Send Institute Podcast

What is your organization doing as Baby Boomer pastors and church planting leaders enter into retirement? How are you raising the competency of your organization, while casting a vision for the next generation of leaders to lead in your organization? That's what we discuss today with Dr. John Davidson, the Director of Discovery and Development at the Church Multiplication Network and Send Institute missiologist council member. Just as local churches need to continuously develop leadership from within, church planting networks also have to develop leadership from within and from the next generation.

Our guest today is Steve Pike, the founder and leader of the Urban Islands Project, which was started as a strategic plan to increase the incarnational presence of churches in North American cities. Prior to Urban Islands, Steve started the Church Multiplication Network for the Assemblies of God which helped the denomination start over 2400 churches in just 8 years. Steve has served in church planting at every level. On this episode, he shares some insight regarding the shift in mindset that needs to happen from being a church planter to becoming someone who leads church planters and church planting networks.

This episode features Josh Crossman who helps direct and lead the Pinetops Foundation. Pinetops is a family foundation that supports innovation in faith-based communities to impact the world, particularly the kinds of innovative solutions that address structural problems. And recently, Pinetops commissioned and completed a study on the evangelistic need in North America. They released the report entitling it The Great Opportunity in which one of their biggest recommendations is that we need to increase the rate of evangelistic church planting by double if not even triple the current amount just to keep up with population growth and the rates of disaffiliation. According to the report, they project that by 2050, in just one generation, with the current rates of disaffiliation, 35 million youth will become disaffiliated with the church or be born into a nonbelieving household, making it the largest unbelieving generation in the history of North America.

Chris Forbes is the logistics and demographic strategists for the church planting team for the Baptist General Conference of Oklahoma. In this episode, we talk about how organizations can do better demographic research in order to better know what kinds of churches to plant. We also talk about Chris' latest research project where his team identified and developed the spiritual profiles of non-Christians in Oklahoma in order to better mobilize church planters. Learn how your organization can do the same. Learn more about Hidden Harvest and download a free copy of the report.

Dr. Glenn Smith discusses some of the differences between US and Canadian cities, and how Americans and Canadians can learn from one another in church planting. One of Dr. Smith's areas of knowledge is how secularization effects the spirituality of urban cities, and much of what he speaks on draws on the work of Charles Taylor, a fellow Canadian and Montreal resident. We also talk about what it takes for church planters to start churches with holistic ministries to urban cities, especially cities like Montreal, which has been called the least churched city in North America.

This week's special guest is Rob Hoskins, president of OneHope, an international ministry reaching more than 100 million children and youth each year with a relevant presentation of God’s Word. We talk about 1) the importance of good research in developing mission strategies, 2) the need for leadership development within mission organizations, and 3) the current state of our funding models for missions. Rob also challenges church planting organizations to develop spiritual mothers and fathers in their organization.

Peyton Jones shares with us his experience as a church planter in Europe and what it was like being a missionary in a post-Christian context. He also talks about the privilege and challenge of partnering with the church formerly pastored by the great Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. We also dive into the heart and motivation behind his two books, Church Zero and Reaching the Unreached and talk about how to empower women in church planting.

Dr. Chris Railey is the director the Church Multiplication Network, the church planting ministry of the Assemblies of God (AG) church. The AG is one of the fastest growing denominations in the world with over 27 consecutive years of growth. Its stats show 43% ethnic diversity, 25% Hispanic, and 40% under the age of 25. They're also among the largest groups planting churches in North America. Learn more about how they're preparing the next generation for church planting as well as who they're learning from strategically and organizationally.

Our guest this week is Mike McDaniel, the director of the Summit Network, the church planting network out of Summit Church led by J.D. Greear. Over the last seven years, the Summit Church has had nearly 40 church planters participate in their residency program and has sent over 500 of its church members to plant churches all over North America. Mike McDaniel has intimately been involved in this journey from the very beginning. So in this episode, he tells us the story of behind the Summit Network, how they champion planting churches with their denomination, and what they're doing today to better plant churches for the next generation.

For the last 10 years, the Tampa Underground Network has become an incredible move of God. Since then they've seen over 200 micro-churches started and hundreds of people become first-time followers of Christ. Currently, they have 12 sister networks all over the world including the Philippines, Ireland, Hamburg, and even Myanmar. To learn more about their story, watch this documentary about their movement. Read Brian's book Underground Church.