Prayer Stetzer’s 10th mark is ‘Appreciating & Participating in Ancient Patterns’ (p140) but I have gone with prayer. Without prayer we are lost. It is the engine room of any planting ‘strategy’. When I first arrived at NCC it did what all good churches do – it had a midweek ‘prayer meeting’. I say prayer [...]
Archive for the ‘10 Marks of an Effective Church Plant’ Category
10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (10)
Posted: May 21, 2011 by mezmcconnell in 10 Marks of an Effective Church Plant, SeriesTags: 10 marks of an effective church planter, prayer
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10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (9)
Posted: May 20, 2011 by mezmcconnell in 10 Marks of an Effective Church Plant, SeriesTags: 10 marks of an effective church planter, leadership, Niddrie Community Church, NiddriePastor
Leading Teams Teams are important for planting churches. The lone ranger approach just doesn’t cut it, particularly in council housing estates. Often, men ask me for my opinion on planting churches and one of the first questions I ask is this: ‘What is your main spiritual gifting?’ Almost 100% of the time the answer is [...]
10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (8)
Posted: May 19, 2011 by mezmcconnell in 10 Marks of an Effective Church Plant, SeriesTags: communal living, community, marks of a healthy planter, Niddrie Community Church, Niddrie Pastor
Living Community I find the whole concept of ‘community’ fascinating. It’s suddenly become very fashionable in ‘forward thinking churches’ (as they very ‘forwardly’ like to call themselves) to throw this whole concept around like a big beach ball. The problem being that people like to bat the thing about but nobody wants to keep it [...]
10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (7)
Posted: May 18, 2011 by mezmcconnell in 10 Marks of an Effective Church Plant, SeriesTags: church plants, Niddrie Pastor, technology
Connecting With technology ‘Technology is so much a part of our cultural experience that it’s not optional for a church reaching emerging generation’. (P141) Stetzer refers to a couple of churches that, in his mind, use technology to good effect in their services. One is www.cornerstone-sf.org who, apparently, like to project stained glass images on [...]
10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (6)
Posted: May 18, 2011 by mezmcconnell in 10 Marks of an Effective Church Plant, SeriesTags: church planting, emerging worship, Niddrie Community Church, Niddrie Pastor, Worship
Visualising Worship According to Stetzer, worship has become more visual. When we (at his church) sing of blood we show blood. When we sing of Christ, we use art from the ages to show Christ.’ (P140). I found this fascinating. In the conservative circles in which I was saved it was noticeable that I never [...]
10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (5)
Posted: May 17, 2011 by mezmcconnell in 10 Marks of an Effective Church Plant, SeriesTags: biblical preaching, church planting, Niddrie Community Church, NiddriePastor
Preaching narrative Expository Messages There is an increasing argument (in some circles) that the so-called ‘moderns’ of the last century responded well to more ‘concrete’ biblical messages (on passages like the Epistles, for instance). Whereas, the postmodern mindset responds far better to the story telling approach to biblical preaching. Certainly, when we look at the [...]
10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (4)
Posted: May 17, 2011 by mezmcconnell in 10 Marks of an Effective Church Plant, SeriesTags: healthy church plant, niddrie commuity church, Niddrie Pastor
Experiential Praise ‘A community that provides people with a dynamic and participative worship is providing a powerful apologetic to people open to the spiritual yet unaware of how to connect with the spirit. Those without Christ cannot worship God. However, through such worship, these “already religious” people can see true believers praising God in spirit [...]
10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (3)
Posted: May 13, 2011 by mezmcconnell in 10 Marks of an Effective Church Plant, SeriesTags: 10 marks of an effective church planter, church planting, Niddrie Community Church, NiddriePastor
Engaging in Service This is an important aspect of what we try to do here at Niddrie. Many of the care professions in the UK are now recognising (rediscovering) the importance of ‘connecting’ people with community. For example, we work closely with a local charity here that cares for people with mental and/or physical needs. [...]
10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (2)
Posted: May 13, 2011 by mezmcconnell in 10 Marks of an Effective Church Plant, SeriesTags: Incarnational living, incarnational mission, Niddrie Community Church, NiddriePastor
Promoting Incarnational Ministry I wrote about this earlier in the week so I am not going to repeat myself too much. According to Stetzer: ‘Postmoderns are looking for people who are genuine and transparent. Their questions isn’t, is it true? But, is it real? They want to see Christ through people who’ve earned their respect [...]
10 Marks of Effective Church Plants (1)
Posted: May 12, 2011 by mezmcconnell in 10 Marks of an Effective Church Plant, SeriesTags: church plant, niddrie, Niddrie Community Church, NiddriePastor, Spirituality
BEING UNASHAMEDLY SPIRITUAL According to Ed Stetzer in ‘Planting Missional Churches‘, people in our postmodern culture are open to all sorts of ‘spirituality’. We certainly see this in Niddrie, particularly in our community cafe. People talk about all sorts of things: horoscopes, Ouija boards, tarot cards, spiritists, mediums (still trying to work out the difference [...]
