Sermons About Church-planting
What Does It Take To Start A Church? Part 7
Culture believes that freedom of choice brings greater happiness and that our level of love determines our level of commitment. But this is not true. Harvard Professor Dan Gilbert has conducted many social experiments that prove this to be an incorrect assumption. In fact, love doesn't nurture commitment, commitment nurtures love. In Acts chapter 2 we see a blueprint for the church. Devotion to teaching, relationships, breaking bread and prayer. Our goal at Destination Church is to build communities that are loyal to Jesus. We want to prepare every person who visits for the day that they will meet Jesus face-to-face. Christianity is not a spectator sport so get out of the stands and into the field. The difference between a regular attender and church member is commitment. An effective membership class simply throws fuel onto the fire. 70% of believers begin serving at their church when someone asks them to. So, please serve at Destination Church because commitment nurtures love.
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What Does It Take To Start A Church? Part 6
Giving of our resources should be modeled after how God has given to us. God is radically for us, he is ALL IN for us. He has never held anything back. Pioneering work requires a tremendous commitment of resources. It takes huge generosity to start a church. God doesn't really need our money, he is NOT after our money, as he can do anything he wants, whether we give or not. Yet, he desires for us to assemble our resources together in faith. The actual harm to not giving is not to God, but to us. By not giving we miss out on the greatest opportunity to participate with what God is doing. We should give like God gives. God has given to us sacrificially, willingly and lovingly. Let's give! Dec 6, 2009 is our 'launch day' offering.
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What Does It Take To Start A Church? Part 5
It doesn't matter who you are, you will one day face a situation that will make you realize your life is not ultimately within your control. Prayer at this point seems like a valid option. The Bible says that the prayer of a righteous person has great power. Nehemiah in the Old Testament heard news of the shame and danger of the remaining people in Jerusalem. This caused him to pray. We can learn a number of lessons about prayer from this account. You need a place to pray, it's emotional, it requires persistence, it should be specific, it's about promises. Churches that lack in prayer will lack in power. If the prayer of a righteous person has great power what about the prayers of many righteous people? Imagine if we all valued prayer and persisted in asking God to save our friends.
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What Does It Take To Start A Church? Part 4
Invitations bring transformations. The greatest influencer of change in all our lives is the interruption and sometimes the aggravation of an invitation. Destination Church is full of people who have been invited to come. Launching large simply involves giving as many invitations as possible. The more invitations we give the more people can be transformed by Jesus. The Bible is full of invitations. In John chapter 1 Andrew invites Simon to see Jesus and Philip invites Nathaneal. Jesus personally invites all his disciples. An invitation must be intentional, specific, simple, persistent and prayerful. Only 5-10% of Christians have the direct gifting of evangelism. But, 90-95% of Christians are gifted for gathering. Invitation based evangelism is our primary strategy to build communities that are loyal to Jesus. 1 in 4 people will come to church on the first invitation. Most people will come after 5-6 repeat invitations. If everyone invited 4 people this week we would double next week. A Destination invitation brings transformation.
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What Does It Take To Start A Church? Part 3
It takes a committed core group of people functioning in their talents and calling to start a new church. But something much more fundamental is needed to start a church. Vision is critical to the success of a church plant. Clear, passionate and faith inducing vision is a must have ingredient if Destination Church in Chicago is to be established and experience gospel growth. Our passion is to build communities that are loyal to Jesus. Check out how we plan to embody that vision in Chicago.
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What Does It Take To Start A Church? Part 2
The Chicago River is the only river in the world that has been reversed and stayed that way. It was reversed to take away pollution from the city and solve the health issues responsible for 80,000 deaths. At Destination Church our passion is to build communities that are loyal to Jesus. Our goal is to reverse the flow of the city so that people follow God, which will in turn bring spiritual health to the city. It takes a core group of committed people operating in their God given abilities to launch a new church. Destination Church is in the process of identifying 9 launch teams to coordinate an effective public launch. By recognizing our spiritual gifts we can work together to engineer a river reversing plan that will transform Chicago.
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What Does It Take To Start A Church? Part 1
80% of Americans will wake up on Monday morning and think "I hate my job". Studies also show that two-thirds of teachers have zero motivation to actually teach. How did we get into this mess? There are three main schools of thought regarding this topic. The deterministic model assumes that we are entirely shaped by the forces in our environment. The developmental model assumes that we can entirely become whatever and whoever we desire to be. With society subscribing to these first 2 models it is suspicious that we are still plagued by low self-esteem and insignificance -- they simply don't appear to be working. The 3rd and most satisfying view is the design model. We have been designed by God and when we discover our giftings and function in them we find the deep sense of fulfillment we are all looking for.
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What Does It Take To Start A Church? Intro
We are breaking from our current teaching series on the gospel of John to focus on church planting core group development. This new series will be titled 'What Does It Take To Start A Church?'. We will be taking more time to look at our vision, research into our city, training in networking, exposing church planting pitfalls, developing community, serving and working together as parts of the body. This fits well with our move next week to a new meeting time and location.
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How to plant a church - building and reproducing
How to plant a chuch - Session 5 Building on that which can not be seen and trusting on Him in whom we build.
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