Tim Challies (challies.com) recently started a series on his blog called “Meet the Ministries.”  This past Monday he featured Acts 29 and an interview with Scott Thomas.  Acts 29 is the church planting network of which we are a part and I would encourage you to read this excellent piece.

Below is a an especially compelling quote by Scott regarding being a movement:

“A movement is of God. We cannot control a movement anymore than we can control the wind. But we can fly our kites higher in the wind. We will continue to release more line into the wind through influence and we will subsequently have less control of the outcomes. But that’s where faith and mission collide and we are willing to take that risk for the glory of God and the expansion of His Kingdom.”

Meet the Ministries: Acts 29

I originally met Sam at the Acts 29 Bootcamp that we were assessed at here in St. Louis last October.  Sam was on the team of assessors that approved us to plant within Acts 29.  Since that time, I’ve had the priviledge of preaching at Believer’s Church three times this past year and each time I am encouraged by what God is doing in and through this community of believers.  I count it a great joy to be a part of a network of churches focused on planting churches that plant churches.

Thank you, Believer’s Church for your committment to the spread of the gospel through church planting and thank you for your generosity.

The last Acts 29 Bootcamp of the year is set for November 10-11 at Sojourn Community Church in Louisville.  The theme of the conference is Ambition.  Here’s the promo info:

AMBITION. Simply knowing how to plant and lead a church is not enough.  Knowledge must come hand-in-hand with God-given ambition.  The Apostle Paul responded to God’s call to make the gospel known among the Gentiles with zealous determination.  Paul, empowered by the Holy Spirit, made it his ambition to take the gospel to those who did not have it even if it cost him everything.  He proclaimed the gospel, gathered believers into churches, established elders, and discipled believers; and he did all this with zeal and passion.  In the hope of this type of ambition overflowing in the Church, we would like to invite you to the Acts 29 Network Ambition Boot Camp, November 10-11, 2009, which will focus on planting and leading churches with God-given ambition.

If you are interested in going or want to find out more of the details, check out the Ambition webpage for registration details and the stacked-up schedule and speaker list.

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Mars Hill Church in Seattle is a supporting church of Project 2 Pillars.  Recently, Mars Hill released their annual report which they graciously make available to the public.  While there are a number of things that are amazing about what God is doing in and through the ministry of Mars Hill, I want to draw specific attention to one specific page of the annual report which documents some stats about Acts 29 and the growing breadth of a movement of the gospel through this church planting network of which we are apart:

• 70,000 – Visits to acts29network.org during April (monthly record)
• 62,000 – Average weekly worshipers across all Acts 29 churches
• 2,450 – People attended one of six Acts 29 boot camps in the past year
• 2,417 – Members on Acts 29′s Facebook page
• 800 – Pastors trained internationally in the past year
• 499 – New applicants in the past year
• 339 – Current applicants
• 256 – Total Acts 29 church plants (173 full members, 83 current candidates – we’re one of the 83)
• 135 – Church planter assessments in the past year
• 53 – New churches planted directly through Acts 29 churches in the past year
• 22 – New church planting coaches being trained this year
• 7 – Board members working in unity
• 1 – Approved Western European church planter

I received news over the weekend that Mars Hill Church in Seattle will be supporting Project 2 Pillars.  Mars Hill Church is lead by Pastor Mark Driscoll whom started the Acts 29 Network of which we are a part.  As Mars Hill has grown to what it is today, it has not lost its central focus on church planting — committing over $710k total to multiple church planters all over the world this coming year (via).

The partnership will consist of a relationship with one of the specific campus of Mars Hill (I have not yet been told which one).  They will provide some financial support while we advance the gospel in Lincoln and report back to them how it is all going.  In addition to financial support, a loose-knit coaching relationship will develop between myself and the supporting campus pastor.

Please join me in welcoming Mars Hill to the growing list of supporters of Project 2 Pillars.

Please join me in

Since that time, I’ve received a lot of questions about Acts 29 just regarding who they are and what they do.  To try and answer some of the questions in one place, I decided to put this post together.

Acts 29 is a network of churches planting churches.  To date, Acts 29 has somewhere around 200 member churches in at least 32 states from various traditions, including Baptist, Presbyterian, Assembly of God, EFCA, and nondenominational—all united by Jesus.    Acts 29 has a goal of planting 1000 churches in the U.S. in the next ten years.  Local examples of churches in this network include The Journey (a multi-site church meeting in Tower Grove, Clayton, and West County), Summit Community Church (meeting at Christian High School in O’Fallon), Refuge Church (meeting in the Memorial Hall in Blanchette Park in St. Charles), and Mathias’ Lot (meeting in Hardin Middle School in St. Charles).  Expanding beyond the St. Louis area, Karis Community Church is a church in the network located in Columbia which meets in the renovated Missouri Theater Center for the Arts.  Moving closer to Lincoln, then is Coram Deo and also Core Community Church, both which meet in Omaha.

In addition to a focus on the United States, Acts 29 is also at work internationally planting churches in other countries.  With all of that said, the following is a brief description of the characteristics and distinctives of Acts 29 which drew me to them as a supporting network.

Theological Foundation and Missional Focus
As a network, Acts 29 fits nicely with the mission and vision of 2 Pillars Church.  The churches in this network are dedicated to being Word-enriched, cross-centered, grace-receiving, and kingdom-focused local bodies incarnating the gospel in their own contexts.  In addition, this is a network committed to reformed theology.

Importance of Family
One of the aspects that I have come to appreciate the most (along with my wife) is the importance of family which is openly stressed in this network.  I have heard from multiple planters on multiple occasions from multiple venues stress the church planter’s priorities as: relationship with God first, relationship with wife and children second, followed by responsibilities and relationship to the church.

In addition, the Acts 29 network appears to appreciate the gifts and calling of a wife to be a mother without further expectations of direct involvement in ministry or the church beyond that of any other woman in the church.  As one from the network candidly put it, “anyone can answer the phone, but not just anyone can raise your kids.”

Biblical Masculinity Emphasis
Men need to know how to be Jesus-loving, bible-reading, family-caring/raising/providing men.  One of the most unique and appealing aspects of Acts 29 is their commitment to biblical masculinity calling men to be men and to lead their families, their churches, and others.  To quote one of the leaders of Acts 29: “If you want to win the war, you’ve got to win the men.”

Along with this general stress on biblical masculinity, Acts 29 holds firm to male headship both in the church and in the family thus taking a solid, unwavering complimentarian view of church leadership.

Mentoring/Training/Coaching Commitment
Church planting is not easy and so Acts 29 sees central to the support of the planters in its network the need for mentoring, training, and coaching.  Since teaming up with Acts 29, I’ve experienced so much help in this regard that I cannot even begin to express my gratitude to the men who have taken time out of their lives and work to mentor, train, and coach me.

Interdenominational Breadth
As a network, Acts 29 is cognizant of the fact that God’s mission and work is not to be constrained within any certain breed or brand of church body.  God is much bigger than that.

Acts 29 achieves its interdenominational position by holding certain core theological truths in a closed hand (such as inerrancy, the Trinity, the death/burial/resurrection of Jesus, and complimentarian church leadership), while leaving more debatable practices and methodologies (such as mode of baptism or frequency of partaking in the Lord ’s Supper or music style) up to each local body in accordance with their conscience and understanding of the Word.

Kingdom Perspective
As a network of churches planting churches – no one is getting rich.  The only requirement that Acts 29 places on the churches in its network is that they devote 10% of their collected tithes to furthering the kingdom through church planting.  Primary allocation of those funds is preferred to be used in backing other Acts 29 churches, but no other restrictions or handling of these funds is enacted.  These are church-to-church relationships not church-to-network-to-church relationships.  This enables a local body to be more effective in its target city/region without being required to support other churches outside of that local city/region.  Obviously the inverse holds true as well.

In addition, I have come to deeply appreciate Acts 29 as an organization that makes all of their resources freely available to anyone in the world.

All of the above, combined with much prayer and listening to God pooled to solidify in my heart that Acts 29 was the right network for 2 Pillars Church.  Since joining up with them, I can honestly say that I have not been disappointed in any aspect or way.  The magnitude of brotherhood and the commonality shared regarding the vision for spreading the gospel is impeccable.

For more on the Acts 29 Network, refer to the following helpful and informative sections of their website:

>What Does Acts 29 Mean

>Acts 29 Vision

>Doctrinal Statement

>Listing of all Acts 29 Churches

>Free Resources

I want to give a special thanks to the people of The Refuge who blessed us with a generous church planting offering while we were there. It is clear that God has inclined The Refuge to be a church focused on planting churches that plant churches that plant churches…and to thus spread the gospel as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8.

Thanks for your generosity, Refuge, and may you be blessed.

This coming weekend I’ll be spending some time in Omaha at the Acts 29 Winter Regional hosted by Coram Deo.  Coram Deo is a strategic partner for Project 2 Pillars and I’m looking forward to spending sometime with the guys there as well as connecting with some friends from Core Community.

While I’m there, I’ve got a few people from the Lincoln area that I’ll be hooking up with over breakfasts and lunches to start exploring the concept of a launch team.  I’ll also be giving a brief description of Project 2 Pillars during one of the “call-backs from break” at the conference on Saturday and another at Core Community on Sunday morning.

The conference itself is on the topic of Church History: The Roots of the Reformation.  Be sure to check out the conference website and also a related blog post, Is the Church History Conference Worth Your $30?

If you’re in the Lincoln-Omaha area and would like to connect this weekend, let me know by sending me an email via the “Contact Project 2 Pillars” link under Pages.