Future Church Podcast

Art of Leadership Network

The Future of the Church is a common topic for churches, conferences, podcasts, books and more these days. With the need for the Gospel in our generation, we must not look for a silver bullet, one size fits all approach. We believe there are many expressions of the local church. Our hope is, through the Future Church initiative powered by Leadership Network, we will discover and highlight new and effective ways churches can impact our world with the Gospel. read less
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FCP 28 | Susan Freese, All In Ministries International
May 17 2023
FCP 28 | Susan Freese, All In Ministries International
All In Ministries International is all about serving women worldwide who have never heard they are loved, valued, or have a divine purpose. In the “majority world,” women make up 80-90% of the churches, yet discipleship training is limited or nonexistent for women. Cultural restrictions or other mission goals keep leaders from investing in women. Yet, in many cultures, women are “keepers of religion.” Because no one is “teaching them to obey all of (Jesus’s) commands” (Matt. 28:20), women return to ancient customs and do not fulfill their part in the body of Christ. In 2011, Susan Freese (now founder & president) received a call from her missions pastor asking her to create a two-day conference for women in India. Ninety minutes after the call, the training curriculum was complete. She describes it as a “spiritual download.” Indian women walked for hours, took long train journeys, slept on concrete floors, and endured physical abuse to learn more about Jesus. Within days after the conference, women reached their Hindu villages with the gospel and started Bible study gatherings. As soon as Susan’s flight from India landed in Newark, she received an email inviting her to take the conference to South Africa. All In Ministries was born a year later (2012) and has now served 18 countries and equipped nearly 10,000 believers. They work with missionaries and church leaders to offer three-day intensive disciple-making workshops/conferences with practical application and immediate action steps, including distributing UPG lists and our award-winning follow-up Bible study (released March 2021). Women learn God’s grand story, and their part and purpose in it. They learn how to abide in Jesus daily, study the Bible in a group weekly, commune with God in prayer consistently, and depend on the Holy Spirit to serve their church and share Jesus. Local leaders help lead the conference, and we create long-lasting relationships by coaching in-country leaders. Women are changed as disciples of Jesus and bring change to their families and communities—all for God’s glory alone. Listen to Episode 28 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights:  1. The unintentional beginning of All In Ministries International.  In 2011, Susan was asked to create a 2-day women’s conference to serve the women of a church in India. Originally she was hesitant due to the last minute nature of the request but she was determined to serve however best she could through this experience. Over the course of those few days, she saw women who in various cultures were told that they have a place in the body of Christ, and it was through this transformative experience that All In Ministries International was born. 2. How to mobilize women to be disciples.  There is a global crisis of truth, identity, and purpose. Psalm 68:11 tells us that “The Lord gives the word; the women who announce the news are a great host” and with that in mind, they want to mobilize other women to do the same. All In Ministries International wants to raise up an army of women to go and invest in other women to help them be disciples who know how to make disciples. It is through this investment that generations change, and villages are reached. 3. Translating resources in other languages.  Publishing traditionally has become a challenge in light of maintaining control over content and distribution so self-publishing has become the route to pursue. Since then, after 10 years with 3 theological reviews and over 1400 passages of Scripture, they are seeking to get these studies in various languages. With the goal being for women to go deeper in their relationship with God and to understand the theological foundations of the faith so they can not just believe in Christ, but they can follow Him with their lives. Goals and Desired Outcomes of All In Ministries International: Eph. 4:12 - Equip Women Worldwide by connecting us with influential national lea...
FCP 28 | Susan Freese, All In Ministries International
May 17 2023
FCP 28 | Susan Freese, All In Ministries International
All In Ministries International is all about serving women worldwide who have never heard they are loved, valued, or have a divine purpose. In the “majority world,” women make up 80-90% of the churches, yet discipleship training is limited or nonexistent for women. Cultural restrictions or other mission goals keep leaders from investing in women. Yet, in many cultures, women are “keepers of religion.” Because no one is “teaching them to obey all of (Jesus’s) commands” (Matt. 28:20), women return to ancient customs and do not fulfill their part in the body of Christ. In 2011, Susan Freese (now founder & president) received a call from her missions pastor asking her to create a two-day conference for women in India. Ninety minutes after the call, the training curriculum was complete. She describes it as a “spiritual download.” Indian women walked for hours, took long train journeys, slept on concrete floors, and endured physical abuse to learn more about Jesus. Within days after the conference, women reached their Hindu villages with the gospel and started Bible study gatherings. As soon as Susan’s flight from India landed in Newark, she received an email inviting her to take the conference to South Africa. All In Ministries was born a year later (2012) and has now served 18 countries and equipped nearly 10,000 believers. They work with missionaries and church leaders to offer three-day intensive disciple-making workshops/conferences with practical application and immediate action steps, including distributing UPG lists and our award-winning follow-up Bible study (released March 2021). Women learn God’s grand story, and their part and purpose in it. They learn how to abide in Jesus daily, study the Bible in a group weekly, commune with God in prayer consistently, and depend on the Holy Spirit to serve their church and share Jesus. Local leaders help lead the conference, and we create long-lasting relationships by coaching in-country leaders. Women are changed as disciples of Jesus and bring change to their families and communities—all for God’s glory alone. Listen to Episode 28 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights:  1. The unintentional beginning of All In Ministries International.  In 2011, Susan was asked to create a 2-day women’s conference to serve the women of a church in India. Originally she was hesitant due to the last minute nature of the request but she was determined to serve however best she could through this experience. Over the course of those few days, she saw women who in various cultures were told that they have a place in the body of Christ, and it was through this transformative experience that All In Ministries International was born. 2. How to mobilize women to be disciples.  There is a global crisis of truth, identity, and purpose. Psalm 68:11 tells us that “The Lord gives the word; the women who announce the news are a great host” and with that in mind, they want to mobilize other women to do the same. All In Ministries International wants to raise up an army of women to go and invest in other women to help them be disciples who know how to make disciples. It is through this investment that generations change, and villages are reached. 3. Translating resources in other languages.  Publishing traditionally has become a challenge in light of maintaining control over content and distribution so self-publishing has become the route to pursue. Since then, after 10 years with 3 theological reviews and over 1400 passages of Scripture, they are seeking to get these studies in various languages. With the goal being for women to go deeper in their relationship with God and to understand the theological foundations of the faith so they can not just believe in Christ, but they can follow Him with their lives. Goals and Desired Outcomes of All In Ministries International: Eph. 4:12 - Equip Women Worldwide by connecting us with influential national lea...
FCP 27 | Walter Harvey, WI+H Movement
Apr 19 2023
FCP 27 | Walter Harvey, WI+H Movement
The WI+H Movement exists to transform every community’s pain points through a disciplemaking movement and using business as a tool of justice. They come alongside existing churches and new pastors to help them imagine new possibilities for their community. Through a process of WI+H Connection (1 hour), then WI+H Ministry Studio (1.5 days), WI+H Cohorts (12 months/meeting quarterly) and Coaching (meeting monthly with leads and teams), they assist these teams with listening, learning, and then leading in ways that are effective to disciplemaking and transformation in each cultural and geographic context. Phase 1: Listen – 1 month/4 weeks – Pastors and leaders listen to God and the community. They discover God’s agenda and imagine lives and neighborhoods the way God sees them. Touchpoints/support mechanism Weekly one on one & group sessions by Zoom (w/ Connect) Phase 2: Learn – 2 months/8 weeks – Cohorts learn Discipleship making & community transformation strategies and models. They design innovative models and strategies that lead to change. Touchpoints/support mechanism Attend in-person and virtual ministry studios Monthly group coaching sessions Monthly one-on-one coaching with the pastor or leader Phase 3: Lead – 9 months – Cohorts launch innovative models, capture learning, and adjust. They also begin to share models and look for new opportunities to influence and impact. Touchpoints/support mechanism Attend in-person and virtual ministry studios Monthly design team coaching sessions Monthly one-on-ne coaching sessions with the pastor or leader The primary context that WI+H operates in is urban or inner city, because there is more prevalent, systemic and generational pain. Economic development and unleashing ordinary believers in Christ into spiritual disciplemaking (not Sunday worship experiences nor occasional outreach) are often weak spots for the Church and faith-based non-profit in these communities. Listen to Episode 27 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights:  1. The importance of listening to the community. W+TH is slow and steady in their engagement of marginalized communities. They don’t have a fast-paced evangelistic method. Rather, they invest long-term in the transformation of the community with the community. Their movement consists of micro-communities of faith who do life together with the unchurched in pain points. It’s crucial to know people by name, listen to their life stories, and meet practical needs. Urban pain points cannot be transformed if the people are not first heard and engaged in the transformative process itself. 2. The importance of ordinary people being involved in the mission. The WI+H movement consists of ordinary people who dare to imagine new possibilities for America’s most dangerous neighborhoods. You don’t have to be a superhero or even clergy to move forward in doing this work. It doesn't require a master's degree or even a seminary degree. When pastors understand this, they don't have to shut down Sunday morning because they have an opportunity to train, equip, and unleash ordinary people to be on mission outside of Sunday. 3. Outreach is transactional, not sustainable.  Outreach definitely shouldn’t be discouraged, but it’s limited because we often approach it on our own terms and schedules. We don't need more churches; we need more businesses in the inner city. That's how we'll begin to see some transformation, especially if they're ordinary Christians who are running these businesses and working in them who are purposeful about making disciples who make disciples. When this occurs, we will begin to see transformation in these communities. Goals and Desired Outcomes of WI+H Movement: WI+H Overarching Goals: To ensure that each person living in urban pain points has repeated opportunities to see, hear, and respond to the gospel.
FCP 26 | Jeff Reed, Digital Church Network
Mar 15 2023
FCP 26 | Jeff Reed, Digital Church Network
The purpose of the Digital Church Network is starting and multiplying digital & metaverse disciple-making & church planting movements. The heart of Digital Church Network is to do something different. They’re empowering a different type of planter to start different types of churches in different spaces, reaching a different type of person. Primarily a bi-vocational movement, they provide Community, Care, and Coaching for leaders who sense the vision of Jesus to seek and save the lost in digital and metaverse spaces. They began early 2022, launching their digital community in February, which is now over 500 members strong! They just launched our digital church planter training called Launchpad. In addition, they also launched 12 church networks involving 70+ pastors and planters as they introduced New Thing’s Movement System into DCN. Coming in the near future is a digital accelerator for existing digital ministries to up their ministry game, trainings on multiplying digital/metaverse missionaries, even soul care and mental health in the metaverse as well as an expansion of church planting networks within the metaverse. They plan on seeing over 1,000 people join their community by the end of the year. Listen to Episode 26 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights: 1. How digital churches can connect with physical churches. With digital churches, people are able to connect with different types of people in these communities than what the physical church buildings are reaching. The way that the Digital Church Network operates is not in competition but rather it’s complimenting what the physical church is doing in hopes of finishing the Great Commission that God has called us to. The anonymity of these communities allows new people to come and share their struggles without the fear of being outed or exposed. 2. The difference in challenges between the digital church and the physical church.  When it comes to physical church, often getting people to attend your service is the hard part. With digital church, it’s completely backwards. However, because of social pressure, in person church attendees usually stay for the whole service because they don’t want to be perceived as rude whereas in the digital church, leaving is as easy as clicking a button. So, with the digital church, the sermon is not the most important thing, but rather how you uniquely connect with those who choose to attend. 3. The key to evangelizing in the digital space. Don't make statements. It’s much better to use question marks than periods and never use an exclamation mark. It’s important that we try build relationships with people that are in digital community. These rules also apply to your physical church that's doing digital ministry. You don’t want to yell at people, and you don’t even want to tell people what to believe right off the bat, but rather you want to learn from people. This is where you build relational equity and trust. This is where you build that a deeper friendship and overall relationship. Goals and Desired Outcomes of the Digital Church Network: By EOY 2023 – 10 movement leaders in digital & metaverse spaces By EOY 2023 – 250 Network Leaders By EOY 2023 – 5000 people in FAM – DCN’s Online Community 30 Nations Involved 1,000 people involved in Movement System (DCN’s Discipleship Process) Links: https://digitalchurch.network/ Key Quotes from the episode from Jeff Reed: “When disciples make disciples, and those go and do the same, a movement is catalyzed. The problem is many churches are filled with seedless grapes: there is fruit, but that fruit isn’t reproducing.” “Often movements are blocked because leaders aren’t reproducing more leaders; they simply do kingdom work without equipping others to lead as well.” “The church doesn’t have a mission—the mission has a church.” “These digital environments and meta worlds are in fact communities where peo...
FCP 25 | E-2 Network
Feb 15 2023
FCP 25 | E-2 Network
Equip and Encourage Army disciple makers virtually to make disciples wherever they are sent locally.  Disciple makers in the E-2 Network, regardless of physical location, will always have connection to an intentional community living to advance the Kingdom of Jesus in the Army context. The E-2 Network exists to Encourage and Equip Disciple makers for the unique challenges of Kingdom Ministry in the Army. A monthly zoom huddle—for training and encouragement—connects like-minded believers with a heart for ministry to soldiers and their families. Listen to Episode 25 of the podcast and access the show notes below.  Future Church Insights: The unique challenges of ministering to members of the military.  For somebody who is outside of the military to try and reach people who are serving in uniform, there are a lot of physical barriers to access a base or that community. One of the biggest challenges is the simple fact that military families move every few years and in between those moves, service members are often gone for trainings, deployments, or other things. Because of this, it can be a very disruptive time in their life to create any sort of spiritual continuity.  The benefits of a virtual community.  Often when you’re stationed overseas, there isn’t a lot of notice for when you’ll be traveling elsewhere so being a part of a virtual community where you are checking in regularly for encouragement and discipleship knocks down the hesitation to go deep in relationships. So if you’re able to stay connected with a community of like-minded people, there’s no need to start from scratch every time you move to another physical location.  The importance of self-care.  In this line of work, it takes a lot of energy and effort in addition to the normal army requirements that are expected of these service men and women. Considering that, it’s crucial to establish a solid balance of sacrifice and self-care. It’s important for us to take care of ourselves and to recognize our limitations as people because we don’t want to spread ourselves too thin and burn out. Learning what we want to do well and consistently addressing our capacity to love others well with mission is key to being successful in this type of ministry.  Goals and Desired Outcomes of Equip + Encourage Network: Make discipleship about people. Discipleship is done in the context of relationships. Quality is better than quantity. Obedience is better than competence. Disciples are made one at a time. They cannot be mass produced. Competent disciple-makers cannot be created overnight. Disciple-making is a continual process. Discipleship is a team sport, conducted in the context of a spiritual family. Links: https://www.e-2network.com/ Key Quotes from the episode from Josh and Megan: “Disciples are people and discipleship is done in the context of relationships. That’s what discipleship is all about.”  “Quality is better than quantity. We would rather have a few folks who are committed walking with Jesus than 100 folks who are only halfway in it.” “Disciples are made one at a time, they cannot be mass produced. We don't try to mass produce anything. How many folks are in at one particular time is not a metric that we consider an ultimate measure of success.”  One of the dangers that us in the military can fall into is that we can be more in love with the mission than with Jesus. It's just a natural output of how we're wired and what sometimes we're rewarded for. Our job at the end of the day is to create a spiritual family. It's a team sport.”
FCP 24 | Ryan Delamater
Nov 9 2022
FCP 24 | Ryan Delamater
OCNWTR exists to help the marginalized coastal communities of the 108 countries with direct ocean access receive their drinking water from the ocean at a price point of zero with a decentralized desalination system which secures their long-term water rights. We install each ocean-based system through establishing a new local church revolving mostly around food, the Bible, the Holy Spirit & relationships.  In 2010, Ryan Delamater rode his bicycle over 16,000 kilometers thru 10 countries from Canada to Colombia. As he traveled, he learned that people didn’t have clean drinking water in certain parts of the world. In 2015 he adopts the village of El Palmar in El Salvador. Over the next 7 years from 2015-2022 he has taken over 200 people on 17 different trips to discover how to best solve this problem. During this time OCNWTR utilized 3 different platforms to help provide a permanent solution. They delivered point of use water buckets to over 500 homes, built a solar powered decentralized desalination system that was capable of providing 300 gallons a day & have now partnered with Source Water and their hydro panels that produce unlimited water from sunlight and air. They now have a water system in El Salvador along with 4 coffee shop churches in California. Each of their coffee shop churches in California take responsibility to go on a trip to install a system and begin a new OCNWTR church. This approach has enabled them to expand to Argentina, Indonesia, & Bangladesh this year. Listen to Episode 21 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights:  (1) The North American Church Planting funding model doesn’t work for areas that need water.  Due to economic reasons, the modern church planting model found in America doesn’t work for areas that desperately need water systems in place. So as a result, Ryan left his job at Saddleback Church to create water systems in areas that desperately need clean drinking water and while at it, also starts churches in these areas to combine the ministry with the spiritual goal.  (2) How state-side churches can sponsor water projects across the world.    Ryan and a few buddies started a church that now has led to over 20 churches that help sponsor water projects around the world. So as these churches grow, more water projects across the world can be supported and in turn, those churches can also grow both locally and globally.  (3) The new technology for water projects today.   After meeting with a Materials Scientist at MIT, Ryan found a company that makes panels that convert sunlight and air into drinking water. With a Beta Test done on a pasters house for six months, they found that this technology works incredibly for what they’re trying to do and it is way more cost-effective than doing the salinization work of cleaning the existing water in these areas. Goals and Desired Outcomes of The Greenhouse Network: They are in the process of raising capital for the various water projects they are working on right now. Each project costs $50,000 and provides continual clean water to 40-60 people in a renewable way. Links: ocnwtr.com Key Quotes from the episode from Joel Repic: “What development pathways are in the church today? I see a lot of what I do as making ministry and church planting a lot more accessible for people who love God and want to go make disciples. The world is changing, and we need a lot of innovation so that we can attract young people to pursue ministry.” “Churches that had a few to 40 people can be very easy to multiply as they can adopt another place in the world. They can function independently from a lot of bureaucracy and in the process, help people get clean water and living water.”
FCP 23 | David Drury, One Multichurch Network
Oct 22 2022
FCP 23 | David Drury, One Multichurch Network
The One Multichurch Network of 40+ microchurch leaders in North America seeks to mobilize an additional 100 microchurch leaders by offering a high-energy, inspiring, training events that will draw in those interested in alternative ways of making disciples and multiply the church and launch out those who just need to take that next step to go for it. The One Multichurch Network is transitioning from a largely quiet and underground relational network of 40+ microchurch leaders to recruit and mobilize leaders and launch dozens more microchurches in 2022. Our approach is to build of our strengths of 1) existing relationships tended by weekly meetings, journey group coaching, and online message board, 2) our network of external training, resourcing, and mobilizing partners, 3) our existing super-simple self-directed online training, 4) our free resources to assist in launching to now build a bridge into recruiting from a much broader platform of potential microchurch leaders. Listen to Episode 23 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights:  (1) The biggest gap in ministry training right now. There is a great deal of in-depth training as it is for those who’ve already experienced some form of Christian ministry training already. However, there aren’t a whole lot of entry-level trainings for people that are new Christians who just wanted to reach their friends and do something that would connect with them. Typical church training is too long and complicated for most of us. To reach those in the US who won’t respond to an invitation to a public worship service, we need to simplify training to the essentials so everyone can get involved. (2) Why spiritual conversations aren’t happening outside of the church walls.    As we become more event focused in the inherited church, most people are equipped to invite to a weekend service. However, research has shown that 49% of people who would be invited to church cannot imagine themselves going even if invited. That means we’re leaving half of the people on the table and a normal church attendee doesn’t know how to adapt to that situation. But if someone was to be invited to your living room or a place like a coffee shop, those chances skyrocket. (3) People need options to match their style of learning. David and his team offer “Two Styles of Training” on their website. One is a self-paced online training, the other is an interactive online training via video conference. We’ve found that people that like one way don’t prefer the other. Sure, people could try out both, but they’re roughly the same length, and cover the same stuff. The self-paced version is particularly designed for those who would rather just roll up their sleeves right now and learn what they need to know at their own pace, not attend an event. It’s best for visual/spatial, logical, or solitary/intrapersonal learners. The live event version is particularly designed for those who need to “attend” something and participate rather than do something self-directed. It’s best for aural, verbal, or social/interpersonal learners. We thought it was key to not force everyone to go about it in the same way—and to give people options, since everyone is different. Goals and Desired Outcomes of The Greenhouse Network: Initial “lead” indicator: Exposing 1,000 unique individuals to new wineskin approaches to disciple-making and multiplication through online training events Tracking each of these in system for ongoing connection/options to launch Mobilizing 100 unique individuals into making disciples and multiplying a microchurch within their community. Connecting each into existing Journey Groups, free resources, and online message board Endgame outcome: M = 100mc + 4g3 (Movement equals 100 new microchurch starts that are 4th generation multiplications within 3 years of a 1st generation start) Enlist doctoral level researchers to comb our data to connect the dots i...
FCP 22 | Joel Repic, The Greenhouse Network
Oct 12 2022
FCP 22 | Joel Repic, The Greenhouse Network
The Greenhouse Network is a decentralized, released, growing family of missional leaders and outposts (non-profit organizations, social impact projects, missional communities, businesses, and church plants) that exists to provide relationship between missional outposts and church plants for sharing resources, provide support for missional leaders, provide access for emerging leaders to existing social and material capital, and provide momentum for the regional multiplication of missional outposts and church plants. The Greenhouse Network had its beginnings in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, a distressed community northwest of Pittsburgh along the Ohio River. The disinvestment of the steel industry in the 1980s left three generations of poverty with its attendant social challenges. In 2005, a youth development organization called Aliquippa Impact was birthed out of a 100+ year old Christian and Missionary Alliance Church called The Gospel Tabernacle that had begun to experience renewal. As that organization grew, served the community, and developed young and emerging leaders, lessons were learned about joining Jesus in mission among those experiencing poverty. Over the next decade, a family of non-profit organizations, social impact projects, missional communities, businesses, and church plants began to multiply in Aliquippa and throughout the Pittsburgh region with a special focus on post-industrial river communities.  This movement remained almost entirely organic until leaders in the movement formed it into The Greenhouse Network in 2018. At this time, an incubator called the Greenhouse Lab was initiated at the relational center of the Network to provide a service platform (marketing support, financial support, coaching, and training) to support network leaders, help people imagine and start missional initiatives, and provide pathways for the poor to create their own businesses. Listen to Episode 21 of the podcast and access the show notes below.  Future Church Insights:  (1) Joel shares how the Greenhouse Network continues to grow.  With so many people on their team working from a community development background, there are certain values that they will not transgress like: listening to the community, identifying the assets already present in the community, etc. As things started to grow, they found that it was important that they grew in a way that fit their values. Once they have a clearer onboarding process, Joel says that this will allow more missional leaders to participate in what God is doing through the Greenhouse Network. (2) Why it’s crucial that indigenous leaders lead this effort in their neighborhoods.    It’s important to empower leaders from each neighborhood to eventually lead and take on this development because the goal isn’t to just transport people from the outside in to solve the issue. We need people who are already in these neighborhoods to lead the efforts on fixing the communities problems and to believe that the community has the answers and the creativity for the challenges they face. (3) A new way to think about innovation. Most view innovation in the creation of a new thing, but another way to think about creativity and innovation is curation. Curating things in a new way involves integrating different things that Joel and his team have learn from other movements and people that can come together in a way that’s contextually appropriate.  Goals and Desired Outcomes of The Greenhouse Network: Their goal is to explore how denominations and existing churches might work in synergy with networks to plant more missional outposts and multiply church plants. In the next year, the Network (sodalic) will partner with four kinds of churches (modalic) for the purpose of piloting intentional partnerships out of which we can learn reproducible models of sodalic/modalic synergy. The Network will partner with 1) a mid-sized, established church that is already heavily engaged missi...
FCP 21 | Myron Pierce, Mission Church
Sep 28 2022
FCP 21 | Myron Pierce, Mission Church
Our macro vision as an inner-city church is to saturate every inner city with diverse hope filled churches. Our missional venture, “Shift” is an entrepreneurial incubator designed to impact the inner city by shifting the mindset of the inner city into an entrepreneurial mindset. This allows us to elevate the water mark of impact in the inner city and leave a hope filled footprint in the lives of the underdog. 2019 Beta Test 2020 Launched 2021 Currently going 2022 Scale 2025 Multiply in inner cities across North America Listen to Episode 21 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights: 1. Myron shares what an entrepreneurial incubator is. One thing that is overwhelmingly true is that there is a cycle in inner cities of poverty, crime, and justice systems as well as structures that are designed to regurgitate the paradigm of brokenness. One of the fastest and most missional ways to do justice and make disciples is through creating an entrepreneurial incubator. If that’s a problem in the community, they will come alongside you for 16 weeks plus to help people shift into an entrepreneurial mindset. When people learn the idea of ownership, they create legacy and opportunity in their communities under the banner of unity. 2. Why it’s important for people in a community to hear and work with people that look like them.   Because of Myron’s unique background and story, anytime he runs into someone who struggles with drugs, gang involvement, or other delinquent behavior, he can sympathize but also call that person to more. Since Myron overcame that life, he now shatters every justification they have for not moving forward. That’s the power of what Jesus would tell His disciples when saying to find those people of peace. 3. The biggest obstacle facing Shift Omaha right now.  The mindset of members of these communities is something that will take a long time to overcome. There is an undercurrent of jealousy and hatred that is ingrained in some people’s minds where one person’s success represents a detriment to their own chances of success. In the African American communities, this response comes from generations of trauma and oppression ingrained since the inception of the country, so this isn’t entirely their fault, but nonetheless, it’s a hindrance that is holding people back from accomplishing what they want. We need to learn how to celebrate one another if we’re going to overcome this scarcity mindset about success. Goals and Desired Outcomes:  Their mission field is black and brown inner city residents ages 18-45 who have been incarcerated, poverty stricken, against the odds, and hopeless. Shift 10% of North Omaha into an entrepreneurial mindset  Launch 2,500 businesses in North Omaha by 2030 Assimilate graduates back into our missional venture Links www.thisismission.org/shift Quotes from Myron Pierce: “You’ve heard people say, ‘Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime.’ But that’s incomplete. We actually have to show them how to own the pond.” “A key reason that a lot of mission organizations, nonprofits, and even businesses or even those who are outside of the community don’t make the jump towards riveting scalable influence and impact is because they desire to be the people of peace rather than finding the people of peace that can get the job done in that specific community.”  “Are you thinking about your business 20 years out? Because if you’re not, you’re already failing. Any great upset is going to take awhile so we need to be able to have a long-term type of approach to what we’re doing.”
FCP 20 | Mark Lutz, Reaching the Gaming Community
Sep 14 2022
FCP 20 | Mark Lutz, Reaching the Gaming Community
Our big idea is to reach the gaming community with the love and light of Jesus. Our approach is simple. Reach people where they are. Return to the core devotions of the first church. People are on their phones and computers for hours every day. Lux is a church that exits where they are. When we felt called to reach gamers we needed a church without borders, brick and mortar, or timber and steel. Gamers are global and we needed to be global from the start. We realize that every church has hundreds or thousands of Millennials and Gen Z within their immediate area that will never come to a physical church no matter how good the preaching, comfy the seats, or bumping the music. They can only be reached through their digital life. We knew we were called to start a digital church in 2019, we told our church leadership in 2020, we went through planting with Stadia and partnered with them, we established the church in the state of PA in early 2021 and held our first live service on March 24th, 2021, at: Twitch.tv/LuxDigitalChurch. Listen to Episode 20 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights: 1. The gaming community is a massive harvest opportunity for churches. Mark found that gaming created a unique connection to a massive demographic of people who really had been shunned or outcasted by the church. These people had very little interest in the church and Mark found that he was encountered a lot of people that would rather go to Hell than step into the doors of a brick-and-mortar church. Places like Twitch and Discord consistently have over 100 million unique users every single month so it’s safe to say that there is plenty of opportunity to go around. 2. Deep community and vulnerability forms online in digital church. Since March of 2021, Mark has found that even if people don’t show their faces or display their real names, every person represents a soul that is made in the image of Christ. Even despite a popular belief that online relationships lack community, Mark has found that the people that participate in his church are there day after day and week after week engaging and talking deeply about their lives. 3. The future of church is a hybrid model of both digital and physical. Members of the digital church find that they want to go to physical churches after encountering Jesus in their digital space but also, members of physical churches might find more engagement and vulnerability if they also engage in a digital community as well as maintain their physical membership. We need to hold onto a both/and approach, not an either/or. Goals and Desired Outcomes:  To see a thriving, self-supporting, and multiplying church that impacts thousands of lives digitally and physically with the Good News of Jesus Christ. We are specifically targeting the gaming community on Twitch.tv. Twitch averages about 1.5 million unique viewers at any given time and sees about 100 million unique viewers every month. While our church is for gamers, we realize that gamers are multifaceted, and games only occupy an aspect of their lives. We desire to use gaming as an opportunity to speak into other areas of life and allow Jesus to transform every aspect of who they are. Begin a thriving and multiplying digital church. Plant micro site house churches across the globe. Work with Christian streamers and content creators to disciple their already dedicated fans. Form a church without the overhead of facilities to be extravagantly generous. Lead the Church (Big C) is new ways to reach the Post Millennial generations. Links www.luxdigitalchurch.com Quotes from Mark Lutz: “It is an essential biblical truth that the church is made up of God’s people, not merely the building where they gather. The digital church is an expression of this essential reality.” “Using digital tools, we can effectively build relationships, disciple, and care for people who live thousands of miles aw...
FCP 19 | Hugh Halter, Brave Cities
Sep 1 2022
FCP 19 | Hugh Halter, Brave Cities
Where are we going? We’re going to talk about seeing church as a city we build within the cities we live in or what we call Brave Cities. This is an organization co-directed by Hugh Halter which is a consulting firm committed to equip, coach, and connect apostolic leaders who are building kingdom ecosystems as a new way of being church. A Kingdom Ecosystem is another way of describing an interconnected and interdependent network of missionary disciples, who band together to incubate good works in a specific local context. These good works include new businesses, justice works, and incarnationally focused homes that all work together so that a prospering economy and intentional community form. We hope the content and the spirit of Brave Cities will be what you’ve been needing and looking for and that real hope for you, your family, and your leadership will emerge. Listen to Episode 19 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights: 1. Hugh shares what creates a “Brave City” church plant. Comprised of three essential parts, a Brave City plant is a different type of Church Plant integrates a benevolent business or business design that helps the town and creates jobs to change the atmosphere in the city. The second is incarnational, neighborhood homes which are homes for people that live in certain parts of the neighborhood who seek to better the area and create lasting positive change. The third is justice works which are things that other people are not doing that the town desperately needs done, specifically people that are on the margins or don’t have the same access as everyone else. 2. How Brave Cities incubate good works through new businesses.   Hugh shares how they utilize their 501c (3) holding company to help people start businesses that strategically change the city. They provide a central administrative and legal covering for them as they seek to get started. However, good works don’t have to be Christians with an idea. They can come from non-Christians that have something they want to contribute.  3. The biggest obstacle facing Brave Cities right now.  The need to create jobs in this country has gone down over the last few years which unfortunately means job creation isn’t a top priority for a lot of businesses right now. With that being said, the most important goal right now for Brave Cities is to move people into the spiritual community who progress from business development to a community of family and friends. It is through this process that people can be discipled as we give witness to the LORD. Goals and Desired Outcomes:  They seek to redefine the way you think about the future church and your future as you consider your true passions, dreams, and visions for blessing the cities you live in. Here are the changes they seek to change in churches: The Theology of Church as a City on a Hill Promoting the 6 elements required to build a Kingdom Ecosystem Moving from Pastoral Leadership to Apostolic Leadership How To Create Multiple Buckets of Income for yourself and the Ecosystem God Forms Firing Your Congregation and Framing a New Community Providing a New Template for creating Natural Evangelistic and Prophetic Influence in Your City Promoting Business Not FOR Mission or IN Mission, but AS Mission Brave Cities would like to have 100 cities that are building Kingdom Ecosystems over the next decade. Links www.bravecities.com Quotes from Hugh Halter: “The greatest strategy for giving young people a vision for leading their own friends spiritually to guide and disciple their own friends is to call them into their own homes.”  “Businesses are important in this process because it’s your financial sustainability and credibility with the city, but the real ministry still has to be individual people that feel confident to guide spiritual conversation, open up the Scriptures, and have talks about life and meaningful things with people...
FCP 18 | Stephen Partain, Grace in the Bywater
Aug 17 2022
FCP 18 | Stephen Partain, Grace in the Bywater
Grace in the Bywater has taken the former church fellowship hall and large green space in their back lot and transformed them into “Grace in the Bywater.” The commercial kitchen will have affordable day rates for food entrepreneurs, and will also include indoor/outdoor seating. The outside space will also be available for event rental, art shows, markets, etc. By Utilizing the space for the good of the community, they can make the property a community hub without the commitment of someone attending a church service. Part of their dream is to build out enough missional business on property that any salary or utility would be covered by these ventures. The missional and financial picture work together for a sustainable approach to mission. Listen to Episode 18 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights: 1. Stephen talks about being the resource of an older church and trying to become good stewards of the property He says that his vision was to plant a church, and also a missional business at the same time.  Grace Community Church looks like a traditional church and Grace in the Bywater is the missional business. The business uses the Fellowship Hall and has made it into a neighborhood cafe, renovated it, and put in a commercial kitchen. 2. Stephen explains how being a church and a cafe work together to serve the community. They desire to have the church building become a neighborhood hub again in the community, as it was so many years ago. The hope is to also help businesses grow and prosper.  3. Stephen talks about the community partnership approach and how to make it work. Stephen says that many times, churches have great ideas about what the future could look like, but not the best execution, because they don't always have the diversity of people with the right kind of people to make it happen. Their church has told the community,  "It's not that we just want you to be a part of this. We can't do this without you."  I think there's a lot of potential for churches, with kitchens and certain spaces to think through community partnership models and it'll be a huge open door to relationships and engaging people. Goals and Desired Outcomes:  Create a thriving neighborhood hub at our space, for people to enjoy and connect. Build relationships with those completely uninterested in church in a no-pressure environment. Demonstrate the nature of the gospel by using our property for the good of others rather than ourselves. Financially subsidize ministry through missional ventures. Create a model for others churches in our region with property to launch missional business in their space for impact. Links  www.gracefornola.com Quotes from Stephen Partain: “We talk about post-Christian, I think in our space, it's really been post-Christian for a while now, that getting people to a service isn't the goal necessarily. Getting them to relationship, seeing those forms, seeing conversations about Jesus. Really almost the service itself is probably more of the outgrowth of actual engagement than it is the front door of how we're going to engage people.” (08:04) “For us, it's been just a partnership thing and then really telling people, "It's not that we just want you to be a part of this. We can't do this without you." (11:08) "I'm convinced that God blessed us with this resource for the exact reason of leveraging the property for mission." (24:33)
FCP 17 | Jate Earhart, Love Clan
Aug 4 2022
FCP 17 | Jate Earhart, Love Clan
Love Clan is specifically targeting people who otherwise would have nothing to do with Jesus. Love Clan has created a community of gamers through Discord (like an advanced message group, primarily used by gamers) who have formed true community. Love Clan believes that being active in people's lives and praying for them is the easiest door into deeper conversations. The goal is to be active in people's lives and pray for them.  Listen to Episode 17 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights: 1. Jate talks about the gaming platform Jate says he tries to reach different people each day through gaming. He notes that his number one focus is on seekers and non-Christians. 2. Jate talks about meeting people He mentions that his main goal is to form relationships - through prayer and open communication. 3. Jate shares some stories Jate mentions two different instances (of many) where people have joined him in games and begun to ask questions. As they stuck around for multiple days, they learned more and have both been baptized and are now actively involved in the Love Clan Community or have planted their own online church community. Goals and Desired Outcomes:  There are still 3 months left before I've been streaming full time for a year, but these are the metrics I want to continue to see increase. I don't have exact goals for by how much because it still is fluctuating a lot from month to month. 184k chat messages (over 9 months) — When someone chats, we connect.  1.6 million total minutes watched (over 9 months) — Not everyone chats right away, some just want to watch and see first. This number isn't as important to me as the chat messages number, but I expect to see it continue to go up. 1 streamer reproduced (over 9 months) — I've gotten other people to try live streaming, but I've only gotten 1 who is leading a Bible discussion once a week like I am currently. I have plans to start a stream team where this would be one of the requirements, but that's definitely an up-and-coming goal I'd like to see happen in the next year. Links — Search: JateLIVE Quotes from Jate Earhart: “I don't want to get too big as far as the live stream goes. I actually don't want it to be thousands, and someday it may be. God willing, he does his thing. But that's why I feel the need to replicate. It's why multiplication is so important to me because I see the benefit from having the small right now.” (26:22) “...the best and worst thing about online is that it's anonymous.” (34:44) “I mean, for gaming, specifically, I would just say it's such a big medium. It's bigger than Hollywood and sports combined. I mean, the reason it's like 35 average is because it's more just saying pretty much like everybody has some touching point on it.” (33:50)
FCP 16 | Hannah Gronowski Barnett, Generation Distinct
Jul 20 2022
FCP 16 | Hannah Gronowski Barnett, Generation Distinct
We all desire to make a lasting impact, fight for justice and see the world change...but so often we have no idea where to start.  Here’s the good news. Generation Distinct has a solution. Generation Distinct equips next generation leaders (18-28) to discover the wrong they were born to make right, leading them to experience who Jesus really is. They offer a fresh, relevant, and edgy way for a generation skeptical of the Church to encounter Jesus. Young leaders enroll in a Cohort for our online 6-month World Change Strategy Program to create their own custom world change strategy.  At the end of this 6-month experience, they will be enrolled in our Online Community and invited to our yearly gatherings. Listen to Episode 16 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights: 1. Hannah shares how Generation Distinct helps the younger generation tap into their missional power. In talking with young people, the missing piece they found was the lack of strategy. Generation Distinct found that if they could help pair the passion with a strategy to accomplish those goals that the missional action of this next generation would be unleashed. 2. The biggest tension and challenge for Generation Distinct currently.  Hannah shares that her organization is primarily volunteer driven as her and another staff member out of 10-11 people are the only ones paid. The biggest hill they are climbing is fundraising and one way they are inviting people to participate is by becoming a Generation Student Advocate. This is someone who wants to invest into the next generation by investing their time, resources, and experience to see them come back to Jesus. 3. Honoring where we’ve come from rather than complaining about it.  A temptation that every generation faces at some point is the idea that a new generation comes into the church to fix what the older generation didn’t. The danger in this is that we start to think of ourselves as the hero of the story as opposed to our unchanging God. We are simply servants that are showing up in the world to do our best to build the church. Goals and Desired Outcomes of Generation Distinct They are currently in the midst of an Initiative called 2023 in 2023. Here are their goals: See 2,023 young leaders go through our program by the end of the year 2023 Partner with 50 Churches & Universities by the end of the year 2023 See 200 World Change Strategies fully executed by the end of the year 2023 Links:  www.generationdistinct.com Key Quotes from the episode from Hannah Gronowski Barnett: “I realized that Jesus actually does care about who he's made me to be and the passions that he's placed in my heart. He wants to unleash me to make wrong things right in the world.” “The most effective ways of building the kingdom take time because nothing is an overnight success. I think a lot of times we can see things that launch, and it can seem like they grew so quick because we didn't see the 10 years that happened beforehand. The struggle, the dreaming, the building, the fundraising, the hustle all the work that goes into the behind the scenes before that launch takes place. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that good things take time.” “The scarcity mindset tells us that there’s not enough for all of us, that if someone else is winning then we can’t win because there is only so much goodness in the world. But the abundance mindset says that we can all win because there is enough goodness of God for all of us. It’s not a conflict, it’s a partnership.”
FCP 15 | Rob Wegner, KC Underground
Feb 18 2022
FCP 15 | Rob Wegner, KC Underground
In 2019, about 80 followers of Jesus left the prevailing church structures to be the seeds for a grassroots movement in Kansas City.  They believe God’s people are made for more.  It is the birthright of every child of God to be a loving missionary and disciple-maker where they live,  work, learn and play. Their aim was to plant the gospel in networks of relationships across the city, see disciples made and witness the church emerge in new contexts. At KC Underground, they function with a two-entity structure, a mission agency and a network of microchurches. The mission agency equips everyday people to be loving missionaries and effective disciple-makers in new contexts. As new disciples are made in a new context, a microchurch emerges.  Microchurches are extended spiritual families, that live in everyday gospel community, they’re led by ordinary people, not paid professionals, and they own the mission of Jesus in their network. For some, this is a very specific pocket of people or corner of culture. For other, this is a geographic network of relationships often defined as a neighborhood. Listen to Episode 15 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights: 1. Rob explains “microchurch” Rob says that a microchurch is a spiritual family led by “ordinary people who live in everyday gospel community and own the mission of Jesus in a network of relationships.”  2. Rob talks about the way they structure KC Underground: Rob talks about “Hubs” – an equipping team – and how those team then include teams of people. For example, he mentions the “Personal Discovery” team that help others to discover their personal calling. He also talks about Startup Coaching, the seven week pathway, financial services and the ongoing coaching they provide micro churches. 3. Rob speaks to the differences in a traditional model and what KC Underground is doing First, he talks about planting the gospel where people currently are, not extracting them out for a professional sermon or service. Then he talks about discipleship and evangelism coming out of relationships that have already been built and established. Finally, he speaks about seeing every person as a disciple maker. Goals and Desired Outcomes of KC Underground The activation of a new Hub in north Kansas City Kansas that is focused on gospel saturation among all the ethnic groups in our city (90+). This particular part of the city has great diversity in ethnicity in a relatively small geographic region of the city. A Kingdom breakthrough here would be a microcosm of the coming Kingdom, where every tribe, tongue and nation is gathered into the global family of God. The activation of a new Hub in the heart of Kansas City Missouri, a few blocks from Troost Avenue. Historically, Troost Avenue has been a racial dividing line in Kansas City. A Kingdom breakthrough here would speak a story of Hope to our whole city. The activation of new missionaries, new Discovery Bible Studies, new disciples, and new microchurches in those two regions of the city. We are intentionally pursuing a full embodiment of all of Expo’s key frameworks. The Kansas City Underground is pioneering a sustainable and multiplicative approach to Gospel Saturation in a city via mobilizing all of God’s people God’s way as missionary disciple-makers in every sector of society who are living out their Masterpiece Mission. Therefore, we are likely a particularly interesting case study for the Expo community, as we are boots on the ground. Links:  www.kcunderground.org More of a reader? Download the transcription here. Key Quotes from the episode from Rob Wegner: “Jesus said Go, but most churches are built around Come.” (21:06) “I think the other main thing is instead of seeing people as volunteers, attenders, inviters, members, you need to look at every single person and go, they’re a disciple maker.” (24:02) “It’s not actually less meetings, it’s life together.
FCP 14 | Nick Crawford, Common Thread
Feb 11 2022
FCP 14 | Nick Crawford, Common Thread
Common Thread was born out of a desire to rediscover the historical DNA of church as family, church as movement and church as city. While Common Thread is an organization, it passionately believes that the church is a living, breathing, unprecedented, unstoppable movement, and cannot be contained within a building or a brand. A movement made up of poor and rich, mothers and fathers, thinkers and dreamers, innovators, entrepreneurs and addicts, prophets and poets… all of which are sinners. Common Thread simply serves the movement. Whether it’s through missional innovation, business incubation, justice work or foundational life together, we do not seek to be another “church”, but rather a thread that unifies all who follow Yeshua and are working for His Kingdom to come to earth. Listen to Episode 14 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights: 1. Nick speaks about the purpose of Common Thread He notes that a group started Common Thread with the desire to “do life together”. The goal was to try to bring Jesus into the spaces they lived and worked in. Common Thread serves missional spaces, people, businesses, and ministries through administrative pieces, networks, resources, connections, or being a sounding board. 2. Nick talks about how people get involved with Common Thread He points out that there are lots of different avenues to get plugged into the organization that has LLC’s operating under its 501(c)3 umbrella. He talks about businesses recruiting employees through Common Thread; people giving materials; volunteers giving their time to teach technical classes; or others giving monetary donations. Common Thread sees all of these as ways to contribute to build God’s Kingdom together. 3. Nick encourages others to start something in their local community Nick says that the path hasn’t always been easy, but to anyone who desires to begin something in their communities, “start with the next right thing”. Organizations and ministries can’t start huge, so the best way to approach this type of thing is to take it step by step and build what God is calling you to accomplish. Goals and Desired Outcomes of Common Thread Move our current business into the next phase of growth. Build an infrastructure that promotes more sharing together by building a culture of being interconnected. Launch a new initiative yearly. Move a multiple number of our businesses and initiatives from their current locations into our new hub in the center of Titusville. Links:  commonthread.org More of a reader? Download the transcription here. Key Quotes from the episode from Nick Crawford: “It’s been hard. It’s had really great things to it and it’s been hard. So it’s a joy. There has been so many incredible things that have happened that we’ll cherish forever and be able to take to the Kingdom with us one day, and then there’s just been great disappointment to hurts. I think that’s just life, and so thankful for Jesus.” (7:33) “And so whether that’s you attend somewhere on a Sunday or do home church, that’s not really important to us as far as something that we’re just attacking. We’re saying if you’re connected with Jesus, you have some capacity, you want to be involved, how do we help you live a life that’s thriving and near to God? If you want to use that in mentoring someone or if it’s your giving or if it’s leveraging your business or if it’s hiring someone, that everyone has a capacity that they can give and they want to give. But we feel like that we have to identify what that capacity is and bless them in it.” (8:30) “And so trying to get on people’s schedule what works best for them, and just saying, “Thank you so much. This is a huge part of building God’s Kingdom together.” People want to be a part of something bigger than themselves.” (12:03)
FCP 13 | Josh Armstrong, Trellis
Feb 3 2022
FCP 13 | Josh Armstrong, Trellis
In January of 2021, Trellis began with a hub of apostolic leaders in the greater Knoxville area, which is currently working to mobilize an army of local missionaries in order to train, equip, and empower them to plant the gospel in areas and among people that current church models are struggling to reach. Leader Josh Armstrong and his team believes that 3 startup hubs are necessary to get the ball rolling. While the greater Knoxville area is the first, there are 2 other areas that they see as strategic, which are the Tri-cities area in the northeast of TN, and the greater Chattanooga area in the southeast of TN. The Tri-cities hub is already in the process of forming.  Listen to Episode 13 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights: 1. Josh talks about why Trellis. Josh says that after he and his wife served as missionaries internationally, they returned to the United States and were searching for what was next. They felt convicted that God wanted to show them how to do what we learned overseas in East Tennessee. 2. Josh introduces the idea of a “HUB”. Josh talks about using Disciple Making Movements to look at how Jesus made disciples. He talks about the importance of going into others’ contexts and learn from them and understand their culture, identify persons of peace and slowly disciple people to Jesus and then allow them to do the same within their own social network. And see the gospel go away from us rather than coming to us, coming to our church buildings. And so there’s a lot more I can say about how that looks and what that looks like. But the long story short is you make disciples and see the church emerge from that. So, a HUB is a missionary sending and equipping team that would function within a county to launch Disciple Making Movements with normal everyday believers. So indigenous missionaries, if you will, that are living in their counties that are going to schools and going to their workplaces and how do we equip and train and mobilize them to live as missionaries in their everyday context. 3. Josh explains the structure of the HUBs. And by extension, none of the HUBs govern the network of missionaries and micro churches, the movements, if you will, that are launched within that respective county. The HUBs don’t govern. And there’s no HUB of HUBs that govern the hubs. And so it’s very decentralized and it allows people to use creativity while having some shared language and resources and things of that nature. Goals and Desired Outcomes of Trellis Gospel saturation through a disciple-making movement (DMM), rallying dormant missionaries, and hubs that empower missionaries and micro-churches in every county of East TN are among the goals that we have identified thus far. Links:  thetrellisnetwork.org More of a reader? Download the transcription here. Key Quotes from the episode from Josh Armstrong: “And so rather than saying, we’re going to go plant churches and there’s not necessarily anything wrong with that at all, but that was the mentality that at one time had, let’s get a group of people and go plant the church rather than go into the harvest, make disciples and see the church emerge from not yet believers, which is a little bit counterintuitive to a lot of people. But it makes a lot of sense when working amongst unreached people groups and increasingly here in North America, even it’s necessary, and a lot of people are kind of shunning and turning away from prevailing model churches, unfortunately.” (5:23) “And it’s also a big challenge, because a lot of times when you do something like this, you attract people that are just burnt or bitter toward prevailing models. And we said from the beginning, we don’t want that to be our MO, that is some of our stories, but God very early on made it clear that we are to be honoring of all expressions of the church, that he is still using each and every expression that has been used in the past.” (15:35)
FCP 12 | Jon Wiest, Center for Pioneers
Jan 20 2022
FCP 12 | Jon Wiest, Center for Pioneers
There are thousands of pioneers sitting in congregations across North America. They need to be mobilized. The Pioneer Training Center provides online coaching and training for pioneer leaders. Groundswell works with pastors to identify the pioneers in their congregations and then enrolls them in the Pioneer Training Center. The center is designed to help pioneers discover their calling, develop the tools necessary to fulfill that calling, and then works with pastors to deploy them on mission.  Listen to Episode 12 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights: 1. Jon explains what the Center for Pioneers is. He explains that there felt like a gap between helping people connect with others, and make disciples of others – a disciple maker – and becoming a church planter. And that gap is where they put pioneers. The center is a training program that helps pioneers fill that gap. 2. Jon also speaks to a uniqueness of being called to be a Pioneer. So a disciple maker is really zeroed in on a handful of individuals, whereas a pioneer has in their heart, a group of people. So a pioneer is a missionary disciple, called to engage and reach a group of people that are uncomfortable or unfamiliar with the established church. And that’s just a key delineator, that pioneers feel called to a neighborhood. They feel called to network. They feel called to a group. Whereas a disciple maker, it’s that person you’re working with, or that neighbor across the street; it’s usually more of an individual.  3. Jon explains the process of the Center for Pioneers. They have step one, step two, step three; we build relationships with districts and local churches. Those pastors go through a really simple module, called Building a Pioneer Pipeline. They learn kind of how to spot pioneers in their congregation. We work on kind of what that vision looks like. The pioneers that they find have to go through an application process. It’s not super hard, but it’s just, we want to have some references. We want to know these pioneers are connected to a local body, and have the spiritual ability to do this. They get accepted into the program. They enroll, and there’s then the Basic Training Module, which is the nine month, initial engagement. Goals and Desired Outcomes of Center for Pioneers Develop a tool “Characteristics of Effective Pioneers” to help pastors identify and select pioneers from their congregations. Establish a partnership with 50-100 pastors/churches that send pioneers to the Pioneer Training Center. Our goal is to train 100+ pioneers in the first year of training.    Develop 20 sessions of content (Pathwright and Zoom) that helps pioneers move from the “discover” to “develop” to “deploy” phases of ministry. Each online session will be half teaching and half interaction and coaching. Sessions would occur online every other week from September 2021-May 2022.  Mobilize at least 75% of pioneers to actively engaging a project in their community.  Provide in-person regional gatherings around the country with alumni and for the sharing of projects/testimonies/worship. Links:  groundswellmovement.net More of a reader? Download the transcription here. Key Quotes from the episode from Jon Wiest: “And we’re seeing, just as our culture continues to change over the last few years, this growing sense that if we don’t go and make disciples, if we just wait, so many groups of people are going to be missed.” (13:48) “So, part of this whole process is working with pastors to discern, “Who are the pioneers in your congregation? What’s your vision for the ministry? Do you have a vision for launching out multiple, like a network of micro churches? You have a vision for different pockets of outreach? Is it more of an urban vision, to do ministry in the city, and start outreach events?” That’s kind of the process we see.” (14:21) “So, look for people that oftentimes are not that happy with the...
FCP 11 | Steve Pike, Urban Islands Project
Jan 13 2022
FCP 11 | Steve Pike, Urban Islands Project
Seven years ago, Steve Pike was the founding leader of the Church Multiplication Network for the Assemblies of God. CMN was assisting the start up of about 400 new churches a year. The logical thing for him to do was to stay in that role and ride it out to retirement. However, his vantage point gave him a front row seat to the church’s general lack of missional intentionality to the residents of city neighborhoods. He sees the problem in a nutshell—as the density of the population goes up, the presence of the Church goes down. This should not be. How could we set in motion a need appropriate response to the missional need of our cities? Steve felt compelled to devote his entire attention toward “cracking the code” being the Church in the city. The journey led him to an unexpected discovery—cities are where the general culture is being created. If we can figure out how to be the vigorous church in the city, we unlock the keys to being the vigorous church of the future everywhere—dense urban neighborhoods, struggling public housing projects, first ring suburbs, forgotten rural communities and yes, even suburbs. Listen to Episode 11 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights: 1. Steve talks about how the conventional model of church planting doesn’t work everywhere. Steve noticed that conventional church planting didn’t work as well, or maybe not at all in the harder places and especially urban places. He felt troubled by this – particularly as urban populations were starting to grow. 2. Steve walks through his process of identifying and obeying God’s call to start Urban Islands Project Steve says he felt called to urban places, but he really took time to confirm God’s call, seek wise counsel from friends and associates, and pray together and separately with his wife. 3. Steve addresses the way church plants in urban areas can become sustainable outside of relying on tithes. Steve talks through different funding models and the importance of having a business plan in place in order to sustain a church plant three to five years out. Goals and Desired Outcomes of Urban Islands Project Complement sending organizations (denominations, networks, churches, etc.) who want to activate in hard urban places but are unsure how to proceed. Facilitate at least 10 cohorts per year. Identify emerging models that can serve as a framework/guideline for future church starters in similar contexts. Develop an online community of 1000+ individuals exploring or acting on a call to an urban place. Links:  urbanislandsproject.org More of a reader? Download the transcription here. Key Quotes from the episode from Steve Pike: “I started to see trends and something began to really trouble me. And that was the conventional approach, which I believe in. I’m not against starting churches, the way that it became sort of the dominant methodology back in the day, which was kind of the big launched model, go in, go strong. That was how we started most of the churches. But what I noticed was that that didn’t work as well, or maybe not at all in the harder places and especially urban places. And it was troubling to me at the same time that urban populations were starting to grow.” (3:28) “I think the big contrast is when you think of about the conventional approach to starting the church, it was based on some assumptions that are not generally present in an urban community or even a rural community. I mean, what we’re discovering, I’ve started calling it the hard places, the places where the conventional doesn’t work. And for the conventional to be effective, it requires a leader who’s able to lead that kind of an approach which it’s generally more complex. It requires a leader who’s wired a certain way.” (22:18) “It’s the three self church self-sustaining, self-governing, self propagating. That’s sort of the golden principle is like, that’s how you do a church.
FCP 10 | Ben Hardman, Kingdom Dreams Initiative
Jan 6 2022
FCP 10 | Ben Hardman, Kingdom Dreams Initiative
Is it possible that churches have spent the last twenty years teaching people and training pastors to think about missions, but failing to give them a process built to discover, develop, design, and deploy that mission. We don’t need new ideas, we need a change in production. We need updated factories that are capable of reproducing the dream already inside of each believer.  Ben Hardman and Kingdom Dreams Initiative trains pastors and entrepreneurs in that process. The Four Doors, a four part training for churches, helps implement a four step process to find the kingdom dream in the heart of every believer in a church. Not only does the process help articulate those dreams, but it will also turn those dreams into a plan, with a team ready for implementation.  Listen to Episode 10 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights: 1. Ben gives some background as to why he felt called to start Kingdom Dreams Initiative Ben says he feels called to “ways that we can wreck the roof to get people to Jesus.” So, out of Ephesians 2:10, there is a Kingdom assignment for every follower of Jesus. They have a passion for the priesthood of all believers, and activating and unleashing the Kingdom Dream that’s in the heart of every believer in the church. 2. Ben gives insight into the process that Kingdom Dreams Initiative uses They start with a six-month cohort/incubator every year, where they gather leaders and take them through all four parts of the Launch Sequence. Next, leaders walk through a design sprint that helps them launch their project. Then, they will do some online coaching with Ocean and gather once a month. Kingdom Dreams Initiative holds Launch Labs every month, where they bring in thought leaders from around the world, to help stir up inspiration and action. 3. Ben talks about the hope of having other churches create something similar Ben says it would make an impact if every church in America had an incubator, where they were raising up Kingdom leaders, to go out into the workforce to make a difference in the world. Goals and Desired Outcomes of Kingdom Dreams Initiative Launch 100 Dream Factory churches teaching and training in the dream factory methodology Watch thousands of new kingdom dreams launched in these communities 10 pastors and 10 entrepreneurs signed up for first official rounds of cohorts  Develop Hybrid coaching model for the pastor and entrepreneur with a busy life – In person coaching, video coaching and retreat model Links:  www.kingdomdreamsinitiative.com More of a reader? Download the transcription here. Key Quotes from the episode from Ben Hardman: “But, the idea is there’s a Kingdom Dream that’s unlocked inside of all of you and we want to help unleash and unlock that. And, get it out into the world.” (05:29) “The only way that I know how to make disciples is long obedience in the same direction and it’s to actually do the work. Often times, we think that discipleship is just cognitive, it’s just knowing. But, it actually is so much about doing, and it’s about learning along the way and action.” (09:44) “One of the things that’s been so fun for us, locally and here in the Grace family, is so many of our entrepreneurs and dreamers have just started saying things like, “I’ve never had the church care about what I do on my own time, apart from what I’m doing on Sunday. The invitation has always been to help me build the church, rather than you guys helping us build our dreams and helping us launch our things.” (11:27) “And, if we want to talk about a real exponential move of discipleship, man, start dreaming of what happens when every person in your congregation awakens to their dream and starts living into that calling.” (15:26) “I think scripture talks about it, “moving from glory to glory.” We move from one thing to another. I don’t think our Kingdom assignment is static and I don’t think it lasts for a lifetime.
FCP 9 | Jason Poling and Hybrid VR/In Real Life Church
Dec 15 2021
FCP 9 | Jason Poling and Hybrid VR/In Real Life Church
Jason Poling is creating the first hybrid Virtual Reality and In-Real-Life church. As he is learning how to do hybrid discipleship, he is paving a pathway for both digital and in-real-life disciples being together in the same trainings and experiences via Discord and Zoom. In the past year, God has enabled Jason and his team to plant 4 churches in 4 distinct Metaverse continents: AltspaceVR, VRChat, Discord, and Twitch. Listen to Episode 9 of the podcast and access the show notes below. Future Church Insights: 1. Jason explains what a VR Church is. He explains that the “Metaverse” is a new world with continents and different platforms. Sometimes it’s an on-line game, sometimes it’s a chat feature or streaming platform. He notes that there are a lot of unreached people and continents within the Metaverse that a VR Church is able to reach 2. Jason notes that people show up to VR Church because they want to connect, not to stay anonymous. He says that most people assume that the Metaverse is populated by people who don’t want real relationships or don’t want to connect. But, they have found the opposite to be true – people often attend the VR Church in more authentic ways than a traditional brick and mortar church. 3. The VR Church is able to reach unreached people. Jason points out that many who show up to the VR Church would never set foot in a traditional church. But, the VR Ch Goals and Desired Outcomes of Hybrid VR/In Real Life Church Reach more of the lost, Nones, Zer, Millennial yet-to-believers often found in abundance in the Metaverse by planting church communities on all “continents”. Develop creative and relevant, yet biblical and historical, methods for discipling and deploying new believers from the Metaverse. Connect Metaverse and IRL believers in a genuine “hybrid” community of Christians for mutual encouragement and missional efforts. Links:  cornerstoneyc.com More of a reader? Download the transcription here. Key Quotes from the episode from Jason Poling: “I have shared the gospel over my time as a minister and I love sharing, but I have shared the gospel more in this last year and a half in the Metaverse than maybe I have in my ministry.” (16:31) “I mean, and the thing is because this is anonymous, a lot of people… And “”it’s low threat. So when you come to a brick and mortar church, if you’re not a believer, it’s threatening, it’s nerve wracking. They’re not stuck in a building. And so I think that allows a lot of people to come. So we’ve had satanists, we’ve had new age people with Wickens, we’ve had a Muslims, we’ve had the gamut.” (17:33) “And we’re on this together, reaching all worlds for Jesus…And what’s also too is, we do want to see people get involved in IRL ministry too so a number of them, they came to the VR church and because it was safer, they didn’t understand, they were nervous to go, but anyway, through this, they’ve got an exposure church saying, wow, church is beautiful. I love this.” (31:26)