by Robby McAlpine | Jul 26, 2014 | Church Planting, Cultural Engagement, Disciple Making, Discipleship, Leadership, Missional, Practical Theology
So, you want to become more intentionally missional. You’ve heard the stories of amazing missional endeavors, and the incredible fruit they’ve seen. You want to be more intentionally incarnational. You’ve read books, watched videos online, scrolled through websites...
by Brad Blocksom | Jul 22, 2014 | Church Planting, Conflict Resolution, Disciple Making, Discipleship, Evangelicalism, Messy Church, Missional, Practical Theology, Small Groups, Theological Training
Yep, I’ve been reading up some on the organic church movement as well as perusing that ever dependable source of indisputable facts on the internet – the Blogsphere & Facebook! Truth be told, there is a lot that really attracts me about more organic...
by Luke Geraty | Jul 20, 2014 | Church Planting, Leadership, Practical Theology
Over the past eight years I’ve taken a number of different approaches to having a leadership/ministry/staff team. In this post I want to share a few of the things that I’ve learned over the years from my experience, both positive and negative, and the...
by Brad Blocksom | Jul 9, 2014 | Church Planting, Devotionals, Messy Church, Missional, Practical Theology, Prayer
Daniel 9:3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. (ESV) This is no whimsical prayer! it is a seeking of God which means abandoning ourselves. It is repentant, sorrowful, confessing sin...
by Luke Geraty | May 21, 2014 | Church Planting, Cross-Cultural Ministry, Cultural Engagement, Disciple Making, Evangelism, Leadership, Missional, Practical Theology, Small Town Church
Here’s a quick round up of some short articles I’ve written or contributed to in regards to small town rural church ministry: Ministry Longevity in Small Towns – Bob Logan was kind enough to allow me to reflect on the importance of ministry longevity...
by Luke Geraty | Apr 15, 2014 | Church Planting, Cultural Engagement, Evangelism, Messy Church, Missional, Small Town Church
For those of you interested in small town missional theology, I’ve written a piece for Multiply Vineyard called “Small Town Missiology: Contextualization & Outreach.” Feel free to head over there and read it. I’m convinced that we need to...
by Robby McAlpine | Mar 23, 2014 | Church Planting, Disciple Making, Discipleship, Missional, Practical Theology
My wife’s people are Mennonites from the Kiev. They immigrated to Canada to escape the Bolsheviks during Russia’s great revolution, and settled mostly in Manitoba (which is as close to Siberia’s weather as Canada could offer). They have their own unique language (Low...
by Luke Geraty | Mar 21, 2014 | Church Planting, Disciple Making, Discipleship, Evangelism, Missional, Practical Theology, Small Town Church
What is a disciple? Some people say that a disciple is someone who is “following Jesus together as their Master and Teacher so that they may become just like Jesus.” Years ago, Walter Henrichsen said that Disciples are Made Not Born. Jesus himself said that the...
by Luke Geraty | Apr 18, 2013 | Church Planting, Conflict Resolution, Leadership, Theological Training
A friend of mine asked me the following question: “Would you go work in a church under another pastor where you have a masters and he only has a bible college degree?” I think this is actually a very important question. I think it’s entirely possible...
by Luke Geraty | Mar 28, 2013 | Church Planting, Cultural Engagement, Leadership, Practical Theology, Theological Training
I am cautious about pragmatic practitioners and scholars. I fear that any attempt to explain this may alienate people I love and care for, as well as trust. But I also believe that it’s helpful for different perspectives to interact and communicate about their...
by Luke Geraty | Mar 19, 2013 | Across the Web, Church Planting, Cultural Engagement, Leadership, Missional, Pneumatology, Technology, Theological Training
My good friend, Brian Fulthorp, has written a blog post that I think raises some good issues – “On Promoting Theological Education.” His concerns are related to a new ministry focus by The Gospel Coalition (TGC) called “Theological Famine...
by Luke Geraty | Mar 1, 2013 | Church Planting, Cultural Engagement, Small Town Church
I did my final MDiv Practical Theology project on rural church ministry. This is back when the whole “Emerging Church” thing was going on, so I basically took a lot of the ideas floating around and tried to contextualize it and reflect upon it with a small...
by Luke Geraty | Sep 15, 2012 | Church Planting, Ecclesiology, Small Town Church
I’m fortunate to pastor in a rural church that has a really great building (and it’s paid off baby!!!) Okay, sorry. I was getting a little excited there. But along with a nice building, there is a really nice sized office with the title...
by Able Baker | Sep 5, 2012 | Church Planting, Leadership, Small Town Church
Among the comments from a recent blog article I wrote (11 Mental, Emotional & Spiritual Challenges Unique to Rural Pastors) a guy named Joe asked “what advice would you give someone leaving suburbia to do ministry in a rural context?” There is so much I could talk...
by Luke Geraty | Sep 4, 2012 | Church Planting, Cultural Engagement, Small Town Church, Theological Training
One of the questions raised in the comment section of Able’s infamous blog on the 11 mental, emotional, & spiritual challenges unique to rural pastors was a question: “So what advice would you give to someone contemplating leaving a suburban ministry...
by Luke Geraty | Aug 29, 2012 | Church Planting, Conflict Resolution, Leadership, Small Town Church
Being a leader can be really disheartening. The amount of slander and criticism that pastors go through has caused thousands of early retirements, I’m sure. Bearing the brunt of people’s focused aggression when you are doing your best to serve God and love...
by Luke Geraty | Aug 16, 2012 | Church Planting, Ecclesiology, Missional, The Vineyard Movement
A few days ago I found out another church had been planted in the local “big city.” Yes, I say another in mild sarcasm. But in this city of approximately 66,000 people, there are churches everywhere. I just typed in the name of the city and...
by Able Baker | Aug 16, 2012 | Church Planting, Cultural Engagement, Ecclesiology, Leadership, Missional, Small Town Church
When God called me into ministry (before I was born) he knew exactly what kind of home and what kind of people he wanted for my seedbed. The kind of garden I grew up in was not well groomed, weeded and tended to in a professional way. I was among the kind of flowers...
by Luke Geraty | Mar 28, 2012 | Christology, Church Planting, Ecclesiology, New Testament
In preparation for this Sunday, I have been working through portions of Matthew 21. This is the passage dealing with Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple money-changers. Jesus kicked them out of the outer courts and this text is widely known and generally connected to...
by Luke Geraty | Mar 21, 2012 | Church Planting, Ecclesiology
Thought some of you might enjoy Ed Stetzer’s presentation on how churches can grow past 200 people. You can download the booklet here and then watch the videos here. I really appreciate Stetzer a lot. Lots of insightful stuff to consider, especially for me....
