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At the recent Acts 29 AMBITION conference at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY, I had the opportunity to sit down with Matt Chandler and talk about a number of topics.

In part two of our conversation, we discuss celebrity, diversity, burnout and the “one thing” he would tell church planters. As you would expect, Chandler does not disappoint.

Listen, learn, and link, tweet, facebook, blog…whatever. Help us get this great content out there to as many folks as we can. Don’t forget, there are 15+ more great interviews with church planters and movement leaders coming soon, including Dave Harvey, Ed Stetzer, and Darrin Patrick. I am humbled to have been entrusted with this amazing content.

Click here to watch Part 1 of this interview.

For more from Dustin Neeley, check out his ministry Church Planting for the Rest of Us.

Re:Train

We are launching The Resurgence Training Center (Re:Train) to prepare leaders for ministry locally and around the world. Additional details and downloadable application form here.

How NOT To Be a Missional Church series: Click | View Series

The missional church movement has been good and bad. On a positive note, let’s focus on the bad. I want to suggest three ways to not be a missional church. In continuation of the series, this post examines some of the defects of social action-driven mission.

Social Action-Driven Mission

This approach probably creates the best community of the three mentioned in this series. A socially-minded and active church attracts socially-minded non-Christians. When my City Group recently cleaned five apartments from top to bottom for some homeless women and children, we all got a little closer. There’s something about being on a common mission—the sweat, the jokes, the empathy, and the memory–that unites folks. Creating a missional memory strengthens community and mission. It also raises questions with non-Christians you serve. But is social action enough?

1. Social action-driven mission isn’t unique to the church.

There are plenty of non-Christians engaged in social mission—serving the poor, the needy, the abused, and the homeless. They don’t need a church to engage in social mission. There are thousands of non-profits that can do this. What sets the church apart? If we are banking on social mission to be the unique contribution of the church, we’ll lose the game, and more importantly, the souls.

2. Social action doesn’t create new community.

Although social action mission creates community, it doesn’t create new community. Regenerated, new creation is the unique work of God the Spirit (Tit. 2.11; Gal. 6:15) through faith in the Son (Tit. 3:6-7; 2 Cor. 5:17). If we convert people to community and social mission alone, and not to Christ, we offer a very incomplete gospel. Regeneration is both social (Matt. 19:28) and spiritual (Tit. 3:5). The Spirit, not social mission, makes men new.

3. Social mission can lead to liberal church.

When we reduce mission to social action, we run the danger of becoming a socially-minded liberal church that neglects large stretches of the Bible requiring repentance and faith in Jesus. When missional communities focus on social mission alone, they disregard their evangelistic identity, gifting, and responsibility as the church of Jesus Christ, the Jesus who died and rose to make all things new—people and products, souls and society.

This series has attempted to identify some of the shortcomings in expressions of missional church. When mission is driven by events or evangelism, or social action, we engage in incomplete mission. When we engage in incomplete mission, we offer an incomplete gospel to our neighbors, towns, cities, and world. In a future series, I will take a more positive tack by exploring three areas that promote being a missional church.

This series is based on Jonathan Dodson’s talks at the LEAD ’09 conference.

Re:Train

We are launching The Resurgence Training Center (Re:Train) to prepare leaders for ministry locally and around the world. Additional details and downloadable application form here.

At the recent AMBITION conference in Louisville, I had the opportunity to sit down with Matt Chandler and talk about a number of topics. In part one of our conversation, we discuss success in church planting, preaching, and leadership. As you would expect, Chandler does not disappoint. Listen, learn, and link, tweet, facebook, blog…whatever. Help us get this great content out there to as many folks as we can. There's more coming from this interview, so stay tuned.

In addition to pastoring Crossing Church and writing for the Resurgence, Dustin is also the founder of "Church Planting for the Rest of Us," a ministry aimed at encouraging and equipping small and medium-sized church planters and pastors. For more information, please visit www.cp4us.org.

Resurgence Literature

Re:Lit is a ministry of Resurgence. There you will find a growing line of books to help guide the resurgence of the new reformed. Find out more.

5 Hard Truths for Planters series: Click | View Series

Emergency Room

Christmas Day of 2006 I received an odd present—I went to the emergency room.

My sweet wife sat quietly and pensively in the corner, while my two kids crawled around on the ER floor. Doctors and nurses poked me like a pin-cushion while they performed a battery of bloodwork and tests. They thought it was my gall bladder in revolt. The pain continued for days.

A week later I was sent to get an ultrasound. This made me feel more like a pregnant woman than the bullet-proof church planter I thought I was.

When the dust settled, the ailment was not my gall bladder. It was stress.

Stress Kills

Stress kills many marriages, ministries, and the men who lead them; and it was on its way to killing me. And if you don't kill it, it will eventually kill you. WebMD says that 75–90 percent of all doctor's office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints. Deadly stress is an all-too-real reality for the typical church planter.

4 Steps to Kill Your Stress

Kill your stress before it kills you. Here are four ways:

1. Live your Bible.

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble" (Matthew 6:33-34).

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7).

"Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases" (Psalm 115:3).

We believe these Scriptures. We teach these Scriptures. But do we live these Scriptures? The reality is that most of us don't.

In seasons of stress, meditate specifically on passages that remind you of the truth and not your perceived reality. Look for the sins behind the sin for why you can't relax—sins like control, unbelief, or your worth rooted in your identity as a church planter. As you see the discrepancy between what you believe and how you live, confess, repent and pray for God's help.

Make it your goal to live the goodness of the gospel and not just believe it.

2. Listen to your body.

You know that burning in your chest at the top of your stomach? That's not supposed to be there! That, and other symptoms, are the “God-installed” ways your body has of telling you to slow down and trust him. Listen to your body’s signs, and let them be a reminder to trust him with your life, family, and church. You don't want somebody else raising your kids. If your body is telling you to slow down, do it.

3. Listen to your wife and kids.

If you are married, your spouse is likely your best ally in your ongoing battle with stress. Chances are, she and the kids (if you have them), are going to be who God uses to make you laugh, go to bed, and take a day off. Don't ignore them! If she thinks you are stressed, you probably are, even if you don't. If your kids make comments about why daddy is so tired or mad, listen to them and make changes.

4. Learn your limits.

Pastor Wayne Cordeiro has a great principle called "The Plate." Every leader has a certain-sized plate based on their skills, gifts, life season, health, etc. Not all our plates are the same size, and that is the way God designed it. Trust that God made you who you are to do what you can do and leave it at that. Realize that a lot of your stress comes from the fact that you have a salad plate stacked with a buffet plate's amount of food. Repent. Resize. Repeat.

To be continued.

Re:Sound

The musical arm of the Resurgence offers music that is theologically unified, stylistically diverse, and musically excellent. Find out more.

In case you missed it, here's all the audio from the 2009 London Boot Camp. Speakers included Steve Timmis, Scott Thomas, Jeff Vanderstelt, and David Fairchild.

Q&A with Steve Timmis – Steve Timmis

Acts 29 Church Planting – Scott Thomas

Being a Church That Plants Churches – Jeff Vanderstelt

How To Plant a Church (Part 1) – Steve Timmis

How To Plant a Church (Part 2) – Steve Timmis

Keeping a Gospel Heart – David Fairchild

Being a Leader Who Grows Leaders – Jeff Vanderstelt

Keeping a Gospel Church – David Fairchild

The Acts 29 Network exists to start churches that plant churches. Listen to the Mission & Vision of Acts 29 by co-founder and president Mark Driscoll.

Death By Love

Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears tackle some of the most serious redemptive aspects of Jesus' work in these twelve letters of counsel to individuals. Find out more.