A powerful video here from Darrin Patrick and Re:Lit related to the new book Church Planter:

More info on the book—including a related Acts29 boot camp—here. Here are a few blurbs from pastors about the book:

“Darrin Patrick has done an amazing job detailing out what we are called to not only as church planters but as pastors and men of God. Whether you are considering planting a church or have been a pastor for decades I couldn’t more highly recommend this book to you.”

—Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor, The Village Church, Highland Village, Texas

“Now here is a clever idea—ask an experienced church-planting pastor how church planting should be done. In Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission by Darrin Patrick, an experienced church planter speaks from deep theological conviction, pastoral experience, and missiological vision. Church planting is one of the most important movements of our era—and one that follows the pattern set by the apostles. This book will be welcomed by all who celebrate the renaissance of church planting in this generation.”
—R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“I like being pushed, and Darrin Patrick is a careful thinker and a hard-working pastor. Here he has written a clear, carefully considered, well-illustrated introduction to the pastor and his ministry. In reading it, I’ve been challenged, provoked and encouraged. I disagree with some things, like Darrin’s correlation between the resurrection of Christ and the transformation of cities, but this book has been exciting and helpful and I appreciate a great deal. I happily commend this book to you, and pray that God will use it to help establish churches that take the gospel of Christ to the end of the world.”
—Mark Dever, Pastor, Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington DC; President, 9Marks

“Darrin Patrick is a friend to church planters. He is widely known as a strong leader and good thinker in church planting today. In this book, Darrin brings together his biblical understanding, theological insight, and pastoral wisdom on what it takes to plant a missional church. For those who are planting or thinking about it, this book will help you to see if you are prepared—with the message and for the mission.”
—Ed Stetzer, President, LifeWay Research

“Church Planter: The Man, the Message, and the Mission is a superb work. Darren Patrick combines the mind of a careful theologian, the heart of a compassionate pastor, and the passion of a missional Christian. As someone heavily invested in training church planters in a seminary, this will be a must-read for those we teach and send out to penetrate lostness in the unreached and underserved cities of our nation and the world. Thank you Darren for this labor of love. You have rendered a valuable service to the body of Christ.”
—Daniel L. Akin, President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

“Church Planter comes from the heart of a real man sharing the real gospel from real experience leading Christ’s church. Powerful, helpful, hopeful!”
—Bryan Chapell, President, Covenant Theological Seminary

“If you are called to church planting, Darrin Patrick gets you. More importantly, he understands what it takes to connect you to the gospel, the gospel to the church, and the church to the mission. This book is packed with insight; it’s a boot-camp-in-print. If God has enlisted you, then read it and let the training begin!”
—Dave Harvey, church care and church planting, Sovereign Grace Ministries

“Darrin Patrick gets ministry. He understands it’s not a career for those of us trying to do something for God. It’s a calling that can only be fulfilled faithfully when built upon the foundation of scriptural norms. This is not only a great book for anyone involved in church planting—it’s also a great book for anyone involved in pastoral ministry. It will help you (and your team) keep your life, message, and mission aligned with God’s vision and calling.”
—Larry Osborne, Pastor and Author, North Coast Church, Vista, CA

“If I were beginning the journey of starting a church, and I could only choose two books to take with me. They would be the Bible, and Church Planter by Darrin Patrick.”
—Matt Carter, Lead Pastor, The Austin Stone Community Church, Austin, Texas

“This book is a weapon. Church Planter is one of the more important pieces of equipment that a church planter (or a man aspiring to any level of church leadership) can own. Darrin Patrick writes out of biblical conviction and proven experience, not preference or pragmatics. I trust Darrin. I trust what he’s written here. I hope this book is placed in the hands of men all over the world.”
—Justin Buzzard, Pastor, Central Peninsula Church, San Francisco Bay Area; author, BuzzardBlog.com

“Darrin does a great job describing the challenges of planting and directing the planter toward gospel solutions. Whether you’re in the midst of planting or thinking about planting page 25 alone is worth the cost of the book.”
—Eric Simmons, Pastor, Redeemer Church of Arlington, Arlington, VA

To graphically illustrate that we, those who have been redeemed by Christ and put their hope and trust in Him, are the Church.

(via Sojourn Church)

Darrin Patrick writes:

We live in a world full of males who have prolonged their adolescence.

They are neither boys nor men. They live suspended between childhood and adulthood, between growing up and being a grown-up.

Let’s call this kind of male Ban, a hybrid of both man and boy. This kind of male is everywhere, including the church and even vocational ministry.

Neither Boys Nor Men

Ban is a frightening reality in the church, but he is the best thing that ever happened to the video game and porn industries.

• Half of American males between the ages of 18 to 34 play video games every day—for almost 3 hours.
• The average video game buyer is 35 years old.
• Every second, $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography, 28,258 Internet users view pornography, and 372 Internet users type adult search terms into search engines.
• To no one’s surprise, men make up nearly 75% of Internet pornography traffic.

He continues…

I have a son, Drew, and because of my keen awareness of and pastoral interaction with Bans, I know that my work is cut out for me when it comes to raising a godly man. I recently wrote a little prayer that reflects the kind of men we need. Drew and I pray this prayer together almost every night, for him and for me.

“God, make me a man with thick skin and a soft heart. Make me a man who is tough and tender. Make me tough so I can handle life. Make me tender so I can love people. God, make me a man.”

The Man, the Message, the Mission

The lack of godly men in our world is now a cultural crisis. We are not going to solve the problem by ignoring Ban and hoping that he eventually grows up. We are not going to solve the problem by encouraging women to take up the slack.

We might solve the problem by modeling biblical manhood and calling adult boys to forsake their youthful lusts and become the men that God is calling them to be.

We have Bans in our city, our neighborhoods, our churches, and our families. Ban needs godly men and women to show him that there is more to life than what he is currently experiencing. Ban needs to be more than just a male. He needs to be becoming God’s man who is being transformed by God’s gospel message and is wholeheartedly pursuing God’s mission.

Live Simulcast event tonight featuring Francis Chan and being hosted by Reggie Joiner called, “BASIC. FEAR GOD”. (Tuesday June 29- 6pm Central)

Trends come and go in our culture and the church seems to follow. Francis Chan will spend time tonight speaking about the church. Francis puts it this way:

“If I only had this as my guide… if all I had was the Bible… and I was to read this book and then start a ‘church’ what would it look like? Would it look like the thing that we’ve built here and all refer to as church? Or would it look radically different?”

BASIC is a seven part series of short films featuring Francis Chan – from Flannel, the award winning creators of the NOOMA film series – that challenge us to reclaim the church as Scripture describes it to be. This series will speak to those who have questions about the church and to those who may have lost interest in the church.

Here is the trailer for the first of many Francis Chan’s BASIC videos.

Join in to watch the Live Simulcast Event, Tuesday June 29- 6pm Central.
http://live.basicseries.com/

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At the recent Advance the Church Conference in Raleigh, NC, Acts 29 pastor, Dustin Neely, sat down to talk with David Platt, Pastor of the Church of Brook Hills in Birmingham, AL and author of Radical.

In part two of this conversation, David shares about the intersection of Jesus’ call to the nations and the “American Dream.”

In another part of the conversation, David shares his thoughts about the spiritual landscape of the South, his counsel for younger leaders, and his “one thing” for pastors.

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Russell Moore:

Some Christians rattle on and on about “The Family” while neglecting their kids.

Some Christians “fight” for “social justice” by “raising consciousness” about “The Poor” while judging their friends on how trendy their clothes are.

Some Christians pontificate about “The Church” while rolling their eyes at the people in their actual congregations.

Some Christians are dogmatic about “The Truth” while they’re self-deceived about their own slavery to sin.

He goes on:

“The Family” never shows up unexpected for Thanksgiving or criticizes your spouse or spills chocolate milk all over your carpet; only real families can do that.

“The Poor” don’t show up drunk for the job interview you’ve scheduled or spend the money you’ve given them on lottery tickets or tell you they hate you; only real poor people can do that.

“The Church” never votes down my position in a congregational business meeting or puts on an embarrassingly bad Easter musical or asks me to help clean toilets for Vacation Bible School next week; only real churches can do that.

“The Truth” never overturns my ideas and expectations; only the revelation of God in Christ does that.

You can read the whole post here.

This may have been one of the most interesting blogs I have read today.

The Acts 29 movement is spreading fast.  Part of this is due to the fact of how trendy the movement is right now.  It seems that most Acts 29 churches that you think of are reaching out towards one particular group of people and the pastors all carry that indie/hipster, wear dress shirts with big crosses on the back, work out to P90x, and drink good beer persona.

Bill Streger wrote about today discussing the idea of how we need to reach out to many groups of people and not just the cool 20 something aged people, but everyone!   The idea that we should reach “important” people first — as a strategic bid at influence — is about as antithetical to the Sermon on the Mount as I can imagine.

Here is an excerpt from Bill’s post today:

“And as I’ve looked at some amazing plans from church planters, I’ve started to notice a trend. They all sound the same.

It seems as the unique vision that God’s given so many church planters is almost identical. Phrases like “gospel-centered”, “missional”, and “cultural renewal” are littered throughout their proposals. It seems that the phrase“In the City. For the City.” or some variation of such has become church planting boilerplate.

Not only is the language the same, but so is the target group. It’s amazing how many young pastors feel that they are distinctly called to reach the upwardly-mobile, young, culture-shaping professionals and artists. Can we just be honest? Young, upper-middle-class urban professionals have become the new “Saddleback Sam”.

Seriously, this is literally the only group I see proposals for. I have yet to assess a church planter who wants to move to a declining, smaller city and reach out to blue collar factory workers, mechanics, or construction crews.Not one with an evangelsitic strategy to go after the 50-something administrative assistant who’s been working at the same low-paying insurance firm for three decades now.

Why is that? I can’t offer a definitive answer. It could be that God is legitimately calling an entire generation of young pastors to turn their focus to a small segment of the population that happens to look very much like they do.

Or it could be that we’re simply following in the footsteps of the church growth movement that we’ve loved to publically criticize while privatelytrying to emulate – we’ve just replaced Bill Hybels and Rick Warren with Tim Keller and Mark Driscoll.”

A lot of young American believers would find missioning in Africa and Asia or in New York really “sexy.” But they wouldn’t move among dairy farmers in New Hampshire or Maine or ranchers in Montana. Not sexy.

New England is the least churched area of the United States. Why are church plants proliferating in everywhere BUT there?

This isn’t an Acts 29 thing. It’s an evangelical thing. We go where the customers are, where we perceive the ground will be easier to till. Not as individuals, maybe. But collectively, we need a radical re-evaluation.

And we need churches that want to reach all people for the glory of Christ and not just the cool trendy kids.

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Mark Driscoll interviews Dave Kraft, author of the new Re:Lit book, Leaders Who Last—which is now available!