What does art have to do with church planting? In Chicago, Epic Church has created a unique community outreach ministry called Art Space. Find out how they use art as a means to connect with their secular community and connect their community with their church. This story will inspire you to think outside the box in your ministry context.
Church Planters BootCamp East - March 2 - 5, 2023
Register for our VIII North American Division Church Planters BootCamp East to take place from March 2-5, 2023 in Camp Kulaqua, Florida, on February 1, 2023.
The three-day experience has been designed and created exclusively for Church Planters, Pastors, Volunteer Lay Pastors, Church Planting Core and Launch Teams, and Conference and Union Leaders currently involved in church planting or planning to plant between now and 2024.
The benefits of attending include practical teaching on how to plant a church, from some of our best church planters in North America, networking opportunities, experiential learning with other practitioners who are traveling the same journey, and in-depth, direct information on funding for church planting in North America.
FOUR TRACKS OFFERED
English
Basic Track: for first-time participants
Advanced Track: for those who already attended the Church Planters BootCamp
Spanish
Location: Camp Kulaqua, 23400 NW 212th Ave, High Springs, FL 32643
*Gainesville Regional Airport (GNV) is the closest major airport to Camp Kulaqua, Florida. About 36-40 minutes
Registration includes lodging (2-3 persons per room), 8 meals, and programming.
Early Registration by 15, 2023: $109.00
Regular Registration by March 1, 2023: $129.00
On-Site: $169.00
Click below to register:
Registering as a FAMILY - For information & to register: Click here (Family attendee registration)
Registering as an INDIVIDUAL - For information & to register: Click here (Single attendee registration)
Please remember, ALL attendees must be registered.
PROGRAM:
The BootCamp will begin on Thursday, March 2, 2023, with a meal at 6:00 PM PT. It will end on Sunday, March 5, 2023, with breakfast at 8:00 AM.
The entire program will be posted on nadmultiply.org
eHuddle – February 13-15, 2023
Pastors, Volunteer Lay Pastors, and Elders Invited to Participate in ehuddle via Livestream:
Are you and your church looking for best practices stories on how to love and serve your community,
how to facilitate the decisions of people to be baptize and equip them as disciples of Jesus, how to
plant new and thriving congregations, and how to revitalize churches that are plateauing or declining?
Look no further! The 2023 ehuddle is here, filled with stories and presentations that will inspire, equip,
and bless your ministry, and the ministry of your local church, as we try to fulfill our mission together.
Tune in the North American Division Facebook Page and YouTube channel to participate virtually of
this gathering. Feel free to invite other pastors, volunteer lay pastors, church elders, and members of
your church to watch and participate online.
ehuddle 2023 Livestream Hours
Monday, February 13
8:30 AM PT - 12:30 PM PT / 11:30 AM ET - 3:30 PM ET
2:00 PM PT - 5:00 PM PT / 5:00 PM ET - 8:00 PM ET
Tuesday, February 14
8:30 AM PT - 12:30 PM PT / 11:30 AM ET - 3:30 PM ET
2:00 PM PT - 5:00 PM PT / 5:00 PM ET - 8:00 PM ET
Tuesday, February 15
8:30 AM PT - 11:30 AM PT / 11:30 AM ET - 2:30 PM ET
For more information and to watch previous ehuddles go to: ehuddle
No yo sino la misión, por Paula Olivier
Hacer un llamado hace que muchos pastores se pongan ansiosos. Tal vez la introducción del sermón este bien y el texto bíblico sea interesante. Quizás las personas estén disfrutando la experiencia, pero luego quieres continuar con la parte final del sermón y sabes que tienes que hacer una apelación. De repente, el salón se vuelve bien pequeño, las personas en la plataforma se vuelven tan borrosas como el trasfondo, y todos están mirando para ver si fallas o tienes éxito. ¿Alguna vez te has sentido así? En este video de eHuddle 2022, Paula Olivier habla sobre las apelaciones y de la trampa cuando tu identidad está basada en la percepción de las personas sobre el éxito o el fracaso de las mismas. Mira el video aquí.
Paula Olivier es la directora de jóvenes de la Asociación del Noreste de Iglesias Adventistas del Séptimo Día.
God’s Loving Appeal to the Human Race by Nemaia Faletogo
In this video, Nemaia Faletogo shares the art of making appeals and gaining decisions for Jesus. Faletogo says that the Bible is nothing more than God's loving appeal to the human race, trying to draw us to salvation. He says there are many ways we can make an appeal, but it should always begin with the preacher having a deep connection with the Holy Spirit.
Nemaia Faletogo is the Evangelism Associate Director at Washington Conference of SDA
Not Me but the Mission by Paula Olivier
Making appeals makes lots of pastors anxious. Maybe the sermon's introduction goes well, and the bible text is engaging. Maybe people are enjoying the experience. But then you want to roll with the end of the sermon, and you know you have to make an appeal. Suddenly, the room becomes really small, the people on the platform fade into the background, and everybody is watching to see if you will fail or succeed. Have you ever felt that way? In this video from the eHuddle 2022, Paula Olivier talks about appeals and the trap of getting your identity from people's perceptions of success or failure when making appeals. Watch the video here.
Paula Olivier is the Youth Director at Northeastern Conference of Seventh-Day Adventist
Change Your Church Culture with These Baby Steps by Jacob Serns
In this presentation, Jacob Serns shares a few things he has learned and that he has done to help shift churches to an evangelism culture. He talks about five baby steps to enable change. These steps do not require a lot of financial resources or a large church, but they will be specifically helpful in any situation and any church.
Jacob Serns is the Pastor of Benbrook SDA Church
Six Actions of Evangelism by Jose Cortes Jr.
In this video from the eHuddle 2022, Jose Cortes Jr. presents the North American Division's definition of evangelism: Reach, Reclaim, and Retain the people of North America with Jesus' Mission and Message of Compassion, Hope, and Wholeness. He also talks about the Six Actions of Evangelism for the Adventist Church in North America - love, serve, baptize, equip, plant, and revitalize. The Definition and Six Actions of Evangelism were created by the North American Division Ministerial Association in collaboration with thousands of pastors, members, and church leaders across North America. Watch the video here.
Church-Plants & Former Members by Tony Liriano
In this video, the volunteer lay pastor Tony Liriano talks about his passion for evangelism and rescuing souls through his church plant in Garfield, New Jersey. Liriano shares the House of Mercy Church's structure and strategies and how his own son was reconnected, reclaimed, and baptized through its ministry. Watch the video here.
Tony Liriano is a Volunteer Lay Pastor of House of Mercy in New Jersey.
Reconnecting & Reclaiming Former Members by Joanne Cortes
In this video from the Pastor Evangelists Boot Camp series, Joanne Cortes shares four important ways her church in Washington DC reconnects and reclaims former members. The process is simple, based on vunerability and love, and it has proven to work: 1) Love them, 2) Identify them, 3) Follow up with them, and 4) Engage them. To watch the full video, click here.
Joanne Cortes is the DC Campus Pastor in Washington DC.
Why Multiply?
By Jose Cortes Jr.
It was a challenging time for the church. There was persecution. James, the leader of the church, was killed. Peter, the evangelist, was put in prison and miraculously delivered. According to the accounts of Acts, there was economic hardship and racial tensions, thus setting aside the deacons to take care of the gentile widows, who felt they were not receiving the same attention as the others. It was a difficult time for the early church, yet there is this verse:
"But the word of God grew and multiplied…"
It is a challenging time for the church. We are still in a pandemic, and people are still dying of COVID. Some are suffering from economic hardship. The political divide across the nations that form the North American Division is clear, masks or no masks, vaccines or no vaccines, political affiliations have never been more polarizing and entrenched. Racial tensions are prevalent in the reels of very graphic and public incidents. Yet there is still this verse:
"But the word of God grew and multiplied…"
What if…what happened with them could happen with us? What if… God intended to bless our North American church the same way He blessed the early church, despite the difficulties and challenges? What if… we, as a church, believed that the same Holy Spirit power present at the church's birth is still available today? Could God do through us what He did through them?
With the assurance that the same God is still at work and that the power of the Holy Spirit, available then, is still available today, our church across North America is collectively praying and envisioning a season of growth and multiplication. For sure, if God did it with them, He can do it with us.
Perhaps you are asking the question, Why Multiply?
1.People need to accept Jesus and be baptized
Individuals, families, neighbors, coworkers, and classmates all around us need Jesus. They want to accept Him as Savior and Lord, and they want to be baptized. The book of Acts records the baptism of one, and it also records the baptism of thousands. Each time someone or thousands got baptized, it meant lives were being changed, hope was being received, and salvation had arrived in the lives of those being baptized. People in North America still need salvation, hope, and lives changed today, and we as the church have been given the responsibility to deliver those to the people around us.
2. People need to be equipped
Jesus' great commission did not end at baptism. He mentioned and modeled the need for further equipping and releasing after baptism. He said:
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
-Matthew 28:19-20 (NIV)
A clear indication to stay with our spiritual babies air their spiritual birth. Perhaps one of the several reasons why we lose about forty people of every one hundred who get baptized in our churches is because we don't stay with them after their birth. That is not OK. Babies need to be born in the kingdom. When babies are born, they are messy, they need help, they need someone to hold them, feed them, teach them, and help them grow, so they can become mature, reproducing, and multiplying disciples, like we are.
The discipleship journey is not only for the newly baptized but for those of us who have been around the kingdom for ages now. Those of us who feel that perhaps because we know our belief and attend church, whether physically or virtually, we are disciples. Discipleship goes beyond head knowledge, gatherings, and nurturing. A disciple is not someone who attends workshops and seminars and has all this head knowledge. A disciple is someone who loves people and makes other disciples.
For the word of God to multiply, the gospel must be passed on from a disciple to someone else, who will be born, and equipped as a disciple. And that miraculous process must be repeated.
3.People need access to Jesus in their communities
This is a call for church planting. There are people in North America who do not have access to Jesus through one of our churches. Planting new churches positions our church best to reach people we have not reached before.
Most established churches don't grow, but those that do grow gain the majority of their new members by transfers from other congregations. On the other hand, new churches generally baptize at a higher percentage than older churches and gain sixty to eighty percent of their new members from people who are not attending any church.
Although it is hard to swallow, older Adventist churches have a tough time reaching millennials, Generation Z, single mothers, who together with their household have become one of the largest people groups in North America. Older Adventist churches also struggle to reach the LGBTQ+ community and emerging immigrant groups. Planting new churches with a different DNA can help reach people that our established churches are not presently reaching.
Jesus did not preach an exclusive gospel. He founded an inclusive church. If our church can only reach people who think like us, dress like us, eat like us, smell like us, and worship like us, we will never be able to reach those who are different. Jesus came to save them too. We need to be more like Jesus.
Let's not plant one more church for us. Let's plant churches for them. Who is them? Those who are not here yet: our children, single moms, those who have been rejected, the ones we have not been reaching.
The fact that we have a church today means that someone planted a church yesterday. We need to plant a church today if we want our children and future generations to have a church tomorrow.
4. Thousands of Adventist churches in North America are plateauing and declining
If we observe the life cycle of churches, we may notice that, like humans, churches have a life span of about eighty-one hundred years. Unless they are revitalized, each church will eventually plateau and decline. That is the reality among the sixty-eighty percent of churches across North America that are either plateauing or declining. Although some may have come to a point in which revitalization may be difficult, we have hope and believe that a great majority of our churches in North America can become growing and multiplying churches.
This is the reason why, during this season of Multiply, our church in North America has committed multiple resources in the form of research, health measuring tools, finances, and equipping, to highlight the importance of seeing our mother and grandmother churches' health improved.
Launch of Multiply website
To support you in the Multiply journey, we are happy to announce the launch of our Multiply website, as well as the transition of this newsletter from Best Practices of Evangelism to Multiply. Our objective is to provide weekly practical resources to you, as a pastor and church leader in all things Multiply and all things Evangelism. Feel free to refer others, give us your feedback, and request the resources you need. We will do our best to fulfill your requests.
We live in very difficult times, yet there is his verse:
"But the word of God grew and multiplied…"
May the same thing that was said about the early church, be said about us. "It was hard, it was difficult, 'but the word of God grew and multiply…”
Pastor Jose Cortes Jr., is an Associate Director of the Ministerial Association and leads Evangelism, Church Planting, Church Revitalization, Mission to the Cities, Adventist/Global Mission, and Volunteer Lay Pastors for the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists.
Starting Your Congregation Strong
When planting a church, it is important to start with a strong foundation. Edwin Vargas explores what it takes to do this. When we ground our church in a prayerful connection with God, strong leadership, and a direct vision, we can lead the church in the path that God has planned for it. When our churches are built on a passion for reaching the lost, God can use these traits to grow this passion. Does your church have a strong foundation?
Church Planting Missionaries: Church Planting is the Best Tool
We stood before the assessment group with fear on our faces and trepidation in our voices. After three grueling days of being under the microscope to see if we would be given the green light to church plant, the assessors asked the question that might sink our chances, “Why do you feel you are called to be a church planter?”
Have you ever been at a crossroad where the truth may pull you farther from your goals, but giving the answer you know they wanted would help your cause? That is where I found myself at that moment. My amazing wife, Melissa, was nervous the entire church planter’s assessment process. It is hard on spouses because they feared doing anything that would negatively affect the person they loved. Dashing your own dreams is often less painful than hurting the dreams of the person you love. But now this question made me equally apprehensive. But finally I said the truth, “I don’t feel called to be a church planter.”
The expected surprised looks filled the room. After the momentary shock eased, I was asked, “Then why are you here?”
“I don’t feel called to be a church planter,” I repeated. “I feel called to be a missionary. And the reason I’m here is because I believe church planting is the best tool to reach the mission field.”
A few years prior I had seriously contemplated entering the mission fields of Nepal, Israel or Albania. When talking to mission directors a common theme arose; successful missionaries trained locals to reach their community. Locals were far more effective at building the work. Then it seemed God reminded me I am a local in a tremendously large mission field.
Fortunately, assessors recommended us as church planters. God has blessed us with founding 6 new churches during my 19 years of ministry. I can also share that I still believe that church planting is the most effective tool to reach the mission field of North America.
I will not bore you with the dozens of studies that affirm the same idea. But to summarize new churches grow three to five times faster than established churches and reach far more unchurched people in their communities. This is not a knock on established churches, but they rarely match the growth rate of new churches. These statistics are true in all cultures and languages.
From my experience I will share five reasons why new churches have this kind of growth and impact.
1. Membership involvement. When a new church starts it takes every single person from the usually small starting team working hard together to find enough people to start the church. These team members would rarely be offered in an established church the varied ministry experiences, leadership roles and responsibilities they will need to take on for the plant to thrive. I believe Adventist church members are amazing. We too often believe members will not accept being challenged to do God-sized ministry. In a church plant everyone knows survival of the new church requires this kind of commitment.
2. Growth focus. It is easy to get wrapped up in the needs of the members and the upkeep of a church building. Church plants are ministry streamlined and focused on finding new people to join the budding congregation. Honestly, there are some church plants that fail and this is usually where they lose the battle.
3. Community impact. All churches were once church plants. When they started they were most likely built in a way that helped attract their community. Being solid on God’s message while being culturally relevant is exactly what we see modeled in the Gospels and the Book of Acts. However, many churches build ministries and systems that become sacred traditions, even when they no longer serve their surrounding communities. Church plants, when built correctly, focus on ministries that will reach their neighbors in a way that is life changing, compelling and relevant.
4. The big ask. Studies show that when there is an accident bystanders are more likely to step in and help when there is a small crowd rather than a large one. The belief is that with large numbers witnessing an accident each person thinks someone else will come forward to help. With very few people at the scene people realize they are the ones that have to take action. Every church tells their members they should invite friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. to church and their events. The psychology seems to be the same though; at established churches most seem to think the people in the pew next to them will do it. While new churches know they personally have to take action and ask as many people as they can to attend.
5. Miracles are normal. Certainly God works miracles in established churches. But what most people do not realize is how difficult it is to start a new church. Every single ministry system must be developed; new leaders must be trained; a location found; finances raised; and so much more all in a very short timeframe. It quickly becomes apparent that all this will never happen without divine intervention. If you ever thought church planting is too difficult for you; you are right. Fortunately, it is not too difficult for God to work through you to accomplish whatever He desires. A Church plant has no choice but to lean heavily on God’s hand to lead and build His new church. These divine encounters then inspire both the launching team and the new members the reach.
Church planting is not the only way to reach our mission field, but it is the most effect tool we possess. Established churches should embrace the idea that they can increase their reach and effectiveness by supporting new churches. Sending members, leaders, finances, and prayers help tremendously. The more we work together using every means possible to share the amazing love and plan of salvation God has blessed us with, the more the mission community will become our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
Steve Leddy is the Church Planting Director for Multicultural Ministries at Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventist
Don’t Plant a Church for the Wrong Reason!
The Adventist Church across North America has placed a great amount of emphasis and resources in planting churches. Nearly 600 mission groups - that’s how we call our new church plants - have been launched since 2015 till today in the United States, Canada, Bermuda, and the islands of Guam and Micronesia. Although we really believe that planting churches is essential to make the gospel accessible to people in every city, town, and island in our territory, we also believe that we must be very careful about planting churches which misrepresent God and our organization.
Reasons Not to Plant a Church:
If you are going to plant a church that does not love all sinners, does not care about what happens outside the walls of the building, and whose only purpose is to change the religion of people and judge their behavior, please don’t plant a church.
If you are going to plant a church because your present church is totally dysfunctional, members are fighting, they cannot get alone, and they are going to take all that dysfunctional DNA with them to the new church, please don’t plant a church.
If you are going to plant a church right next door to a sister congregation, which is already reaching the people and demographics of that community, simply to compete for their members and resources, please don’t plant a church. The territory is too vast and the amount of unreached people too great to be competing over a neighborhood which is already being reached. In church planting, collaboration is the name of the game, not competition.
Planting under these circumstances may be detrimental to our missional movement, hurt the reputation of our church, and above all dishonor the God we serve. It is true, we really want to plant churches, yet we want to plant churches right.
Reasons to Plant Churches
Now that we’ve gone over some of the reasons not to plant a church, there are some reasons to plant which are important to consider.
1. Plant to make the gospel accessible. I would agree with other church planting specialists that for the gospel to be accessible through an Adventist Church to each person in our community, we must have a church for every 25,000 inhabitants. This means that in most of the larger cities we could have twice the amount of churches that we have today, without having to compete for territory or people.
2. Plant because we are the heart, eyes, hands, and feet of Jesus in our communities. Church planting is not just about having another place where we can hold worship services, and corporately study the Sabbath School lesson. We plant churches because we desire to open communities of compassion, where people can experience the love of God and the compassion of Jesus in practical ways, which are transformational to families and individuals. We are not interested in planting worship services, but churches that love, serve the community, and worship regularly.
A church that does not go beyond the four walls is not really a church, it is a club.
3. Plant to best position Adventism to reach new generations, residents, and people groups. Most older churches don’t grow, but those that do grow, gain the majority of their new members by transfers from other congregations. On the other hand, new churches generally baptize at a higher percentage than older churches and gain 60 to 80 percent of their new members from people who are not attending any church.
Although it is hard to swallow, older Adventist churches have a very hard time reaching millennials, Generation Z, single mothers, whom together with their household have become one of the largest people groups in North America. Older Adventist churches also struggle to reach the LGBTQ+ community, and emerging immigrant groups. Planting new churches with a different DNA can help to reach people, our churches are not presently reaching.
Jesus did not preach an exclusive gospel, He founded an inclusive church. If our church can only reach people who think like us, dress like us, eat like us, smell like us, and worship like us, we will never be able to reach those who are different. Jesus came to save them too. We need to be more like Jesus.
4. Plant to help revitalize existing churches and to provide a natural environment for discipleship. One of the biggest pushbacks often used to reject church planting is: “Why plant more churches if the ones we have are dying?” Saying “we cannot plant a church because the ones we have are not doing well…” is like saying “a family cannot have babies because grandma is sick…” Churches, just like people, have a lifespan. Newborn babies keep the family going as grandparents age.
There should never be antagonism between church planting and church revitalization, they are both vital. When grandma is sick, we take her to the doctor and try to find a cure for her illness, but if you stop having babies because grandma is aging, eventually the family will be no more.
Church planting infuses new life and helps reset the lifespan of a plateauing or declining church. When an older church intentionally releases leaders and supports the birth of a new congregation it rediscovers its purpose and the rallying around the new baby strengthens its health and missional resolve. As people are released for ministry in the new mission group, more people are required to step in and serve, thus creating an awesome opportunity for disciple-making. Another great benefit of this process is that church plants, with mother churches, tend to grow stronger and faster than churches born without support.
Planting for the right reasons can be a blessing to the church and its surrounding communities. We have learned from the incarnational Jesus we follow, that our churches should not be encased within four walls, filled with people who only talk to themselves and spiritualize everything while the surrounding world suffers. To resemble the Jesus we proclaim, we need churches that are a constant flow of blessings to their neighbors, classmates, colleagues, and those who simply walk the streets in need of hope. Jesus made life better and brought hope whenever He showed up, our church plants and existing churches must be a reflection of that, if we expect to make a dent in our communities for the kingdom.
If you are going to plant a church which is centered in the salvation of God and the compassion of Jesus, a church that will be an agent of transformation in the community, please don’t plant one church, for God’s sake, plant at least 1000.