Ben Pfahlert over at the Ministry Training Strategy has put a great deal of thought into working out where people fit best in working for the Kingdom of God. He shares in a recent blog post that people are often resistant to the idea of working for the Kingdom because they have cliched views of what that might mean:

I’ll chat to a 25 year old engineer and say, “Your Pastor and your peers speak highly of you as a Christian leader; have you ever thought of retraining and becoming a full time gospel worker?” What happens next is hilarious. The young bloke goes silent, opens his mouth to answer, decides not to, and eventually says, “Mmmm not really.”

So Ben’s written up a list of 10 questions to help people understand how God has wired them, and where they might fit best in the Kingdom of God. For church planters busy forming teams, or considering what jobs they will personally take on, it’s worth having a look through the list. There’s no point trying to force you or someone else to do a job God hasn’t ‘wired’ them for. Better still, knowing how someone works will mean knowing how best to put them to work in a way that they will both excel in and feel comfortable maintaining.

Thanks Ben and all the guys at MTS!

Cheerio,

Ed.

Insurance is just one of those scary topics that church planters have to confront when they’re thinking of breaking ground in a new community. What do I need to cover, and how much is it going to cost me? And when do I put it in place - at the informal gathering stage, when we rent a hall, or when we’ve got our own building?

Well Neil Bull over at EA Insurance has put together a very helpful spotlight on the subject specifically designed for church planters, and passed it on to The Geneva Push. It talks about managing risk, explains the types of insurance available and outlines a process for getting yourself covered - all in three pages. It’s well worth reading through it even if you think you’re sorted, just to be absolutely sure. Finding out you’re not when something goes wrong is just too painful to contemplate.

Click here to view the church planter’s insurance spotlight

The document also contains Neil’s contact details if you want to take things further.

Kind regards,

Ed.

We here at the Push often meet people who are interested in giving everything they’ve got for God, but still working out the details that come after that decision. For some, the first step to investigating church planting is actually investigating full time ministry. That’s where MTS - the Ministry Training Strategy - comes in.

Our mate Ben Pfahlert over at MTS has passed on to us an excellent video about Hamish and Stephanie Toose who decided to take on an MTS role at their church. It’s just under a minute to watch and might be an excellent way to understand the issues for yourself, or to use with someone you’d like to encourage towards a ‘next step’ in serving God.

MTS - Are You Ready to Take the Gospel to the World? from MTS Live on Vimeo.

Here’s an abbreviated link to pass on to friends: http://bit.ly/IAH1nT

Cheerio,

Ed.

If you, or someone like you, is interested in getting into church planting with the support of an experienced ministry team, then there’s an opportunity in Sydney you should be aware of.

Jannali Congregational Church is looking to plant a new Sunday service that caters to the changing face of this southern Sydney suburb. The new service will be separate and distinct from the current morning service in style and culture but yet still maintaining a strong tie with the morning community.

Click here to view all of the details

The successful applicant will be linked with The Geneva Push and gain all the support associated with that, so it’s well worth thinking through!

God bless,

Ed.

There are a lot of nifty Internet and App tools out there offering to do all sorts of jobs for you, everything from collecting church planting articles to connecting with your contacts. Even when you try and narrow it down to just one interest area like, say, photos of your fellowship group you can still be blinded by the options. There are Apps that will snap photos for you, websites that will store them, tools that will share your stored photos with your friends, and networks that will share your friends’ stored photos with you.

But let’s face it, it’s a minor miracle if you can find the one tool that will do everything you want in every area you’re working in. So we tend to end up with a few favourite applications that do the things we want in their specialist areas. But more problems arise when we start trying to make ‘Silo A’ work with ‘Silo B’...

“We’ve taken a bunch of photos with Instagram and posted them on Facebook - but how do I get them over to our Twitter feed?”

“What would really be cool is if I could just get an SMS when something new pops up on our church Facebook page.”

“Sure there’s some great articles on the Geneva Push, but I really want to read them on my Kindle, and transferring them can be a… er, tiresome.”

And that’s when you begin to wonder whether a better preparation for church planting might have been a degree in Computer Science rather than Theology.

So, we’ve got some good news for you. We’ve recently been turned on to a new service called If This Then That, which basically links all of your most popular tools together. It works like this -

If this (a new article appears on Tim Keller’s blog) then do that (send a message to my Gmail account)

or

If this (someone mentions our church in a Tweet) then do that (send them a thankyou)

or even for those of you with outdoor events / services,

If this (tomorrow’s forecast calls for rain) then do that (SMS my phone)

If This Then That allows you to link together a lot of really common services - Facebook, Twitter, Evernot, Instagram, Instapaper, Gmail, Dropbox, YouTube… the list goes on - and it also has a large number of pre-made ‘recipes’ that show how other people have used the service to save time.

So if you can think of a fairly menial task you have to do regularly that involves moving from one App / Internet service / Tool to another, chances are this site will be able to handle it for you.

PS: When I pressed ‘Submit’ on my web post, If This Then That added it to FaceBook for me :o)

Cheerio,

Ed.

If you’ve got three minutes to spare, we highly recommend you check out Chris Ekins latest video update from CoastEC. Find out just how much God has accomplished in three years through Chris and his team, especially in the last six months. And hear first hand their plans for a new service later this year:

And if you didn’t missed it last week, check out the new pastor’s position being created at CoastEC - know someone who might fit the bill?

Yours in Him,

Ed.

You might be aware that Al Stewart was in Tasmania last week for our Keeping Life Together network event. Around a dozen church planters and their supporters gathered in Launceston to hear him speak on The Spiritual Life of a Leader (how to keep yourself fired up) and Fueling the Spiritual Life of Other Leaders (keeping others fired up).

Bishop Ross Nicholson also opened up Psalm 73, explaining God’s perspective on the bad things that happen to good people, and the good things that happen to bad people.

We’re happy to say that all the talks from Keeping Life Together are now online - you can access them here.

We hope they’re a good guide for you as you guide others!

- Ed.

Here’s a great opportunity to be part of an experienced team building a church plant.

Chris Ekins who began CoastEC Church in Forster (mid North Coast NSW) about three years ago is looking for a pastor to join his team. Chris is a great bloke to work with and God is blessing this church plant.

Click here to see the job description - you might know someone who should apply:

Cheers

- Ed.

Every now and then we like to turn the spotlight on a member of our community whose doing great work for God that we can all benefit on. If you haven’t met our friend Dave ‘Macca’ McDonald, then online’s a great place to start.

Macca has a blog called Maccarisms where he puts down his practical thoughts on theology as well as reviews of resources he’d like to recommend. One such is C.J. Mahaney’s book Don’t Waste Your Sports:

Humility is the key to glorifying God with our sport. Mahaney suggests what this might look like on the field:

The humble athlete recognises his limitation.
The humble athlete welcomes correction and critique from coaches and teammates.
The humble athlete acknowledges the contributions of others.
The humble athlete is gracious in defeat and modest in victory.
The humble athlete honours his coach.
The humble athlete respects officials.
The humble athlete gives glory for all his athletic accomplishment to God.

I’ve noticed that Aussies can be rather cynical of Christians in sport. We don’t quite know how to respond when a South Pacific team kneels down to pray after a game, or when a rugby player points to heaven when he’s scored a try, or when a winning athlete thanks God during an interview with the press. But this booklet is talking about more than the public displays of faith in God. It’s about addressing our hearts, who we are, what we are living for, who and what matters most. When we lose touch with God we go searching for replacements and, where I come from, sport is a prime candidate.

You can read the rest of Macca’s review here. It certainly sounds like a great resource for Christians in a sport-mad country.

We’d also encourage you to use the blog to keep up with what’s happening with Macca in his struggle with inoperable lung cancer. I can say, for one, I’ve been very encouraged to hear the perspective of a man who is staring his mortality in the face and still finding God’s love holds true. It’s at times like those people find out what they really believe and our friend has no need to be ashamed.

Check it out!

- Ed.

L-T Hopper has an excellent post over at his blog on what country pastors have to say about ministering outside of Australia’s resource-rich cities.

As he points out, too often people see the city and the country as ministry fields in competition with each other. But the pastors he talks to, like Chris Thornhill from Taree Baptist, have experience in both contexts and are able to see the spiritual potential of both. Chris says,

We tend to talk a lot about ‘community’ and ‘connectedness’ in city environments, yet our regional brothers and sisters seem to be ‘all over this’ in a very real way. Dealing with rampant individualism in terms of faith and gospel-living seems not as much of an issue in regional Australia…makes for a more powerful community understanding of the gospel and what it means to be the church. Also regional communities seem a lot more generous in demonstrating practical care and support for others.

Let me encourage you to read the full post, It’s not a case of City vs. Country but City AND Country. It’s a wonderful corrective for people who’ve forgotten about the diversity of God’s Kingdom, and begun to suggest that ‘ideal’ ministry comes in one shape.

Cheerio,

Ed.

Every ministry worker and farmer have these two things in common: lots of hard work; lots of uncertainty about the result. If you’re wondering this today what might come of all the Gospel seeds you’ve been trying to plant, let me share with you this encouraging report from Luke Yelland in the suburbs of Brisbane:

We’ve worked at developing a simple five week evangelistic course. The hope is to run this course at least six times this year, hopefully more. To get people along, each week a number of us go out on a Saturday afternoon to meet about 20 or 30 new people in the community and invite them to come - we knock on their door! This can be encouraging and at other time disheartening. Generally though we find one or two that are interested in being a part of the course. We generally meet in a lounge room over a meal or some supper.

At the current course nine friends far from God have come along and we have others ready to come to the next one. They’ve been asking great questions as we walk through the gospel with them each week. It’s a great privilege but also it’s been a lot of hard work. For the nine that came we find that there’s another nine that didn’t come but are open and welcome us back into their home. The opportunities are multiplying. It’s certainly not easy, but if you’re willing to give it a go, there are heaps of gospel opportunities out there.

On an encouraging note we’ve had an Iranian family come to Christ. They have a Persian friend who has said they want to change religions too and their brother is also interested as well. Great!

Thanks for sharing Luke, and if you’ve got stories of how God is working through the good and the bad of you’re efforts, we’d love to share them with the rest of the Geneva community. Fire them off to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Yours in Him,

Ed.

Interested in building up your church’s witness through social media? Sure, lots of people are connected by Facebook and Twitter, but are they using it for anything more than fishing stories and family snaps?

Steve Kryger over at Communicate Jesus has uncovered some interesting ways to motivate your congregation members to use their social networks for social evangelism. Beginning providing them with the lines they struggle to come up with on their own…

Steve also has links to a number of other ideas worth investigating.

So maybe it’s worth letting your fingers do some of the talking as well? :o)

Chat soon,

Ed.

Can you spare a moment to thank God for the great work going on in Mackay, and pray for the continued support of Jai and Jay-Ellen Wright.

Chris Ekins from CoastEC caught up with Jai via Skype to hear what’s going on. Three minutes of encouragement is yours for the clicking…

Kind regards,

Ed.

Ben Pfahlert, our mate over at the Ministry Training Strategy, has written a bumper blog with Tara Farrugia on the intersection of work and ministry that is actually readable! Often this sort of topic can become so theologically fraught that it leaves the average Joe behind. However this article sets it the different types and priorities of work very concisely:

What does the Bible see as work?

Adam is the first worker recorded in the Bible. In Genesis 2, we are told his work was to obey the word of God. Michael Hill also describes work, in The How and Why of Love, as bringing order out of chaos, or bringing order to God’s creation.

These Biblical definitions help us to shape our view to God’s view of work. Work is more than 9 to 5. This allows us to measure work; we can measure whether order is brought to chaos. This is why we can say a prostitute is not a worker, and neither is a surgeon performing abortions. Both bring disorder and increase chaos rather than order it. Both disobey the word of God rather than obey it.

You can read the rest of it here: http://bit.ly/whIy8X

It’s an excellent primer if you’re looking to explain the intersection of work and ministry to a congregation.

Cheerio,

Ed.

Short on ways to connect with your community in the run up to Easter?

Continuing his plan to mine the Internet for all it’s worth, Steve Kryger over at Communicate Jesus has gone to the trouble of assembling a great list of ideas and resources that churches are using to introduce their target markets to the idea of Easter.

There’s something there for every size team - hope it proves helpful!

- Ed.

Jannali Congregational Church has contacted us to say that they’re looking to start a new work for young families in their area. They have in mind planting an evening service and are looking for the right man to head it up. Click here to download the full job description

Do you know someone who might fit the bill? If so they can contact Pastor Cameron Douglas via his email address, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

- Ed.

You can always find a magazine that will (un)helpfully measure your health against some sporting great or lofty fitness regime. Ed Stetzer, our speaker at next week’s Multiply conference, does something far more helpful for church planters by measuring their health in those areas that will ensure they can keep breaking ground for God. Over the past two months he’s been discussing what his research has identified as the seven top issues for church planters. Today we arrive at number 7 - the spiritual, physical and mental health of the planter and his family:

Most planters indicate that planting is one of the hardest things they’ve ever done. Those who survive are quick to highlight how discouraging and lonely it can be. But they are also quick to point out how rewarding it is. In some ways, it is the best of times and in others it is the worst of times.

Planters who responded often stated that they faced struggles in the areas of personal health: (1) the battle to overcome pride, self-reliance, drivenness and an uncoachable attitude; (2) loneliness and isolation; (3) mistrust; (4) lack of rest; and (5) maintaining joy. Although most planters understand the importance of making personal development and family nurturing top priorities, these things often get lost in a planter’s busyness.

The result is a fragile foundation for dealing with the discouragement and loneliness of planting. Eventually, unresolved family of origin issues or weaknesses in the marriage will surface, often in the midst of the planter’s other struggles. Don’t be fooled: if you have a buried or current family crisis, church planting demands that you deal with it.

In my own life, I have found that the times we planted turned cracks in our marriage into fissures. God used it to force us to grow up and grow together. Also, at times, I had to get away just to refocus on the things of God. In church planting, it’s easy to get so focused on the work of the Lord that you lose focus on the Lord of the work.

Understanding the first 6 of the 7 Top Issues provides a good picture of the environment where planters pursue their calling. The environment will likely include times of discouragement and loneliness. Their faith is challenged. God often uses the challenges for good to grow the planter and his family or Satan can use to bring them down.

The following is a possible sketch of what the church planting journey may look like:

- Planter is called and a dream emerges. Excitement builds and plans formulate.

- Fulfillment and pursuit of the dream requires an expanding team of people to join the planter in the journey. Team members are harder to recruit than anticipated, and the team formulates much slower than intended. Often, the new church births with a smaller team than planned. Additionally, leading the team of “messy” people takes more time and energy than expected.

- A smaller team means more responsibilities for the planter and spouse. The burden can be intense, especially when a planter discovers that not everyone has as high a commitment as the planter does.

- Financial shortfalls limit ministry opportunities. The average planter wakes up wondering if funds will be available for salaries and expenses. At the same time, guilt emerges that the ministry appears “stuck” and not growing. Fundraising can take significant time, competing with the other ministry demands vital to growth.
The “tyranny of the urgent” makes it difficult to invest measurable time in capacity building. As a result, systems, processes and cultures tend to reactively define themselves rather than the planter proactively shaping them. The result is inefficiency and ineffectiveness built on unhealthy processes. Weak processes require more hours to accomplish the same results.

- A crisis of belief emerges. The planter’s dream seems so distant from reality. Comparison with other leaders, discouragement and loneliness set in. Things seem to be shaped more by circumstances and other people more than by the planter’s dream.

- Adding more fuel to the fire, the planter continually questions the new church’s effectiveness at reaching lost people (versus transfer memberships) and senses the discipleship process isn’t really resulting in transformed lives.

- Planters typically have a big vision when they are called to plant. The euphoria often gets muted after launch as the planter faces numerous challenges. The “lack of” (scarcity environment) is discouraging and can feel like the “death of a dream,” especially when no relief appears in sight. The disconnect between the planter’s dream and the current reality further amplifies the discouragement.

- Spiritual warfare kicks into full swing, including comparisons with other success planters. Many planters lack fellowship with other peers and coaching. The planter has no one with whom to share burdens. In many cases, planters avoid sharing with their spouse in an attempt to protect them. However, the spouse is often the first to sense something is wrong.

Many families find themselves asking, “Should we quit or should we persevere?” Critical support environments for planters and their families are key. A fully engaged partner church that cares for the entire family unit is essential. Babysitters, Christmas bonuses, and financial sponsorship for marriage enrichment are a few ways to create a foundation for health. Accountability from partners is also essential. Coaching and mentoring for the planter and family is also a plus.

Every planter, spouse, and even partner church pastor should read Leading on Empty: Refilling Your Tank and Renewing Your Passion by Wayne Cordeiro. The book gives the greatest gift a planter needs—permission to be human.

It’s not long now before Ed Stetzer will be in Sydney taking Geneva church planters and their supporters through key points like these at the Multiply conference - six days in fact! Make sure your name is on the entry list!

See you there,

- Ed.

Over the past two months we’ve been sharing the church planting insights of Ed Stetzer, our speaker for the Multiply Conference on February 23. Ed’s research has identified seven key issues for church planters today. This morning we’ve reached number 6 - evangelism and discipleship:

I’ve spent years in the church planting world and continue to find myself benefiting from study and reflection on how people plant churches. As I have said before, this research is based on a certain kind of church planting and is not applicable in all cases. But, based on our analysis over the years, it will be applicable to many. For more details on the sample we used in this qualitative project, be sure to read the earlier entries.

This research reflects what I have seen in many planters and reflects the insight of thirty of the leading church planting practitioners in America. Trends always influence certain church planting outcomes. But there are broad challenges that influence if a church plant makes it or not.

Let me say it another way—you can do a lot of things wrong and God can still bless your new church. All of us who have planted “successfully” will confess at times that God blessed in spite of our leadership and strategies, not because of it. But, there are issues that I had to navigate and every church planter will when planting in the most common ways. Eventually resolving those on some level was mission-critical.

Thus, I blogged this project and list because I believe that the 7 Top Issues Planters Face can be invaluable to you as a planter. Take the list seriously. Discuss it with your leadership team. Develop strategies and action plans. Addressing these issues will not guarantee success but can serve as predictors for progress of your planting efforts. Addressing them strategically will put your new church in the best position to “succeed” for the cause of Christ.

Today we move to Issue #6 (one to go!).

Evangelism and discipleship does not automatically happen in a new church. That is unfortunate for some aspiring planters. All of us struggle with our view of lostness no matter how long we have been in the faith. Too many planters think that the reason lost people have not come to Christ is because they have not found the right church yet. Thus, a mythological equation is formed: lost culture + relevant church plant service = instant harvest.

So, they sincerely set out with a new formula that will fill the local middle school gymnasium or movie theater with lost people. They have a vision of lost people streaming en masse through the doors on launch Sunday shouting, “I found it!” No wonder that planter will spend the majority of the week getting the production ready. The band, slides, movie clips, coffee and donuts, are all a part of an environment that helps people feel at home. But at the end of the day, the demanding grind of an attractive church can potentially take away from the pursuit of those far from God. Simply put, when you have an attractive plant it can end up solely with an attractional strategy. The end result will be that you “sell” a new and better church (product) to consumers of religious goods and services.

It is possible (and even common) to spend too much energy focused on only one aspect of the church plant: the Sunday morning crowds. There are many solutions, including opening up new lanes to all kinds of church planting, something Warren Bird and I discuss in Viral Churches.

One solution is to personally invest significant time in relationships with lost people and new believers. The sermons may need to be simpler with less “special effects.” The band may need less programmatic direction and more relational investment with you. At the end of the day, the core team and lead planter must personally invest heavily in the harvest. Not only is that great for the moment (for those lost people, etc.) but it creates the culture for the future of every person who connects with your church. The long term future of the new church is in the harvest, not a Disneyfied Sunday morning experience.

Most planters I know start new churches to reach lost people and grow disciples. Planters we talked to highlighted five challenges to evangelism and discipleship:

(1) Multiple time demands detracted from time needed for evangelism and discipleship.

(2) Discerning how to practice faith (James 1:27) in a way that represents all God is doing in world not limited to direct evangelism only. Examples include hunger relief, assistance and adoption efforts.

(3) Living incarnationally and engaging in today’s culture.

(4) Implementing a deliberate evangelistic and disciple-making strategy.

(5) Making small groups work.

Here are two observations that will help you work through these challenges to evangelism and discipleship:

Distracted by the Planting Process - The paradox for the planter is that what drives to plant—a heart to reach lost people—is often hindered by planting the church. Challenges cited by planters in this area appear connected to the first five issues in this report. Specifically developing leaders, mobilizing volunteers, building teams, financial resources, and building healthy systems all divert a planter’s focus to things other than evangelism and discipleship.

They are a part of making disciples but can be programs executed with a focus on process rather than on people.

The desire to engage people incarnationally and build relationships is met with the reality of the challenges that tug on the planter’s time, energy and focus. Yet as previously mentioned, these values must be lived out. Difficult decisions need to be made about what will really be important. It is essential to keep the unchurched before you and your team. Keep the issue on the table for everyone in your core team—make yourself accountable to them as well as making them accountable to you.

The Internal Scorecard - A nagging sense of falling short of the dream in the area of evangelism and discipleship can significantly contribute to a planter’s discouragement. The planter’s tolerance level for the pressures and disappointments of planting is higher when lives are being changed.

In some ways, it’s like parenting. When our kids respond by grace and through faith to Jesus and live for Him, it’s easier to deal with disappointment over less important areas of their lives. Evangelism and discipleship are core values for most planters and should bias the internal scorecard more than many other factors.

Church planter networks that value reaching people provide great environments to help. The tension planters feel to get it all done and invest in lost people is common (thus Top 7 material). The great news is that in every region, somewhere there is a planter being used by God to get it done. Time with someone like that will give you insight on how to stay focused and work toward gospel impact.

My next blog will focus on Issue #7: Spiritual, Physical and Mental Health of Planter and Family.

There are only two weeks to go before the Multiply conference. Don’t miss out on meeting Ed in person - and bring your questions!

- Ed.

We’re really looking forward to having Ed Stetzer as our speaker at our Multiply conference on February 23. Over the past weeks he’s been taking us through what his research has revealed are the seven top issues for church planters. Today he tackles number 5, the essential tasks of casting vision and avoiding mission drift:

One recurring theme was around the church plant losing sight of their direction. Respondents expressed vision casting and avoiding mission drift in several different ways. Eliminating pressure from “churched” people; navigating distractions from “good ideas”; making decisions consistent with mission; defining priorities for growth; and balancing evangelism and discipleship (Issue #6) were challenges leaders confronted to avoid mission drift.

Here are four key considerations:

Clarity—The concept of “drift” implies leaving a clearly defined and understood standard. Planters should not assume that because their expectations are clear and compelling in their minds that they are clearly understood by the rest of the team.

Core Values—Most planters have a strong sense of mission and vision that drives them. These same planters often have less clarity about their core values that shape what they do and how they do it (the compass that guides their north direction). Will Mancini described the task of what he called “High Definition Leadership” as “constantly bringing the most important things to light.” [Will Mancini, Church Unique: How Missional Leaders Cast Vision, Capture Culture, and Create Movement, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2008, p. 52]

Mission, Vision, and Values—The pre and post launch phases are vital to establishing core values that create a strong foundation. Although not explicitly articulated in their responses, it appears planters tend to confuse or interchange what most people refer to as the concepts of vision (dream of preferred future state), mission (corresponding activity) and values (non-negotiable principles). The result is a lack of personal clarity internally before the external challenges that cause mission drift begin.

Ministry Philosophy—Mission, vision, values and leadership culture form the foundational elements of a plant’s philosophy of ministry. Ideally, a planter’s ministry philosophy is clearly defined before starting. However, for many planters, it is a work in progress. As a consequence, the philosophy of ministry can be more influenced by negative shaping factors such as scarcity culture, “church people” on the team, and peer comparisons. In Planting Missional Churches, I call this danger “vision hijacking.”

Non-Negotiables—Most planters do not have the capacity, financial resources or team needed to develop a comprehensive strategy. Instead they narrow their focus to 3 to 5 “table banging” priorities they will be “mean” about in the early days of the church. The limited number of priorities becomes the filter for saying “yes and no” to ministry initiatives and is vital for avoiding drift.

Although I have not been prescriptive in these blogs I do recommend taking a look at Will Mancini’s free Clarity Quiz to help you continue to assess your work. Accountability through networking is vital to address every issue planters face. Sadly too many planters try to make it alone reading books and websites. My next blog will address issue #6: Balancing Evangelism and Discipleship.

February 23 is less than three weeks away so make sure you’ve got your tickets booked for Multiply. Ed’s church planting wisdom is well worth the effort!

See you there,

- Ed.

We’ve received this request from Morisset Evangelical Church and we’re keen to see if there’s someone in Geneva’s community who can help fill this need:

Church planter for Morisset Evangelical Church

Morisset is located in the fast-growing area of south-west Lake Macquarie on the borders of the Central Coast and Hunter Region. There are more than 23,000 people in the Morisset area, but less than 700 are attending Protestant Churches.

With two High Schools and eight Primary Schools, there are a huge number of unreached young people in the 8-18 age range who, along with their parents, need to hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are a group of evangelical Christians with a Statement of Faith similar to that of FIEC member churches and we see an urgent need here for a strong evangelical church that has a particular focus on young families.

We began meeting as three couples for Bible study and prayer in September 2010. In October 2011 we transitioned to a Sunday night House Church style of meeting and currently have 13 adults in regular attendance. We are seeking God’s man to lead us towards and beyond the public launch of Morisset Evangelical Church.

We seek a man who, ideally:

- Is married and is in the 35-45 age range

- Has school-age children (& will enrol them in state schools in the Morisset area)

- Has been assessed by Geneva Push as suitable to be a church planter

- Has done theological training

- Has pastoral ministry experience

Although it would be preferable to have someone work with us full-time we may have to consider a part-time appointment initially, with the pastor’s income from the church supplemented by some other form of paid work (unless we can source funds from elsewhere). We do not have any church property (e.g. pastor’s house).

The key roles we would expect our pastor to take on would be:

- Spiritual leadership of the church

- Expository preaching

- Facilitate a culture of evangelism and discipleship within the church

- Develop leaders of Growth Groups (for Bible study & prayer & pastoral care)

- Establish a Ministry Training Strategy program

Our vision is for a Bible-based, Gospel-driven church, strong on evangelism and discipleship, with a particular focus on families.

For more information email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Click here to download this position description as a pdf in the event that you know someone you’d like to pass it on to.

All God’s blessings,

Ed.