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Lessons Learned in Manchester - Food is Like Fuel for a Church Plant

Inevitably, a church plant will spend a great deal of its early days, especially the beachhead and pioneering days, in someone’s living room or dining room. That living room will also inevitably belong to a hospitable person or family who loves to have people in their home. Every church has these people regardless of its size and they are worth their weight in gold. These people who love to cook a meal on a week night for 12 people or have all the ladies in the church round in the morning

Posted by: Adam Purcell Created on: Wed 22 December 2010 16:39 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:07

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A Christmas Message

'In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.'

'So God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.'

'God saw all that he had made and it was very good.'

'When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.'

'The the Lord God said...'What is

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Thu 16 December 2010 10:29 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:07

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A Disciple of Jesus

What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus?

A disciple walks the journey that has been laid before them by Jesus. They do not wish to carve and create their own destiny, but rather seeks their destiny to be the one that has been created and carved by Jesus. It is a journey they walk, not seeking to find the way on their own, but rather seeking the Way of their Master, walking in His footsteps, the path of discipleship that He has already taken.

And this path of discipleship is not one

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Wed 15 December 2010 14:49 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:07

This article was posted in MyBlog

Lessons Learned in Manchester - Securing the Beachhead

In the Second World War landings at Normandy in 1944, allied forces immediately faced the problem of navigating through the unfamiliar terrain and trying to secure the beachhead in order to properly resource an invasion of Europe. For the first few weeks after D-Day allied commanders were obsessed with trying to secure these beachheads and subsequent bridgeheads as well. The purpose of a beachhead was simple; to take and secure an area inside enemy lines from which further ground can be taken.

Posted by: Adam Purcell Created on: Tue 14 December 2010 11:55 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:07

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Church Plant Update

I thought it would be good to update how things are going with the church plant now we have been here just over 3 months.

We have many different people from many different walks in life and these people we have met who are interested and exploring the Christian faith will meet in January for the first time. We continue to be surprised and amazed by God in the way that He builds His church. As yet we are unsure how many people will be there on that first meeting because those who come have

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Wed 08 December 2010 10:38 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:06

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Jesus

Jesus is not a brand that the church sells to attract clients. He is not a marketing strategy that powerful men dream up in order to grow their business. He is not an event that is held once a year, with flashing lights and mood music, that people go to for an adrenaline rush. He is not a stock market that measures its success on how well the share price is doing. He is not a clever idea that is used to dismantle other ideas. He is not an advertisement that lures people in with feel good

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Tue 07 December 2010 12:21 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:06

This article was posted in MyBlog

Lessons Learned in Manchester - Major Resource = Major Impact

In the early 1990’s a handful of people, based mainly in the Southeast corner of England, began dreaming and planning a major church planting initiative 250 miles away in Greater Manchester. What became obvious very quickly was if we wanted to make a substantial impact in a short space of time in this key city, we needed a large resource. We subsequently hit the ground with, believe it or not, five full-time members of staff (two paid senior leaders and three interns). We had been given

Posted by: Adam Purcell Created on: Tue 07 December 2010 11:39 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:06

This article was posted in MyBlog

Moto-ConneXion

Moto-ConneXtion Moto-ConneXion is an expression of church and experiment in community that is now in it’s third year and this year we started the new season with a group of 20.
So what is Moto-ConneXion? It’s an expression of church that Eric Zander and myself came up with at the beginning of 2008. We both work with the Belgian Evangelical Mission and were looking for a new ways to be church. Moto-ConneXion is an open community of yes, bikers! Some of us come from different church backgrounds and are

Posted by: Stephen Pitt Created on: Tue 07 December 2010 07:44 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:06

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Storytellers

Storytellers

I was in a coffee shop in town talking with the staff who work there. They were 3 of them, all about 18 years old. I was chatting to them asking about the area, places to go and what they thought of Newton Abbot. I told them that because we had just moved here we didn't really know anyone and asked where they go to meet people. The very first answer that came out of their mouths was...

"Facebook".

Now this does not surprise me in any way. Facebook is an example of what is

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Wed 24 November 2010 12:26 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:05

This article was posted in MyBlog

My Story

I'd like to tell you a story, well actually, I'd like to tell you my story. Forgive me for the indulgence, but as I reflected on elsewhere, I think people like hearing each others stories, so I thought this would be a good opportunity to tell you mine. This may take some time, so grab a cuppa.

I was born on the 13th July 1981, the youngest of identical twins by 12 minutes. My birth mother had Indian parents who had moved to the UK before she was born. My birth grandfather was from the Punjab

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Mon 22 November 2010 17:08 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:05

This article was posted in MyBlog

Seizing God's Hand

'I have been with God and with the Devil. They fought over me and God won. I seized the hand of God.'

The Chile miner rescue will be spoken about and blogged about for a long time I'm sure. I think it is a great story that deserves to be heard and spoken about and celebrated.

The quote above from the second miner really made me think about things. I don't know what your theology, belief or understanding of God and the Devil is, but this language of humanity being fought over and seized

Posted by: Joe Haward Created on: Fri 19 November 2010 15:56 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:05

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Rethinking Evangelism and Discipleship

The world is changing in some significant ways. The way we understand evangelism is changing to. The questions about evangelism are not only about methodology, but about our understanding of the gospel.

Much of evangelism today is rooted in a misunderstanding of salvation. People have been told they are Christians because they have confessed they believe that Jesus died for their sins, but the total package is presented in such a way that it leaves the general life untouched.

Biblically

Posted by: Barney Barron Created on: Thu 21 October 2010 09:48 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:05

This article was posted in MyBlog

New Interest in Church Planting?

Now if you’re one of those people that I bump into at every church planting event I go to, please don’t be offended by the following blog, I love you all! However it has been refreshing that recently both at the Church Planting 101 events and at a church planting workshop, that I ran, there seemed to be lots of new faces interested in church planting. The Church planting 101 day held in two venues, Bristol and Southend had over 60 delegates. Very few of these were people I knew. The

Posted by: Barney Barron Created on: Tue 05 October 2010 12:38 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:04

This article was posted in MyBlog

Three months in and one up

It's now three months since I started at Gildersome and we had our first outsider to visit. One of the children who comes to the monthly intergenerational event brought her friend and her mother this month.
Football managers start the season looking for their first clean sheet, first point, first win.
I start a new ministry looking for the first visitor, first returnee and first baptism.
The church has a wide range of contact activities, (men's breakfast, healthy walks, high class tea shop,

Posted by: David Newton Created on: Thu 10 June 2010 21:11 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:05

This article was posted in MyBlog

Released for Ministry?

I don’t believe in an ordained/ laity divide. The ‘laity’ is a term that should be abolished, as followers of Jesus we are all ordained to be part of his mission. However I do believe that God called me to be released from having to earn a living in the normal way so that I could focus more of my time and energy on the ministry to which I am called.

Others recognised this call and saw that my primary gift was as an evangelist. Evangelist is a loaded term, but I am gifted in an ease

Posted by: Barney Barron Created on: Tue 08 June 2010 11:13 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:05

This article was posted in MyBlog

Incarnational Mission

I used this as the basis for our discussion at the Solent Regional Group today and thought it might spark some thinking/discussion for others.

Incarnational Mission: Understanding the Context.

The way church has been organised in the West has tended to baptise a white, middle class, Christendom culture and understood it as Christian. When looking to engage in mission, there is a need to understand and engage with the culture to which we are called. The complexity in contemporary society means

Posted by: Barney Barron Created on: Mon 26 April 2010 14:46 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:04

This article was posted in MyBlog

A vision for a new ministry

I've become the minister of the Baptist Church in Gildersome. It's one of the oldest Baptist churches in Yorkshire, having been founded in 1707, though there are records of Baptists in the village in the mid 17th century.
I first preached here, to about 30 people, in the mid 70's.
Since then the congregation has grown in the 80's and drifted back until now, after 30 years on Home Mission the church has a membership of 23, an average congregation of 28 and a total of 43 regulars if we all came on

Posted by: David Newton Created on: Mon 12 April 2010 21:55 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:04

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Another Adventure begins

Well here we go again. I made a count today of the total number of people who attend my new church in Gildersome. If the regular congregation all turned up on the same day there'd be 43 of us, which is, coincidentally the number of people who attended Conisbrough when I went there after college.
However at Gildersome there is a head start as they had already started a monthly intergenrational event and a series of pre-evangelism activities. I am so looking forward to seeing where God takes us

Posted by: David Newton Created on: Fri 09 April 2010 22:54 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:04

This article was posted in MyBlog

Bi-vocational Ministry

Some of the denominations are suggesting that church planters need to consider bi-vocational ministry. This is to address the challenges of funding church planters. On one hand I have no problem with this challenge. Let's face it those of us who are paid to church plant are an expensive resource. If it means more people could be sent out to plant more churches then it's got to be worth considering. One of my aims is to work myself out of a job, so that the church I am planting wont always

Posted by: Barney Barron Created on: Sat 27 March 2010 17:33 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:04

This article was posted in MyBlog

Is longevity the sign of a successful church plant?

Recently we faced some challenges that for a moment threatened the feasability of our church meeting. We got through it okay but it made me question if it had all collapsed would that mean we had failed and the last seven years had been a waste of time?
The church is or at least should be seen as essentially missional. God is a missionary God. The church are a pilgrim people, we are called out and sent back but we are only temporary residents. We often see church as an institution to which

Posted by: Barney Barron Created on: Sat 06 March 2010 07:41 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:04

This article was posted in MyBlog

Who to work with?

been wondering who I should work with...

There's this guy I known. He's been a Christian for a few years and thaty was a great start, but now but by my yardstick*, err yes I seem to have one for others anyway, he isn't moving along with Jesus. He wants to draw on my time but not talk about how he's doing in life and faith and some of his patterns.

Some say just work with the willing. If it's not happening it's time for the "shake the dust from your feet" approach and to move on, Luke 9.

Posted by: Peter Dominey Created on: Sun 28 February 2010 11:48 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:03

This article was posted in MyBlog

Biting the hand that feeds: Do we really need denominational support?

The question as we look to creating new churches will often come down to how will we afford it. Some like Urban Expression certainly attempt not to make this prohibitive to church planting by recruiting self-supporting ministers and finding creative ways of financing their ventures.

In the two church planting experiences I have had our support and resourcing has been very different. In the first we had loose connections with a network of churches via an informal relationship with another

Posted by: Barney Barron Created on: Tue 16 February 2010 07:14 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:03

This article was posted in MyBlog

Calling all Church Planters!

If you're planning on planting a church, in the process planting a church or you're already planted we want to hear from you!

We're now giving church planters the opportunity to write a featured blog for Incarnate which will appear on the site and in newsletters. It's not only a great way to keep people up to date with your progress, but it also helps others by explaining the problems you're facing and barriers you reach.

If you'd like to start a blog, get in touch with me at

Posted by: Jon Brown Created on: Wed 10 February 2010 15:22 Last modified: Sun 30 October 2011 23:03

This article was posted in MyBlog

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