Boston Spa
Written on 9 July 2008 by Dave BettsHi Guys, just to say that the training day at in sunny Boston Spa went great. It looks like we will be starting a pioneer academy up in the north soon. If anyone is intrested in being apart of something in the yorkshire or NE region let me know.
Stay on fire for the Kingdom
D
America rocked
Written on 9 July 2008 by Dave BettsThanks again to everyone for all your prayers for the trip to sunny California!
After a difficult trip getting there thanks to USAir, (the original flight was cancelled, then they lost my bags and then eventually once i got on board it was delayed for an hour!! ) i arrived!
The conference was called Convergence and was hosted by Capital City Church Sacremento. There were a number of churches from all over the states represented. Other speakers there were Charles Simpson and Moses Vaigh (i think that’s his spelling).
The theme was becoming spiritual fathers, and raising spiritual families. I had some very exciting conversations with various pastors, some are involved in pioneering new works in Brazil as well as other cities in the US.
The message on my heart was that we should be more and more kingdom focused and less and less Church focused. God will build His church, we are to busy ourselves with day to day kingdom living, being obedient to the HS voice and seeking to be salt and light in our communities. The challenge to the church family needs to be impacting the communities we are living in. Redefining success is about not counting bums on seats but in the transformation of the communities that the church finds itself in.
People around the world are begging to come to the reality that every disciple of Jesus needs to become a spiritual parent responsible for the discipleship of those they reach. This thinking will not only radically improve the discipleship in our churches but also accelrate the spreading of the gospel and ultimatly the Kingdom of God.
Finding new ways to meet is important in reaching out to this world. New expressions of church are needed in all of our cities. Speaking to a small group of creative arts people so inspired me, there desire to reach out to an industry that would never have anything to do with church as we know it.
As more and more people start to live Kingdom lives, not focused on building an institution but rather subversivly impact their world we are going to see some very creative and exciting new ventures start. I cant wait.
Please pray as next we I am going to Inverness to chat some people that are seeking to pioneer something for Jesus in the highlands of Scotland! Bring it on!
On the road
Written on 17 June 2008 by Dave BettsThanks again to all who were praying for us. Last Sunday we were at York Elim church presenting our road show talks - ‘the fruit of an apple tree tour’. Our vision is to get around as many churches and leadership teams and present this paradigm changing talk, helping to get our churches to reproduce until we see new church plants of all expressions in every street, village, town and city. You can hear the talk by clicking on York sermon
Next Sunday I am at Worthing, please pray that God will help to prepare the people’s hearts.
Why Plant Churches (part2)
Written on 13 June 2008 by Dave BettsWHY PLANT CHURCHES?
This is the second part of a 2 part article drawn from research done by various church planters including Tim Keller & Mark Driscoll looking again at this crucial question of church planting.
In the last article we looked at the first question that we often get asked in regards to Church Planting…“We already have plenty of churches that have lots and lots of room for all the new people who have come to the area. Let’s get them filled before we go off building any new ones."
Lets have a look at the second key question that is asked… “Many people say, ‘what about all the existing churches that need help, doesn’t church planting detract from helping them”?
We also plant churches because…
We want to continually RENEW THE WHOLE BODY OF CHRIST.
It is a great mistake to think that we have to choose between church planting and church renewal. Strange as it may seem, the planting of new churches in a city is one of the very best ways to revitalize many older churches in the vicinity and renew the whole Body of Christ. I say this for these 4 reasons: -
First, the new churches bring new ideas to the whole Body.
There is plenty of resistance to the idea that we need to plant new churches to reach the constant stream of ‘new’ groups and generations and residents. Many congregations insist that all available resources should be used to find ways of helping existing churches reach them. However, there is no better way to teach older congregations about new skills and methods for reaching new people groups than by planting new churches. It is the new churches that will have freedom to be innovative and they become the ‘Research and Development’ department for the whole Body in the city. Often the older congregations were too timid to try a particular approach or were absolutely sure it would ‘not work here’. But when the new church in town succeeds wildly with some new method, the other churches eventually take notice and get the courage to try it themselves.
Second, new churches are one of the best ways to surface creative, strong leaders for the whole Body.
New congregations, attract a higher percentage of pioneer type people who value creativity, risk, innovation and future orientation. Many of these men and women would never be attracted or compelled into significant ministry apart from the appearance of these new bodies. Often older churches ‘box out’ many people with strong leadership skills who cannot work in more traditional settings. New churches thus attract and harness many people in the city whose gifts would otherwise not be utilised in the work of the Body. These new leaders benefit the whole city-Body eventually.
Third, the new churches challenge other churches to self-examination.
The "success" of new churches often challenges older congregations in general to evaluate themselves in substantial ways. Sometimes it is only in contrast with a new church that older churches can finally define their own vision, specialties, and identity. Often the growth of the new congregation gives the older churches hope that ‘it can be done’, and may even bring about humility and repentance for defeatist and pessimistic attitudes. Sometimes, new congregations can partner with older churches to mount ministries that neither could do by themselves.
Fourth, the new church may be an ‘evangelistic feeder’ for a whole community.
The new church often produces many disciples who end up in older churches for a variety of reasons. Sometimes the new church is very exciting and outward facing but is also very unstable or immature in its leadership. Thus some disciples cannot stand the amount of changes that regularly come through the new church and they move to an existing church. Sometimes the new church reaches a person for Christ, but the new disciple quickly discovers that he or she does not ‘fit’ the make up of the new congregation, and gravitates to an established congregation where the customs and culture feels more familiar. Ordinarily, the new churches of a city produce new people not only for themselves, but for the older bodies as well.
This is then why we say that Vigorous church planting is one of the best ways to renew the existing churches of a city, as well as the best single way to grow the whole Body of Christ in a city.
There is one more reason why it is good for the existing churches of the region to initiate or at least support the planting of churches in a given area. We plant churches—
As an exercise in KINGDOM-MINDEDNESS
All in all, church planting helps an existing church the best when the new congregation is voluntarily ‘birthed’ by an older ‘mother’ congregation. Often the excitement and new leaders and new ministries and additional members and income ‘washes back’ into the mother church in various ways and strengthens and renews it. Though there is some pain in seeing good friends and some leaders go away to form a new church, the mother church usually experiences a surge of high self-esteem and an influx of new enthusiastic leaders and members.
However, a new church in the community usually confronts churches with a major issue–the issue of ‘kingdom-mindedness’. New churches, as we have seen, draw most of their new members (up to 80%) from the ranks of the unchurched, but they will always attract some people out of existing churches. That is inevitable. At this point, the existing churches, in a sense, have a question posed to them: "Are we going to rejoice in the 80%–the new people that the kingdom has gained through this new church, or are we going to bemoan and resent the three families we lost to it?" In other words, our attitude to new church development is a test of whether our mindset is geared to our own institutional turf, or to the overall health and prosperity of the kingdom of God in the city.
Our challenge then is to keep our eyes on the BIG picture. To have a Kingdom mindset and willing to release the pioneers in our churches to Plant New Churches in the harvest fields
Why Plant Churches
Written on 13 June 2008 by Dave BettsWHY PLANT CHURCHES?
At the Elim general conference this year there was a real sense of momentum towards mission and church planting, with many churches from all sizes looking again at how they can get involved in planting new expressions of church in this nation. In light of this I have put together a 2 part article drawn from research done by various church planters including Tim Keller & Mark Driscoll looking again at this crucial question of church planting.
Introduction
The continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for the numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city, and the continual corporate renewal and revival of the existing churches in a city. Nothing else, not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, growing mega-churches, congregational consulting, nor church renewal processes will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting. This may seem like a radical statement but to those who have done any study at all, it is not even controversial.
The normal response to discussions about church planting is something like this:
“We already have plenty of churches that have lots and lots of room for all the new people who have come to the area. Let’s get them filled before we go off building any new ones."
This statement appears to be ‘common sense’ to many people, but it rests on several wrong assumptions. The error of this thinking becomes clear if we ask ‘
Why is church planting so crucially important?’
We want to be true to THE BIBLICAL MANDATE
Jesus’ essential call was to plant churches.
Virtually all the great evangelistic challenges of the New Testament are basically calls to plant churches, not simply to share the faith. The ‘Great Commission’ (Matt.28: 18-20) is not just a call to ‘make disciples’ but to ‘baptise’. In Acts and elsewhere, it is clear that baptism means incorporation into a worshipping community (Acts 2:41-47).
The only way to be truly sure you are increasing the number of Christians in a town is to increase the number of churches. Why? Much traditional evangelism aims to get a ‘decision’ for Christ. Experience, however, shows us that many of these ‘decisions’ disappear and never result in changed lives. Why? Many, many decisions are not really conversions, but often only the beginning of a journey of seeking God. Only a person who is being ‘evangelised’ in the context of an on-going worshipping and shepherding community can be sure of finally coming into vital, saving faith. This is why a leading missiologist like C.Peter Wagner can say, "Planting new churches is the most effective evangelistic methodology known under heaven”
We want to be true to THE GREAT COMMISSION. Some facts–
New churches best reach new generations, new residents, and new people groups.
Younger adults have always been disproportionately found in newer congregations. Long-established congregations develop traditions (such as time of worship, length of service, sermon topics, leadership-style, emotional atmosphere, and thousands of other tiny customs), which reflect the sensibilities of long-time leaders from the older generations who have the influence and money to control the church life. This does not reach younger generations. [Note: Often, a new congregation for a new people-group can be planted within the overall structure of an existing church. It may be a new Sunday service at another time, or a new network of house churches that are connected to a larger, already existing congregation. Nevertheless, though it may technically not be a new independent congregation, it serves the same function.]
New churches best reach the unchurched.
Dozens of denominational studies have confirmed that the average new church gains most of its new members (60-80%) from the ranks of people who are not attending any worshipping body, while churches over 10-15 years of age gain 80-90% of new members by transfer from other congregations.2 This means that the average new congregation will bring 6-8 times more new people into the life of the Body of Christ than an older congregation of the same size.
So though established congregations provide many things that newer churches often cannot, older churches in general will never be able to match the effectiveness of new bodies in reaching people for the kingdom. Why would this be? As a congregation ages, internal pressures lead it to allocate most of its resources and energy toward the concerns of its members, rather than toward those outside its walls. This is natural and to a great degree desirable. Older congregations therefore have a stability and steadiness that many people thrive on and need. This does not mean that established churches cannot win new people. In fact, many non-Christians will only be reached by churches with long roots in the community that have stability and respectability.
However, new congregations, in general, are forced to focus on the needs of its non-members, simply in order to get off the ground. So many of its leaders have come very recently from the ranks of the un-churched, that the congregation is far more sensitive to the concerns of the non-believer. Also, in the first two years of our Christian walk, we have far more close, face-to-face relationships with non-Christians than we do later. Thus a congregation filled with people fresh from the ranks of the un-churched will have the power to invite and attract many more non-believers into the events and life of the church than will the members of the typical established body.
Conclusion
In every country and in every mission focused movement around the world the call to church plant has never been louder. The evidence is overwhelming for the need for church planting. We need to be willing to release the resources and most importantly our best people into the harvest field to pioneer new and vibrant expressions of church.
Written on 9 May 2008 by Dave Betts
GRAND DESIGNS
I was watching a program the other day called Grand Designs. Its a programe dedicated to people who are building their dream homes. Just recently they did a special series of programs over a week, during which they endeavored to build a house from scratch in 5 days. At the end of the programe the house looked great, you could even live in it. It had all the latest stuff and built with the latest materials… the only difference was that it wasn’t built to last. It is possible to build something very quickly that looks great but the real question is will it last? We need to build in a way that will not only be able to reproduce and effect the surrounding areas once but do it again and again and again for years to come. Here are a few things to consider when building
Build slowly:
Dont become impatient. Impatience often leads us to taking short cuts often with people’s character and always always ends up in fall out and pain. You cant take a short cut when it comes to building something that will last. You may be the right person to lay the foundations of the building but you may need to hand over to someone else who has the skills needed to take it further. Knowing where your skill starts and ends is crucial to the finished building. Very few church planters have all the skills needed to plant and grow a church beyond the foundation stage. Putting in the right values takes time. It is often ‘caught not taught’ from you. It takes time for people to get what is in your heart.
Build scripturally not pragmatically:
There is a real temptation to just do what works. Avoid the temptation to go for the immediate result over the long term result. Often we can buy into secular solutions that look really good and deliver the results short term, but we are called to build according to the principles (the blueprint) of the word. If you deviate at this point the building will not stand the test of time. Is it built upon Gods principles or the latest leadership manual?
Build Simultaneously:
They say that only Woman can do more than one things at a time, but if you are a man planting or building a church then you are going to have to do it as well. Here is a list of things that we need to be doing at the same time. Preaching, Praying, raising the Priesthood, being in the lives of People, operating in God’s Power, working with the Poor, Planting more churches, Pastoring and caring for those around us and being Prophetic in all we do. Its when we only focus on one thing that the church we are building becomes unbalanced. We need to be embracing the ALL - NESS of the Bible in order to be the church that Jesus wants us to be.
Strategically:
Like in any building project it is important to have a plan. We must be careful that we do not build around pressure groups. As people join your church they will come with all sorts of passions and dare I say soap boxes. It is all to easy to give in to the loudest voice and steer the build in certain directions. Some like round windows and others think we should have no windows. Once you have set out the plans dont change them unless you clearly hear God’s voice. In your plans remember that we are NOT building with bricks and mortar, or clever programs but we are building with people. We build programs around people and not the other way around.
Build shoulder to shoulder:
The fact is YOU cant build the church on your own. You shouldn’t even try! Its about a team made up of skilled craftsman who are secure in who they are and what they are called to do. Every member of the team is important and is essential to the build. Every member must be believed in and trusted. Every member needs to know how they fit and be given room to explore that role to the full. On some occasions it may be necessary to play a member of the team out of position, the team needs to be flexible enough to pick up an area that they may not be best skilled in, in order to keep the build on track.
Its all about building with the end in mind. Constantly keeping the team focused on the artists final impression is vital to keep the motivation and energy needed to do the job.
Dont get so focused on the tree that you lose sight of the forest. After all God has called us to plant orchards not just an apple tree!
All change!
Written on 26 April 2008 by Dave Betts
As I am writting this I find myself in the middle of very intresting and challenging time. For the past 3 years I have been involved in leading a church that has met as a gathered congregation every Sunday for worship and teaching. we have tried very hard to be a loving and open community, encouraging everyone to get involved as they can in the meetings. As you know we also have been involved in planting a number of house churches which has been very succesful. During the past few months the leaders of the church have more and more come to the conclusion that in order to really develop disciples and build upon the value of beleiver preisthood etc we had to change the structure or as we like to say we needed a different vehicle.
Well after many months of talking we have finally decided to make the big leap and move into a more organic way of being church. There is no real way you can transition a church for this. It is very much like changing the side of the road you intend to drive on, you cant do that in stages. So we have plucked up courage and set a date. For some (well if i am honest most) it is far too soon and for others not soon enough. So the journey begins…
The journey certinly wont be a boring one or without adventure. I am quite sure as with any major change it will come with some pain and parting ways of a few, but what i am most looking forward to is the destination, starting to see the fruit of building genuine Jesus centred community. Seeing each and every beleiver taking responsibility for their walk with God and the world around them.
I welcome to you to join me in the journey. your comments, advise and mostly your prayers will be very much appreciated.
Dave
From Produce to Reproduce
Written on 15 April 2008 by Dave Betts 
The book of Genesis sets out God’s idea of success: filling the earth, subduing the enemy, making disciples through nurturing families? Is this what we are doing?
In order to think in the right way, we need to redefine what success is. It’s said that many businessmen look back at their life after doing well, but feel they climbed the ladder only to find it leaning against the wrong wall. This is also true of many people who set out in ministry. Their heart is set on building a big ministry, but after many years they realise that the ministry will never satisfy; that there will never be enough people in the church; that things will never be good enough. True satisfaction doesn’t come from producing a ministry, but instead through reproducing people.
When viewed through the lens of family, everything we do must be with reproducing in mind. The way we bring up, model to and discipline our kids is all in the context of what they will become. The opposite approach is to see everything with a ‘produce’ mindset. This judges everything by immediate deliverables; we count seats, programmes, money – anything – to help us ‘feel’ successful, because most of what we do is seated in produce. Many families today are crippled because parents try to ‘produce’ certain things in their children for their own ends, rather than with the children’s real interest in mind.
Reproduction is based upon our values, which make up who we are. If we want to reproduce disciples, then our values (our DNA) must be good. We see this in Jesus’ life. His ministry was not about producing miracles; rather, his goal was to reproduce himself in the lives of 12 other people so that they could change the world. What he did was a natural outflow of who he was.
The Bible starts with a family, and quickly grows into clans, tribes and eventually a nation. Each is dependent upon the other; each is a part of the other. Israel is a nation made up of 12 tribes: each distinct in its culture and function, but united together. This is a great picture of the Church: many tribes, but one nation under God. It’s also a pattern of how we should plant churches in our cities. Rick Warren uses the phrase ‘little and large’, describing the method of continually reproducing families while at the same time bringing them together to form a large tribe or church. However, this can only be successfully done if we get the first family DNA right, otherwise it quickly becomes another organisational monster. Getting that DNA right means focusing on becoming spiritual parents, not business leaders. First, this means leadership, not management. It means keeping the end in mind at all times; not looking at what is, but at what is to come; not interested in maintaining a status quo, but rather an environment for growth.
Second, it means effectiveness over efficiency. If we are dealing with very large numbers we often fall into the trap of efficiency. When we work on a reproducible mindset, we are only concerned with effectiveness. We are never dealing with large numbers, but rather a core group. As we start to change our thinking, the questions we ask of our ministry change also.
The third element is spontaneity over structure. We often hold on to our structures because they provide a sense of security, but in fact all they do is mask our insecurity. Our security needs to come from the depth of the relationship we have with one another, and not upon any external structure. The Holy Spirit is spontaneous; he often enjoys doing things differently. Just when you think you have it he changes the rules. How spontaneous are you able to be with your spiritual family?
Fourth, we must discern rather than simply measure. Measurement is good in that it shows us how things have physically grown, for example, our children’s height, or our spending. But we can’t measure our maturity (our spiritual depth); this can only be discerned. If we were to spend more time discerning, we would be surprised at what we find. Discernment is centred in the other person, not upon our own personal growth. It puts the other person’s development at the heart of what we are doing.
Fifth, we should look at the cause, not effect. A trap that many leaders and parents fall into is to react to the fruit or effect instead of responding to the root or cause. But real parenting requires taking the time to unearth the roots that bring about bad behaviour; it requires understanding and much patience. In most busy, programme-driven church environments there isn’t the time to do this, so we find ourselves chasing the effects over and over again. We need to ask, ‘What is the root of this?’ and make time to work it through.
Finally, we need to release or empower, rather than control. A controlling parent will always breed insecure kids, and this can be seen in church family situations. A controlling leader produces either rebels or robots – neither are secure, readjusted disciples. People who are not heard or given room to grow often rebel or just give up and toe the party-line.
Everything about making disciples is about empowering and releasing, but to be able to ‘release’ people we must become secure ourselves first. If you need people you can’t lead people. If you need people around you to qualify you for your job you will never be able to release them. It is often much easier to do something yourself, but if this happens all the time, who learns? We have to lead and parent with the end in mind always. If we are not releasing people to try out ministry and be given opportunities then all we are doing is breeding potential rebels or producing robots.
So let’s always keep our eyes on the big picture: a transformed and changed world; a vibrant, reproducing, spiritual community in every street, village, town and city.
The 2nd South East Academy rocked!
Written on 19 March 2008 by Dave BettsOn the 15th of March we held our 2nd Pioneer training academy. We had 3 new people join us all making the class upto 20 of us. what’s great about the class is that we are all from different naitons but all passionate to see the UK won for Jesus. The energy in the room was high. We looked at 3 key questions: What IS the gospel? What is the New Covenant and what should we build the church upon? The afternoon session was led by Enzo Calamarti. He took us through some leadership principles and taught us on Emotional Intelegence. Please pray as on the 29th of March we will be launching the next academy in Birmingham. My heart is to see an academy in every county in the UK releasing a wave of church planters. D
Pioneering in the Elim’s school of ministry
Written on 13 March 2008 by Dave BettsOver the past 2 days I have had the great joy of teaching some of the pioneering material to Elim’s school of Ministry (SOM) led by Gary Gibbs. The 2 days went very well and God’s power was felt both days. It is really exciting to see this new teaching of reproducable church being taught right in the heart of main line denominations. God is changing the tide and denominations that many may have been written off as being non relevant are picking up Gods heart for reaching the world and are prepared to expose their people to this new understanding of missional church planting. Pray that those that were on the course will go on to start new missional works in their communities. If you would like to know more about the School of ministry please drop me a line and I will be glad to send your details on.
D
