GlocalNet

Guest blogger: Bobby Vaughn, Director of Church Planting for NorthWood Church

I grew up in a church planting family.  My Grandparents would pack up and move at the drop of a hat when they would hear of a young pastor starting a new work in some town.  That’s the way my Dad grew up, and he took that and would help plateaued or dying churches and inject new life into them by helping them start new churches (how many pastors do you know trying to bring a dying church back from the brink by telling them to start other new churches?).  And, yes, I’m a third generation planter.  Don’t get me wrong, I tried to run from that for as long as I could.  After all, there’s no money in planting churches. 

I tell you all that to tell you this, I’ve been to my fair share of church planting conferences and trainings.  Most of which seem to focus on a model (cell church, missional church, attractional church, house church, multi-site, parasite… etc.).  The thing I saw over and over again was the fact that everyone was focusing on the house, not the foundation.  One day, while talking with Omar Reyes (Glocal Impact Director here at NorthWood) and Brian Hook (City Catalyst for Vision360 DFW) we were discussing this in light of Bob’s teaching of “Kingdom-Disciple-Society-Church” and what it meant to train planters with this.  Omar made the comment, “Everyone walks into a house and looks at the walls, the counters, the fixtures, and says, ‘Wow! Look at this house! What a great design!’ No one walks in, pulls back the carpet, walks around the perimeter and says, ‘Wow! What a great foundation!’”  (Unless you live in Texas and there’s a giant crack running up your wall, then EVERYONE notices the foundation! There’s a biblical truth to that, too, but I won’t go there now.)  With that, we understood that what we teach was not a model (any model, with the right foundation, can flourish).  We don’t teach a method (we want to unleash the imagination and passion that God has burning within you).  We teach how to build strong foundations within the soil of the Kingdom.

This week, we have our first Turbo Training of 2009.  Registration is closed for this one, but don’t worry, another one will be coming later this year.  I am so excited about the group of people who are coming!  It’s going to be an intense day-and-a-half, but well worth it!  There are some exciting opportunities for planters who want to receive top-notch training, but can’t leave their ministry context!  Keep watching here for more news coming soon!

As always, if you would like to contact NorthWood about planting a church, you can contact me, Bobby Vaughn, Director of Church Planting by clicking on the “Contact Us” button at the top right-hand side of this page.  I look forward to meeting you soon!