnabas Ministry at the Florida Baptist Convention 2012 Evangelism Conference.  

Tom Cheyney and Mark Weible talk about Greater Orlando Adventures in Leadership peer learning groups.  G.O.A.L. groups are composed of church planters, pastors, and other church leaders who commit to walk together for two years of personal leadership development resulting in leadership multiplication in the local church. 

 On this week's podcast, Ron Smith and Tom Cheyney talk about revitalizing vintage churches.  Ron is Executive Pastor of First Baptist Church of Altamonte Springs. 

Tom Cheyney and Mark Weible talk about Greater Orlando Adventures in Leadership peer learning groups.  G.O.A.L. groups are composed of church planters, pastors, and other church leaders who commit to walk together for two years of personal leadership development resulting in leadership multiplication in the local church. 

In this edition of the G.O.A.L. podcast...

At the 2010 SBC convention, Mark Weible interviewed Bill Tummons as he was about to start Wedgefield Community Church.  Bill left a paid staff postion at a local church to go to work in the marketplace and start an organic church with no salary and no church budget.  His friends thought he was crazy, but Bill says that he was just following God. Wedgefield Community Church is sponsored by First Baptist Church of Union Park. 

In this edition of the G.O.A.L. podcast...

At the 2010 SBC convention, Mark Weible interviewed Bill Tummons as he was about to start Wedgefield Community Church.  Bill left a paid staff postion at a local church to go to work in the marketplace and start an organic church with no salary and no church budget.  His friends thought he was crazy, but Bill says that he was just following God. Wedgefield Community Church is sponsored by First Baptist Church of Union Park. 

Today, within our Southern Baptist Convention, we are seeing a success rate for our church planting efforts begin to decline. Currently, we see 700-900 churches close their doors annually. Dr. Tom Cheyney will be sharing with you some pitfalls, potholes, and principles when you find yourselves running too far and too fast without proper time and a system for assimilation.

In this Podcast, Dr. Tom Cheyney help your with turnaround efforts that work best for Church Revitalization. Here are just a few: 1. The pastor needs to revitalize the church 2. Have an outside group help come alongside the church. 3. A new revitalization leader. Want more, then listen to this very important subject.

The TTI strategy results in disciples making disciples, churches planting churches, and church planting centers developing new church planting centers. With multiplication taking plance on every level, exponential growth occurs. TTI focuses on training church planters while equipping them to be trainers of trainers. This process also reduces the cost involved in starting new churches. The average cost of starting a new church is around $200.  Churches of any size can partner with TTI to plant churches in Florida and around the world. For more information, visit http://www.ttionline.org.

Dr.Tom Cheyney discusses facts that things must change within the local church. With the rise of declining churches in North America, the next ten years will show whether the church will begin to embrace church revitalization & renewal, or will they dwindle into irrelevance.

Dr. Tom Cheyney talks about renewing your church. As a lay person, you have more to do with the church in its present state then you take credit for. Your pastor can be the greatest pastor and preacher, but his message only has power to the extent that the people of God within the specific local church live it and practice it with each other! This message will help you understand Church Revitalization.

Some are:

• They expand their time
• Reaching out into the community
• Sense of God's calling
• Much more!