Highlights/Reflections from our Basic Training Event for #ChurchPlanters: This weekend we held our first Basic Training for Church Planters on the Northshore. A diverse group of Church Planting teams from across Louisiana came together for the event, including a Biker Church, Asian American churches, Attractional and Missional approaches. This is about my 5th time through Basic Training and I’d say a developing trend that I’m excited to see may be Bi-Vocational church planting teams. Also, NAMB’s new Basic Training Journey has made some helpful adjustments. Get it online here. Also, here is a Google Doc with some resources mentioned and discussed during the workshop. Here are a few highlights for me:

• Church Planting is all about relationships.
• There is only one kingdom and it belongs to God. And God’s kingdom is extended to the ends of the earth through His church.
• All disciples of Jesus are called to be sent people.
• You can’t plant a church in your head, you have to plant it in the community.
• We don’t plant churches just for the community, we plant them for the whole world.
• Every congregation is a world missions strategy center.
• Contextualization is answering the communities questions about God and the gospel in their terms. NOT on their terms.
• Discipleship = Applying the inner meaning of the Gospel to persons at the point of their need.
• Multiplication principles: You reap what you sow. You reap later than you sow. You reap more than you sow.
• Don’t just start services, start making disciples.
• Discipling is a process of learning to obey Jesus.
• Two questions from Simple Church: What is a disciple? What is our process to make and mature disciples?
• Disciples are shaped by serving, not just sitting and singing.
• Don’t use people to get ministry done. Use ministry to get people done.
• Small Groups = Accountability = Growth.
• Small Groups are the seedbed to develop new leaders.
• In church history, a significant amount of missionary activity and advance was carried out by unrecognized teams of church planters. i.e – the Moravians
• The Moravians saw witnessing as the common concern from all members of the faith community and sent small groups of ordinary believers to plant churches and testify for Christ in new areas.
• “Ultimately, each church will be evaluated by only one thing – its disciples. Your church is only as good as her disciples. It does not matter how good your praise, preaching, programs, or property are; if your disciples are passive, needy, consumeristic, and not radically obedient…” Neil Cole