|
 |
The Newsletter of the Praxis Center for Church Development |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greetings, Happy New Year and welcome to another edition of The Uprising, delivering to you News of the Revolution! We have an upcoming Quest Event, some new articles, even some new resources released - and there is lots more to come in 2008! So, enjoy and as always, Join the Revolution!  Tom Johnston & Mike Perkinson
by Mike Chong Perkinson There is massive shift in our ecclesiological world today. New ideas, models and implementation strategies are being birthed in the hope of reaching the world for our King. I applaud such efforts. Also motivating our ecclesiological landscape is the apparent frustration of pastors and leaders and often fruitless ministry (at least when it comes to making disciples that follow Christ) as well as, the ever changing cultural climate. All of this is leading many followers of Christ back to some basic and powerful practices like searching the Scriptures, praying, talking and confessing with other believers and partnering (koinonia) with other believers to see the Kingdom of God extended in our land. Good things always happen when the saints seek God, search the Scriptures, and pray.
by Tom Johnston The debate in church development circles often centers around what models of ministry, what programs and/or what church structures have the most pragmatic effect - in other words, what brings the most people into the general worship services of the church. These issues of "wineskin" drive much of the debate, and consequently our focus becomes the constant redevelopment and upgrading of our wineskin. The pragmatic drive for results, informed by a consumer-driven worldview of marketing cause-and- effect, makes us focus on the externals of church life and ministry, rather than the internal life of Christ in the Spirit. It is the "new wine" of the Spirit's work - rebirth/conversion, transformation/sanctification, empowerment for mission - on which we should be focusing. It is the reality of Christ being formed in us...
Greater Boston Area - March 11-13 The Quest Church Planter Training Intensive is designed to provide late-stage, implementational planning process for establishing a new church community. The training provided is non-model specific, principle- based instruction derived from the ministry process of Jesus. Because of this, Quest can be used in any ethnic environment or socio-cultural setting. Using these principles, the event helps the planter and their team to develop a "pathway" for starting the new church which they envision. Registration Deadline is February 20.
Jesus has designed His Church to grow and bear much fruit! That is what the Institute for Natural Church Development has discovered from years of research on a global scale, across all theological persuasions of the Christian Church. Having identified eight key quality characteristics common to all churches, both a survey and an associated development process have been designed to walk the pastor and church leadership team through a twelve-month process for enhancing their church's health.
The Discipleship Center in the Philippines is now in full swing and the church planters are already planning church planting projects in the Pacific Rim! We are still looking for help with funding the training for these church planters - funding a year of training for just $250 is a way for you or your church to give beyond yourself, your family, and even your country.
The Doorway to Your Destiny In the western world, there are not enough churches or enough pastoral leaders to fulfill the mandate of the Great Commission. Emerge is a resource designed to help you develop shepherds - pastors for existing churches, staff pastors and church planters. This is the same process used in Praxis training world-wide, and will be available for you to use through the Trilogy Resource Subscription! Beta 1 Version files now available
Called The Kingdom Quest: Preparing to Church Plant in the Post-Christian West, this book is all about preparing to plant a church, focusing on both the personal preparation of the planter and Jesus' principles for starting a new church. Please read more about this book written by the Praxis guys on our Publishers webpage!
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |