Church Plant Virtual Conversation

I've followed the International Mentoring Network for a while now. It "is a custom-made mentoring process and peer network. The Mentoring Process is designed to both offer a full-bodied foretaste of mission and ministry in the 21st century and to create ongoing conversation and partnership in mission and ministry," the brainchild of Alex McManus. One of the cool things they have done is a series of online conversations [another way Alex has leveraged the medium of blogs and comments for immediate feedback and dialog.]

They had an online conversation a few days ago around the subject of church planting. Here are some snippets. If this makes your heart beat a tad faster, check out the whole conversation.

** Symptoms of being a church planter:
"They care more about creating community for others than they care about their own welfare."
"They focus more on those outside the church than on those inside."
"They hear the silent voices of those who've not yet heard of Christ than the voices of those within the church."
"They lose sleep over the lives of people they've yet to meet. [One of my most difficult discoveries was that even within our so-called 'teams' many were not losing sleep.]"
"They see the future long before it's emerged."
"Everyone is seen, nobody goes unnoticed."

** Symptoms of apostolic church planters:
"They feel compelled to live in places based on missional strategy instead of where their family, home and history is."
"They've gotten run out of town."
"They think big –like 'Give me Scotland' or if only Israel would believe or how do we colonize the pacific rim?"
"They're cross cultural."

** What is the goal of a church planter?
"Church planting is not an end in itself. Your goal is not to plant a church. Your goal is to announce this good news to the nations, to ensure that the triumph of Christ resounds in all the earth. Your work as a church planter and the establishing of new churches is a means towards this end. Sure, you may be at home now. But who knows what country you'll be in when you glorify God with your last breath."

** About evangelism
"There no such thing as a church planter who is not an evangelist."
"Think of evangelism as a value and not as a gift or an office."
"There are church planters, like Paul the apostle, who move from one to the next, and then there are church planters who stay with the church they found and make it a sending base sending workers to the ends of the earth."
"Those are the only two postures in the Kingdom: Going and/or Sending."