About 6 years ago, I read Randy Alcorn's book Heaven.  It changed my life.  Like most Christians I really had a minimal understanding of what Heaven would be like.  And yet, that's what I based my life and future on!  It's also what I base why we plant churches on!

Since that time, I've read most of Randy's Heaven's materials, as well as other Heaven resources.  Out of those studies, I crafted a 5-part Sermon series on Heaven, which quickly became the most popular sermon series I ever did.  I've repeated it several times to different audiences and have seen God give people incredible hope about many of the standard questions:

• What is Heaven like?
• Will we have bodies?
• Where will it be?
• Will we be married?
• What about our kids?
• What about the tragic deaths of loved ones?
• What about infant premature deaths?
• What about our pets?
• What about our loved ones - who won't be there?

This week, I am attending Randy's class "3 Days in Heaven" in Salem, Oregon.  Sorry, but I am way too blessed!

Here's a link for the intensive.

And here's a couple pics from today's opening session:

With the help of our videographer - Aaron Schwindt - we keep telling more of the 2020 church planting stories:  http://vimeo.com/groups/2020initiative/videos

Here's the latest one of our newest approved planting project in Boston with planter Nelson Ruiz:

Nelson Planter Story from Aaron Schwindt on Vimeo.

And here's most of the 2020 Initiative story of the last two years, caught in an 8 minute compilation video:

2020 Compilation - Long from Aaron Schwindt on Vimeo.

Our ERC Annual Conference is less than a week away, and we're feverishly working on the planting and evangelism side of things in preparation for the primary vision casting/networking/God celebrating event of the year!  Right now, I'm working on three presentations: "Designed to Go!;" "Just Go!;" and "Mission to Go!"  Get the idea?  It's all about Going!

It should be an amazing God-filled time as we welcome some of our Raleigh planters north for the first time.  So far, we've approved 6 planting projects - one just yesterday! - with a possible 5 or more still in process!  Amazing!

So what do we need to do?  Party!  That's right! Monday night will be a huge night of celebration as we rejoice in all that God is doing in our church plants and existing churches.  We'll be telling the "God stories" of the God-initiated 2020 Initiative!   We'll also be sharing some new videos that our 2020 videographer Aaron Schwindt has put together (below).  You can see them all here.

God is amazing!  Pray for us on Monday and Tuesday (4/16-17), for God to continue to do the impossible!

Exponential Church from Aaron Schwindt on Vimeo.

Latino Ministry from Aaron Schwindt on Vimeo.

How can we keep track of everything God is doing!  2012 promises to be a record year for the 2020 Initiative.  5 projects already approved, 2 more planters being assessed in the next couple of weeks, and another 6 possible projects in the pipeline!  Where?  How about Raleigh, Erie, Lancaster, Boston, Mechanicsburg, Hanover, Elmira, and possibly York, Reading, and Lebanon . . . and more to come!  Yes, God is busy!

Thanks again Aaron - good job in capturing the "God Stories" of Raleigh!

2020 Raleigh Southeast Vision Overview from Chuck Frank on Vimeo.

God is doing amazing things with the 2020 Raleigh/South East Initiative!  Presently, there's four possible projects underway, planters being assessed and trained, and . . . Hey, how about hearing it from them!  Here's the beginning of the Raleigh story!   And thanks to videographer Aaron Schwindt for some fantastic videos!

2020 Raleigh Church Planter Victor Glover from Chuck Frank on Vimeo.

2020 Raleigh Boot Camp from Chuck Frank on Vimeo.

2020 Raleigh Church Planter Kennard Weever from Chuck Frank on Vimeo.

Alright, I'm not going to break out the denominational "pom poms," however when I was first contemplating following my call into church planting, one of the questions I wrestled with was: go independent or connect with a "covering"/denomination.  For me, I felt strongly the NT "connection" of churches spoke to me as God's leading to come under "the authority" and community of a denomination.

So I first started planting with the Brethren in Christ church, before moving over to the Churches of God General Conference as Church Planting Director.  I haven't regretted my decision.  Some of the benefits are obvious:

• great sense of "community" with hundreds of other churches, pastors, and people
• immediate building of relationships with other planters and pastors
• fantastic spirit of partnering and supporting each other
• seeing God provide through other churches and pastors who understand that young church plants are just like babies: they need nurture, care, and help from others
• experiencing the NT sense that we really are "better together."
• being part of something "beyond local."  In this case, definitely feeling a sense of being "glocal!" (global/local)

I could go on and on.  But that last point was really driven home by this praise from Don Dennison and our Cross Cultural Missions Department - which heads up our international missions.  Don reports:

"From our 2011 ministry reports: Bangladesh added 25 new churches in 2011. They now have 158 churches with total membership of 7,217. We praise God for His working there as well as in all areas of our ministry. We now have approximately 250 churches overseas. Those churches reported a total of 1,034 baptisms in 2011."

Don reminds me that I'm part of something much larger: the worldwide movement of God!  Just another great reason to be connected!

Okay, sorry the blog's suffered through a rather mild winter so far.  But guess what?  God is up to amazing things!  Keep checking back . . . seriously . . . I'll try not to hibernate again . . . and watch for the latest pics from some of our brand new 2020 church plants!

The New Year is always a good time to reflect.  So here's just a glimpse of what God's been up to in the ERC's 2020 Initiative, since it began in 2009: 

• in 2009 the “2020 Initiative” of a multiplication church planting movement came to life!
• in 2010 we had 4 planting projects get off the ground . . . with more on the way!
• in 2011 one of those plantings – ExponentialChurch.tv - had more than 140 faith decisions!
• in 2011 we had 4 more planting projects get started with at least 8 others in process for 2012!
• in 2011 we started our own internal planter assessment process, saving us more than $16,000!
• in 2011 we saw God expanding our mission field to Raleigh, NC, with 3-5 projects in the works!
• in 2011 we adopted a new church plant in Hilton Head, SC – Resurrection Church - with the dream of it being a multiplication center for our expansion into the Southeast!
• In 2011 we trained 3 more interns in our Planting internship program for a total of 7 future leaders being equipped and trained since beginning our Enkindle internship project in 2009!
• in 2011 we approved funding for our first-ever Latino ministry center – to train Latino pastors!
• in 2011 our first-ever Planting Field Directors - Mike Smith and Justin Meier – continued to expand our church planting ministries in New England and throughout our local churches!
• in 2011 we continued to see generous financial giving to church planting as our Plant A Church Sunday and Church Planting Dinners provided more than a record $20,000 to help fund planting!
• in 2011 we had the privilege of honoring Jim Moss with our first-ever “Apostle Paul” award, and Hanover and Chambersburg FCOG’s as our first-ever “Legacy churches!”

In 2012 we continue to expect God’s plans to far surpass ours (Eph. 3:20), with the start of our own church planting Boot Camp training program, a new media campaign that will tell the “2020 church planting stories,” and the development of a new major “Legacy giving” campaign that will help us to continue to follow God’s vision of a church planting multiplication movement!

Oh, and now God is up to something in . . . well, check back and see!

Back with Alan Hirsch:

"We are perfectly designed to accomplish everything we are currently achieving."

4 Levels of the church in Scripture:

• local
• city
• region/global
• symbolic-invisible church - "we"

the systems we have been perfectly designed by pastors and teachers - a great didactic system

his new book is "Faith of Leap":

• we've become risk-averse
  • we're at our worse when we're most comfortable
    • take people on missions trips
  • John Kotter: lack of urgency most hinders change
• we've got to learn from failure
  • Thomas Edison discovered 800 ways not to make a lightbulb

some identifying characteristics of the church:

• Jesus
  • Cole: if you can define the church without Jesus, you can do church without Jesus

Q&A with Neil Cole and Alan Hirsch:

strong challenges to our present-day "professional clergy" form of doing ministry

great movements in the past, not led by professional clergy, experienced explosive multiplication:

• Methodist/Great Awakening
• China with and after Mao - to present day

organic house church planting most likely is done best without funding and paying the planter . . . although with future growth this may change

Stetzer: after 4 years, 1/3 of churches (not house churches) are 3c (self-sustaining, self-governing, self-propagating), 1/3 are struggling, and 1/3 have died

Cole: you don't need an assessment process if you develop disciples that make disciples and release them to plant

Thanks Ed, Bob, Alan, and Neil for a great conference!

CPLF church planting conference in Nashville: 

Second session with Neil Cole:

Dependency kills movementum

• connect people immediately to Christ: immediate obedience
  • we tend to make information through us/pastor the first step to disciple-making

structure never produces life (it is important though)

movementum grows from micro to macro:

• start with 2-3 people (most important - gives DNA) - LTG (Life Transformation Groups)
• then 12-15 disciples (great for care and family, poor for leadership) - Simple church
• 25-75 (best size for equipping) - GH: Regional leadership equipping
• 120-150 (12-15 churches) - this is your tribe/people you are closest too (the maximum amount of people that you will invite yourself to sit at their table when seeing in public - Dunbar Study) - a simple church network
• 300-500 (the best size to cast a vision to and see them spread it): special gathering/conference
• unlimited multitudes - books, websites, and publications

***leadership team is best done with a group of 4-7

Jesus modeled this:

• Jesus sent out in pairs
• Jesus had a leadership of team of 4-5
• Jesus had a group of 12 disciples
• Jesus had the 70 to send out
• Jesus had 120 left
• Jesus appeared to 500
• Jesus did miracles in the multitudes

 Accountability in place (sample questions):

• Has your thought-life been pleasing to God?
• Have you given into an addiction this week?
• Have you viewed pornographic materials and entertained lurid thoughts?
• How have you treated your neighbor?
• Have you been biblical in your financial dealings and exchanges?
• How have you treated your spouse?  kids? co-workers?
• What do you need to confess?

Another challenging question: Does the Bible teach it, or is a tradition of man we've passed on?

Movementum starts with an Apostolic foundation:

5-fold gifts: Ephesians 4: APEST:  AP = Start/Go; EST: Stay/Grow

• A: I can do this
• P: I hear God
• E: I love people
• S: Everyone's important
• T: I hunger for truth

Others will confirm these gifts in you - many times as you've been knowingly or unknowingly functiioning in them

"Ideal" scenario (but never going to happen): Apostles and Prophets should go and start churches, and raise up Evangelists, Shepherds, and Teachers . . . and then go and take other Apostles and Prophets with them and go and start more churches.

Apostles are the architects of wineskins - prophets are focused on the wine.  When they work well together it is incredibly powerful.  However, they can easily conflict too.

Don't operate from positional authority.  Operate from relational and spiritual authority.

Cole's caution: a lot of house churches are starting with "disgruntled" Christians - and they'll never grow, or last very long.

Day 2 of our CPLF sessions in Nashville.  Starting off the morning with Neil Cole:

Neil Cole:

the power to multiply is found in the heart!

started planting orgnanically practicallky by accident

went to coffee shops: drank coffee, joined in, and listened

one of the problems in ministry today: pastors not being trained to listen

"only multiplication provides movementuum!"

The first thing God said in Genesis: go and multiply!

unfortunately our current capacity in ministry is set up for arithmetic

church multiplication is NEVER:

• gathering and assimulating Christians from other churches to form new ones
• church planting without multiple generations (planting daughter, granddaughter, great granddaughter, etc. churches) - multiplication happens with a minimum of 4 generations (2 Tim. 2:2)
• a centralized leadership development system that starts many churches
• a big, fast start (it starts slow and small)

Movementum is most vulnerable at the beginning:

• seduction of addition in early stages
• corrupted DNA in the Disciples
• driven by poor motivation
• human dependency issues
• a lack of apostolic/prophetic foundation

 DNA: Divine Truth, Nurturing Relationships, Apostolic Mission

DNA should be the driving life-force within every cell in the body = a disciple in relation to others!:GET DNA IN YOUR DISCIPLES, NOT YOUR CHURCHES

 all churches are organic - not just house churches

"there's lot of house churches that are 'honey, I shrunk the church!'"

"if you can't reproduce disciples, you'll never reproduce leaders.  if you can't reproduce leaders, you'll never reproduce churches.  if you can't reproduce churches, you'll never see movementuum."

our churches do not need a church transition, but a church transfusion:

• develop a "skunkworks" operation on the side
• pour yourself into the healthy ones
• let the rest go as usual
• provide blocking for new stuff
• don't expect everyone to join the cause
• don't try to force people to be motivated . . . run with those who will run

"Don't plant churches, plant Jesus!" 

What kills movements are leaders who are insecure - we must be willing to give everything away

The evening session featuring Alan Hirsch:

writer of many great books including: Forgotten Ways

One of the primary responsibilities of a leader is to define reality

talking about APEST = Apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, teacher

teaching from Ephesians 4:1-16:

• vs. 1-6 = Unity
• vs. 7-11 = APEST
• vs. 12-16 = Maturity

aren't verses 1-6 and 12-16 for today and all time?  then how would we limit vs. 7-11 to a specific time (not today) and usually with the APE roles not being recognized in many churches?

• Jesus' ministry exhibited the "5-fold" form of ministry
• notice, it's for all the people of God - not just leaders
• it's functional, rather than used as a title (which can lead to problems with power)

-beginning of explosive missionary/planting movements typically start with APE's leading the way. . . declining churches usually only have ST's leading them

"Missio" (latin) comes from "apostolic" (greek)

"Apostle" means to be sent, plants churches, and (through their letters) creates networks

"Prophet" hears from God, and is more concerned with God than anything (uber urgent and sometimes an irritant)

 "Evangelist" communicates Good News, and recruits to a cause

"Shepherd/pastors" loves community and creates connectivity

"Teacher" brings wisdom and understanding (no urgency)

APEST implications for church planting:

• all are called for the 5-fold ministries - not just leaders
• leaders are called within the 5-fold ministries
  • need pathways to leadership
• the 5-fold ministries are necessary for a healthy church
• typically APE's disturb equilibrium
• from "in church" to outside, the order would be T/S (inside)  E (doorway) P (some distance out)  A  (out reaching others)

 Logan: APE's have much more of an outward focus

 Ed Stetzer, Alan Hirsch, and Bob Logan:  

More from Bob Logan: continuing on his theme: Love God, Love Others, Make Disciples

in the NT: the outgrowth/result of disciple-making was starting a church

Referencing Hugh Halter: (in this order) Engage culture, form communities, establish and multiply churches

all different types of churches: decentralized (Cole), monthly gathering, weekly gathering (cell celebration)

Multiplication:

 Ferguson model:

• I do, you watch. We talk.
• I do, you help. We talk.
• You do, I help. We talk.
• You do, I watch. We talk.
• You do.  Someone else watches.

What is the path/process to moving to incarnational living and planting?

Leave people in the parking lot if that's where they want to stay.  Who wants to be forced to go where they don't want to go.

Orientation shouldn't be the whole picture - just the "what they need to know now" session

Implementing:

• Journey One: Incarnational living
• Journey Two: Make disciples
• Journey Three: Multiply leaders
• Journey Four: Multiply churches
  • DNA of the church is found in the Gospels - incarnational living and disciple-making
  • the chances of a church planting a church after the third year is practically nil - churches become institutionalized in years 4-7
• Journey Five: Multiply movements

Planters and pastors should spend 7-10 hours a week working on ways to help their people become more healthy and disciple-makers

Planting organizations should spend a day a week working with/thinking through ways they can develop a more organic/incarnational/disciple-making eco system

Bob Logan: "We should be helping people live like Jesus, become like Jesus, and help make disciples that . . . "

Our second CPLF meeting of the year in Nashville - a gathering of the church planting organizations in this country.  Tremendous presenters are here: Neil Cole, Alan Hirsch, Ed Stetzer, and the grandfather of American church planting: Bob Logan. 

Here's the continuing notes:

Bob Logan:

changes in church planting over the last couple of decades:

• the advent (and tension) of attractional and incarnation planting strategies
• movement from rational to experiential culture

sacrificial service - transformation - authentic relationship (loop around in circular form):

TO: Love God, Love others, and make disciples

• funding moving towards a bi-vocational strategy:

a true planting explosion is going to happen through bi-vocational, lay-driven planting

Hugh Halter: (Lessons from the crucible of experience): planting missionally by making disciples

Bob Logan:  Jesus starts the church, and our job is to make disciples

• recruiting - developing
  • we should develop our own planters from our own disciples (who weren't Christians)
• from developing leaders and being disciple-makers

What do we need to focus?

• We need to focus on farm systems
  • developing the next planters, who don't even know Jesus now
    • 90% will not be trained through a formal educational process
    • leadership, not money is our limiting factor
• We need to focus on transforming communities
• We need to focus on the poor
  • (Read The Barefoot Church)
• We need a new scorecard
  • much more than just numbers of people, and $ of giving

How do we - organized planting structures/organizations - do this?

• repent for not being committed to making disciples
• re-read the Gospels for what God wants and what breaks God's heart
• pray about who to invest in and start pilot projects - realizing you may not see tangible results for several years

Hugh Halter: has not seen a sustained, productive house church movement in America

***attractional churches can live out incarnational strategy through their small groups - who will intentionally decide to live incarnationally (although this is hard for them to do).

Bob Logan: evangelize, and start discipling before you launch - during pre-natal stage - and multiply these groups.

I'm thrilled to be part of a faith community/tribe - the Churches of God, General Conference - that has a vision for a church multiplication movement. Our Executive Director - Ed Rosenberry - has been casting this vision from "on high" the last couple of years and hopes to see our denomination of 320 churches double in the next few years!  http://www.sent2multiply.com/

Here's an exerpt of Ed casting vision to our local churches about planting and multiplying. 

Two weekends ago we drove to the Latrobe area to celebrate the first anniversary of the Underground Church with Pastor Jeff and Sherri Keys and the congregation. This church plant is a daughter of our Latrobe First congregation, who supported the vision for the plant and without whom the plant would not exist today. Latrobe is about 40 miles southeast of Pittsburgh and possesses a population of about 9,000 with another 60,000 in the greater area. I share these numbers because I’m convinced any community or area with a solid population base like Latrobe could and should have multiple CGGC congregations of all kinds (Old First, maybe Old Second, storefront assemblies, suburban school house plants, city missions, house churches, marketplace gatherings, etc.).

Thanks Ed for leading us forward into building God's Kingdom outward and upward!