Swerve community project on church planting
I found something interesting when I was working on putting together a list of websites/blogs that provide great/useful content for church planters.
Wikipedia’s entry for “Church Planting” sucks. Or let me clarify… it is vastly underdeveloped and incomplete.
Since there are an army of web savvy pastors and church planters out there and many of you who follow this blog fall into that category…why don’t we remedy that and create an appropriate wikipedia entry as a free resource for those that might be searching for help in church planting?
Some of you are talented writers and are probably already editing wikipedia entries. Others of you know of resources that would be helpful, but will probably not be active in editing the wiki. And there are still others of you who are asking what “wikipedia” and a “wiki” is. The good news is that all of you can contribute and/or learn.
Let’s have a short-term (this week) community project that we all participate in.
First…if you have a website/book/blog/organization or other resource that you have found is useful or helpful specifically for church planting…respond to this post with the name/link to the resource and a concise description.
Second…if you are not familiar with wikipedia or how to edit wikipedia you can learn or read more about that here.
Third…if you are a writer or have skills in organizing written content (and are or have become familiar with wikis)…please consider taking the resources mentioned on this post and organizing that content along with anything that would be helpful to church planters on wikipedia. You can see/edit the entry here.
I figure in a week or so…we should have a pretty good entry of information and resources that church planters can reference for free.
Thanks
Visit 
What a great idea, Bobby!!! One gets the depressing feeling sometimes that many Christians still prefer to live in the dark ages when it comes to technology and the Web.
Apape,
steve
Bobby,
Life Point Church is a new church plant that is going multi - site from their launch date. Their blog is a church planting class. It is designed to tell the story of the church plant while providing resources and education for planters.
A great resource… You should give them a link and a shout out:-))
http://www. lifepointblog.tv
I think a lot of Mark Driscoll and have heard good things about Acts 29. Do any of you know specificly how that ministry works in planting churches?
I’ve also been learning some about the Association of Related Churches. If any of you can tell us about them, I’d love to hear more.
Craig (et al):
I’m a church planter currently planting in Greenville, NC and am familiar with the Acts29 network, and I also have a resource for you.
First things first, here’s the resource: http://www.desertfather.com/2007/01/08/get-it-here-first/. It’s a collection of Church Planting Wisdoms I collected from various church planters last year. The blog posts collected are on my site as well as many other postings and resources for church planters. Hope they help. I’ll also be blogging at the National New Church Conference in a couple of weeks in Orlando.
As far as Acts 29 is concerned, they provide oversight, accountability, and finances for a limited time to a new church plant, which then turns around to provide oversight and finances to a new church plant. It’s basically peer-to-peer planting, if you’re familiar with internet terminology. I plan to be assessed by Acts29 later this year in Raleigh.
If there’s anything else I can do for you, please let me know at derek harmonydc.com .
Thanks Derek…
Other organizations life Acts 29 would be great things to talk about on the wiki.
And thanks to the rest of you too
Bobby
I created a Squidoo lens on Church Planting at http://www.squidoo.com/churchplanter and have tried to keep it updated with current information.
Great resource Matt! Thanks.
AS for books and resources, I have a couple of lists of books that were recommended to me through Acts29 church planting, which I have turned into 2 wish lists on Amazon.com.
The “short” list can be found here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/32TF936KBHFER/
And the expanded list, (which I am still adding to) is books that should be added in addition to the short list. It can be found here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/20FURLSRUN1PX/
It should be noted that I haven’t added all the recommended books to the expanded list yet. Also one book that I am in the process of reading that is phenomenal is “Breaking the Missional Code” by Ed Stetzer, GET IT!
I just realized Craig had asked about how Acts 29 works, and I think I can give a little insight. Acts 29 heavily concentrates on building up the planter personally, instead of just giving you their model. In fact they want you to be Missional about your community you’ll plant in so they don’t really give you any 1 particular model.
There is an evaluation process you have to go through in order to be part of their network, but anyone that wants to attend their training can do so. If you go through their assessment, you will be evaluated and coached by other successful church planters. If you are “approved” through the assessment to be part of their network, there is a pretty decent monetary assistance, and continued coaching. For more info you can check them out at:
http://www.acts29network.org/
Also another good resource:
http://www.churchplantingresources.com/
I would recommend 2 of Mark Driscoll’s books about his church planting experience thus far. Both are excellent books and perhaps should be a primer for all church planters. The Confessions book expands alot on what was said in the Radical Reformission book so it’s good to read them in that order.
The Radical Reformission: Reaching Out without Selling Out
http://www.amazon.com/Radical-Reformission-Reaching-without-Selling/dp/0310256593/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3/104-5851862-0158300?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175618403&sr=8-3
Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church (The Leadership Network Innovation)
http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Reformission-Rev-Leadership-Innovation/dp/0310270162/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-5851862-0158300?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175618403&sr=8-1
Acts29 has HOURS of great media resources there:
http://www.acts29network.org/resources/multimedia/
I just listened to Mark’s message ‘Building a City within a City’. This is one of the best presentations I have ever seen on church planting:
http://www.acts29network.org/multimedia/2007/twenty-leadership-questions-for-building-a-city-within-a-city–part-1
Erwin McManus’ “An Unstopable Force” is a great book for church planters. I don’t know if he, or Mosaic, have any type of specific planting resources?
http://www.amazon.com/Unstoppable-Force-Daring-Become-Church/dp/0764423061/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-8038678-6006442?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1175713017&sr=8-1
Friends - I am partnering with the Association of Related churches. They have been a great resource to us. They offer “Best Practices” for planting and some financial assistance as well. The ARC has helped plant 40 churches in the last five years. If you are thinking and praying about planting they offer a very informative Church Planter’s Roundtable (CPR) for prospective planters. The event dates are posted at http://www.relatedchurches.com. There is also a free annual conference for church-planters, member churches, and others. Craig G. is speaking in one of th emain sessions. Great people, worth knowing and perhaps partnering with.
Ben.
Ben,
Thanks for the info! I am very excited to learn from ARC. Any group that is planting that many churches is doing something right.
Another group worth being aware of is Vision USA. You can learn more at http://www.vision4usa.com.
There seems to be several national, broad-based churchplanting orgs out there. Vision USA brings a unique emphasis by creating smaller networks at a regional and local level to more effectively aid in planting churches.
The aim is for local churches, leaders and planters to collaborate by getting their hands on the pulse of the city, local culture, church needs, church-planting candidates, etc. The target is not church unity as we have traditionally thought of unity, but rather strategy.
Church planting is great. But collaborative church planting could be even better.
Check it out.
OK…any wikipedia editors/writers that can organize/include this info on the wiki?
I know that many of you are probably fairly engaged in getting ready for this Easter…so maybe next week would be a better week. I’ll do what I can, but could certainly use some help from those of you that are more talented
[...] Bobby brought my attention to the “church planting” entry at Wikipedia. In this post, Bobby encourages updating improving the Wikipedia entry. I’ve made a few changes, do you have some to add? [...]
[...] There’s been a little experiment going on over at the Swerve blog. They advertised a project to improve Wikipedia’s article on church planting. This was of particular interest to me. [...]
I took an hour and added to that wikipedia entry, which should take it out of “cleanup” status. It takes more time than I thought to add to an entry, so what’s been collecting here is a very good start. A bit surprising to see how much is really happening in church planting, and yet the wikipedia entry really lags. Maybe that’s a commentary on church planters (rightly) spending their energy on exciting things on the front lines, rather than documenting it on wikipedia
I hope you are right dj.
Thank you much for contributing!
From
Rev.Penke Varaprasadarao,
Dr.No.6-3-19, Badavastreet
Tuni-533401, E.G.DT
Andhra Pradesh, India
Phone 0091-8854-255735
Email; ccima777@yahoo.com
http://www.ccimaindia.org
SUB: Church planting and social service in tribal villages of Andhra Pradesh state in India.
Greetings from distance South India. I may please be permitted to place this letter before with all respect. I would like to introduce myself as a P.Varaprasadarao, doing ministry for 13 years at payakaraopeta in visakha district in Andhra Pradesh in India.
We wanted to reach the un-reached villages of Sea-shore areas as well as interior areas. For that we prepared team of missionaries for Church Plantation in un-reached areas in Andhra Pradesh. But our missionaries are facing lot of troubles from the field due to lack of Church Shelter and ministry equipments and oppositions. For that we are unable to move to another un-reached area. So we wanted work with you to reach the un-reached. But still we wanted to cross the seashore people and as well as tribal people. We are also doing gospel work along with social action. I am looking for your kind reply
Prayer points
1. Church plantation, seminars
2. Orphan home
3. Missionaries, outreach ministry
4. Tracts distribution
5. Film ministry
Thanking you sir
In Jesus Christ
Penkevaraprasadarao