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What Does It Mean to be a Part of NewThing?

Written by Jon Ferguson

As we look forward to the 2009 Exponential Conference next month, I know I will be asked this question: “What does it really mean to be part of NewThing?” While the vision for NewThing is to be a catalyst for a movement of reproducing churches, if you want to know what it is that makes us tick, I would say these four things:

1. Reproducing – We’re all about reproducing leaders, artists, groups, teams, campuses, churches, and networks in order to fuel a movement of reproducing churches.
2. Relationships – Almost every NewThing Pastor is part of our network because they had a relational connect with someone who was already in our network. One of the highlights of our semi-annual gatherings is the opportunity to re-connect with each other face-to-face.
3. Residents – Over the next three years we have set a goal to recruit and equip 137 leadership residents at our NewThing churches. Our residents are future church-planters, campus pastors, and creative arts directors.
4. Resources – One of the benefits of being part of NewThing is the opportunity to share in the collective knowledge and experience of all the pastors in our networks. From message transcripts to videos to training ideas, our resources help our churches reproduce faster and more effectively.

Part of what NewThing does is help people discover the dream God’s placed within them. NewThing’s Discover the Dream is an experience that will help you discover how to make God’s dream for you become a reality. If you have an entrepreneurial spirit that is begging to be unleashed to impact God’s kingdom, or if you aren’t sure exactly what your dream is, I’d like to invite you to register for Discover the Dream.

Reasons to Celebrate

I love my work. No, not the work that I do, but the fact that I get to do what I get to do. In the past 24 hours I’ve had conversations that give me every reason to believe that the reproducing church movement is picking up some serious momentum!

2|42 Community Church - Detroit

Sunday afternoon I got word on my Twitter account (twitter.com/jonferguson) from Dave Dummitt (twitter.com/davedummitt), Lead Pastor at 242 Community Church that they successfully launched it’s 242 Ann Arbor Campus this past weekend, and over 400 people were there to celebrate the grand opening at the Four Points Sheraton.

Forefront Church – New York City

One of the first things I did this morning was call Brian Moll, Lead Pastor of Forefront Church in New York City. Brian was telling me about the preview service they held last night in preparation for the launch of their new campus. The campus will be on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, meeting at the 2nd Presbyterian Church, located at 96th and Central Park West. Be sure to keep Brian and his team in your prayers as they move forward.

Restore Community Church – Kansas City

Later that morning I spoke with Troy McMahon, lead pastor at Restore Community Church in Kansas City, and he told me that they celebrated 10 baptisms this past weekend. The previous weekend Restore celebrated its one year anniversary and 622 adults and children joined in the festivities.

One More Reason to Celebrate

Two weekends ago Community Christian Church held its second ever Celebration Generosity weekend. For the second year in a row all of Community’s nine campuses in the Chicago Area set aside one weekend to give it’s entire offering away to four key ministries: Global Family Rescue (a partner mission in Uganda), Frontline Ministries - Philippines (a NewThing Network Ministry), Community 4:12 (CCC’s ministry to under-resourced communities), and NewThing. This year’s generosity for that weekend totaled over $400,000 to these four teams. We were absolutely blown away by what God did through the generosity of his people!