Planting Space

I watched about 20 minutes of American Idol last night. I was struck by the similarities between the show and church planting assessment. Randy, Paula and Simon use their expertise to tell self-diluted idol hopefuls that they do or don’t have what it takes to be a pop star. Assessment is sort [...]

Mark your calendar now for the Externally Focused Church Conference on May 5-6, 2008 in Longmont (near Denver), CO. Click for details…

newchurches news

Passion for Planting and NewChurches.com are excited to be two of several sponsors of a first-of-its-kind conference for church planters, pastors and ministry leaders in Reston, VA, called The Whiteboard Sessions. This one day event on Thursday, May 22, 2008 will feature eight influential ministry leaders who will present one compelling [...]

A frequently asked question I get from church planters is, “How can I accept online payments from supporters?” There are several services out there that provide online payment opinions. The problem is these services all want to take their cut. The best solution that I’ve found is to use Paypal. It [...]

Ed Stetzer has recently blogged about a bunch of newly released research on the unchurched. Read more here…
newchurches news

A great book we have been reading and sharing thoughts about here in the office is the Starfish and the Spider- the Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations (Brafman & Beckstrom 2006). It’s humorously and insightfully written and chock full of application for church planting.
One essential element of a decentralized organization cited is the Catalyst, someone [...]

Home Owners Association (HOA) newsletters can be a great place to advertise. Most HOAs use outside printers such as Kinkos to print their newsletters and have volunteers distribute them in the neighborhood. Consider offering to print and fold the newsletters for free on the church machine in exchange for including an insert about [...]

It’s that time of year when churches are putting together tax receipts for their donors. You should honor all of your donors by providing receipts for their donations so they can receive the IRS tax benefit of giving to a charitable organization.
Donors are required to show proof of their donations to the IRS in [...]

The speaker line-up at Exponential just keeps getting better. Rick Warren of Saddleback Community Church has been added to the official speakers list. Check it out!
newchurches news

There is so much to do in so little time when you’re planting a church that it may seem like a sprint to the launch date. When you’re out there getting it done, it can be easy to forget there is something that is supposed to happen after the launch. Hammering out all the details [...]