Northern Lakes Evangelical Church meets in the northern part of the Central Coast in New South Wales, Australia. Connan O’Shea reflects on the past three years since it began.
Category Archives: Church planting
Who is the ‘experienced’ church planter?
Pastoral Ministry
Anyone who knows me knows that, in God’s manifold grace, I’m very much on the ‘church waterer’ end of things, rather than on the church planter end! So please forgive me for dipping a toe into something I don’t know too much about. Nevertheless, while I’ve not kept up with all the discussions and conferences and so forth, in the things that I have read, a question has been slowly developing in my mind—a question that I’d like to ask by way of clarification. It was raised again for me by Ben’s recent post on the Acts 29 conference.
Maybe the answer is already out there and I just haven’t seen it (which is very likely). Whatever the case, what are your thoughts on the following: what makes someone an ‘experienced’ church planter? And, to that end, who is a ‘church planter’?
Australia’s first Acts 29 boot camp: An Aussie review
Pastoral Ministry
I’m sitting on a plane at Brisbane airport. I’ve just spent two days at the first Australian Acts 29 Church Planters boot camp. I went because I was tired of hearing about Acts 29 (and Mars Hill Church and Mars Hill Global) second-hand. I wanted to meet the people leading the movement face-to-face and hear ‘from the horse’s mouth’. Let me share with you what I thought, and let me tell you about the who, what, when, where and how of the conference.
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The reluctant doorknocker
When Dave Cunynghame was asked to join a church planting team that was aiming to reach the disadvantaged suburb of Berkeley, little did he know what God had in store. (more…)
Holding onto the gospel: The challenge of preaching Jesus in South Africa
Pastoral Ministry
Laying the foundations at Church by the Bridge
Pastoral Ministry
A call to plant more churches
Pastoral Ministry
It’s time for the start of a new Saturday series, and in light of the recent Church Planting conference, I thought it might be time to stop and reflect on some of the challenges to plant churches that we’ve made in The Briefing over the years. I’m reproducing these in the hope that they will stir our hearts to pray to God to raise up new congregations of his people through the preaching of the gospel all over the world.
Wisdom for church planting
Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel
Paul, you beat me to the post! Yes, the Church Planting conference at Moore was excellent, and I enjoyed the Thursday as much as you did the Friday, and for all the same reasons. (Although, speaking editorially, if you ever again use the word ‘awesome’ in that fashion while writing on Matthias Media time, I may have to reconsider your contract.)
Three things occurred to me during the day.
Making the most of retirement
Everyday Ministry
I retired in 2001. Back then, I had to decide how I would use my time and how I would be involved in the life of my local church, St Paul’s Carlingford. But I didn’t want to rush too quickly into new commitments, so I deliberately chose not to do anything new for six months until I had sorted things out. In hindsight, that period was most difficult. Since then, however, I’ve had a ball! Let me explain.
Smart planting, right planting
Pastoral Ministry
Tony and I spent Thursday and Friday last week at the Church Planting conference held at Moore College. (Tony did Thursday and I did Friday.) It was a brilliant couple of days, and I couldn’t help but be thankful to God for so many people who are working hard at making Jesus known in so many places. What an amazing gift to sit in the room with so many godly and gifted people whose great goal in life is to make Jesus known. Awesome.
I thought I’d post a couple of reflections on the day I attended. Here are three key things I have been thinking about since:
Wesley, charms and church planting
Pastoral Ministry
For some reason (now lost in the fog that descends regularly on my neural pathways), I was reading the words of Wesley’s ‘O for a thousand tongues’ the other day. I don’t remember why I was reading, but I do remember being struck by what I read: “Jesus, the name that calms our fears …” I was sure that it wasn’t quite right. Sure enough, it wasn’t; Wesley actually penned “Jesus, the name that charms our fears”.
I thought to myself, there’s a church planting lesson in that.
Oops! Did we just start a denomination
David Shead tells the story of how he was forced to change tactics while doing ministry in Slovenia.
“We got more than we bargained for”. It’s a lovely phrase, conjuring up images of unsuspecting tourists trying their hand at a bit of marketplace haggling. However, when they examine their purchases later, they get a nasty surprise: weevils in the food or a visit from the constabulary about stolen goods. Getting ‘more than you bargained for’ pinpoints that sobering moment when your lack of control is exposed: you planned and prepared well, but somehow—and you’re not too sure how—things didn’t turn out the way you expected. (more…)
Firing up for evangelism
Interchange
Firing up for evangelism
Pastoral Ministry
How can a pastor get evangelism going in his church? To ‘evangelize’ literally means to ‘proclaim news’. Thus, when the President of the IOC stands to say, “The games of the 33rd Olympiad in 2012 are awarded to the City of London”, he is evangelizing. To do Christian evangelism is to tell the news that “Jesus Christ is Lord”.