We Are Send Network

Every member in your church is your next potential church planter or church planting team member. This week, Dhati Lewis sits down with Brian Bowman, lead pastor of Valley Life Church in Phoenix, Arizona, to talk about how his church has raised up missional leaders from within their congregation to plant churches in metro Phoenix. Related Article: https://www.namb.net/send-network-blog/5-ways-to-generate-vision-and-passion-for-church-planting/.

Whether it’s a pandemic, racial injustice, or the critical importance of spreading the gospel to communities across North America through church planting, this is the moment for the Church of Jesus Christ. Moments of crisis are always opportunities for the church to make Jesus known and invite others into His kingdom. This episode is an excerpt from Vance Pitman, senior pastor of Hope Church in Las Vegas, from the May 21 virtual Send Network Gathering.

When Noe Garcia accepted the job as lead pastor of North Phoenix Baptist Church (NPHX) — a church in desperate need of revitalization — the only other non-Anglo person on staff was the janitor. In this episode, Dhati Lewis interviews Noe Garcia about his experience with depression, ethnic identity and the immense freedom that accompanied it all while revitalizing NPHX.

The surge in racial angst may make you want to either riot or run. This episode is a round table discussion with Dhati Lewis, Vice President of Send Network and lead pastor at Blueprint Church, and Wesley Price and Domingo Guyton, shepherding elders at Blueprint Church, about the recent race-related riots throughout the country, white shame, black pain and what it means to corporately lament. This recording is used with permission.

You can’t give what you don’t have, and in hard seasons, caring for our souls is one of the first disciplines to go. In this episode, Dhati Lewis interviews Rivers Partin — a planting wife, member of the spouse development team for Send Network and licensed professional counselor — to talk about the challenges and importance of caring for your soul in difficult seasons.

As pastors and church leaders grapple with a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and the reopening process, they’re having to look at the future of their church with new eyes. What aspects of life and ministry will quickly return to normal, slowly return to normal and what will never be the same again? In this episode, Dhati Lewis interviews Bruce Moore, lead pastor of Christ Fellowship Church in Tampa, Florida, to discuss churches’ reopening process.

These days, it feels like we’re being engulfed with bad news. As pastors and leaders, it’s tempting to feel the pressure to say the right thing, at the right time, in the right way without first processing our own thoughts and emotions. In this episode, Dhati Lewis sits down with Noah Oldham, Send Network’s senior director of Deploy, to talk about the need for pastors and leaders to process complex emotions in challenging seasons— especially in light of the recent killing of Ahmaud Arbery.

Pastors and church planters are wearing a lot of hats these days. And while most people see only one side of their lives, their wives see it all—the good days and the bad. This special episode of We are Send Network features Kathy Litton, director of planting spouse development for Send Network and Angie Lewis, a church planting spouse and Send Network vice president, Dhati Lewis’ wife, to talk about how spouses can emotionally support their husbands in this season and beyond.

Kevin Ezell, president of the North America Mission Board (NAMB), is caring for thousands of pastors and church planters during the present crisis. In this episode, Dhati Lewis interviews Ezell to talk about how NAMB is caring for North American missionaries and their families during the coronavirus pandemic and how he has navigated leading a organization in an ever-changing and unpredictable season.

Should churches continue to exclusively meet online after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides? In this episode, Dhati Lewis interviews Bobby Gruenewald, a pastor at Life.Church, Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College and Micah Fries, senior pastor of Brainerd Baptist Church, about continuing to meet online as a church after the pandemic subsides and if our new way of gathering should be the long-term norm.