Top 3 Characteristics of a Church Planter

From Acts 29:

Acts 29 church planters were surveyed on 10 qualifications of a church planter and 60 microskills. I wrote a blog that detailed these characteristics more fully.

The top three characteristics are (in order):

1. Spiritual Vitality
2. Strong Marriage & Family Life
3. Theological Clarity

The top three microskills from those surveyed:

1. He gives evidence of a personal relationship with Jesus and a transformed life. (Spiritual Vitality)
2. He models a lifestyle of following Jesus. (Spiritual Vitality)
3. He professes healthy sexual relationship and purity in his marriage. (Strong Marriage & Family Life)

What do you think, would you add any others?

Confessions

If you are a church planter or ministry leader I highly recommend watching or listening to this sermon from Darrin Patrick Teaching Pastor at The Journey Church in St. Louis, MO. Lauren and I watched it last night and it was convicting and eye opening to me as I lead out The Well and look towards one day church planting.

Click Here to Watch or Listen

Click Here to Learn More about The Journey Church in STL, I have been there it is a great church.

Revitalizing a Church

J.D. Greer over at Resurgence has posted some great points and thoughts about how to revitalize your church. And I think what he means by revitalize is good and needed, it has less to do with how to pack people in rather more to do with how to make disciples. You know, making disciples, kinda the main mission of the church this side of heaven.

Click Here to see all 4 parts

Driscoll on "The End of Christian America"

Mark Driscoll pastor of Mars Hill Church will be at City on a Hill soon to be Mars Hill Albuquerque tonight at 7pm discussing church unity in Albuquerque for he cause of Christ, as well as preaching on Sunday (11am and 7pm).
We are planning to get a group to head over there Sunday night at 7pm if you would like to come.

Below is a great article from Fox News from Pastor Mark about the Newsweek issue that proclaimed the end of America being a "christian nation".

Here is a quote:

Has Christian America come to an end? That question has been hotly debated since Newsweek published their recent feature story reporting that the number of Americans claiming no religious affiliation has nearly doubled since 1990. Additionally, the percentage of self-identified Christians has dropped ten points in the past two decades.

As an evangelical pastor with one of America’s fastest-growing churches in one of its least churched cities, I do not find the report surprising or discouraging. Newsweek missed the subtle — but vital — difference between Christian America and Christendom America.

Click Here for the rest of Driscoll's comments

Mark Driscoll-iPod Idol

Mark Driscoll pastor of Mars Hill Church will be at City on a Hill soon to be Mars Hill Albuquerque this Friday (7pm) discussing church unity in Albuquerque for he cause of Christ, as well as preaching on Sunday (11am and 7pm).
We are planning to get a group to head over there Sunday night at 7pm if you would like to come.

Check out Pastor Mark's wisdom on how not to use your iPod as a time to show the world how good or bad you can sing. (Although anytime you wanna rock out to Journey I say go for it!)

Mark Driscoll-Don't Be Google For God

Mark Driscoll pastor of Mars Hill Church will be at City on a Hill soon to be Mars Hill Albuquerque this Friday (7pm), and Sunday (11am and 7pm).
We are planning to get a group to head over there Sunday night at 7pm if you would like to come.

Below Mark shares about what to do when people ask tough questions about God, and how to be able to say "I don't know, but I'll find one", and actually doing the research.

Mark Driscoll on Charles Spurgeon

Mark Driscoll pastor of Mars Hill Church will be at City on a Hill soon to be Mars Hill Albuquerque this Friday (7pm), and Sunday (11am and 7pm).
We are planning to get a group to head over there Sunday night at 7pm if you would like to come.

Below is a excerpt about Mark's personal hero (other than Jesus) Charles Spurgeon.

The Gospel For ABQ-UNM

From Church Planting Novice:

I was recently asked to write up an explanation of the “good news” for a newspaper as a part of JR Woodward’s Good News Series. I wrote up a contextualized expression of the gospel for Austin, the gospel for my city. I’ve also submitted it to our local paper. This is a good exercise for all church planters. Thanks to JR for stimulating this good line of thinking. I hope you’ll do something similar for your local newspaper.

Jonathan Dodson gives us something very important to think through. How does the Gospel speak to our city? How would you explain it to a student at UNM, CNM or a young adult at Starbucks?

Big News From City On A Hill

City on a Hill today announced some rather big news. City on a Hill's Lead Pastor Dave Bruskas is a dear friend, and I am really excited for them. In the coming school year The Well looks forward to teaming up with City on a Hill which will be a Mars Hill campus to reach UNM and CNM in new and exciting ways.

Greater things are yet to be done...

From Mars Hills Blog:

At today’s services, Pastor Mark is making a few significant announcements, including news of multiple Mars Hill pastors preparing to start new churches, and multiple new Mars Hill campuses in the works. The latter includes our first out-of-state campus in New Mexico.

This summer, City on a Hill Church in Albuquerque will become a Mars Hill campus. We will partner together in an effort to reach as many people as possible with the gospel of Jesus. Over the past three months, the Executive Elders of Mars Hill and the pastors of City on a Hill have spent many hours in discussion, prayer, and study in order to reach this unanimous decision.

Dave Bruskas is the lead pastor at City on a Hill, which has been a part of the Acts 29 Networksince 2007. He is a proven, seasoned pastor and a gifted teacher. He is a loving husband, and a devoted father to his four daughters. Dave will be the Albuquerque campus pastor and serve as a regional director for both Acts 29 and Mars Hill, starting new campuses, starting new churches, and continuing to lead the local congregation.

The transition from City on a Hill to Mars Hill Church will be official in the next few months, and the new campus will celebrate its grand opening this fall. In the meantime, the local leadership will help shepherd the congregation through the transition, and Mars Hill pastors will spend some time onsite to provide training and fellowship as we get better acquainted with this new extension of our church family (for example, Tim Smith, our lead worship pastor, will visit next weekend, and Pastor Mark will preach live at City on a Hill on May 24).

Please pray for our brothers and sisters in Albuquerque, and the work God has called them to lead in their city and region. We are encouraged by their faithfulness to the local mission, and it is an honor to come alongside them in the cause of the gospel.

As we follow Jesus across state lines, none of us know quite what to expect. But we trust him, we love him, and we want people to know him. We are incredibly excited to see him bring unity and fruit within the body of Christ, and salvation and new life throughout the world.

Visit MarsHillGlobal.com and subscribe to the newsletter for more updates related to new campuses, training opportunities, and resources to serve the greater church

Click here to learn more about Mars Hill Church.