Resources in this category support a church planter's walk with God.
Jon Kelly
In an age where sermons can be downloaded, clipped, shared, and forgotten within hours, it is easy for pastors and church planters to think that our primary influence comes through our preaching. Preaching certainly matters. Faith comes by hearing the...
Will Basham
Most Americans don’t just work; we tend to derive identity from our work. Secular research confirms what many of us already feel: our careers don’t simply provide income; they shape our sense of self. It’s no surprise that this is the case when we live in a...
Noah Oldham
I’ll never forget the day my sending church pastor walked into my office with an email in his hand. He said, “We got your score back from the church planting assessment— specifically your entrepreneurial score. It came back a 38.”...
Ronnie Martin
The first of the year equals desperate times for people in the Midwest. All of the whimsical, Christmas snow that fell so delicately a month before has now turned into piles of icy despair sprinkling the landscape. A 50-degree day...
Adam Muhtaseb
Have you ever been truly discouraged? Not mildly frustrated. Not just worn out after a long week. But the kind of discouragement that makes you quietly wonder, “Can I actually keep going?” Several years into planting in Baltimore, I hit that wall. ...
J.A. Medders
Leadership is influence toward a goal. This simple definition applies to NFL teams chasing the Super Bowl, businesses seeking to increase sales, and church planters and church-planting teams. Planter, you are a spiritual leader. Spiritual leadership is influence toward the biblical...
I wake up every morning and generally have no idea what I’m doing on any given day. I’m not referring to my general cluelessness about life (although that does exist more often than I’d like to admit). I’m referring to the busyness that seems to captivate many of my days. And, particularly...
In Season and Out of Season Leadership—especially pastoral leadership and church planting—is both a sacred privilege and a profound weight. It invites you into moments of breathtaking joy and gut-wrenching sorrow, often in the same week, sometimes in the same conversation. It...
The phrase “feeling stuck” likely elicits a visceral reaction. It recalls a moment in the past or a feeling in the present when you feel stifled, pressed in, unable to progress, or held back from moving forward. It could be...
Church planters often look at King Saul as the prototype of failure—an anxious, self-protective leader whose insecurity and disobedience eventually led to God removing his kingdom (and ending his life). That reading is true. Saul is a warning sign on...
Barnabas Piper
How many times have you been asked some version of the question, “So, what do you do between Sundays?” The impression many people have is that pastors roll into church on Sundays, preach a sermon, pray with some folks, and...
Heather Oldham
Church planting exposes a lot about us and about our kids. The expectations feel heavy, the spotlight can feel invasive, and the constant sense of being watched can make the normal messiness of parenting feel like public commentary on your...
If you’re like me (or … nothing at all like me), you have still probably seen a gazillion film or stage adaptations of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. One of the beautiful features of Dickens’ story is that it...
“Even Jesus flipped tables.” If you, like me, have ever uttered these words in defense of your own anger (or heard someone do so), then I am writing to you. The story of Jesus driving out the money changers from...
Dan Steel
And, dressed in sneakers, when he saw the crowds, he entered the rented auditorium and stood up. His core team came to him, he switched on the projectors, and he began to teach them. Blessed are the self-sufficient, for they...
When Paul planted the church in Philippi, he didn’t just preach a sermon—he modeled what it means to live as a disciple of Jesus in a new community. For church planters and their teams, Acts 16 provides a blueprint for...
We talked about it for years. We longingly gazed at stories on Instagram. Every summer, we would say, “We just need to do it.” And then finally, this year, we did. We booked a fall road trip through New...
You cannot plant a church alone. I want to free you from the tyranny of any hero-mentality established in your heart, journals, or whiteboards. Brothers, messiahs are no longer needed. The church has one, and He is doing great. When...
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