Encouraging all church planters to attend one of the most important church planting conferences to come. This one is a must attend for church planters who are thinking about planting missional churches to reach our culture. Read More
Category: General
Initially coming solely as a participant to the Text and Context Conference in Seattle, C.J. Mahaney was quickly informed that he would not get to watch the conference from the bleachers but instead needed to bring his cleats because he was going to be first on the line-up. C.J.’s session on “Pastoral Character and Loving People” is considered by many who attended the conference as the most powerful message they’ve heard a long time. Read More
Category: Leadership
At the most recent regional training day in St. Louis, Darrin Patrick spoke of developing and equipping leaders. It is a vital topic for church planters as they seek to build, multiply, and facilitate good leadership. Darrin spoke out of the books of first and second Timothy; books that were written to a scared young pastor and are a gold mine for planters wrestling with the task of being a leader. Read More
Category: Leadership
Tyler Jones and his wife Kimberley planted Vintage 21 five years ago. After attending many churches in the area, Tyler and Kimberly noticed an absence of people in the 20-40 age groups. After much prayer and guidance, they felt God's call to begin a church with people of that age group in mind. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Picture this: You work in a high school and all the 14-year old boys are slumped over and have no guidance because many of their dads are not present in their home. So, you decide to start a young men’s bible study group to give them some guidance and community. But, guess who shows up: all the churched kids. Many boys leave the church when they reach the end of high school, why does it happen so consistently?...“The world is now filled with passive, emasculated men that were not validated by their fathers.” Read More
Category: Church Planting
Ed Stetzer spoke in Philadelphia recently on the topic of ‘Missional Movements and Church Planting'. Ever the missiologist pundit, Stetzer gave summation of God's mission to the world and how the church can be and is part of it. Read More
Category: Church Planting
In these last clips from the 2008 Chicago boot camp, Mark Driscoll answers two important questions from the ladies in the audience about the influence of culture and media on the family as well as where Mark's wife comes alive in the midst of planting a church and the messiness of ministry. Read More
Category: Church Planting
‘Seeing God’s vision for the culture is so important in how we live now.’ In the last 50 years there has been fierce debate over the extent to which the church should be involved in evangelism, social action, or both. ‘The gospel is not a culturally specific truth. It transcends culture. Worship music is not solely the sound that comes out of Nashville, Tennessee.’ Read More
Category: Church Planting
Darrin Patrick, lead pastor of The Journey, spoke at our Boot Camp in Chicago about Leading the Mission. Darrin planted a church in 2002 in St. Louis and it has since grown and seen many people come to Christ as well as he serves as Acts 29's vice-president. In this session Darrin shares how ‘practicing hospitality is more than just inviting Christians over to watch Survivor' and that leading the mission in church planting is a gruelling yet high calling. Read More
Category: Church Planting
At the boot camp in Chicago this year, Mark Driscoll answered questions from church planters and their wives. With great honesty and candidness Mark spoke about the ways he succeeded and also the ways he failed in loving his family while planting Mars Hill Church. It was a helpful time of Q&A. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Mark Dever spoke at this year’s boot camp in Chicago about Evangelism in Church Planting. Some may think that wearing a suit and talking about relevance is a paradox, but not for Dever. He spoke with great wisdom, kindness and humility sharing his love for evangelism. Read More
Category: Church Planting
What are the differences and similarities between the "emerging" and "emergent" church? Has the emerging church struck a chord with engaging the younger generation? How do we engage the emerging church? How should we respond to the challenges it raises? Read More
Category: Church Planting
In September, Mars Hill Church hosted the Resurgence/Acts 29 Network Fall Conference titled: Continuous Worship. Harold Best, Mark Driscoll and Tim Smith shared same great content in the area of worship in the church today. Read More
Category: Leadership
Missional Leaders, Church Planters, and those supporting church planting from the Metro-Philadelphia Region and other surrounding areas are invited to hear Ed Stetzer, Missiologist in Residence for Lifeway Resources, for the afternoon to look at... Read More
Category: General
Text and Context is the National Resurgence Conference and Acts 29 Boot camp featuring John Piper, Matt Chandler, Mark Driscoll and Jim Gilmore among others... we are looking at 1000 people in attendance... Read More
Category: General
Geoff Bradford and Steve Huber, pastors at liberti in Philadelphia, PA, shared to a group of church planters and pastors in the Northeast about the theological foundations and the practical implications of the multi-site model. Some key questions addressed: What does it mean for you and for your church to be ‘sent' into the world God has placed you? What is the church you serve built for? Read More
Category: Church Planting
Darrin Patrick, Lead Pastor of The Journey and Vice President of the Acts 29 Network, spoke at the 2007 MissionalX Conference. Darrin's two sessions, "Dealing With Personal Idols"" and "Bringing the Gospel Into Culture" are now available. Read More
Category: Leadership
We had an excellent line-up of speakers at our Raleigh Boot Camp last month. All audio, video and notes are now available from our main sessions for you to listen to or download. Read More
Category: Church Planting
A quick Google search for the words “executive pastor” will mostly give you hits for available job postings and existing executive pastor (XP) bios. Dig a little deeper and you might come across the occasional article. The reality is that there just isn’t much out there for the guy who sits in the second chair pastoral role in his church. So XP’s are often left to reinvent the proverbial wheel. This does not have to be the case. Below you will find descriptions of five resources that no XP should be without. Read More
Category: Leadership
It is very humbling to see how God is significantly using our network to influence and shape the church planting culture. Acts 29 Network exists to start churches that plant churches. Next week in Raleigh, North Carolina, over 250 individuals will be joining us at the new location of Vintage21 for a two day boot camp. Our boot camps are simple but profound: emphasize solid theology and contextualizing the gospel. We will not waver on either of these commitments. We won’t water down our theology to reach more people and we won’t attack the culture in the name of Christianity. We are planting churches that are missionaries in their respective communities sent by Christ with the gospel (John 20:21). Read More
Category: General
Matthew Kruse is the Lead Pastor of 7 Mile Road, an Acts 29 church just north of Boston. On September 15 the church is releasing their first original worship album entitled Truth Within the Static. We’ve invited Matt to guest blog about hopes for this CD and about some of the theology that undergirds the project. Purchase information, lyrics, and chord charts can all be found at www.CarmenDei.com. Read More
Category: Acts 29 Church Highlights
New Audio Posted: On August 14th, Darrin Patrick spoke to church planters and leaders in the St. Louis area about what it means to be a church on mission and why this is still a crucial question that faces the church in contemporary society. Read More
Category: Church Planting
Acts 29 Network's next boot camp will be on the East Coast in Raleigh, NC hosted by Vintage 21 on September 19-20th. The Acts 29 Network desires to cultivate localized missionaries who will first reach their surrounding cultures and then branch out to the world. This is carried out by helping qualified leaders called by God to plant new churches and replant declining churches in our nation and around the world. Read More
Category: General
We interviewed Tyler Jones, Lead Pastor of Vintage21 and host of the upcoming Acts 29 Boot Camp in Raleigh, North Carolina. A29: When and where did you plant Vintage21? TJ: We planted Vintage21 in downtown Raleigh in November of 2002 – about a week before Thanksgiving actually – and believe me, we had no idea what we were doing. A29: What do you mean that you had no idea... Read More
Category: Acts 29 Church Highlights
Jonathan Herron, lead pastor of Catalyst Church in Kent, Ohio shared with Acts 29 his process of planting Catalyst and their plans for the future. Read More
Category: Acts 29 Church Highlights
JR Vassar is the founding pastor of Apostles Church in the Midtown/Upper East area of Manhattan. JR launched the church in September 2005. Before moving to NYC in January 2005, he served for four years as the Teaching Pastor of Lake Pointe Church in the Dallas area. Apostles Church has been growing steadily and reaching emerging professionals, young married couples and several families. He is married to Ginger and they have two children. Apostles Church is a member of the Acts 29 Network. Read More
Category: Acts 29 Church Highlights
Paul Dean, an Acts 29 church plant in Issaquah (a suburb of Seattle) is celebrating his one year anniversary this Sunday (January 21) as the founding pastor of Alathia (meaning “Truth”). He has served as an assistant pastor in Ohio, youth pastor in Richland, WA and Tacoma, WA and was a children’s pastor in Pullman, WA. He was also employed as a history instructor at Washington State University. He lives with his wife Kathryn and three young children, Nathan 9, Carolyn 7, and Alaina 5 in Issaquah, WA. Every year, over 1 million people in this country start a business. Forty percent of them will close by the end of the first year. Within 5 years, more than 80 percent of them will fail. According to author James Emery White, “The statistics are about the same for new churches.” So what made the difference for this church plant in Issaquah celebrating this milestone day? Pastor Dean sat down with us and answered some questions that most church planters have to face at some time to avoid being a statistical casualty. Read More
Category: Acts 29 Church Highlights