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.

Church leadership is complicated. It must start with deference to Jesus as the Chief Shepherd and ultimate head of the body (Eph 5:23). He’s in charge, and we need to submit our plans and leadership to him.

Human Leadership: Elders

In addition, the Holy Spirit appoints human overseers who must follow Jesus’ leading (Acts 20:28). The highest office of leadership in a church is that of elder (1 Tim 3:1–7).

The elders must fulfill a wide range of responsibilities and address a variety of issues which grow in complexity as a church grows in size. The law of the land, for example, is extraordinarily complicated for large churches, and the elders must ensure that operations remain in compliance (2 Cor 8:20–21).

A Trinity of Complexity

The complexity must be dealt with in order to ensure a healthy and fruitful church. Therefore, the elders must organize in order to properly govern, manage, and shepherd the church as an organization and as a people. Every church needs these three functions to develop in concert:

• Govern: An overseeing body must ensure that proper systems and controls are in place to promote wise stewardship of all the resources entrusted to the organization’s care. Resources include the mission, leaders, finances, and people.
• Manage: Delegated leadership is responsible for day-to-day decision-making and operations oversight.
• Shepherd: Pastoral care includes preaching, teaching, counseling, and discipling the people of the church.

Case in Point

Here is how this plays out at Mars Hill: our Board of Directors is responsible for the governance of the church; our executive elders, department heads, and campus pastors are responsible for the management of different components of the church; and our shepherding is led by the campus pastors and their elder teams.

Specialized

As a church organization grows, leaders become more and more specialized. Each elder at Mars Hill has a general obligation to govern, manage, and shepherd, but typically specializes in one of these three areas (Rom 12:4).

Our aim as church leaders is to build an organization under the authority of Jesus and his Word, governed diligently, managed faithfully, and shepherded with great care for its people.

Jamie Munson is Lead Pastor of Mars Hill Church. Find him on Twitter and Facebook:

• twitter.com/jamiemunson
• facebook.com/jamiemunson

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.

If you’re a church planter, chances are you’re wasting money.

The Sales Pitch

Let’s be honest: this is America, home of free-market capitalism. There is money to be made from church planters. And so a whole church-planting industry is ready to tell you that if you’re going to do it right, you probably need:

• a club-ready sound-and-light system
• a few Macs with top-of-the-line video editing software (might as well throw in an iPhone so you can Twitter your sermon prep)
• a top-end website with content management
• a children’s ministry setup that rivals a corporate daycare
• a trade-show-style display booth for all your visitors’ information
• industrial signage for both the inside and the outside of your venue
• a custom trailer to haul it all in

Most new church planters fall for this sales pitch like Tony Romo in the playoffs.

Don’t Believe the Hype

But in case you haven’t yet spent $100k on your “startup costs,” let me suggest that you hit the brakes and consider a crucial point: That’s GOD’S money that you’re spending. You’re going to stand before Jesus and answer for every dime. When many church planters in Africa don’t even own a Bible dictionary, do you really want to argue that the lighting rack was a “must-have?”

Don’t believe the hype. You can plant a missional church with next to nothing. We forked out only $19,000 in startup costs and got everything we needed. Sound system? We bought the most basic thing that would get the job done. Children’s ministry? We asked for donations from Christians and other churches in our city and got almost everything for free. Website? We bought a template for $50, tweaked it a little to make it our own, and hosted it with a local provider for a fraction of the cost of the turn-key church-planting web solutions. Computer and projector? We worked through the IT director at a local university who included our order in his volume purchase and passed the discount along to us.

Don’t Be a Statistic

You know the stats: 80% of church plants fail. Of course I hope your church isn’t one of them. But in your budgeting decisions, you should act as though it could be. If you had to shut things down, would you feel okay about how you’d spent the Lord’s money? Would any of your donors have reason to question your expenses as frivolous? Can you stand eye-to-eye with the family in your church who’s struggling financially and tell them with integrity that you’re spending only what’s necessary?

Don’t Take the Bait

A few months ago a church planter I know had to close up shop. As I scrolled through his fire-sale ad on Craigslist, I couldn’t help but wonder: did he really need all this stuff? If he had allocated funds differently, could he have stayed in the game a little longer and reached a place of viability? It’s not my place to question his decisions; “before his own master he stands or falls” (Romans 14:4). But I’m concerned that lots of young, starry-eyed church planters are easy prey for the salesmen of church-plant capitalism.

You don’t have to be. Stand firm, church planter, and don’t take the bait. We’re 4 years in, and I just now ordered business cards. Letterhead? Maybe next year.

Pastor Dad

Every dad is a pastor. The important thing is that he cares for his flock well. Pastor Mark Driscoll's new eBook offers spiritual insights on fatherhood. Get it here.

International Church Planting Series: Click | View Series

Planting Churches Fulfills the Great Commission

In Acts, God's means of changing the world is through the planting of churches. It is no coincidence that right after God gave his apostles the Great Commission in Acts 1:8, the first thing he did was to plant a church (Acts 2:42-47). The church was to be the operational means of fulfilling the Great Commission.

When a local church was placed in a community, the gospel would be preached from house to house and in the streets, and the generosity, joy, and worship of a local body of believers caused "great fear and awe" to be on everyone, favor to be had with the community, and God to "add to the number daily those that were being saved." Thus, everywhere the apostles went, they planted churches. They didn't simply do preaching, miracle crusades, or community ministry. They planted churches that would do preaching, perform miracles, and serve the community. As Tim Keller said, the apostles' strategy was very simple: go to the most strategic cities in the world and plant churches. The church is the one institution of the New Testament.

To the Ends of the Earth

What we sometimes overlook is that the scope of God's commission, from the beginning, was to "the ends of the earth." When God sent the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, the apostles spoke in tongues of every language, a clear sign that the gospel should go to every people of every nation on earth. This gospel was not to be centralized in one city or one culture. God would be glorified by his gospel taking root in every culture.

However in Acts 2-7, despite God's clear command and signs to go to all the nations, the apostles do not budge from Jerusalem. So in Acts 8:1, God sent persecution on the church, and believers scattered throughout the region. The parallel language of Acts 1:8 and 8:1 is not coincidental. If the apostles weren't going to obey God's commission to go to the world, God would make them. In a truly bizarre move, God even beams one of the apostles, Star Trek style, into a place where he can engage a foreigner with the gospel.

On one hand it is refreshing to me that the apostles were not too dissimilar to us, preferring to stay in their own city and culture, and to build a megachurch there. On the other hand, it is a little alarming that God is so determined for his people to plant churches internationally that he will bust them up if he has to and beam a few of them overseas if they won't obey. While the beaming sounds kind of cool, the busting up does not. So we have decided, from the beginning, to plant churches internationally.

To be continued

Pastor Mark:

Get the latest content from Mark Driscoll, the
preaching pastor at Mars Hill Church. See More.

Part of the Pitfalls in Church Planting series.
Continued from Pitfalls in Church Planting: No Accountability.

Most church planters have grossly underestimated the importance of a permanent building. Churches used to be able to plant in a school and spend the first few years growing to a size of 400-500 before they even attempted to build anything or move into a building. Well, times are much different. In most cities you can no longer rent high school auditoriums, so the only spaces available are elementary or junior high school cafeterias. This space only holds around 100-150 people and provides little to no space for children.

Get an Intermediate Location

Instead of planning on growing your church to 400-500 and then building, church planters must find an intermediate location as they get to that goal. This could be 6000-7000 square feet of office space or storefront that used to be retail. You don't have to own it or build it, but you need to get serious about finding a location where people can come to you and know you'll be there every week.

Most churches double in size the weekend they move from being mobile to a more permanent building. People are also less prone to give faithfully to a church that's mobile. They don't know if it will be there in two months, so why sacrifice? But with a permanent location, you have much more credibility with attendees and the city you are trying to reach.

To be continued.

Resurgence on Facebook:

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We recently finished a 4-part blog series of practical advice for church and ministry leaders on how to deal with an economic downturn. "The big idea is how to keep morale up when money is down so that gospel momentum can be maintained. Just because money is down does not mean that our vision should be down. People need Jesus, and many need practical help from Jesus’ people."

Navigating the Series:

View Series: Money, Morale, and Momentum series page

Part 1: Some Scriptures to Guide Financial Decision-Making

Part 2: 3 Principles to Guide Financial Decision-Making

Part 3: 5 More Principles to Guide Financial Decision-Making

Part 4: 9 Ways to Keep Morale and Momentum Up During Tough Times

Pastor Mark:

Get the latest content from Mark Driscoll, the
preaching pastor at Mars Hill Church. See More.

Part of the Pitfalls in Church Planting series.

Continued from Pitfalls in Church Planting: Leadership, Part 2.

Many church planters have professional ADD. Every time you talk with a church planter he has a new idea, new program, and maybe a new calling. Church planters need to be focused.

Design a Game Plan

Football coaches have a game plan for every game. They start the game with the first 30 plays scripted because they know when they walk out of that tunnel, 90,000 people will be screaming at them to do something different. The script helps them stay focused on what they know will work. It keeps them from overreacting and allowing the fans to dictate the team.

Pastors should have a little of this coaching mentality: design a game plan and stay focused. Before you begin getting emails demanding certain programs, and before you start getting phone calls about changing the worship style, come up with a game plan. Make those decisions before you walk into the stadium. If you don’t, you will allow the spiritually immature to dictate what the spiritually mature should do, and the church will suffer greatly.

Stay Focused

Many planters also get caught up in building their influence instead of building their church. So they blog more than they study, they travel more than they should, and their church suffers. Stay focused on the task God has called you to, and build your church, not your influence. Don’t blog in the first years unless it has missional value. Don’t travel in the first few years unless it has missional value. Early on, you cannot afford to spread yourself too thin.

To be continued.

Trial Study Guide:

Get the companion study guide to Pastor Mark's latest sermon series in downloadable PDF form. Find out more.

1. Traffic Cops. These individuals are well meaning dragons that come to church not to serve, but to control the serving. You're certain one day they will show up with white gloves and a whistle so they can direct traffic.
2. Seismologists. These are walking Richter scales, gifted in the art of fault finding. If they don't feel a quake, they'll shake the room.
3. Umpires. These individuals enjoy calling the shots. They expect hustle from the team while they watch with a critical eye. Usually umpires have no interest in dialogue once they have made their call. Issues are black and white, and truth is as true as they see it.
4. Taxidermists. These individuals enjoy taking dead controversies and issues and stuffing them with artificial importance to make them appear lifelike. Instead of letting things die, the taxidermist will attempt to preserve a matter as long as possible.
5. Stenographers. These individuals are often friends with seismologists and taxidermists. They are very perceptive and record every discussion in earshot for the purpose of reproducing their notes without the expressed written consent of the one giving their testimony.
6. Town Criers. These individuals take it upon themselves to make announcements or proclamations either by speaking loudly in public places or simply shouting in the streets. Town Criers are often very committed to the church and assume their role is irreplaceable. Who would know anything without them?
7. Morticians. Morticians are often friends with taxidermists. These individuals thoroughly enjoy dressing up corpses. They revere pastors who served before you and subtly communicate that you'll never be as attractive until your dead and under their care. Morticians attempt to hide decay and death behind a façade of rosy-cheeked make up.
8. Curators. Curators are guardians and superintendents of minor religious artifacts. They spend their entire life dusting and polishing insignificant secondary doctrinal issues and can not understand for the life of them why others don't have the same passion. Curators prefer time alone with their rapture theories or theonomic plans to rule the world. Please be advised, curators are often socially awkward and may resort to theological turrets and blurt obscure passages of scripture while using multi-syllabic words that end in "ism," "logy" or "ist."
9. Astronomers. These individuals often find themselves gazing at far off issues that don't seem to have much relevance at the moment. Astronomers are usually more concerned with what might happen at another church while forgetting their call to serve the one they attend. So interested in otherworldly matters, they often have difficulty connecting to people on their own planet.
10. Synchronized Swimming Coaches. These individuals were left last because their event is often given the 3 am time slot for the Olympics. Next to the wildly popular Canadian sport of curling, this may be the most unimportant activity in the history of mankind. However, these coaches are confident that their particular ministry has just not received the right support, but if they did, the entire globe would be changed by the mere sight of their pinched-nosed water ballet. SSC's are constantly on the lookout for ministries that are completely irrelevant to the vision and mission of the church. SSC's politicize their case persistently until someone gives them their much needed attention. Shortly after they make repeated attempts to convert every other ministry and absorb all additional resources to their pet cause. If their ministry fails to deliver the global impact it promised, blame is immediately assigned to the church leaders and administrator for not granting a larger line-item on the budget.

The cruciality of community
On the night before his death (John 13ff), Jesus said that the purpose of his death was to form a new community. His disciples were to become a new humanity which was to be a 'demonstration plot' of the kingdom of God. In their relationships to one another, and in the way they related together to the rest of the world, they were to be a sign that Jesus is the Lord who is going to redeem all of creation. Christian community is a comprehensive and distinct way to be human in deep relationship with others who have been transformed by the gospel.

Every church plant has a lead guy.

And, in planting a church the lead guy quickly finds himself doing too many things, most of which he is not skilled at and generally makes a mess of. So, it is imperative for the planter to develop leaders before he pursues masses of people. The selection of an inner circle of trusted leaders and emerging leaders help to ensure that the church does not continually bottleneck at the leader and thereby slow or retard progress of the church and cripple the overworked leader.