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When Culture Trumps Strategy
Dan Steel
I can think of too many people—good, sincere, kind, sacrificial core team members—who didn’t just leave a church plant, but eventually seemed to walk away from the faith altogether. Not because they stopped believing the gospel intellectually, but because of...
Article
Your Church Should Be Stronger Than You
Will Basham
One of the most common questions I get asked at the church I lead in Appalachia is, “Why do you have so many pastors?” I usually jovially answer, “Because of my incompetence.” (The benefit of elder plurality is another article for another day.) That...
Article
What Is Covocational Church Planting?
A covocational church planter is one whose primary vocation is in the marketplace and who is also called to start a church. Rather than viewing work outside the church as secondary or provisional, covocational leaders understand their marketplace vocation as an essential part of...
Article
Evangelism as Discipline
Paul Worcester
When I started to grasp the urgency of our need to share the gospel, I began attempting to share Christ, but I only did so sporadically. I would read a book on evangelism, get all fired up, and go share with a bunch of...
Article
The Planter Without a Platform
Dan Steel
There is an unwritten rule in our church-planting culture: find the right person, and the church will follow. The “right” person? The right person is winsome, visionary, a gifted communicator—an all-round leader who more than capably reads Scripture, the room,...
Article
What Church Planters Must Remember About People’s Greatest Need
Noah Oldham
Church planters live in the middle of need. You feel it from the earliest days. There are practical needs, financial needs, relational needs, leadership needs, facility needs, community needs, marriage needs, parenting needs, counseling needs, and on and on. Some...
Article
When Strategy Isn’t Enough: The Power of Relational Covenants
Ben Barfield
I remember sitting in a staff meeting not long ago thinking something feels off. Nothing had gone wrong. Nobody was arguing; the agenda got covered, and on the surface, it looked like a good meeting. But it was quiet in a way...
