Challies Dot Com :: Informing The Reforming: "1429"
It's 6:23PM.
The last sign of Tim Challies was... yesterday!
Does this mean...? Could it be...? Is the magic number One Thousand, Four hundred and Twentynine????
Please note... I called it!
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
Church Planting Correctives from Al Mohler
Church Planting Movements and the Great Commission:
"There can be no doubt that the planting of new congregations is a New Testament model. This approach comes with apostolic encouragement, as any reading of the Book of Acts and Paul's letters will reveal. Many of these new congregations will be fueled with great passion for the Gospel and for reaching unreached communities, people groups, and sectors of our society. This is indeed good news. At the same time, we also need this generation of young pastors to go into established churches and revitalize a Gospel ministry through expository preaching and energetic leadership. Giving up on the established church is not an option. Some young pastors see church planting as a way of avoiding the challenge of dealing with the people and pathologies of older congregations. This is an abdication of responsibility. Furthermore, many established churches are showing signs of new life, often under new leadership. As one pastor explained, this sometimes means planting a new church within an older church. On the other hand, only a fraction of newly planted churches exist as operational congregations five years after their founding. Similarly, the passion to reach unreached populations is entirely laudable and urgent. The sad reality is that many of our established evangelical churches seem determined to reach only people who look like themselves -- if they are committed to reach anyone at all. The danger on the other side is that many of these newly-planted churches begin to look like their founders and first members. A church of tattooed twenty-somethings in New York can be just as lacking in diversity as the aging middle class congregation at First Church."
"There can be no doubt that the planting of new congregations is a New Testament model. This approach comes with apostolic encouragement, as any reading of the Book of Acts and Paul's letters will reveal. Many of these new congregations will be fueled with great passion for the Gospel and for reaching unreached communities, people groups, and sectors of our society. This is indeed good news. At the same time, we also need this generation of young pastors to go into established churches and revitalize a Gospel ministry through expository preaching and energetic leadership. Giving up on the established church is not an option. Some young pastors see church planting as a way of avoiding the challenge of dealing with the people and pathologies of older congregations. This is an abdication of responsibility. Furthermore, many established churches are showing signs of new life, often under new leadership. As one pastor explained, this sometimes means planting a new church within an older church. On the other hand, only a fraction of newly planted churches exist as operational congregations five years after their founding. Similarly, the passion to reach unreached populations is entirely laudable and urgent. The sad reality is that many of our established evangelical churches seem determined to reach only people who look like themselves -- if they are committed to reach anyone at all. The danger on the other side is that many of these newly-planted churches begin to look like their founders and first members. A church of tattooed twenty-somethings in New York can be just as lacking in diversity as the aging middle class congregation at First Church."
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Teaching in Mongolia
Live By The Truth
My dear brother, David Robinson, is teaching pastors for several weeks in Mongolia.
You should pop over to his blog for a remarkable little journal he is keeping for all of us who are praying for him. There are some wonderful stories of God's grace...
My dear brother, David Robinson, is teaching pastors for several weeks in Mongolia.
You should pop over to his blog for a remarkable little journal he is keeping for all of us who are praying for him. There are some wonderful stories of God's grace...
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Faithful Evangelism
“If we labour to the end of our days without seeing one convert, it shall not be worse for us in time, and our reward is the same in eternity.”
- Henry Martyn, Missionary to India and Turkey. Martyn would die with few converts, but a faithful life of evangelism and the translation of the Scriptures. That translation of the Word would be used of God in the conversion of many!
Quoted from "Five Pioneer Missionaries." An excellent book published by the Banner of Truth.
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