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Thinking of Church Planting

Well, here I am. This is the beginning of something new. My wife and I moved about nine months ago to a village with three churches, none of which are overtly evangelical. We have found this hard as we are from a thriving evangelical background. Over the last few months we have met a number of Christians who live in the village but worship elsewhere because they found the church here not suitable. We have had Bible College Training and are unhappy with this situation. We are also uncomfortable

Posted by: Gary Wood Created on: Tue 24 April 2012 19:54 Last modified: Never

This article was posted in Church Planting

Did your soul survive the summer festival?

Our church community had a great and very productive summer this year. Firstly with our holiday bible club. This year we did not use the typical holiday club material that churns out the same 'gospel' message every year. Children you are all guilty of sin. Jesus died for your'e sin so if you give your life to him you will be free from that sin and live for ever with him in heaven when you die. This year we used material from CURBS www.curbsproject.org.uk called peacemakers. This material

Posted by: Barney Barron Created on: Fri 09 September 2011 10:04 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:03

This article was posted in MyBlog

website

I've had websites for nearly 20 years.

In my last church we had a site for the whole time I was there.

When I arrived at Gildersome we revamped the site and publicised it heavily. We used ads on google ads and on facebook to drive traffic to the site for key periods like Christmas and Easter.

In all this time I've not had a single person come visiting in search of a church to join who could be credited to having found us on the web.

Then comes the last six weeks and ten people in three

Posted by: David Newton Created on: Mon 05 September 2011 21:38 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:11

This article was posted in MyBlog

Great Growth

We are seeing steady growth, in our normal 19th century inheritted Sunday morning service BUT our monthly intergenerational interactive event is growing faster than anything I've known. In August last year numbers were down at 23 people. This year it was 47. Some were with us for the first time more for the second or third and others who are regulars now. 24 of the 47 were not connected with us this time last year.

So what is causing this exceptional growth?

The event is round tables with

Posted by: David Newton Created on: Sun 14 August 2011 14:28 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:12

This article was posted in MyBlog

"Live Dangerously or not at all!"

I remember on leaving theological college many of my colleagues were looking for "settlement" in their first church. I was often annoyed by their response on feeding back from churches they had visited complaining the manse wasn't big enough or the stipend wasn't enough. There seemed to be little acknowlegment or interest in the sense of calling or radical discipleship.
That is not to justify the all to many churches who seem to want ministry as cheap as they can get it and exploit their

Posted by: Barney Barron Created on: Thu 11 August 2011 10:02 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:11

This article was posted in MyBlog

Forgiveness

evangelistchanging.blogspot.com

Forgiveness seems to be a strange and difficult concept so often in the world in which we live.

Destruction, revenge, and 'pay back' seem to be the order of things and the way culture often understands 'justice' and 'putting things right'.

Forgiveness is tough and difficult. Forgiveness is costly.

When I forgive someone who wrongs me, it costs me something. It costs me something because it is tough. I feel wounded by someone, yet in forgiving them I am

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Thu 21 July 2011 09:16 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:12

This article was posted in MyBlog

A Conversation

I met a couple of guys the other day and we got chatting about various different things.

Both very interesting and unique. Both with fascinating thoughts about life, faith and spirituality.

One of them believed in God. He believed in who Jesus was. He was passionate about Israel. He believed in a literal 6 day creation. He struggled with being a follower of Jesus. He believed in unconditional love. He believed that our actions today matter. He found faith to be hard work and believed he

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Tue 28 June 2011 11:39 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:12

This article was posted in MyBlog

Hat Trick

It's just a year since my last entry here.

In it I said that I look for a first visitor, first returnee and first baptism. We'd just had our first visitor. They didn't return.

However others have done and we now have nine new regulars. A family of four come regularly to the monthly intergenerational activity, a family of three and a couple are all weekly visitors. The husband of the couple will be our first baptism on 26th June. Bingo.

In the Autumn I shared with the church the need to have,

Posted by: David Newton Created on: Fri 10 June 2011 15:58 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:12

This article was posted in MyBlog

Family Celebrations

On Monday evening family and friends celebrated my mum and dad's 40th wedding anniversary.

It was a great evening with lots of laughter, happy memories and reminiscing, good food and drink and a great time with well over 100 family and friends. Everyone had a really good night and I could tell that my mum and dad enjoyed the evening, were relaxed and appreciated the love and support many people have for them.

My Beautiful Girls on Monday evening

Tom has recently written about my mum and dad

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Fri 03 June 2011 11:04 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:12

This article was posted in MyBlog

Etched onto His Skin

I have just read my bro's blog reflecting on how our mum and dad have been married for 40 years this month.

He writes:

'They've loved each other, hated each other, been indifferent to each other, tolerated each other...They've been through bankruptcy, wealth, laughter, sadness, anger, joy, confusion. They've tried to have children and failed, but managed to adopt four children. They have had their house taken away...I will always be amazed as to how mum and dad have survived as a couple...It's

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Fri 20 May 2011 12:46 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:12

This article was posted in MyBlog

Servant Leader or Leader Person?

A Servant Leader or a Leader Person...

Servant Leader: Has something to say
LeaderPerson: Wants a platform on which to say something

LeaderPerson: Wants you to know they are a Leader
Servant Leader: You're not sure they know they are a leader

LeaderPerson: Loves the idea of the Gospel, and the idea of The Church
Servant Leader: Loves God and the actual individual people God brings across their path

LeaderPerson: Helps you find where God is leading you in their organization
Servant Leader: Helps you

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Tue 17 May 2011 11:11 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:11

This article was posted in MyBlog

Amazing Love

I claw at the darkness, seeking an end to the pain
I dig deeper and deeper certain of an escape.
The darkness seems to surround me
I can't remember what light even looks like now.

I convince myself that an escape from the darkness lies in digging deeper
So I continue to delve sure of an end or even a beginning.

I am like a man clawing the ground hoping for deliverance
He splinters his nails and breaks his fingers longing for escape.
The wounds I carry cannot so easily be healed.

And so I find myself in

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Thu 05 May 2011 14:31 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:10

This article was posted in MyBlog

Salvation and Belief

Go to evangelistchanging.blogspot.com for all my blog posts.

Last Monday I had a 'Crash' evening whereby I invited a few different people to come round my home for a meal. As we eat someone shares for 10 minutes about a particular subject and then we discuss throughout the evening what that person has shared and see where the conversations take us.

On Monday John Colwell came and spoke. He was one of my tutors at college and is now Pastor at Budleigh Salterton Baptist. He spoke about

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Mon 18 April 2011 11:21 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:10

This article was posted in MyBlog

A Church Pioneer

How times have changed.

When we came the city 14 years ago, church planting was often seen as a threat to existing churches… I must say with some justification, as it did tend to involve whole groups of people ‘moving in’ to an area from elsewhere. It was also seen as an activity exclusively for the ‘radical’ people.

A few years ago I (Colin Baron) wrote a manual outlining lessons we had learnt in our first phase of planting churches in Greater Manchester. I now want to bring it

Posted by: Adam Purcell Created on: Tue 29 March 2011 11:02 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:10

This article was posted in MyBlog

Atherstone News

This is my first foray into blogging. So, we'll see how this goes! Steve Wallis (minister of Polesworth Baptist Church) and I have been engaged in church planting since last October and we've been so thrilled with how it's going. It so brilliant to see God working in people's lives! We are meeting once a month on the first Sunday of the month in a Community centre for a service (with some folk from Polesworth Baptist Church). We are also delivering invitations to the servives in the area of

Posted by: Andrew Phillips Created on: Sun 27 March 2011 13:23 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:10

This article was posted in MyBlog

Constance

Here is a provocative video about the realities of prostitution, pornography and human trafficking.

The reality of these things is one of devastation, and this video captures that devastation well...

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Tue 22 March 2011 17:33 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:10

This article was posted in MyBlog

Lessons Learned in Manchester - Have Fun!

Cheer up and enjoy yourself! When you look back in 20 years from now you may miss the days when your church was small and fast moving. Not that church won’t be fun in 20 years, it is just that it won’t be like it was. Too many church planters get bogged down in how hard things are and all the trials they are going through. It is all part of the package and it is the same for everyone, so enjoy it while it lasts. Have fun being creative and doing new and exciting things.

Another reason to

Posted by: Adam Purcell Created on: Tue 15 March 2011 13:19 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:10

This article was posted in MyBlog

What is my motivation?

What is our motivation?

What is the reason behind all that we do as God's people?

Why are we in relationship with people?

Is it because we love people?

Is it because we want to be in relationship with people?

Is it because we want to have friendships, relationships and loving communities?

Or is it because we want to grow a church?

Is it because we want to see people become Christians?

Is it because we want to raise our own profile and the profile of the

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Wed 09 March 2011 15:16 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:10

This article was posted in MyBlog

Lessons Learned in Manchester - Recruiting a crew to bring in the new!

When Jesus began His public ministry what was the first thing He chose to do? Gather a crew of course. He walked around and called people to His vision and asked them to walk with Him on His forthcoming mission. These men became His disciples and were largely responsible for the formation of the early church in the Middle East. For us church planters the same can be true and gathering a crew can be effective at increasing the capacity of your church to grow. Dave Stroud from Christ Church

Posted by: Adam Purcell Created on: Fri 04 March 2011 12:40 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:10

This article was posted in MyBlog

Music Worship

There is a meme going round at the moment to name one CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) song that you find unbearable and explain briefly why.

Sam tagged me in this along with Banksy.

Banksy posts here which particular song he dislikes and more generally his dislike of this whole genre of music worship and reasons why he doesn't even think it is music worship.

I've had a think and I've decided that I'm not going to get involved with this meme for a number of reasons.

Firstly I

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Thu 10 February 2011 19:55 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:10

This article was posted in MyBlog

The Problem with Mission Weeks (by Michael Shaw)

It is that time of year when University CU’s break out of their holy huddles tucked away in c50009 and attempt to convert the University in a week. Now I have no problem with their enthusiasm or motivation. I have a problem with the concept.

I have been involved in many ways with Mission Weeks, whilst at University a part of the CU, as an assistant missioner and also as a church representative, through all my experiences I can say that I never saw or met one person who became a Christian

Posted by: Barney Barron Created on: Thu 10 February 2011 11:04 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:08

This article was posted in MyBlog

Lessons Learned in Manchester - Faith to Fathom a Future

There is an element of church planting that is so vital that your effort is doomed to failure without it. I am of course talking about faith. Faith to see God move in your area and to see people saved, faith to grow your church and envision the future, and faith to take on activities and goals that are challenging and seemingly impossible without this belief in God’s power.

I would argue that every church starts with a small seed of faith and if you talk to any leader or founding member

Posted by: Adam Purcell Created on: Tue 01 February 2011 11:50 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:08

This article was posted in MyBlog

Another Church Plant Update

Things are going well here. We are 5 months into this church planting adventure and feel really encouraged by what has been happening.

I have now set up a group who meet every two weeks to explore Christian faith and spirituality. We are going through Mark's Gospel and are going to use a variety of ways to explore the life of Jesus as told through Mark's narrative. Some weeks we will eat together and have a 'Crash' evening whilst other times we will watch film as a lead into a time of

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Tue 01 February 2011 11:31 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:08

This article was posted in MyBlog

Leadership and Governance

When I consider the issues of leadership and governance in general but for the church in particular at heart I am a bit of an anarchist. I want the church to be a movement that is organic and fluid as much as possible. I don’t like notions of control and hierarchy.

However the reality is I still believe as followers of Jesus it is important for our spiritual journey to be in community and not in isolation. The trouble is as soon as you have any community of people you will have people

Posted by: Barney Barron Created on: Thu 20 January 2011 17:00 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:09

This article was posted in MyBlog

Lessons Learned in Manchester - Community Spirit For Community Salvation

Every church plant is faced with the same problem: how are you going to reach your local community. With the passion and enthusiasm that permeates through a new church, leaders are often faced with trying to find a way to effectively utilise it. We want our church plants to grow and we need to let people know that we are there. There are many words for this I suppose but the clearest one is perhaps your ‘evangelism strategy’, quite simply, how you are going to reach people?

There are

Posted by: Adam Purcell Created on: Tue 18 January 2011 11:48 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:08

This article was posted in MyBlog

Love Pusher

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Tue 11 January 2011 12:32 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:07

This article was posted in MyBlog

A Great Story

Everyone has a story...

God Himself has a story...

And the most powerful story, the one that will keep you enthralled, the one that will captivate you and change you, the one that is so powerful you will never want it to end, the one that is so great it will stay with you forever...

That story is when your story and God's story come together.

It is always amazing when we see God's story and the stories of those whom we serve in our communities come together. It is always amazing

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Mon 10 January 2011 13:41 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:08

This article was posted in MyBlog

Good Samaritan

On the BBC website people have been leaving 'Good Samaritan' stories, sharing their experiences of how strangers have helped them in a time of real need or trouble.

The stories are really heart warming and challenging.

Go here and read them all for yourselves, but here are two that caught my eye.

The first one showing the beauty of humanity and how the love and care from people to people can deeply change lives:

In 1993, at a football game between Millwall and Portsmouth, I was

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Fri 07 January 2011 14:00 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:07

This article was posted in MyBlog

Looking Back and Then Pressing On Toward The Goal

Looking Back and Then Pressing On Toward The Goal

I've had a good break over the Christmas and New Year period, enabling me to spend some quality time with family and friends.

2010 all in all was a great year. So much has happened this past year and, reflecting on the previous 12 months, there is much to be thankful for. The first part of the year was tough because I was suffering with bad headaches on a daily basis whilst trying to write essays and travelling up and down the country

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Tue 04 January 2011 14:01 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:07

This article was posted in MyBlog

There is Excitment in the camp!!

Yes, I am excited to be setting up, moving in and then being part of a new community. The Barking Riverside Development Project, for me, as been an on-going adventure since June 2004 and 'At Last' this year (September 2011) we, as in Churches Together in Barking Riverside, will be moving into our new place of worship.

When people ask me 'what do you do?' I find it difficult to put the project into a paragraph without the dazed look developing on my enquirers face!!! because, in reality,

Posted by: Judith Schultz Created on: Sat 01 January 2011 20:18 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:07

This article was posted in MyBlog

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