A Vision For The Future
My friend Shawn Lovejoy with Courage to Lead recently shared with our church planting residents the importance of being “mean about the vision” of the church. Shawn has book on the topic that I recommend: Be Mean About The Vision. During this session, he explained how easy it is for churches to drift from their vision or lose it all together. He challenged our residents with a thought that’s been on my mind ever since. He said, “churches don’t die because a neighborhood changes; churches die because the vision dies.”
We’re tempted to make excuses as to why our churches aren’t increasing their impact, but at the end of the day the reason most die is because their vision died. They didn’t have a clear and compelling vision that aligned their ministry moving forward.
Over the past few years, Passion for Planting has experienced some considerable growth in our kingdom impact. We’ve grown from helping a handful churches start every year to over forty in 2018. What’s the reason? We believe it’s the vision God’s given our leadership team. We believe God’s just getting started with Passion for Planting as we have a vision to see 100 churches planted annually through the support of our ministry by the year 2028. That vision unites us moving forward to explore the best ways we can equip leaders to start healthy multiplying churches.
With this vision in mind, we look forward to serving you for many years to come. I hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter as it challenges you to pursue the vision God’s put in your heart!
-Dale Spaulding, Director
December 2018 – Contents
- Launch Vision Template
- Exponential 2019: Made For More
- Discovering A Kingdom Vision
- 2018 Year-In-Review
Discover A Kingdom Vision
In The Message, Eugene Peterson paraphrased Proverbs 29:18 saying, “If people don’t see what God is doing, they stumble all over themselves.” This is certainly true in church planting. Without a clear vision, new churches will constantly find themselves adrift in a sea of ministry uncertainly. They’ll move in many different directions, but lack forward momentum.
So how does a church planter or church leadership team discern the vision God has for them? Jeff Christophers describes how in How To Discover God’s Vision for Your Church, a short article which describes the three questions every church leader should wrestle with when discerning God’s vision for their church.
We believe God has a unique vision for you and your church. As our friend Will Mancini with Auxano says, “God is always doing something cosmically significant and locally specific in your church.” What is that for you? Read Jeff’s article or check out Auxano’s resources and start discerning that vision today.
Launch Vision Template
Working with church planters to establish local faith communities is an exciting endeavor. However, this passion may wane overtime if the church planter isn’t able to impact others with a compelling vision.
That’s why we encourage the church planters we serve to create a Launch Vision booklet which encapsulates their vision through stories, pictures and statistics. Through this document, planters can share their vision with potential donors, prayer partners, launch team members, and community leaders. It’s a great tool for church planters to use to make their vision contagious.
Don’t allow your vision to remain a figment of your imagination. Get that vision in writing so you can share it with others, who can then share it with others. Use our Launch Vision Template to get you started. Also check out some Launch Vision samples on our free downloads page.
Exponential 2019: Made For More
Let’s face it – church planting is hard. And it’s oftentimes lonely work. That’s why for over 10 years church planters have found the Exponential Conference to be a breath of fresh air. This year’s conference will be no different.
The conference’s theme is Made For More and will focus on how God’s called us to do more with our lives, our churches, and our networks. Join us and thousands of other church planters and leaders to be inspired, encouraged, and equipped to mobilize God’s people, God’s way.
This year we at Passion for Planting will be offering a FREE pre-conference equipping lab and teaching an entire workshop track focused on the nuts and bolts of church planting. You can learn more about our Nuts & Bolts pre-conference HERE. If you don’t make it to one of our sessions, please visit us at our Passion for Planting booth. We’d love to meet you and hear your story.
2018 Year-In-Review
As we reflect upon 2018, we’re so thankful for the ministry opportunities Passion for Planting has been a part of in our region, our nation, and around the world. This year we helped plant forty three new churches, provided training to hundreds of church leaders, and offered free church planting tools and resources to thousands of churches around the world.
While 2018 offered us plenty to celebrate, we’re even more excited about the impact our ministry will have in years to come through the churches and leaders we’ve trained and equipped.
Read more about those churches and Passion for Planting’s 2018 year in review HERE.
Photos by Nick Fewings, Devin Avery and NordWood Themes from Unsplash.