The United Church of Christ is currently undergoing a monumental church planting movement. One of their resources, “A Guidebook for Planting New Congregations in the United Church of Christ,” is very similar the “Starting New Churches” document recently published by the Office of Church Growth of the PCUSA. If you are looking to start a new church, or are interested in church planting resources, I recommend downloading this booklet.
Note that some procedural and structural requirements in the UCC may not be applicable to PCUSA congregations. “Translate” and or/skim over as necessary.
Click here to go to “Guidebook for Planting New Churches in the UCC”
If you are a fan of the the Ooze, then you will probably like the e-magazine, Next Wave. Next Wave features articles which focus on culture, the emerging church, church planting and post-modernism. You can also find links to books and other resources.
Click here to visit the website.
If you’re looking for podcasts and videos surrounding church growth and new church developmnet, then we suggest searching the archives at the Leadership Network. All downloads are free, though you do have to register with the website.
Click here to jump to the website. Once you are there, use the dialog boxes at the top of the page to search/browse podcasts, videos, etc.
(from their website)
“SeedStories – adventures in church planting was created by church planters for church planters. The site provides stories and articles and interaction on anything and everything to do with church planting and the issues surrounding those adventures. So sign up and join in the discussion.”
http://www.seedstories.com
David Boumgarden, one of our New Church Development coaches, has graciously allowed us to post his book and supplemental resource, Weaving the Torn Fabric of Life: The Call of a Missional Church, on Presbygrow. If you would like more information on the additional resources, please email David at david@riverglen.org. He is also offering bound copies of the resouces and CD’s of the curriculum for a nominal fee (to cover binding costs). Please contact him if you are interested.
Click on the links to download the .pdf file(s).
Part One: Book
Part Two: Resource Guide
(from the website)
“Glocalnet is a network of churches worldwide, clustered together regionally or in cities. These clusters pool their resources to produce T-Life disciples, multiply churches, transform local communities and impact the world.”
www.glocal.net
Emergent Village is one of the many websites involved in the Emerging Church Conversation.
(from their website)
“Emergent Village is a growing, generative friendship among missional Christians seeking to love our world in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”
www.emergentvillage.org
One of the significant issues in the failure of new church development centers on the selection of the Organizing Pastor. This is a critical decision that those tasked with hiring the Organizing Pastor often don’t know what skills and talents this specialized role should have and often end up calling a person who is not a capable church planter. This is a common misstep but a critical one.
So, a few years ago the PCUSA, along with some of our ecumenical partners, we began working with the Gallup organization to develop a simple but effective online tool to help determine if a person being considered for new church development work has the necessary gifts and skills to be an effective church planter.
The tool was launched last year and by our measure seems to be a very effective tool. The Office of Church Growth wants to make sure that you have access to this very useful tool. If you are on a Presbytery or church team that will be looking for an Organizing Pastor or are a Pastor who thinks he/she might be a church planter, this tool is a great way to begin your search.
The cost is $50 per use and is a very cost effective way to evaluate those Pastors you might want to interview.
We suggest that you use this tool BEFORE setting up any interview or face to face conversation and that you use this toll will all the applicants you are considering interviewing in order to have the capacity to evaluate them based on a common criteria.
For those who will be using this tool, we will be scheduling some training on how to interpret the results.
To start using this, please email Sherry Britton or you can contact her if you have any questions.
Presbymergent is the online community for those who live in both the Presbyterian (PCUSA) and Emergent/emerging church worlds and want to try and find a balance between the two.
We are pastors, lay people, seminarians, theologians, youth directors and people who generally care about both the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Emergent and the emergent conversation.
Feel free to join and post articles, questions and thoughts to the community. Grab the RSS feed and stay updated with information about presbymergent news. Post, discuss, share and support those who are working in and thinking about ministry in the margins.
www.presbymergent.org
One of the challenges to us is to shift from a business model of doing ministry to having a more discernment oriented approach to planning and designing ministries. Follow this link to an article offered by the Alban Institute on “Planning as Holy Conversation”.
May we learn to discern.
