Reflections on ACTS 29 at TEDS

I've just returned from an immensely busy but very good week at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. On Monday, the National Church Planting team met and considered several of the issues coming at us in the world of Church-Planting.

Monday Night I had a wonderful time meeting with the Meauxs and Buerhles as we considered next steps necessary for them to uproot their families and to move to Cleveland. The real desire of their heart, while they appreciate our NEO effort, is to have ONE church family in Cleveland that will become their family as they begin to move toward planting in the next few years. I am really high on John and Matt and their families. What they want is what we really want for all our church plants (in essence a healthy mother - whether it is one that actually gives birth or one that adopts them). These couples aren't necessarily looking for money or people, but relationship, encouragement, affirmation.

Tuesday and Wednesday, Acts 29 presented its form of Bootcamp...Ed Stetzer, Mark Driscoll, Mark Dever, Darrin Patrick, Scott Thomas. My conclusion is that all of our planters should do this bootcamp first, then the EFCA's. Actst 29 really gets at the heart and motives more deeply than our's, but it doesn't provide the nuts and bolts that the EFCA's does. Mark Driscoll presented the BEST SEMINAR ON BIBLICAL PREACHING that I have EVER HEARD. It will probably show-up at http://www.acts29network.org/. I want to get his permission to share the outline, then link you to the podcast. Some of what he discussed really relates well to my first blog on Preaching and Life-Transformation. I look to discuss more of this in my next blog post.

During these bootcamp, I connected with Frank and Kerri Tallerico of Bigelow Church in Portsmouth, OH. Frank is the Sr. Pastor where Brian Evans is the associate. Frank and Kerri sat through our assessment with Brian and Tripp. That experience left them wondering what they really needed to do to become a church-planting church, so they came to Acts 29 as step in that process. I am looking forward to the possibility of connecting with them as they further unpackage this.

On Tuesday night our team met with the Acts 29 team and several TEDS Profs. As we shared, I was struck by the fact that many of our leaders are aware of the need to become more personally involved in living a gospel missional life. Additionally, we considered the changing landscape of the church and church-planting. Our theme was really "Reaching-out Without Selling-out". One of the interested points was that of micro-niche ministry which reaches very specific segments of society. We also talked about the need of networking across denominational and "para-church" boarders for the sake of the gospel. Also announced was the fact the Ed has joined the TEDS faculty as Associate Prof. Later that night, Mark Overmyer and I spent time with Ray Chang and some of his associates further discussing these issues.

Wednesday - Jim Hagen flew in and we conducted two assessment interviews with Mark and Kendra Petras and Nate and Teri Childers. More to come about these folks and their potential ministries. These interviews mixed with more Acts 29 and even more connections for church-planting in the Allegheny District made for an extremely long day, but a very very productive and fruitful one.

Thursday was a driving and phone day, and now I need to decompress a little, do reports, and get ready for the next flurry of activity to come. Thanks for your Prayers.