One New Church Every 11 Days
2011 was a big
year for NewThing. We felt a few years ago that God was leading us to
focus most, if not all, of our energy towards church planting through
our Leadership Residency program. Since that time, we have seen God do immeasurably more than we could ask or imagine
(Eph 3:20). For the last few years we have seen NewThing double every
year, with a goal of 200 churches by early 2013. With this goal in
mind, we saw a record high of one new church planted every 11 days with
over 70% of those sites being started by one of NewThing's Leadership
Residents. We are humbled and grateful for all that God is doing.
Verge Conference
Dave Ferguson, Lead Visionary of NewThing, is speaking at the 2012 Verge Conference in Austin, TX. The Verge Network, led by Austin Stone Community Church, is by far one of the best conferences in the country around the topic of being a community on mission. NewThing is honored to be involved and we are very excited to see how God uses the Verge Conference this year. Click the Verge Conference link above to learn more it and take a look at this vid:
Verge 2012 Conference - verge2012.org from Verge Network on Vimeo.
NewThing Church in NY Times
Proud and excited for Aaron Monts and his team (IKON Community Church, San Francisco CA) as they were recently in the NY Times - not only was it a cover story, they also interviewed him. My favorite quote from Aaron was "If we lived out what Jesus preached, there would be a revolution." Aaron is sharing the Gospel to a generation that desperately needs Jesus and we are very proud of him and his team as they help people find their way back to God in San Francisco. Read more about the article HERE.
*There's also an honorable mention to Hank Wilson (REUNION Christian Church, Boston MA) as they generously supported Aaron in this new church plant. This is a disciplined practice of churches within NewThing to give away at least 10% of their offerings towards church planting.
Church Planting - Europe & Russia
Dave Ferguson, Lead Visionary of NewThing, recently traveled to Greece to speak to several church planting networks around the subject of "Building and Leading a Movement." What a fantastic opportunity for NewThing to live out our mission to be a catalyst for a movement of reproducing churches! The ECPN (European Church Planting Network) has been a place of training, inspiration and movement thinking; thank to friends of NewThing, Leadership Network.
This last week was their last session after meeting for the past 5 years. But check this out, collectively over the last 5 years, the total effort of these church planting networks has amounted to 1137 new churches planted across Europe and Russia!!
Our God is amazing and NewThing is humbled to play a small part of building a reproducing church movement in Europe and throughout Russia. Personally, I'm grateful to be around such great leaders like Dave and Jon Ferguson who are making a tremendous impact for God's Kingdom all over the world - go NewThing!
Exponential One-Days in Chicago
December 5, 2011 at Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL
Exponential, in partnership with Community Christian Church, is providing this one day conference in Naperville, IL.
Built on Hebrews 12:1-3, The Exponential One Days highlights the vital importance o
f the spiritual, physical and
emotional health of church leaders and their spouses. The sessions are
designed to engage attendees in conversation rather than "drinking from a
fire hydrant of material." These events are NOT about methodology and
training. They are about encouragement in running the race marked out
for you. Spouses are STRONGLY encouraged to attend and their admission
is free. Where many conferences and resources focus on the "doing" of
models, approaches and innovations, the Exponential One Days focus will
be on the being and health of church leaders. There will also be time to interact with Dave Ferguson, Bob Bouwer, Jon Ferguson, Eric Metcalf, Brian Zehr and others from NewThing to learn about what it means to have a reproducing church culture. This is a great opportunity to be built into, talk with other church leaders in the area, and be encouraged.
