New paradigm of church planting

I friend of mine, Damien Tougas, blogged a long quote about church planting and goals. You can read it here.

The quote that sticks out for me is:

Their goal is not to attract people to an event but rather to penetrate the community with the love of God and embody the gospel as well as communicate it.

Don’t get me wrong. With the Vineyard Church of Waterville, we’re certainly trying to attract people to our weekly “events”: Sunday worship and small groups.

But rather than experiencing incredible numeric growth over the last three years, we’ve experienced an amazing amount of “penetrating the community with the love of God and embodying the gospel as well as communicating it.”

We’re not compromising on our passion for Jesus. And, like Jesus, we’re being invited back! (I’m often amazed that the Holy one of God went to parties with people snubbed by the religious folks. And He was invited back to the next party.)

God has shown us favor far beyond our size or history.

Here’s a small sampling of blog posts from this year alone that illustrate how VCW is doing at penetrating the community.

I’m still working hard for numeric growth. But I’m really liking the ride Jesus has us on!

Other Possibly Related posts:

  1. More from Goetz on church planting
  2. QOTD
  3. Penny Car Wash
  4. Dying
  5. Going broke?

Published by

Marc A. Pitman

Marc A. Pitman helps leaders lead their teams with more effectiveness and less stress. The author of "Ask Without Fear!®," he is the founder of The Concord Leadership Group and FundraisingCoach.com. He's also the executive director of TheNonprofitAcademy.com and an Advisory Panel member of Rogare, a prestigious international fundraising think tank. He is the husband to his best friend and the father of three amazing kids. And if you drive by him on the road, he’ll be singing 80’s tunes loud enough to embarrass his family! You can connect with him on Google+, on Twitter @marcapitman, and like "Ask Without Fear!" on Facebook. To get his free ebook on 21 ways to get board members engaged with fundraising, go to http://thenonprofitacademy.com/21waysebook

3 thoughts on “New paradigm of church planting”

  1. yeah, marc.. we can jive with holding the dichotomy of penetration vs growing in event size. p strout said to our pastor that we have to think of ourselves as a parish… that our impact will not be measured only in terms of how many buts fill the seats.

    good work mate!

  3. Pingback: It’s not just a Protestant thing - Marc’s Musings - Life’s short. Live passionately.

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