Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing video from our Cultivate Online Training . In the first video, John Burke, the founder of ELI and pastor of Gateway Church in Austin shares the the first mark of a church out of the culture.
If you are getting ready to plant, in the process of planting, or have recently planted, Cultivate will equip you to start a church out of the culture – a church that reaches people far from God and leads them to a life of faith and spiritual transformation.
Cultivate is a fully online training program that will provide you with:
• A Biblical Foundation – Video training sessions will communicate and develop convictions for the Biblical truths that form the foundation of an out of the culture ministry.
• A Clear Strategy – Video training sessions will provide a high level view of the strategy, as well as insights into specific working plans and programs.
• Practical Tools and Resources – Each unit of the online training will provide you with tools and resources to help you develop your unique out of the culture strategy.
• Accountability for Implementation – Through the online training, in combination with one-on-one coaching, you will have accountability for implementing the plans you have developed.
Visit our cultivate page learn more and register for the next course beginning February 1, 2011.
Like Ed, I started a new church in 1991. I remember Christians who had been in church their whole life asking me, “can you do that?” (Often followed by, “Are you crazy?”) I realize my own perspective is biased by spending my time in the church planting world – I have no doubt there is more church planting now than there was then. That’s not just a good thing – that’s a game changing thing.
I know this is true because I work with these leaders every day. Our most recent Online Cultivate cohort includes suburban and urban planters. Large start plans and house church plans. Funded vocational planters and bi-vocational guys who are really getting it done. Our critical measure of success isn’t how fast or how large a church grows – rather how effective it is in make disciples of those who are far away from God.
ELI is a great example of this. ELI began with one church, Gateway Community Church in Austin, TX but is now a network of leaders and churches in multiple countries on several continents planting churches. We are partnering with denominations, and greatly appreciate what they are able to do, but the engine of church planting is leaders reproducing leaders and churches reproducing churches. That’s happening in our network.
When I started church planting in 1991 I was recommended Peter Wagner’s Church Planting for a Greater Harvest. (I still have it on my shelf, dog-eared, highlighted and underlined) About a year in, I attended a 1 day training with Bob Logan based on the Church Planters Toolkit. Honestly, that’s all I, and everyone else in my church planting circle, knew about. It’s a whole new world. Since Ed didn’t plug ELI in his post – a little shameless self-promotion of our systems.
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Church Planter Profiles is a tool that helps leaders discern their aptitude and readiness for church planting. It is used by over 90 churches, networks and denominations and over 2500 potential church planters every year. ELI’s Cultivate Training provides 8 months of online training preparing leaders to start, grow and multiply a new church out of the culture.
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Church planting has come a long way in the last 20 years – I’m excited to see were God takes us in the next 20!
We can’t verify Exponential’s claim to be the largest gathering of church planters on the planet. If you want to learn more about church planting and meet other people who are church planting, we can say you won’t be disappointed. We’ll be there. Register today and you will be too!
Last Chance for Lowest Rate of $129!
* Over 3,500 National Church Planting Leaders
* Over 90 National Speakers including Francis Chan, Alan Hirsch and Matt Chandler
* 15 Pre-Conference Intensives
* Over 100 workshops designed to equip and train leaders
* Tracks in Pre-launch, Post-launch, Personal Leadership, Missional, Spouses, Small Town Planting / Bi-vocational, Multi-ethnic, Social Justice, Multi-site, Technology / Web, and Nuts & Bolts
* New After Hours Programming
* 50+ Leading Sponsors & Service Providers
* Sunny Orlando, Florida
Use Discount Code expovip for $129 rate. Don’t throw away 50bucks! Visit exponential.org/2011 to register today. Rates rise after December 3.
I had a Christian inferiority complex in the sense that I knew what people thought of Christians and I was a little bit embarrassed to be one because of that association. And so as a result I think I wasn’t myself – comfortable with myself and with the life I was starting to experience since following Jesus and I hadn’t fully realized that what God does inside of you when you really live for him is what everyone is longing for. Maybe that is part of the problem. Maybe part of the problem is that many Christians don’t know how to truly follow Jesus in a moment-by-moment way where he is doing something in us that is so exciting that you want to give it away. It’s like, I love soccer and if you talk with me for very long I’m going to end up telling you about a soccer game or coaching my team or something – you know why? Because I love it and I think you ought to too. You might not, but I just so excited about it that in time I just can’t help talking about it. And you know honestly it is the same way with Jesus when you’re fully yielded to him and learning to do what he said in John 15, stay connected moment by moment and this fruit starts to grow and that is something that when you’re experiencing it, you want everyone to experience. I think that is what we need to get to – am I living the kind of life where I’m seeing the fruit of God’s Spirit produced in me, if so then I’m going to want others to experience it and I’m going to be less worried about what they think about me because I’m going to be more wanting them to have something good. That’s a shift that we as followers of Christ have to come to and help others live out – that’s contagious.