What I Love About a Multi-Site Church
Through God's provision, Faith Church has become a multi-site church. We currently have five locations and dream of many more. Over the course of the last six years, God has taught us so much about planting churches. While we certainly have not perfected the process, we've already seen multiple blessings:
What is Drawing Church Planters to NewThing?
I recently had lunch with a church planter who is about to dive head-first into launch phase. His church will go public in October of this year. He is experiencing all the emotions anyone would feel at this point in the journey: anticipation for what lies ahead, questions about how it will all come together, and a touch of fear wondering, “Am I up the task of launching and leading a church?” Then the conversation led to him making this statement: “At the end of the day I know I need to have a healthy launch, but I also want to know that I am part of something bigger; a movement that is more than just one church.”
We hear that comment repeated over and over again from church planters as well as pastors from growing and reproducing churches of various sizes all over the world. There is, without a doubt, a longing within so many spiritual leaders to be part of something bigger than yourself – a movement that could only be attributed to God Himself at work. Statements like these from pastors and a solid conviction from God gives us tremendous excitement for the future of NewThing and what God will do through our movements in the coming months and years.
NewThing Annual Report for 2012
NewThing invests every dollar and all our energy to catalyze movements of reproducing churches! Why is that so important? Quite simply, only a movement of reproducing churches will accomplish the mission of Jesus! It is a movement of reproducing churches that can reach every person far from God and restore impoverished communities both locally and globally.
As you read through our 2012 Annual Report, you will notice that everything we do is organized around four values: Relationships, Reproducing, Residents and Resources. We believe the investment in these four values will catalyze movements that will accomplish the Jesus mission.
It is the generosity of hundreds of individuals and churches that allows NewThing to continue expanding both nationally and globally and to reach more than 40,000 people every week through NewThing churches. Together we are catalyzing movements of reproducing churches!
Download the 2012 NewThing Annual Report.
NewThing Church Planting Movements in Russia
In November, NewThing had the opportunity to visit with Joe Wilson, a NewThing Movement Leader in Russia where he provides leadership to three Networks with a total of 19 church plants. With less than 1/3 of 1% churched in Russia, NewThing and Joe has a dream to be a catalyst for a movement of reproducing churches in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Belarus, Ukraine and beyond.
Jon Ferguson and I flew a total of 36 hours and with a grand total of 16,000 miles in order to get to Krasnoyarsk, a city that is nearly 1M people. Once we rested up from our travel, we headed to “frozen forests” of Siberia to speak to the gathering of some 60 pastors who were seeking to grow and multiply their churches.
The Largest NewThing Gathering Ever
NewThing just hosted its largest Gathering ever on December 6 & 7 at COMMUNITY’s Yellow Box Campus in Naperville, IL. Over 200 NewThing pastors and staff were present for the Thursday night and Friday morning festivities.
The Gathering kicked off with NewThing’s first-ever Film Festival. Community’s Creative Arts Director, Eric Bramlett, emceed this event and presented 2|42 Community Church in Brighton, Michigan with the “Best In Show” Award for their “Crazy” bumper video. The Film Festival was followed by a great time of catching up and hanging out at The Foundry where we welcomed Hugh Halter to the event.
