4 // Your church can multiply 20 // The joy and cost of sending your best 22 // Why I need Jesus
START. STRENGTHEN. SEND.
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FROM THE PRESIDENT
Church Planting churchplanting@converge.org Church Strengthening strengthening@converge.org International Ministries missions@converge.org converge.org ConvergeWorldwide @convergeww converge_ww
VOLUME 9 // NUMBER 3 EDITOR Bob Putman DESIGNER/PRODUCTION MANAGER Pam Nelsen CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Fran Anderson, Allison Hurtado To add or remove your name from our mailing list, call 800.323.4215, M-F, 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. est point@converge.org Point (ISSN/1546-3257) is published quarterly (with a special edition in December) by the Baptist General Conference, 2002 S. Arlington Heights Rd., Arlington Heights, IL 60005. Printed in the U.S.A. Nonprofit Standard postage paid at Arlington Heights, Ill., and at additional mailing offices.
Each one start one “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known…” (Rom. 15:20). Paul was a church planter. Over and over in the Book of Acts we see new works started under his leadership. He experienced the transforming power of the gospel in his life and could not help but share it with others. The result was a church planting movement that changed the world. When Paul started the church in Philippi, described in Acts 16, the church’s core group seems to have been a woman who made purple cloth, a demon-possessed slave girl and a suicidal jailer. If God can use these three to start a vibrant church, he certainly can use you and me to do the same. There still is no better way to impact a community with the gospel than to start a new congregation. New people join new congregations, and new congregations bring renewed focus on the essentials. The result: many people meet, know and follow Jesus. God has blessed Converge with many people who understand the power of a new congregation. Last year our churches worked together to start 48 new churches and sites in the U.S. and many more overseas. We are grateful for what God has done, but our movement is nowhere near its planting potential. As part of our 10-year vision, we are praying that all 1300+ Converge churches will have the privilege of starting a new congregation. We are praying that “Each One Start One.” In this issue of Point, we challenge you to join Converge’s renewed emphasis on church planting. Whether you partner financially with your district to start a church, parent a new congregation by adopting a church planter or plant a church on your own, we pray God will use you to start a vibrant, reproducing congregation in a community near you. Better together,
Scott Ridout President, Converge
© 2017 Baptist General Conference. POSTMASTER Send address changes to Point, 2002 S. Arlington Heights Rd., Arlington Heights, IL 60005-4193. SCRIPTURE REFERENCE Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by the International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. REPRINT PERMISSION Permission is granted to photocopy articles in small quantities for personal, church or school use. Please protect our copyright by writing or typing before copying: “Reproduced from Point by permission.” This permission does not extend to articles reprinted from other publications, reports for another publication or large quantity reproductions. For such purposes, written permission must be obtained from Point or from the original source.
2 POINT // SPRING 2017
What God has done In 2016, God blessed Converge U.S. ministries with: 29 new churches started 19 new campuses launched by multisite churches 33 churches affiliated with Converge
ERIC JOHNSON
Converge is a movement of over 1300 churches working to help people meet, know and follow Jesus. We do this by starting and strengthening churches together worldwide.
In-church residency: A brave new way to recruit staff An interview with Converge pastors
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No matter what! By Lee Stephenson
20
The joy and cost of sending your best By the Editors
Extras 4 // Your church can multiply 6 // 5 keys to prepare a plant that blooms 8 // Choose Jesus. Choose life. 10 // Victory Sports 12 // Making a world of difference 22 // Why I need Jesus
Cover Baptism — which depicts the death of our former self, new life in Christ and joyous obedience to his reign in our lives — is a fitting image to show what new churches produce: transformed lives, relationships and communities. DESIGN: RYAN EMENECKER START. STRENGTHEN. SEND.
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“You’re going to college and that’s that!” I was 5 years old, and these were my words of wisdom to my sister, who was considering what to do following her senior year in high school. Where does a 5-year-old get that perspective? It was a family thing. It was our family scorecard. My oldest brother had graduated from college at 19. My next brother had recently graduated at 20. And what I “knew” by age 5 was that in my family going to college was a given. The younger, the better. It was how we measured ourselves. My sister graduated at 21. It took me until I was 22. What is your church’s scorecard? How do you measure your church? If you’re a church leader, how do you measure your church’s success? For the vast majority, I already know your answer: you measure your church by its size and by how much it has grown — how many members you have added. I want to suggest a better scorecard: multiplication. BY DAVE RENO
4 POINT // SPRING 2017
First birth leads to 27 more
Elim Baptist in Anoka, Minnesota, was a healthy but unremarkable church with a noble past and an uncertain future in 1986. Prayer, hard work and good leadership were adding a few each year, but only a few. Then Vision struck. Curt Hallstrum was a lay leader with a BHAG (a “big, holy, audacious goal”) and a God-sized, God-honoring idea: multiplication! He believed his church, though over 100 years old, could give birth — not just add another service or another site— but birth a whole new church. It was an Abraham-andSara kind of idea. It was crazy. Send some people from a church that wasn’t full? Invest money the church didn’t have? Give birth? But it wasn’t long before Elim’s pastor, board and congregation embraced a bigger God and this bigger dream and recruited my wife Joy and me to make the dream a reality. We were scared when we got involved in starting a church. I was leaving a secure, healthy position as a youth pastor. She was married to a freshly minted church planter who had no idea what he was doing. But in 1987, a little over a year later, Grace Fellowship was born. Birth weight: 180 people. Score! Elim had nearly doubled by giving birth. That’s multiplication. In “our church family” we multiply. I read it in Genesis 1 and saw it modeled in our parent church, Elim. It was on our scorecard. So the first 40 people who joined the launch team of Grace Fellowship were recruited to a BHAG. With God’s help we would launch Grace Fellowship and then give birth to our first daughter church within five years, Horizons Community Church in Ham Lake. I was young. The first 40 were polite but intrigued. Give birth? Before we have a building? Really? Is that possible? We had other goals: 200 attendees by Easter. A second service. Land purchased someday. Eventually a building of our own. We wanted our church to grow. We wanted to add people to God’s kingdom. And we did grow, slowly, by about 35 percent in five years. It was good, but we had a bigger dream… multiplication.
An important faith-stretching moment came with our first capital drive to buy land. I knew we needed all that would be given for land acquisition. I also knew we couldn’t be parents without funds. I took a deep breath, prayed quickly and suggested to our board, “Let’s dedicate 10 percent of everything that comes in to giving birth.” I knew we couldn’t afford to. But I also knew God was more than able. Our board agreed, and our people gave. It’s our family scorecard. Two years later, in partnership with the church where I had been a youth pastor, after only 4½ years Grace Fellowship gave birth to our first daughter church. Birthweight: 150. The power of multiplication. Over the years Grace Fellowship has continued to grow by addition. Not as much as I would like. Really not much in the past 15 years. We’re trying. People keep coming to Jesus. Our church is healthy and stable. More important, we’ve continued to multiply. Grace Fellowship has given birth to 27 daughter churches, so far. We have eight granddaughter churches and several great-granddaughter churches and counting. There are eight times as many people in our daughter churches combined than those [1100] attending at Grace. Is that cool or what? It’s the power of God-inspired multiplication.
How your church can multiply
Change your church’s scorecard. Don’t define your church or your leadership by how large your church is or even by how much it has grown. Don’t surrender to the power of envy. Don’t ask how many have we gathered, but how many have we sent. Jesus said, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Ask God for a new vision and a new scorecard. Put multiplication at the top of your church’s scorecard. Regularly cast a multiplication vision. The biggest real obstacle is not money or facility or demographics. It’s vision. Churches don’t multiply until the board and
congregation see the possibilities and believe it can be done. Preach to your church about multiplication. Tell stories. Invite a church planter and his parent church’s pastor to tell their story to your board. Invite them to speak to your congregation. Arrange for your board to visit a young, healthy church plant. Have your board read the free e-book Spark: Igniting a Culture of Multiplication, by Todd Wilson (available at exponential.org/resource-ebooks). Discuss a chapter each month. Set aside money. The biggest perceived obstacle to giving birth is not enough money. Grace Fellowship expects our daughter churches to designate five percent of their offerings towards giving birth. Perhaps you should add a new line to your church’s budget. Or do a capital fundraising effort. Or a special Christmas offering. Remember, the real limitation is vision, not money. Don’t go it alone. Get help from your Converge district office. Partner with another church who already has given birth. Partner with a church planter. Contact me: dreno@ gracefellowshipmn.org.
Someone once told me “There is no limit to what you can do if you don’t care who gets the credit.” Giving birth won’t get you much
credit. You’ll walk into your daughter churches, and no one will know you. No one will care. You won’t be in the group of larger churches at denominational meetings. Your compensation won’t rise. But your vision will. Dave Reno is lead pastor of Grace Fellowship Church, Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.
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5 keys to prepar BY VAUGHN BROWN
There are many ways to plant a healthy, life-giving church, and they all begin with preparation. Most church planters suggest the type of church and the planting method depend on where you are planting and who you hope to reach. Planting a healthy church is both an art and a science. The art is in understanding how to communicate with the people you are trying to reach. The science is in understanding where to connect with these people. If a church plant is the start of a healthy new Christian community, preparing for it requires having the right support and making the right connections in its beginning stages. Initially, I failed at both. I’ve often said candidly, “My understanding of a church plant, pre-2013, was a plant hanging in a church.” With my wife Angela, I’m now planting Grateful Church in Jacksonville, Florida, a Converge church scheduled to launch this fall. And I’m in the process of building community with individuals who believe we’ve been called to make a difference for Jesus in our location. From what I’ve learned so far, I offer five keys to planting a church that blooms.
Determine your identity
The first step is determining your identity, your who. More often than not, two major hurdles for new church plants are 1) establishing clear direction as you shape the culture of the new church plant and 2) trusting the process and doing the work. In this step you will have to remind yourself often not to despise small beginnings. Others may not see what you see and that’s OK. Don’t panic — this is completely normal. Understanding who you are as an individual will bring clarity to who you will become as leader of an organization. None of the other steps in this process will serve your cause well if you haven’t determined who you are and what to do with that knowledge. For me, God used the challenges of my youth to birth a desire to help those suffering from similar challenges. God has called you to be uniquely you and to do a unique work for his glory.
Define your why
The second step in your preparation is determining your why. The why always trumps the what. Why you do what you do gives life to your plan, your preparation and your execution. It’s my strong belief that although people will get excited about what you are doing, they will stay excited because of the why that drives it. I started meeting the needs of individuals in my circle — and of those who were somehow connected to them — because I believed I could impact my circle and even my community by showing the love of God. This fundamental idea, multiplied in the hearts of dozens connected to Grateful Church, is the why behind what we do. It’s the gas that fuels our efforts.
Get help
Getting help is the third step. Preparing to plant a church should not be done without a cohort of wise counselors who have extensive knowledge of the process. No amount of books, conferences or podcasts can replace the absolute necessity of having people encourage, pray and support you in the process. It’s easy to get so involved that you forget the importance of getting help. Investing in a church planting coach, as well as identifying like-minded leaders who will mentor you, is important. Their role will be to mold you and help shape the vision God has given for your new church. A successful church plant can be traced back to who you have speaking into your life and the way you apply their support. You need someone whose actions prove they believe in the work God has called you to do and in your ability. I am the benefactor of a well-experienced coach: Lee Stephenson, Converge’s executive director of Church Planting. He has proved a huge support. While everyone may not have access to Lee’s wisdom, finding guidance is critical. Get help early and often.
Embrace your uniqueness
Vaughn and Angela Brown with Oceanway Middle School principal Emily Kristansen.
6 POINT // SPRING 2017
Step four in preparing to plant is embracing your uniqueness. Most church planters wrestle with embracing their God-given plan because they lack confidence, resources or other requirements. Embracing your uniqueness often becomes more challenging the more you are exposed to others’ uniqueness. Of course there will be similarities between the church you are establishing and the church down the street. You probably will share a similar vision statement and plan to reach and attract the lost, hurting and marginalized. Like you, they will send out mailers and hold outreach events in the name of being the “hands and feet of Jesus.” However, as identical twins share the same dna and likeness yet have different fingerprints, so churches may seem similar but have distinct differences.
re a plant that blooms The leader God has made overseer of a church-in-the-making has a specific call and purpose unique to his or her skill set and background. A church planter must embrace how different he or she is from others God has called to do the same work in a different way. Organizations take on the shape and character of their leader. People compelled to join your efforts are those God has given a desire for not only what you are doing and who you are, but also for how you do it. Celebrate what is unique about your plans and ideas to establish your ministry. Your uniqueness will yield tremendous fruit and success. My wife Angela and I desire to establish a multiethnic church to serve the needs of our entire community. Two things that have worked well for us: First, we partner with a middle school that will be the future site of our worship gatherings. We intentionally invest in building the morale of the school administrators and faculty and provide support every time an opportunity arises. This has given us access to school-wide events that connect us with families in our community. Second, we are using the school during our pre-launch as a hub to build confidence, stability and trust within our community. We’re working with school leaders to establish an onsite mission operation to meet the needs of underserved students and to give students the incentive to work hard and excel.
Prepare to plant
Learning to proceed at a healthy pace is the final step in preparing to plant a church. The need for an appropriate pace is a consistent, necessary thread in every phase of preparation. Take a deep breath and repeat after me, “It will not be done overnight.” Trust that God’s plan is perfect and will come together according to his will if you move at his pace. n
healthy
‘Planting a church is both an art and a science.
art
he T is in understanding how to communicate with the people you are trying to reach.
science
he T is in understanding where to connect with these people.’
Vaughn Brown is lead pastor of Grateful Church, Jacksonville, Florida. START. STRENGTHEN. SEND.
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Choose Jesus. Choose life. Crucifixion was probably the worst instrument of death ever used. The Romans employed this type of execution for hardened criminals to make an example of them. Beheading was more humane. Being crucified, a person would suffer for hours, maybe days, before he would die. It’s a slow and agonizing death, an eternity of pain while waiting for the torment to end. For many, crucifixion was justifiable. But in the case of our Lord Jesus, he had done nothing to deserve to die in this horrible, painful way. He was clean; he had no sin. He did not murder. He did not lie. He had no sexual sins. He did not steal. He obeyed all of God’s law, yet he allowed himself to be the Lamb sacrificed to take away the sins of the world through death on the cross. He did it so that you and I could be free of sin and be made right with God.
The gospel of atonement
The crucifixion and death of Jesus were historic events witnessed and verified by many. The religious leaders and rulers of the land, the soldiers who executed the process of crucifixion and the people at Calvary all saw Jesus die. It had been prophesied that Jesus, the Lamb of God, was supposed to die (Isa. 53:10-11). This could not be averted or changed. Why? Jesus' death was the atonement for our sins. “… without shedding of blood there is no remission [for sin]” (Heb. 9:22, nkjv). Because Jesus lived a perfect life without sin, he was able to pay the price for our sins. It was part of God’s master plan to redeem people back to himself. His death removes the bondage of sin. It pays the penalty of sin. We are set free through Jesus. That’s the gospel.
The Resurrection of Christ
“Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you.... For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born” (1 Cor. 15:1, 3-8).
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The Bible gives us facts we can rely on. The accounts are not fiction or made-up stories. They tell us the names of witnesses and places where Christ appeared so that what the Bible says can be verified. The court system during that time required at least two witnesses to verify a fact. The resurrection of Jesus was witnessed by Cephas (Peter), the other 11 disciples and 500 men and women who saw Jesus at the same time — a powerful statement because they could not all be wrong in what they saw. Even though time had passed before apostle Paul wrote his first letter to the Corinthians, witnesses who could testify to the facts were still living. All the apostles were visited by Jesus to experience his resurrection and to be commissioned as his witnesses. This is important. We have proof for what we believe. We have a living faith.
Jesus’ resurrection gives us new life
Have you been resurrected? Read what the apostle Paul says to the church at Rome: “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom. 6:4-5). Why follow Jesus? Because he lives. The leaders and founders of every other religion are dead and buried. But our great and powerful leader lives. Our Lord and Savior lives! Today you have a choice. God has made a way for you to live: Jesus, the way to real life and life eternal. Leave your sins on the cross. Leave your problems on the cross. Leave your past on the cross. Choose Jesus. Choose life. n Ernie Cabrera is Converge Southeast executive minister.
HERE I AM. SEND ME. The right training will make those five words a lot less scary. The Church Planting Certificate from Bethel Seminary will prepare you to develop your vision, organize a team, and create systems to lead the church you’re called to build. Get started at bethel.edu.
UNDERGRAD | GRADUATE | SEMINARY | ONLINE START. STRENGTHEN. SEND.
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Victory Sports Who would launch a youth sports franchise in order to plant a church? BY STANLEY PATTON
According to Forbes magazine, youth sports is a $7 billion industry, and roughly 35 million kids participate yearly in some form of organized sports. Parents tirelessly shuttle their kids to practices and games for opportunities to watch them play and exercise. Youth athletics teach more than sports skills; they also focus on discipline and teamwork. They foster a pathway for parents, kids, coaches, the community and spectators to intersect and interact. Sports are a pastime that transcends culture, age and gender. They have the power to unite or divide and to dictate our schedules, expenses and even where we travel. Who doesn’t enjoy a good game?
Unique way to start a church Youth sports is a big business. What if this big business was used strategically to promote God’s mission? What if youth sports activities were intentionally game-planned to launch life-giving churches? Imagine the possibilities. My wife Melissa and I were asking this at our church plant, Victory Church in Melbourne, Florida. The apostle Paul made tents to support his mission. Similarly, Melissa and I are turning youth sports into a missional social enterprise. We saw an opportunity to impact and reach kids and adults in our community, so we created Victory Kid Sports, a youth sports franchise focused on impacting kids. Games are played at Wesley Church’s Victory Field in West Melbourne. We offer basketball, flag football, soccer and Wacky Sports (a fun field-day experience) for ages 3 to 12. Victory Kid Sports not only provides an opportunity for us to reach people in a non-assuming way but also gives us instant brand recognition. Victory Kid Sports helps us maintain a growing and impactful presence for our church. It affords us a way to make a great first impression in our community and simultaneously raise financial support for our ministry. Since the creation of Victory Kid Sports in 2016 and its nonprofit arm, The Victory Kid Sports Foundation, we have seen youth, parents, social service agencies, community partners, coaches and churches come together to reach people for Christ. We’ve watched kids who had been placed in foster care and transitional housing be transformed by the message of the gospel and sports activities. We’ve seen the light of Christ shine and the pure exhilaration of kids playing as the church cheers them on to victory.
Victory for a kid named Will Six-year-old Will came to our 12-day winter break camp (ages 5-17) last December, held at Victory headquarters in Melbourne. He didn’t want to attend, but his parents forced his participation. The
10 POINT // SPRING 2017
Victory Kid Sports Foundation awarded Will a scholarship. (We believe every kid should have access to sports.) Although the camp was free for Will, the metamorphoses that he and his family went through in 12 days were priceless. Will’s family was broken. They had no address to write on application and emergency contact forms. Just evicted from their home over the Christmas holiday, they lived in an old, dented minivan. Will’s father, a former Army Ranger, had no money for Christmas presents and was just trying to keep the family together and above water. Christmas should be a time of celebration and wonder as we commemorate Jesus’ birth, but for this family it was a time of great adversity. We see such times as a rallying cry to be the church God is calling us to be — the hope of the world for people who desperately need to see God through us. We loved Will and his family in this difficult season of their life. Will flourished at camp, looking forward every day to the sports we would play and to meeting new friends. At the end of our camp, we presented every child with a victory medal and awarded trophies to three outstanding students. Although Will was not the best athlete at camp, he needed and secretly longed for a trophy. As the students, coaches and parents assembled for our awards ceremony, we presented Victory’s MVP trophy to Will. It was the only present he received during the Christmas holiday. You could see the excitement on his face as his name was called to receive his prize. Will’s father burst into tears of joy and thanked everyone for this moment to watch his child receive something he technically didn’t earn.
The ‘Will’ in each of us Will and his family are a picture of grace and the beautiful mystery of the gospel message. We, who didn’t earn grace, can receive the free gift of salvation through Christ our Lord. Just as Will had an award ceremony, there will be an award ceremony in heaven, and our Heavenly Father will crown us with crowns we will lay at his feet. Had it not been for sports, Melissa and I would never have had the privilege of being the church for Will and for so many others who just needed a trophy or sports-related activity to turn struggle into victory. Youth sports are a big business, and we are firm believers that sports can be used for an even bigger purpose. n Pastor Stanley and Dr. Melissa Patton are planting Victory Church in Melbourne, Florida. They held their public launch on March 5, and are building toward Easter.
Learn more about Victory Sports at victorykidsports.org and Victory Church at victorymlb.com
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MAKING A WORLD DIFFERENCE OF
Converge is starting churches across the globe and training global south1 missionaries to do the same in places Western mission workers cannot go.
ENGLAND
Ken Lippold and the staff of AT3 Ministry provide an opportunity for global workers to receive an accredited theological degree while serving in a local church. The global workers assist in church planting, revitalizing and leading churches in different parts of England.
CANADA
Scott and Ruth Millar are starting a bilingual Spanish-English church in Brampton, Ontario, just outside Toronto.
BRAZIL
Don and Angie Finley serve on the faculty of South American Seminary in Londrina. They are creating a missions center to help Brazilian churches, agencies and the seminary train and send missionaries globally, especially to the diaspora.
MEXICO
International leader Dan Nelson and his wife MeLinda are coaching pastor Fernando Martinez, who is launching a second campus of Iglesia Factor Fe (Faith Factor Church) in Guadalajara in January 2018. The Nelsons and pastor Israel planted Factor Fe. Converge missionaries Jonathan and Melissa Bjorgen are partnering with church planters Carlos and Karlisa Lopez to start Mi Iglesia (My Church), an urban church not far from the heart of Guadalajara.
COTE d’IVOIRE
BRAZIL
Missionaries Steve and Carol Smith are training Ivorians to reach eight unreached people groups in the northwest region.
TOGO
Batte, a young believer from New Life Church in Aneho, began sharing the gospel with his family and friends in his village of Abatekope. Twenty-five people placed their faith in Christ during the last weekend of January. On February 1, they started their first house church gathering, with 30 in attendance.
MEXICO
12 POINT // SPRING 2017
SWEDEN
Jim and Lynn Jarman work in partnership with Converge and EFCA/ReachGlobal as Sweden national directors. Centered out of the New Life Network in Stockholm, they are helping New Life fulfill its goal to plant 20 churches in Stockholm County and 10 in university cities by 2020. Currently there are six sites with two starting in 2017. Sweden is the most atheistic nation on earth, but the potential for revival is great.
ESTONIA
Crick and Mindy Porier were a part of a team that planted TELK church in the university town of Tartu. This year the TELK team established the Southern-Estonia Initiative to discover ways to help start and strengthen rural churches and create new youth ministry outreach programs in the region.
ESTONIA
NEPAL
Converge churches worked among 10 unreached, unengaged people groups in the past nine months, with hundreds baptized and several churches planted.
CHINA
While building connections with neighbors, our workers Mao and Phoenix also are training Han Chinese (80 percent of the population) to reach into unreached minority communities.
MOLDOVA
Our global workers in Moldova are working with Moldovans to create a core group of believers who will start a church planting movement there.
INDIA
NIGERIA
People from Maihankali, a gospel-resistant village, attended a meeting where former Nigeria missionary Art Helwig spoke. Christians witnessed to them and saw 19 commit to Jesus, then be baptized. A graduate of Theological Education by Extension studies readily volunteered to accompany them to their village to train them in discipleship and outreach.
THAILAND
In Gopalpur, Assam State, an evangelist shared the gospel with five women. None accepted Jesus but told their families what they had heard. Their families believed, and soon all five women became believers through their families’ prayers. Together the families began a house fellowship in May 2016 and erected a church building in July.
As part of its 10year goal to add 15 career workers and 15 new centers/churches by 2025, Santisuk English School in Bangkok opened the Rachayotin Center last June. It was the second of the 15 projected new centers and the fifth overall. (Each center serves as both a school extension campus and a church.) SES is a Converge ministry of missionaries Steve and Nopaluck Cable.
CHINA
The global south refers to non-Western, lessdeveloped countries. The church often is growing much faster here than in other places. 1
THAILAND
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PA RTI C I PA NTS
INCHURCHRESIDENCY A
B R A V E
N E W
W A Y
T O
R E C R U I T
HEARTLAND Heartland Church, Indianapolis, Indiana, and three other campuses
What is a church residency?
Darryn Scheske, lead pastor
Scheske: Our residency is a two-year program that gives quali-
Jared Moore, senior associate pastor
Fuller: We are a multisite church, so we’re planting new sites. Our
PRAIRIE LAKES Prairie Lakes Church, Cedar Falls, Iowa, and five other campuses John Fuller, senior pastor
Chris Rygh, pastor of multisite ministries
Jesse Tink, pastor of campus development
fied individuals the opportunity to learn ministry skills and gain experience. By the time they are finished, they have a well-rounded ministry experience that positions them to be hired by any growing major church.
residency is designed to provide candidates a mix of rigorous academic training and real-life ministry experience so that they learn our culture and best practices. We raise them up and send them to staff one of our campuses.
Pastor: A church residency is analogous to a medical residency. After residency candidates complete seminary training, they receive practical, hands-on experience, supervision and feedback that equip them to plant or revitalize a church. It’s the bridge between the theoretical (seminary) and the practical.
Converge churches are finding a powerful and effective way to recruit staff who meet their criteria and share their DNA. We interviewed six Converge pastors about their residency programs and the resulting kingdom growth.
Why did you need this program? Moore: When we can, we believe it is best to hire internally. Also, leadership development is a core value of our church. We spend time and resources developing future leaders/pastors. We believe our residency program is unique because we are a multiethnic church. Tink: We were losing a lot of young leaders who had grown up at Prairie Lakes Church or who came here as
a college student. We had no way to provide the training or experience we would require to hire them. They would go away to seminary and after graduating look for a ministry job somewhere else.
Fuller: We have an overarching mission to make it hard to get to hell from Iowa, and our strategy is to launch
campuses around the state. As we launched our last couple of campuses, we were very discouraged because we did not have in-house candidates. This was despite our having young staff members and a robust college internship program with about 12 interns per year. That began to push us to up our game.
Rgyh: It was so hard to watch our most talented 20-somethings leave our staff and move away for their NETS The NETS Center for Church Planting and Revitalization Christ Memorial Church, Williston, Vermont Wes Pastor, founder and president of The NETS Center, planter and lead pastor of Christ Memorial Church
14 POINT // SPRING 2017
training. We thought, This is crazy. It’s hurting us. We wanted to see our staff stay here, build momentum and continue to lead our programs ― and we wanted to train them in the Prairie Lakes way.
Pastor: First, the residency program would allow us to specialize and recruit appropriate staff dedicated to that specialization, something far too ambitious for just another church department. Second, it would allow us to do fundraising for these specific projects.
When did you launch your residency program? Scheske: In March 2015. Prior to that, Jared (Moore) and I visited several churches with residency programs. We learned a lot from 12Stone Church in Atlanta. They shared all their structure templates and teaching with us.
Rgyh: We rolled out our residency program as a plan in 2015 and asked our congregation to get behind it with about $300,000 in seed money. That would allow us to bring on two residents at $18,000 each per year and to provide scholarships to help some of our staff members go through a seminary program. Pastor: We officially launched NETS in summer 2000 as a formal ministry of Christ Memorial Church.
What characteristics do you look for in a residency candidate? Scheske: The candidates know they have a clear call to full-time ministry. They self-declare this, and we
ask such questions as, “What are you doing in ministry while you’re in college?” They’ll be doing something if they have a zeal burning inside them. Also, can they lead others? We’re not just looking for doers. They need to prove they can gather and inspire others to action.
Heartland Church residents participate in a two-year training program with the potential to become part of the church’s staff.
Fuller: They’re humble, hungry and smart. We have a DNA that’s very simple: biblical, authentic, invitational and simple. That’s a screen for us, along with other things.
Rgyh: We look for someone who is either in seminary or committed to enrolling in one. We want them to align with our culture, and they’ve got to be evangelically minded, already reaching out to their neighbors, coworkers and friends for Jesus. If there’s no evidence of that, they’re not going to fit well on our staff. We screen them as we would screen a prospective staff member. We want to see somebody who has a lot of potential we can develop.
Pastor: First, we look for men who are thoroughly grounded in the Scripture, because faith comes by hear-
ing and hearing by the word of Christ. We believe we plant churches by proclaiming Christ, and this requires us to be a pastor-theologians. We’re testing to see if they can preach Christ from all of Scripture. We look for people people; they have a pastor’s heart. We’re not interested in bookworms. We try to discern if they’re seeking to minister to people, engaging them rather than staying in their comfortable cliques. We look for humble servants who demonstrate they don’t think anything is beneath them. They jump in and serve without prompting. We’re looking for guys with a strong work ethic. Church planting isn’t a job for the fainthearted. We want family men. There’s a good connection between husband and wife. He communicates well with her, listens to her, walks through life hand-in-hand with her. If his ministry approach doesn’t connect well with his wife, he isn’t going to work with anyone else. Last, he doesn’t have an aversion to fundraising, because it’s one of the hats church planters have to wear.
Where does your church find prospective residents? Scheske: At Indiana Wesleyan, a local Christian university, and through campus ministries there such as Cru and others. Also at Indiana, Ball State, Purdue and Butler universities.
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Rgyh: Our preference is for Iowans. We have found the best candidates come from the Upper Midwest. They intuitively get who we are and who we’re targeting.
Pastor: Initially, I traveled a week each month to recruit our first class of four. I went to Bethel, Trinity, Southern, Covenant, Dallas and Westminster seminaries.
Tell us how your program works. Scheske: We give them real responsibility. Our residents can be fired if they are not doing their job. They occupy a role in ministry leadership on the staff, combined with being mentored and trained throughout the week. I had to make it a priority and schedule an hour each week to give our residents real-time coaching. We are experimenting with renting local apartments to house our residents. They also receive a $400 per month stipend and a computer. New residents have to learn how to lead “up.” When you’re 21 or 22 years old and have been given leadership responsibility in a church, you have to learn to lead 30-, 35-, 45- and 55-year-olds. Our residents quickly learn that positional authority will get them nowhere. We teach them tone and a culture of honor; we don’t use putdowns and sarcasm as ways to connect with people. We teach them humility, gratitude, showing respect, keeping one’s word, being positive and having a can-do attitude. Do these things, and you’ll lead in any room you walk into.
Moore: Our residents participate in every major staff meeting. Pastor Darryn teaches them the acronym GRIP: Gratitude, Respect, Integrity and Passion. We constantly evaluate our residents in these areas. Are they grateful to be here? Are they showing respect and honor? Do they do what they say they will, and do they have a passion for Jesus? Our goal is that after the two years of residency these principles are the fabric of who they are as leaders. Rgyh: A residency candidate comes through our HR department and is on-boarded with a 90-day plan tai-
lored to the role we discussed during the interview process. He has weekend and weekday responsibilities. It’s a full-time job, requiring immersion. The candidate is assigned a supervisor, who may double as his mentor. He has a weekly one-on-one with his supervisor, who provides direction and coaching. Monthly, we have a full day with all our campus pastors from across the state. This becomes the resident’s peer group. It’s who we want him to rub shoulders with, learn from and draw inspiration from. At present, residency candidates operate out of our Cedar Falls campus. We equip them with a new computer. They have access to staff training, even offsite and conferences, and can travel to visit the other campuses.
Fuller: We spend a good amount of time in spiritual and character formation. We know most guys are not Prairie Lakes Church, Cedar Falls, Iowa, campus, where residents train for ministry at any of the six plc campuses.
16 POINT // SPRING 2017
going to fail in theology; they’ll fail in personality and leadership character. Jesse (Tink) does a lot of mentoring and helps them work through issues.
Tink: I do one-on-one meetings offsite, around coffee or food. By listening, I pick up on some themes in their life. As we talk about those themes, I point out what the Spirit is illuminating, allowing the resident to
process it in real time. Over the course of their residency, they grow exponentially in their self-awareness and can sense where they fit vocationally.
Pastor: First they go through a nine-month, on-site internship that helps us select who will continue in the residency program. We currently have seven pastoral interns. There’s an academic piece — we’re certified to offer their final seminary courses. We just finished our rigorous first-semester course on preaching, which includes preaching in our churches. We give the men and their wives significant ministry roles. All interns are assistant leaders in our home group system. Over the course of each week we have scheduled and impromptu meetings to provide training from the curriculum we developed. We provide housing in dormitories and single family homes on our property. Once they complete the internship, they can step away to whatever else they care to do, take a position in a relatively healthy New England church, accept a church revitalization project, or we promote them to the residency program (another 15 months). In the program, they become assistant pastors at Christ Memorial Church. On completion, they likely will plant a church or take on a difficult church revitalization.
Current NETS interns and their families. Founder/ president Wes Pastor and his wife Sue at right.
How many residents have you trained and placed in ministry? Moore: We have two campus pastors and two more in the pipeline out of 12 residents. Scheske: Curt Edmonson and Colby Hill each served two years as resident pastors and now each leads one of our campuses. Some of our 10 current residents serve in youth ministry, connections/hospitality, worship, small group ministry leadership.
Rgyh: We selected Shane Fuller, our first resident, in June 2015, and he began in August 2015. When he completed his residency, we hired him as associate pastor of discipleship at our Cedar Falls campus. Chris Bowden, our second resident, is going into the second year of the program while serving as campus director of our Cedar Rapids campus.
Pastor: We’ve trained 16 in our residency program, but promoted only half of the graduates into our field program. All but one has successfully planted churches. n
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17
Unengaged. Unreached. She lives among a people group with no known believers and no one working to establish Christ’s church. We can’t keep them waiting. Send a missionary. Support a missionary. Become a missionary. Answer the call at converge.org/send.
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Demand Investments Minimum Rate Demand $100 0.750% Church Savings $5000 0.875% Individual Retirement Accounts Minimum Rate Under $100,000 2.125% Over $100,000 2.250% Term Investments Term
Rate
6-Month 0.875% 1-Year
1 .1 2 5 %
$250,000
1.000%
$100
1 .1 2 5 %
$100,000
1.250%
$250,000
2-Year* 3-Year
2.500%
$100
2.500%
$100,000
2.500%
$250,000
1.375%
$100
1.500%
$100,000
1.625%
$250,000
4 -Year*
“The most momentous event for Beacon of Hope Church in 2016 had to be moving into our new building in St. Paul, Minnesota. Cornerstone Fund was one of the biggest blessings we have ever experienced as a church. The personal care and encouragement showered on us was deeply appreciated by all. As the pastor of Beacon of Hope, I can sincerely say we are a blessed people. We are now situated in a permanent location and ready to break out of our four walls and into the city of St. Paul in a new and fresh way. Thanks for helping to make this a reality!”
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$100
3.125%
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$30,000
2.000%
$100,000
2.125%
$250,000
* Rates for term investments are subject to change without notice.
— Pastor Stephen Lonetti, Beacon of Hope Church, St. Paul, Minnesota
Play a part in starting and strengthening churches like Beacon of Hope and earn an interest on your investment. Choose to invest in one or both of our current bonus rates:
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csfund@converge.org 877 228 8810 cornerstonetoday.org 2002 S Arlington Heights Rd Arlington Heights IL 60005 This shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state in which such an offer, solicitation or sale is not authorized. The offering is made solely by the OFFERING CIRCULAR. The offering involves certain risks, which are more fully disclosed in the Offering Circular under the heading “Risk Factors.” These investments are not FDIC or SIPC insured. In the event the Fund exercises its right to redeem a Certificate prior to maturity and upon 60 days notice to the holder thereof, payment of the outstanding principal and interest will be made to the holder to the date of redemption, rather than to the Certificate’s maturity date. START. STRENGTHEN. SEND.
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The joy and cost of Pastors Nate Hettinga and Aaron Day risked sending members, leaders and funds from In the mid-1990s, Nate Hettinga was on the staff of Northshore Church, Bothell, Washington, a large congregation led by his father, Jan Hettinga. Aaron Day, a young natural evangelist and peoplelover, was a Northshore volunteer youth leader Nate was mentoring. Day picked up that Nate was intent on planting a church out of Northshore. He had no idea what that meant, but in late 1994, Nate asked him to help do just that. With Northshore’s blessing, they planted Cascade Church, holding their first service Christmas Eve 1996 and launching in January 1997. It was the beginning of their church planting efforts. In the next 10 years, Cascade planted numerous churches (see family tree graphic). Their preferred method: “the hive model,” in which a church staff leader and members “hive off” and relocate in a neighboring village to start a new church. Transitioning from youth pastor to outreach pastor at Cascade, Day examined his ministry. “With Nate working on a doctorate and less available, I believe God was preparing me to be a lead pastor. But that was never my dream or hope,” Day says. On September 9, 2007, Day, his wife Cathy and most of Cascade’s Alpha Course leadership team launched Crosswater Community Church in Sultan, seven miles from Cascade. Crosswater currently averages 280 to 300 in weekend attendance and has supported several Northwest district church planters. While Day focused on his church planting, Hettinga went on to start 18 daughter or granddaughter churches, four of which did not survive.
“Another joy is that multiplication brings life to a church. I’ve learned to celebrate what we want repeated. We celebrate a lot when it comes to multiplication. For example, Mike and Jen Satterfield served 17 months on our Cascade staff. But last January 1, they stood on Cascade’s stage as we commissioned and prayed for them. We celebrated their leaving to launch Emmaus Road Church, Stanwood, Washington, February 19.” Hettinga says this church plant came about because of a network of five Northwest churches, each more than 100 years old. For the past 20 years they had talked about planting a church. Emmaus Road is the network’s first church plant.
DAUGHTER
Iglesia Sante Fe Vera Cruz, Mexico
DAUGHTER
Iglesia Sante Fe High Point Church
Great Joy Hettinga and Day experienced great joy and agonizing lows along the way. First the joy. “Church planting creates opportunities to get close to new people,” says Hettinga. “It takes the lid off people who have been developing but haven’t had a leadership role. When a leader takes 40 or 50 people with him to start a new church, it leaves a leadership gap to be filled. Usually the leader takes the cream of the crop, people already leading and tithing. His leaving creates an opportunity for other leaders to rise.
Tapalpa, Mexico
DAUGHTER Maltby, WA // 2010
GRANDDAUGHTER
The Ridge Church Redmond, WA // 2016
DAUGHTER
Emmaus Road Church
GRANDDAUGHTER
Stanwood, WA // 2017
River of Life Church Everett, WA // 2007
DAUGHTER DAUGHTER
Community Bible Fellowship
Adventure Church
Renton, WA // 2009
Duvall, WA // 2003
DAUGHTER
Iglesia Santa Fe Monroe, WA // 2001
PAR
Cascade
Monroe, W
20 POINT // SPRING 2017
f sending your best their congregations to multiply churches. They tell us their joys– and the cost– of the process. “Their churches are being invigorated by a new birth,” observes Hettinga. Satterfield is already working toward planting a Hispanic congregation out of Emmaus Road Church. And the network is sending another potential church planter to Converge’s Church Planting Assessment Center. Reflecting on the joys, Day says, “I’ve found the blessing of church planting is getting more of Jesus and what he has for us. The Levites were told they didn’t get land in Canaan but their portion was God. We get to rely on God in a way others don’t have to or wouldn’t choose to. He comes through for us. That’s been my experience in stepping out and trusting him.”
DAUGHTER
Everett Family Church
RENT
DAUGHTER
Everett, WA // Closed
East Spokane Church Liberty, WA // Closed
DAUGHTER
Celebration Church Issaquah, WA // Closed
DAUGHTER
DAUGHTER
Life Pointe Church
Cascade Family SOU
Lacey, WA // 2008
Monroe, WA // Closed
Real Costs For Day, one great cost can come in deep relationships. He and Hettinga were very close but experienced tension for several months after Crosswater’s launch. Initially, each pushed the other away, feeling abandoned. Now they meet monthly and love each other deeply. Day also felt the loss of being part of something big at Cascade Church, “where I grew so much and we were deeply known.” He has fewer resources to work with in a smaller church. And his theneighth-grade daughter Mikayla experienced a deep depression when they moved to Sultan. “Leaving her friends and comfort zone took a year to work through,” he says. Hettinga agrees it has been hard for his kids to say goodbye to some of their closest friends. “Why do you keep planting churches?” they’ve asked. “Our friends are leaving, and youth group won’t be the same.” It’s painful, Nate admits. A second cost to Cascade was gutting ministry leadership to start a new church. This happened with leaders of missions, men’s ministry, the Alpha Course, small groups and youth ministry. The ministry leaders depart and take the leaders around them. Sometimes the church’s recovery requires several years. And of course there’s the financial cost. When Day left, about $4,000 in weekly giving transferred to Crosswater Community Church. “Cascade couldn’t afford to replace him for a year,” Hettinga says. Attendance likewise took about a year to recover. But it’s a price he gladly will pay for Christ’s kingdom to grow. On January 17, he announced that, for the first time in its history, Cascade Church in a single year (2016) gave more than half a million dollars to international missions and church planting. The actual: $547,000. Despite the losses and gains, says Hettinga, “We’re always looking to multiply any way we can. We call it strategic opportunism.” n
DAUGHTER
Cascade Family WSR DAUGHTER
By editor Bob Putman, with assistance from contributing editor Fran Anderson.
Monroe, WA // 2004
Crosswater Church Sultan, WA // 2007 DAUGHTER
Cascade Family MSU Monroe, WA // 2004 DAUGHTER
Cascade Family TRU Monroe, WA // 2004
e Church
WA // 1997
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Why I need Jesus
— and you need to tell others about him BY GREG GARZA
I was full of hate and anger before I asked Christ to come into my life. My parents divorced when I was in third grade, and I grew up in New Braunfels, Texas, without my father because he was in and out of jail, eventually sentenced to prison for 50 years. In 2006, right out of high school, I got heavily involved in drugs, and my life spiraled out of control. I tried to commit suicide twice and ended up doing three months in jail for assault against my older brother, who was trying to help me overcome my problems. But I couldn’t accept I had an issue. Plus, I spent a couple of weeks in a mental hospital. In 2009 I met Ashley, the woman who would become my wife. Our relationship developed very fast; I moved in with her within a month. In 2010, we had a child out of wedlock. Still, I lived for myself, never around on weekends. I was heavy into drinking and gambling during the pregnancy and even after my daughter Kareena was born. A friend began to attend a small local church and kept inviting me to attend. I declined many times. Then one Sunday in April 2013 my wife convinced me to visit the church because we were broken as a family and needed a change.
Making major changes As the pastor delivered his sermon, it seemed as if God was speaking directly to me. Suddenly, I felt very emotional. At the end of his message, the pastor asked people who didn’t know Jesus to come forward if they wanted to place their trust in him. I felt something move in my heart at that moment. I opened my eyes, tears flowing down my face, and walked forward to ask Jesus to be a part of my life. One month later I decided to be baptized. The pastor baptized me on May 19, 2013. Shortly after that, we moved to North Texas. We were invited to the Church of Celebration Metro in Aubrey. We came to the service and immediately fell in love. After the service I met with pastor Brad Wilkerson and, with welcoming arms, he made me feel as if I were home. He was so authentic and genuine. In time pastor Brad challenged Ashley and me to move out of the chairs we sat in every Sunday and plug into some of the many op-
22 POINT // SPRING 2017
portunities the church had to offer. I joined a men’s ministry called Men of Valor and a life group that met on Friday evenings. I started serving in the church. Throughout this period, I surrounded myself with great men and leaders of the church. I began to realize I was changing into the man God intended me to be. Ashley and I began serving in children’s ministry, stepping out of my comfort zone — something coc always encouraged us to do. For the next two years I led the children’s ministry during one of the services.
The power of invitation I continued to grow, and God was gaining more control in my life. I felt God calling me to missions. In 2016 I went to the Dominican Republic to love on the kids, help lead vacation Bible school and share the gospel of Jesus as we walked through the neighborhoods of Veron. It was a life-changing experience. Pastor Greg Jones asked me to present my testimony to over 130 teenagers. The Holy Spirit flowed through me that evening. I became emotional, taking a step back to see how far God had brought me from all my mistakes, addictions and suicide attempts. Now he had me in this room with so many kids to bring them evidence of God’s work in my life. If they accepted Jesus and made him the center of their lives, they would experience the love of God. My church has pushed me to grow beyond measure and put God first. I sense Jesus is calling me to ministry, and someday I hope to achieve that goal. If you are struggling, take comfort in knowing you are not alone. I hope you are encouraged as you see the work Jesus has done in my life. There is power in invitation. If you know someone who needs Jesus, keep asking them, keep inviting them. They might just say yes and see their whole life changed forever. I tell my story not so that I get the glory, but so that others may know what hope looks like. With Jesus there is hope! n Greg Garza is a youth leader, leads a Life Group and is leading two men in Key Man Leadership discipleship training at Church of Celebration Metro, Aubrey, Texas.
No matter what! BY LEE STEPHENSON
Almost two years ago my family and I arrived in Orlando, eager to meet new people, figure out a new city and begin a new season of ministry. It would be dishonest of me to say that all the tears shed in our house during our transition have been tears of joy. The past two years have contained a wide range of emotions, from anxiety over health challenges to the joy of watching our son’s baptism. Orlando has been unlike any city I have ever lived in. It has all the trappings you would expect of the tourism capital of the world. Furthermore, the city is growing and is an incredibly fun, diverse place to raise a family. We all have worked hard to find our place and to make new friends. My wife Melissa recently began volunteering at a Christian women’s clinic in town. Its purpose is to encourage and equip women and men to make informed pregnancy decisions. In other words, they hope to put all the local abortion clinics out of business. Last week our hearts were broken when we heard an abortion clinic in town was offering 50 percent off on late-term abortions. Once again it was a reminder the world isn’t the way it is supposed to be.
A time to weep?
I am encouraged that we have a God who is actively working in the midst of the world’s darkness. I find hope in that our God not only knows our predicament but meets us in our weakness. Two times in the Gospels and once in the Epistles we see Jesus cry. In John 11, we first read about the death of Lazarus, Jesus’ close friend. Jesus wept as he met with Lazarus’ siblings Mary and Martha. Interestingly, Jesus did not weep over the death itself. He knew Lazarus would soon be raised and ultimately spend eternity with him in heaven. Jesus wept as he was confronted with the wailing and sobbing of his friends and other mourners. In Luke 19 we read of Jesus weeping as he approached Jerusalem. The word used in Luke 19 is the same word we find in the John 11 passage. Thus, we know that Jesus cried aloud in anguish over the city’s future. That dark future was less than 40 years distant; in AD 70 more than a million Jerusalem residents died in one of the most gruesome sieges in recorded history. Jesus wept differently in these two instances because the eternal outcomes were different. Martha, Mary and Lazarus had eternal life because they believed in Jesus, but most in Jerusalem did not believe and therefore did not have life. That reality is the same today: “Jesus said to her [Martha], ‘I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die’” (John 11:25).
BATTLE CRY
This is why people sacrifice financially, give their best leaders and go to forgotten places. People need Jesus, and communities all around us are desperate to have a life-giving church. It’s why we plant churches. Who is going to reach them if we don’t? If I am honest, I don’t weep enough over my city, my community or my neighborhood. My prayer is that we all will feel what Jesus felt. We will mourn with those who mourn, and we too will anguish over the lostness of those close to us. But we must also go. Let our battle cry be, “No matter what!” What we accept slowly creeps into the coming generations. What we preach and how we lead does also. Our actions have an even greater impact. But what we war against with our battle cry says more about us than does all the rest. What the coming generations will take up war against will be a testament to us or a judgment against us. n Lee Stephenson is executive director of Converge Church Planting.
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Baptist General Conference 2002 S. Arlington Heights Rd. Arlington Heights, IL 60005
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Dream exponentially. Jesus challenged us with a big dream — the dream of helping him build a rapidly growing global church movement. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth are an exponentially huge dream. We’ll go after this dream together at Exponential 2017 with Converge pre-conference sessions specifically designed for leaders seeking vision, strategy and networking. Your registration through Converge includes the Converge Pre-Con Workshop and Pre-Con Lab, all Exponential main sessions, Converge Kick-off Dinner and T-shirt. In the Converge Pre-Con workshop and lab we will cover church planting trends and how they affect you, and how to be more effective in reaching your community, create a positive and impactful guest experience and multiply your church.
Become a church that multiplies. CONVERGE PRE-CON + EXPONENTIAL EAST April 24-27, 2017 | Orlando, FL
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Register at converge.org/exponential
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