Over the last week, I have had the privilege to speak at three different denominations, Grace Communion International (formerly the Worldwide Church of God), The General Baptist Association of General Baptists, and the United Methodists. The first two involved, but were not solely focused on, church planting. Yesterday, I shared church planting research with the United Methodist leadership.

I indicated that I would post my presentations today so that some of the participants could download the research. Also, others interested in church planting might find the presentations helpful.

The "State of Church Planting" reports I referred to yesterday are listed below for your convenience. You can download them from the Leadership Network website at the links below.

The Christian Post reported on the research.

If you haven't seen them already, check out:

Church Planting Overview
Funding New Churches
Improving the Health and Survivability of New Churches
Who Starts New Churches?

You can also access all the Leadership Network downloads at www.leadnet.org/churchplanting.

The NAMB research I mentioned was done at the Center for Missional Research.

You can download a presentation of that study here

You can also find my presentation of the best practices research that I recently gave at the NAMB State Summer Leadership Conference. It is a big download, but you can get it here.

In that presentation, I combined the presentations of 4 denominational leaders who shared their best practices in the areas we found statistically significant. Each network or denominational leader presented their overall church planting system, then presented their specific best practice as determined by our research. Each of them gave their permission to share their presentation. The presenters were:

Steve Childers presented the Presbyterian Church in America assessment system.
Rod Koop presented the Foursquare peer support / mentoring system.
George Klippenes presented the Evangelical Free team approach and funding system.

Steve Pike presented the Assemblies of God community minsitry approach.
Tom Nebel and Gary Rohrmayer presented the Baptist General Conference training for local church giving.

I hope they are a help!

Today I am flying from Santa Fe, NM to Orlando, Florida, to speak tomorrow at Grace Communion International's 2010 International Conference. Most of you would know it as the former Worldwide Church of God (hence the title). They have recently changed their name to better reflect who they are. I think their story is worth telling as they have become renewed in Christ in amazing ways.

Appropriately, the theme of the meeting is "GCI: Renewed in Christ." This is particularly exciting, given the history of this denomination.

Grace Communion International was formerly known as the Worldwide Church of God, and was considered by many to hold to unorthodox teachings, but in the late 1980s, they began a process of doctrinal reform on a large scale, and essentially transformed into an evangelical denomination. They also joined the National Association of Evangelicals.

In 2009 they changed their name to Grace Communion International, to better reflect who they are and what they teach. You can read their story on Wikipedia here and on their own website here.

They describe their journey this way:

Jesus Christ changes lives. He can change an organization, too. This is the story of how the Lord changed our denomination from an unorthodox church on the fringes of Christianity, into an evangelical group that believes and teaches orthodox doctrines. The story involves both pain and joy. Thousands of members left the church. Income is less than one fourth of what it once was. But thousands of members are rejoicing with renewed zeal for their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Living Hope Video Ministries made a documentary about GCI entitled "Called to Be Free." If you haven't seen it, check out this great story of the grace of the Gospel.

I will be doing two main sessions and two breakouts and I plan to make much of Jesus and His mission.

Recently, I spoke at the Church of God Triennial meeting in Decatur, IL. One of the things I talked about was my belief that there is no such thing as "the gift of evangelism." Part of my concern is that I hear many people saying they don't have the "gift of evangelism" and thus believing it is not their responsibility to do evangelism (since they don't have the "gift"). And, since evangelism can be a challenge at times, that seems to be a "gift" that people don't want.

In the mid-90s, a well-known leader who created a "spiritual gifts test," told me that about 10% of people have the gift of evangelism. Yet, that number seems to be on decline. Barna recently released research saying, "Among the interesting facets of the research was that just 1% of believers claim to have the gift of evangelism (down from 4% five years ago)."

Hmmmmm.

I don't think this means there is a widespread growing realization that no one has the gift of evangelism. My best guess is that it is because people are talking themselves out of their obligation to do evangelism.

I think that the current challenge of evangelism is why an increasing number of people do not think they have the gift.

Here are four proposals I made at that meeting.

1. All believers are given the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18). That is, their role is to be agents of reconciliation and share how men and women are to be redeemed and changed by the power of the gospel.

2. Timothy was called to do his work in evangelistic ways (2 Timothy 4:5) but based on the fact that all are called to present the gospel of reconciliation, it makes sense that we can heed that admonition in all our lives. Thus, I encourage pastors to do ministry in evangelistic ways, but particularly church leaders (since Timothy was a church leader). Like in 1 Timothy 3, leaders are almost always commanded to do the things believers do-- just more so.

3. The church is gifted with evangelists (Eph. 4:11) who help us be faithful doing evangelism. We should talk more about the gifted people called evangelists.

4. It is unhelpful to refer to evangelism as a gift because it removes the responsibility of all believers. In other words, many think that if they don't have the gift, it is not their job. Evangelism is not a "gift," it is a call to all believers.

What do you think?

The source of this data is from the Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches that Reach Them. When we did the original research for the book we knew we needed to include Canadian data. Why? For three reasons:

1. We did this with the North American Mission Board and, contrary to some maps you might see (where the U.S. is an island), Canada is part of North America.
2. We wanted to ask the North American question and not just the U.S. question.
3. My wife is Canadian. ;-)

Exponential 2010 was, as always, the church planting experience.

I led a church planting pre-conference for network and denominational leaders. I told them I would post the notes but then ended up with some other blog stories.

My apologies.

You can you can download my presentation as well as three others below.

Ed Stetzer - Working with Church Planters (PPT)

Steve Childers - The Main Thing (PDF)

Gary Rohrmayer - Finishing Well (PPT)

Rod Koop - Missional Coaching (PPT)

And, here is the video that Steve Childers showed-- a powerful example of the importance of family. (By the way, you can find this and more information from Steve at the Global Church Advancement website.)

Here is some information about our next meeting of the Church Planting Leaders Fellowship. (Here is info about our last meeting.)

The first meeting of the Church Planting Leadership Fellowship for 2010 is set for August 16-17 at LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, TN.

All of the speakers have not yet been confirmed - but the two main topics of the meeting have been determined. They will be:

1. Models of "Apostolic Harvest" Church Planting. We'll take a look at historic, Biblical, and current models. I have already started the discussion on an recent blog post.

2. Urban Church Planting. We'll hear what Stephen Gray has to say on this subject - as well as receive a report from a LifeWay Research project on urban church planting.

For those or you not familiar with the CPLF: It's a group of leaders from church planting organizations interested in peer learning. The group meets in August and November of each year. I mentioned CPLF in a couple of 2009 blog posts: here and here.

The current membership roster consists of 37 participating organizations representing 22 different denominations. Any organizations interested in obtaining more information about CPLF should contact Clark Logan.

We had a good time yesterday in Talladega, AL. If you follow on Twitter, you would have enjoyed the extra level of fun. ;-)

While in Talladega, I spoke to the Woman's Missionary Union national leadership, state presidents, and executive directors on "Unpacking the 21st Century Church." Speaking for two hours after lunch can be a tough time slot(!), but we had a great time.

While there, I saw a picture that just had to be shared. It was so good that I pulled over on the side of the road with our Two Rivers team (they road with me while we planned) and took the picture.

Enjoy:

It seems like a random connection until you think about the mouse. It made me smile.

Anyway, this week is another week at home. I could get use to these. And, if you follow on Twitter, Facebook, or read the blog, you will notice that I am traveling less this year than I did in 2009. I am trying to spend more time at home and at LifeWay. Last year, I spoke at about sixty different events. This year it will be forty or so. Next year, it will be about thirty.

But, I do appreciate that many of you pray for me while I travel and will always use the weekend blog to update on my journeys.

Next week, I take a quick trip to Los Angeles for some meetings at Saddleback and with the Foursquare leadership (no public speaking events) and then back home.

The next time I speak on the road looks like this:

Chattanooga, TN (January 29, 2010)
Conclave, a training event for youth pastors. (We might do something with church planters while I am there... stay tuned.)

Jacksonville Pastors Conference (January 30, 2010)
The Jacksonville Pastors Conference has a long and powerful history in my denomination. Their theme this year is navigating ministry in uncharted waters (and be sure to check out the website for some well-done videos about their theme).

Johnson Ferry Baptist Church (January 31, 2010)
I will be preaching all the Sunday morning services at Johnson Ferry and then leading their leadership training that evening.

And, looking ahead into February, I will be speaking at the Verge Missional Communities Conference. I am the guy on page 3 next to George Patterson (someone that you might not know but need to hear).

See you on the road...

Here is my travel for the next couple of weeks. Thanks for praying for me and I hope to see you on the road.

The National Outreach Convention is this Wednesday - Friday in San Diego, CA. This isn't just a big conference (but it is crazy big), it also features a very diverse line up with some very solid guys. I know I'll see a number of you there.

On the 8th I'm preaching at Harpeth Community Church in Franklin.

On the 9th I'm joining some brothers at the TN Baptist Pastors Conference where we'll focus on the Kingdom of God.

On the 10th I'm with friends at the Acts 29 Bootcamp/Conference "Ambition" at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville, KY.

On the 11th I'm speaking at the Great Commission Research Network Conference

On the 12th, I will also be preaching at the NOBTS Chapel and doing a dialogue after with the students.

...and then I'm off to Seattle (See part 1)

In the next week I'm speaking to people about a variety of subjects at gatherings that are pretty different from one another. Here's the rundown.

This morning, I spoke at the Together for Adoption conference in Franklin, TN at Christ Community Church. It was a great conference... very convicting. I spoke on "The Gospel and Social Justice." That talk should be up on line soon.

On Sunday I'm preaching at Grace Nazarene church in Nashville. Ken Dove is the pastor (and, you have to admit, that is a pretty great name for a pastor).

Then on Tuesday the 6th I'll participate at the Southern Baptists, Evangelicals and the Future of Denominationalism at Union University, Jackson, TN. This is an issue I have addressed before from various angles (here and here for example) and am looking forward to this dialog. I will be presenting a paper that is, as of now, 37 pages. I will probably need to trim that down! My understanding is that they will be live streaming my talk and will tweet that when I have details.

The week will wrap up in Duluth, GA at Catalyst 2009. This is always a great event with a diverse group of speakers and thousands in attendance. And they have a pretty snappy website. Check it out.

I will be speaking in the church planting track on Wednesday, being interviewed at the VERY early "Red Carpet Experience" on Thursday, and speaking from the main stage on Friday.

Hope to see you this week. Please be praying that I might make much of Jesus and his mission.

Earlier today, I was one of 70 leaders who shared an idea or ideas (in 9 short minutes!) at The NINES. I streamed the presentations here at my blog and there was a robust discussion in the blog comments. As I hoped, there was good discussion around theology, mission, and ministry.

Now that the program has ended, I am sharing my presentation here at the blog.

Ed Stetzer - The 9s from LifeWay on Vimeo.

Here is my outline:

Mission, Self, and God's Mission

Mission is the opposite of self. We have to remember to make it about God and not about us.

Even pastors struggle with the reality that the heart is an idol factory. Your heart is an "Idol Factory" constantly creating things other than God to worship.

We must resist the pull of idols and live the mission-- to make it about God's Glory and His agenda.

We pastors too often consider ourselves as "religious professionals who can put on a show" rather than people transformed and sent on mission.

1. Those on mission focus on God's glory and His agenda
(Isaiah 6:1-8).

2. Those on mission reflect being with God
(2 Corinthans 3:16-18).

Trying to get people on mission who haven't been transformed by the gospel is a fool's errand.

3. Those on mission no longer live for themselves
(2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

It's not about thinking less of you; it's about thinking of you less.

I hope it is an encouragement to you.

The broadcast has ended, but you can still read through the comments.

I have written about the upcoming broadcast of "The NINES." The event has generated significant interest, prompting the Christian Post to headline, "Church Leaders Abuzz About Virtual Conference." I am one of the 75 presenters, but the mix of speakers should make for some interesting dialogue and, I am guessing, some debate.

Here is the promo video:

I will be streaming the event live at the blog. I (and others at other blogs) will be dialoging about what we see and hear-- so watch the comments.

I am guessing that there will be much with which you/we agree, but there will be open conversation here about what we disagree as well. in other words, the blog will be an "open mike" around the ideas presented. And, I would love to hear your voice.

So, here's what to do:

1. Register.
2. Come by tomorrow at 9/9/09 9a.m. central time to watch the live webcast.
3. Let's talk about it in the comment stream. I'll be here.

See you tomorrow.

Just one event this week... but it is BIG.

It is called "The Nines."

9/9/09 at... well... you guessed it, 9:09:09.

Every speaker in the world will be there as well as 6 billion attendees. (Actually, it is 70 speakers and over 6000 registrants so far, but that seems like a lot to me!)

It's on-line and free, but you have to register. And, they promise me the web streaming will work-- but we will see. ;-)

This fall, I will be again presenting research at the Catalyst Conference main stage. The theme of Catalyst this year is built around the idea of "making a mark" and is tied in to the 10-year anniversary of Catalyst.

I would like to get your feedback about the questions we should ask in a survey of 1000 Protestant pastors. Here are some ideas we have-- help us to think of more or to make these questions better. If you could ask 5-10 questions of 1000 pastors that would help understand their views of leadership, the future, and making their mark, what would they be?

Here are some of our thoughts. As you can tell from the numbering they are part of a larger survey.

Here is the video from my discussion with Mike Harland about worship, relevance, and reverence. Thanks to the folks at LifeWayWorship.com for inviting me.

Reverence vs Relevance from LifeWay Productions on Vimeo.

Feel free to interact in the comments and give us your thoughts.

I hope to see you on the web today at 2p.m. CDT for a live event.

Over 1000 people have signed up-- and you need to register to participate.

Yesterday, we finished up a meeting in Nashville with denominational leaders from over 20 denominations. More than half of the churches planted in the U.S. each year were affiliated with the denominations represented in the room.

You might find my opening words of some interest. In some ways, they relate to comments I made at the Advance09 panel.

It is a bad idea theologically, with bad results historically, for us to partner and jointly plant churches. But, it is a bad stewardship and irresponsible missiology for us not to find ways to learn from each other.

When it comes to church planting, it is not really the same as evangelism. In church planting, we need to plant our own gardens. But, we will consider this an agricultural co-op where we learn to do it better by learning from one another.

So, that is why we are here: to learn and share best practices with other Christian denominational leaders committed to plant churches.

We had a great meeting with much helpful interaction.

Here are the presentations that each of the speakers shared:

Ed Stetzer (LifeWay Research), The State of Church Multiplication and the Causes that Hinder It (no PowerPoint)
Thom Rainer (LifeWay Christian Resources), Twelve Axioms for Leading a Christian Organization
Ron Sylvia (Next Coaching Networks), Church Planting Coaching Networks
Larry McCrary (The Upstream Collective), Creating Church Planting Recruitment Systems for Denominations
Steve Pike (Assemblies of God), Influencing Your Denomination for Church Planting
Bob Harrington (Church Coaching Solutions), Understanding and Harnessing Networks: Part 1, Part 2
Chris Conrad (Wesleyan), Church Planting Assessment (no PowerPoint)

We are also undertaking two research projects with different denominations participating in each. One will focus on urban church planting and the other is on church planting assessment. Drop a comment below if you are interested in being a part of either one.

This meeting is the beginning of our leaders fellowship that will meet three times a year: November 18-19 is the next meeting. This is not an open meeting, but if you are the denominational head of church planting, you can leave a comment here and we will send you a network application. (Feel free to email this page to others who you think might be interested.)

Here is a pic from our first meeting (courtesy of Ron Sylvia).

We look forward to more to come.

In May, I put together three videos with my friends from the Oklahoma convention on the topic of missional communities. The convention is using these videos as part of a training strategy for small group leaders. It's called the "One Day Initiative." For most churches, the health of small groups determines the health of the church as a whole.

Here is the video the churches are using for this initiative:

Missional Small Communities from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

So far 273 churches in Oklahoma signed on. Bob Mayfield developed Oklahoma's plan to de-centralize the training process for small group leaders and put missional leadership materials directly into the hands of the local church. They believe that a church can equip more of its members locally than by taking them to big events that are long distances away. Bob sent me some comments they are already receiving, even though the initiative is less than a week old. Here's one example:

The general session began with hearing Ed Stetzer on video sharing about Missional Leadership. It really fired-up our people in attendance and for some I believe it was a life-changing message... Ed brought a fresh perspective about what a class could be and our folks loved it. The support materials that you (Bob) and your team put together are great, and we needed the breakout times after the video to digest what we heard and explore the materials. Scott Badgett, Associate Pastor at Chisholm Heights Church in Mustang, OK

Badgett also noted that they typically take about 6 people to an annual regional training event, but had 93 attend the One Day seminar in their church. Check here for some blogs that have been made about One Day.

That BGCO has made all three of the One Day videos available at their cost on a two disc DVD set (which also includes 3 music videos and 4 promo videos) for only $10.00. You can order them at www.bgco.org/oneday.

My "Saturday is for Seminars" is late, so we will rename and post it now!

This Thursday I'm speaking in Charleston, SC at another Connect Conference (I blogged about it earlier). Check out the website for more information and to register. I hope to see you Sunday!

Looking a bit farther down the road in September I'm participating in THE NINES, a very exciting one day event for church staff members who are looking to develop their leadership skills. Why "The Nines?" It's going down on 9/9/09 and... well let me pull it from the website.

Hit the website for the rest of the details.

Here is one more "Saturday is for Seminars" that is posted on Sunday.

Take a look at this video:

Connect Conferences: Reaching and Keeping Young Adults

This fall I will be participating in a series of Connect Conferences around the country. These unique gatherings provide a focused discussion about reaching and keeping young adults. Our hope is to provide an intimate opportunity for key leaders to:

• learn more about young adults


• understand some of the many reasons why they leave the church


• network with other leaders in your area


• walk away with practical, promising next steps for ministry

Thom Rainer, Sam Rainer, Jason Hayes, and I will be speaking at the majority of these events. In addition, other speakers include Mark Batterson, Michael Kelley, Heather Zempel, Tim Miller, Jen Hatmaker, Adam Thomason, and more.

Go HERE to learn more about these gatherings and to see who will be in a city near you.

Atlanta, GA - August 13-14, 2009
Nashville, TN - August 20-21, 2009
Charleston, SC - August 27-28, 2009
Washington, DC - September 17-18, 2009
Shreveport, LA - September 24-25, 2009

Hope to see you at one of the Connect Conferences.

Last week, I posted video from the Assemblies of God on church revitalization. Today, I have some video from the Kentucky Baptist Convention on the same subject (but with a different format).

In this case, my friend of many years, Alan Witham, asked if I would present our findings in several short videos to be used in their state convention. They created a "Comeback Process" described as follows:

Based on the book, Comeback Churches: How 300 Churches Turned Around and Yours Can Too by Ed Stetzer and Mike Dodson, the Kentucky Baptist Convention has developed a Comeback Church Process to give direction to weakened churches seeking to make a comeback.

Is your church in need of a comeback?

Process Goals

• To provide good information to church leaders


• To help them with application of the principles


• To see transformation in that results in church health and growth.

Process Details
Leaders of churches who commit to the Comeback Church process will be guided in growth in five key areas:

1. Leadership

2. Vibrant faith (renewed beliefs in Jesus Christ and the mission of the church, servanthood and strategic prayer)

3. Meaningful and active ministries for laypeople

4. Intentional evangelistic efforts

5. "Celebrative" and "orderly" mood of worship

Opportunities for growth include individual consultations, seminars, evaluations, networking, coaching and strategic planning.

For More Information
If your church is interested in the Comeback Church Process, please contact our Church Development Team Office at 502-489-3571 or 866-489-3571 (toll free in KY), or e-mail us at churchdevelopment@kybaptist.org.

Each of the five areas above included the video segments I recorded on each topic. They are included below.

We shot the videos in the library at LifeWay, but somehow copies of my books were mistakenly placed in the background. ;-)

Part A: Introduction

Comeback Church part A- Introduction from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

Part 1: Visional Leadership

Comeback Church part 2- Visional Leadership from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

Part 2: Intentional Evangelism

Comeback Church part 2- Intentional Evangelism from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

Part 3: Lay Mobilization

Comeback Church part 3- Lay Mobilization from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

Part 4: Celebrative Worship

Comeback Church part 4- Celebrative Worship from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

Part 5: Renewed Focus on Jesus and His Mission

Comeback Church part 5- Renewed Focus on Jesus and His Mission from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

Thanks to the KBC for making these available.