1.ReThink: 9 Paradigm Shifts for Activating the Church
By Brad Brisco
Every organization, including the church, is built upon underlying paradigms or assumptions. This is not necessarily the same thing as the church’s beliefs or theological systems. Rather, the paradigm determines how an organization thinks and, therefore, acts. Paradigms explain and then guide behavior. If we try to restructure an organization, but leave the original paradigms in place, nothing will change within the organization. Therefore, for real change to take place, we need to experience a paradigm shift or, in most cases, multiple paradigm shifts.
In this e-book, Brisco presents nine key paradigm shifts the church needs to experience when desiring to equip and activate the people of God to engage in His mission.
2. 5 Marks of a Healthy Church Planter
Anything that’s made to sound simple, probably isn’t. Most of us have tried to put together a piece of furniture by following a few “simple” instructions. After hours of toil, mixed with childlike tantrums, we throw up our hands in disgust, pledging we’ll just make the entire thing from scratch the next time.
Church leaders can be guilty of the opposite extreme. We can take something meant to be relatively simple and make it so complex it confounds and frustrates even the most seasoned practitioner. Such can certainly be the case with church planting.
That’s not to suggest starting a new church is easy. It’s not. Missiological and ecclesiological challenges abound for those who seek to bring the gospel to bear in a new community. Yet the biblical roadmap is clear. God is not a God of confusion, nor has He asked us to unlock some mysterious puzzle in order to see a new church birthed. He’s given us a clear path to follow.
3. Covocational Church Planting: Aligning Your Marketplace Calling and the Mission of God
By Brad Brisco
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.
A covocational church planter is one whose primary vocation is in the marketplace, but at the same time he feels led to start a church. A “covo” planter is one who knows God has called him to be a teacher, or a mechanic, a web designer or a doctor, yet desires to weave that calling into planting a church. He realizes those two callings are not mutually exclusive; they are intertwined and equally compelling.
In Covocational Church Planting, Brisco provides not only a new way to think about vocation, but also a fresh vision for church planting as a covocational leader.
4. Partners in Planting: Help and Encouragement for Church Planting Wives
By Christine Hoover
We think of faith as hard work, as a burdensome calling, but it’s really being willing to sit peacefully in uncertainty, knowing we’ve accepted an invitation to watch God show up and work in our freefall.
Author Christine Hoover shares how she has discovered this cherished secret through the profoundly difficult and sweet task of church planting. Hoover says she tends to call herself a “church planting wife,” but in actuality, although she have played a different role than her husband has, she too is a “church planter.” A church planting wife labors to bring forth the baby, helps it find its legs, and imprints her DNA on its heart. While her husband proclaims over this baby and shepherds it as it grows, she comes alongside, often in quiet, unseen ways that are vital nonetheless. That is her great, kingdom-building calling: to be his “alongside.”
All church planters need their “alongside.” And the “alongside” so desperately needs encouragement and support.
5. Church Planting Thresholds
By Clint Clifton
Church Planting Thresholds explores the why and the how of church planting, providing “thresholds” that serve as progress mileposts along the church planting journey. This simple guide will encourage ordinary Christians as they seek to fulfill the Great Commission through planting churches.
Click here, for other helpful, free resources on church planting.
Published October 1, 2020