Talk about scrappy. Andy Sikora is all about mission. And he has tamed the money monster when it comes to missional disciplemaking and church multiplication.

The church planted with an admonition, "If you don't live within a 5-mile radius, either move or don't come with us." Many came, others didn't get the picture. But this church is on a mission to make disciples. Their filter for new ministries is "Only do this if it increases the likelihood of people being discipled."

As to money they are into buying the best equipment but often a couple of years older than the latest-greatest. They cut costs by sharing projects with other churches, including planting theirs. Willingness to share has helped partner with congregations across ethnic boundaries. The results of this have been missional friendships. This is a mid-sized congregation doing things across the planet.

Their approach to disciplemaking links to weekend services. Andy says you would take them for any attractional church if you only visited on Sundays. Everything is done with excellence--the difference is the mission. Every service is a commissioning event for missional ministry. They build disciplemaking along three avenues: Neighborhood, network and need.

This one is a keeper.

You can connect with Andy at [email protected] or check the website https://www.renewcommunities.com.

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David Owens was a missionary kid growing up with Francis Shaeffer and L’abri as neighbors and family friends.

Rebelling against God, he made his way to Australia for life in the film industry. That turned into a stint as a flight attendant. He regained faith but with the “Children of God.” However, his life on airplanes turned into a church plant.

As the “Jesus People Movement” hit Australia, evangelism just “happened” even to non-evangelists like David (and me).

Most of his airline converts were gays and “promiscuous women,” so he did the next natural thing—he planted a church among them. Grace mixed with truth proved powerful commodities.

After marriage, he and his wife pastored in Vancouver, BC, before feeling the call to Africa.

The church in Tanzania focused on “white colonials” before David’s leadership. He nearly quit the leadership team over the church’s lack of concern for locals. His attempted resignation triggered rethinking and repentance.

Attempting to quit did no good—he became the pastor and reformer. There were fireworks, including one missionary organizing an attempt to remove him from the country. But the Holy Spirit prevailed, with the now thriving church counting primarily people of color in their membership.

Outreach includes training pastors, church planters, business people, medical personnel and the very poor. The interview with David was one of the most uplifting I’ve experienced—actually more of a presentation than an interview; it is the product of a members-only call with enrollees in the Equippers Lab.

This one is great fun!

You can learn more about David at Arusha Vineyard Church or facebook.com/arushavineyard.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Owens was a missionary kid growing up with Francis Shaeffer and L’abri as neighbors and family friends.

Rebelling against God, he made his way to Australia for life in the film industry. That turned into a stint as a flight attendant. He regained faith but with the “Children of God.” However, his life on airplanes turned into a church plant.

As the “Jesus People Movement” hit Australia, evangelism just “happened” even to non-evangelists like David (and me).

Most of his airline converts were gays and “promiscuous women,” so he did the next natural thing—he planted a church among them. Grace mixed with truth proved powerful commodities.

After marriage, he and his wife pastored in Vancouver, BC, before feeling the call to Africa.

The church in Tanzania focused on “white colonials” before David’s leadership. He nearly quit the leadership team over the church’s lack of concern for locals. His attempted resignation triggered rethinking and repentance.

Attempting to quit did no good—he became the pastor and reformer. There were fireworks, including one missionary organizing an attempt to remove him from the country. But the Holy Spirit prevailed, with the now thriving church counting primarily people of color in their membership.

Outreach includes training pastors, church planters, business people, medical personnel and the very poor. The interview with David was one of the most uplifting I’ve experienced—actually more of a presentation than an interview; it is the product of a members-only call with enrollees in the Equippers Lab.

This one is great fun!

You can learn more about David at Arusha Vineyard Church or facebook.com/arushavineyard.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My friend, Troy Evans, is an amazing man bringing imaginative change to a poverty-ridden community. His example bristles with lessons for you and me.

Troy leads The Edge, a church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s a city of extremes—wealth and poverty. Troy grew up there. Got into gangs. Three of his brothers were shot. Friends killed. After experiencing jail at an early age, he moved around until ending up homeless. A girlfriend (now his wife) took him to hear a preacher who rolled up his sleeves to engage a broken community.

Eventually becoming an IT engineer turned pastor and community leader, Troy has followed Jesus ever since.

The Edge links community development to jobs for young men to disciplemaking to church planting. More than 50 churches emerged from their efforts.

This podcast involves a lot of give and take. The interview felt like we were each discipling the other. I’m not blowing smoke when I say you have much to learn from this man. Troy’s context is urban his message and methods are universal.

Importantly, beginning in late summer, Troy is spending three weekends per month away from Grand Rapids and is available to speak in churches or train teams in the strategies developed by the Edge and its cohort.

You can learn more from his book, The Edge of Redemption: A Story of Hope for Rescuing the Unreachable.

Contact Troy at https://troyevansspeaks.com or https://theedgegr.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My friend, Troy Evans, is an amazing man bringing imaginative change to a poverty-ridden community. His example bristles with lessons for you and me.

Troy leads The Edge, a church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s a city of extremes—wealth and poverty. Troy grew up there. Got into gangs. Three of his brothers were shot. Friends killed. After experiencing jail at an early age, he moved around until ending up homeless. A girlfriend (now his wife) took him to hear a preacher who rolled up his sleeves to engage a broken community.

Eventually becoming an IT engineer turned pastor and community leader, Troy has followed Jesus ever since.

The Edge links community development to jobs for young men to disciplemaking to church planting. More than 50 churches emerged from their efforts.

This podcast involves a lot of give and take. The interview felt like we were each discipling the other. I’m not blowing smoke when I say you have much to learn from this man. Troy’s context is urban his message and methods are universal.

Importantly, beginning in late summer, Troy is spending three weekends per month away from Grand Rapids and is available to speak in churches or train teams in the strategies developed by the Edge and its cohort.

You can learn more from his book, The Edge of Redemption: A Story of Hope for Rescuing the Unreachable.

Contact Troy at https://troyevansspeaks.com or https://theedgegr.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My friend, Troy Evans, is an amazing man bringing imaginative change to a poverty-ridden community. His example bristles with lessons for you and me.

Troy leads The Edge, a church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s a city of extremes—wealth and poverty. Troy grew up there. Got into gangs. Three of his brothers were shot. Friends killed. After experiencing jail at an early age, he moved around until ending up homeless. A girlfriend (now his wife) took him to hear a preacher who rolled up his sleeves to engage a broken community.

Eventually becoming an IT engineer turned pastor and community leader, Troy has followed Jesus ever since.

The Edge links community development to jobs for young men to disciplemaking to church planting. More than 50 churches emerged from their efforts.

This podcast involves a lot of give and take. The interview felt like we were each discipling the other. I’m not blowing smoke when I say you have much to learn from this man. Troy’s context is urban his message and methods are universal.

Importantly, beginning in late summer, Troy is spending three weekends per month away from Grand Rapids and is available to speak in churches or train teams in the strategies developed by the Edge and its cohort.

You can learn more from his book, The Edge of Redemption: A Story of Hope for Rescuing the Unreachable.

Contact Troy at https://troyevansspeaks.com or https://theedgegr.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ed Kang is the son of Korean immigrants. Growing up poor in Los Angeles he was headed for a life of crime and delinquency. That is until he met a postal employee with a vision for discipling adolescents. One man with a guitar, a Bible and a heart for kids changed a bunch of lives in what we might call a microchurch.

As a law student at the University of California at Berkeley Ed worked as a bivocational campus minister. Upon graduating he felt that the world has enough attorneys but not enough campus pastors so he stayed on. The results are a collegiate church planting network. They are currently in 38 cities with outreach to 70 campuses.

What grabbed my attention was the ease of ministry Ed describes. He says that at even the most prestigous schools freshmen are just lonely kids away from home for the first time. Away from parents, even church kids end up prey for the darker side of partying, alchohol and other influences. But, he says they are extremely open to an older person who takes an interest in them. While seniors are most effective at reaching out to freshmen, older outsiders to the school will find a hearing if they spend time around campus befriending students. This is especially true of newly enrolled students who lack the closeup guidance of parents and family.

When I asked Ed for contact information he surprised me. He replied, "We love hosting people. We love spoiling pastors and church planters. So if you're interested in visiting out here in Berkeley, or any of our other church plants, we would love to show you around and, and give you a look under the hood, in case you might consider a collegiate church planting. If you're coming to one of our campuses, we will lend you our students to set up shop quicker than you otherwise would be able to. If that's you just email me at [email protected]." If you email Ed it might be wise to mention the invitation on this podcast.

For general information visit the GracePoint website.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ed Kang is the son of Korean immigrants. Growing up poor in Los Angeles he was headed for a life of crime and delinquency. That is until he met a postal employee with a vision for discipling adolescents. One man with a guitar, a Bible and a heart for kids changed a bunch of lives in what we might call a microchurch.

As a law student at the University of California at Berkeley Ed worked as a bivocational campus minister. Upon graduating he felt that the world has enough ttorneys but not enough campus pastors so he stayed on. The results are a collegiate church planting network. They are currently in 38 cities with outreach to 70 campuses.

What grabbed my attention was the ease of ministry Ed describes. He says that at even the most prestigous schools freshmen are just lonely kids away from home for the first time. Away from parents, even church kids end up prey for the darker side of partying, alchohol and other influences. But, he says they are extremely open to an older person who takes an interest in them. While seniors are most effective at reaching out to freshmen, older outsiders to the school will find a hearing if they spend time around campus befriending students. This is especially true of newly enrolled students who lack the closeup guidance of parents and family.

When I asked Ed for contact information he surprised me. He said, "We love hosting people. We love spoiling pastors and church planters. So if you're interested in visiting out here in Berkeley, or any of our other church plants, we would love to show you around and, and give you a look under the hood, in case you might consider a collegiate church planting. If you're coming to one of our campuses, we will lend you our students to set up shop quicker than you otherwise would be able to. If that's you just email me at [email protected]." If you email Ed it might be wise to mention the invitation on this podcast.

For general information visit the GracePoint website.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ed Kang is the son of Korean immigrants. Growing up poor in Los Angeles he was headed for a life of crime and delinquency. That is until he met a postal employee with a vision for discipling adolescents. One man with a guitar, a Bible and a heart for kids changed a bunch of lives in what we might call a microchurch.

As a law student at the University of California at Berkeley Ed worked as a bivocational campus minister. Upon graduating he felt that the world has enough attorneys but not enough campus pastors so he stayed on. The results are a collegiate church planting network. They are currently in 38 cities with outreach to 70 campuses.

What grabbed my attention was the ease of ministry Ed describes. He says that at even the most prestigous schools freshmen are just lonely kids away from home for the first time. Away from parents, even church kids end up prey for the darker side of partying, alchohol and other influences. But, he says they are extremely open to an older person who takes an interest in them. While seniors are most effective at reaching out to freshmen, older outsiders to the school will find a hearing if they spend time around campus befriending students. This is especially true of newly enrolled students who lack the closeup guidance of parents and family.

When I asked Ed for contact information he surprised me. He replied, "We love hosting people. We love spoiling pastors and church planters. So if you're interested in visiting out here in Berkeley, or any of our other church plants, we would love to show you around and, and give you a look under the hood, in case you might consider a collegiate church planting. If you're coming to one of our campuses, we will lend you our students to set up shop quicker than you otherwise would be able to. If that's you just email me at [email protected]." If you email Ed it might be wise to mention the invitation on this podcast.

For general information visit the GracePoint website.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Luke is young, confident and outspoken, “I believe frankly, Ralph, that the future of the church belongs to those who are willing to break up power handing it away and multiplying disciples at a much more efficient rate.”

He continues, “Come on dude…the more we can get this message out to younger leaders like me, who definitely had a calling has a calling, but was disillusioned by the one church in multiple locations model which gathers way much way too much power in one centralized group or even one centralized individual. We've seen how that's gone. There's very few cases of success for one church in multiple locations and many more examples of implosion and collapse because that one individual or that one board of directors had far too much power… it's really that simple. Let the states govern themselves. Let these church plants be led by unique apostolically gifted leaders, because that is the unique secret sauce of the priesthood of all believers.

He goes on to describe his relationship with Exponential, “Exponential was my Savior. You know…the whole world wanted to be a mega church, and we're trying to give away people and always odd man out. And I finally found a home when I met Todd Wilson and Bill Couchenour and Dave and all these guys and I'm so thankful for these people and I'll just do anything I can to try to support what's going on with Exponential.

He further described his path to multiplication at Exponential, “At first, I don't I don't get this. And then…I was like, Oh my gosh, I've gotten the cart before the horse. And I finally had language. And I finally had understanding that the one thing God called me to do which was to make disciples was the last thing I was doing. I was just managing the addition…I was growing big things but creating zero disciples.

You can listen to the interview to pick up on the rest of my conversation with Luke.

For more you can connect with him at mercyroadnw.com or [email protected].

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