Are You One of the Twelve?

This comes from the EFCA Great Lakes District Update for Fall 2008. I'm including this for your prayer for the work of church planting in our region through the EFCA. Even though church planting is "off the table" for our church right now, it is not out of the room!

Acts 14:27 Report

We believe that it is time to build upon our advancements in church planting by moving beyond addition of churches to multiplying healthy churches across the GLD-EFCA. This requires a change in thought and a change in strategy – to move from partnering pioneer church planters with healthy churches to equipping healthy churches to start new churches.

This is a monumental shift in strategy. But it is more true to our mission of multiplying healthy churches among all people. We are asking important questions. What would it look like if new churches were birthed in the hearts of a sending church? How would we deploy our ACTS System of assessment, coaching, training, and strategic partnerships differently?

We came to this simple 3 year goal:

• Identify and equip 12 lead sending (mother) churches.
• Identify 12 partner churches to help the lead church.
• Identify 12 lead church planters.

The result is 12 new EFCA churches and 36 EFCA churches involved in church planting. The question I have for you—are you one of the twelve?

• Are you one of the 12 lead sending churches?
• Are you one of the 12 partner churches?
• Are you one of the 12 lead church planters?

Pray and ask for God’s direction, wisdom, and courage.

Prayer Requests

• Pray that God would be glorified by many people receiving Christ through our church plants in the GLD.
• Pray for the identification of twelve mother churches.
• Pray for the identification of twelve lead church planters.
• Pray for strong relationships between our church planters and their coaches.
• Pray that we would have a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline (2 Timothy 1:7).

See the entire newsletter here, and scroll down to page 6 to see descriptions and picture of church planters working in Lafayette, IN, Hamilton Township, OH, Lisle, IL, Lyons, IL, Grayling, MI, and the Beverly/Morgan Park area in Chicago, IL.