Midwestern Magazine - Issue 46

BIANNUAL MAGAZINE O F M I D W E S T E R N S E M I N A RY AND SPURGEON COLLEGE

MBTS.EDU THE MULTIPLYING CHURCH: PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL THROUGH PLANTING CHURCHES

ISSUE 46

ISSUE 46

BEING AN EQUIPPED PLANTER |THE HEART OF A CHURCH PLANTER | THE WORLD’S GREATEST PROBLEM HAS NO CLOSE SECOND

C O NTENT S

Midwestern Magazine Issue 46

AT A G L A N C E Jason K. Allen

20 THE STORY OF NORTHLAND CHURCH: Eight Ways to Become a Multiplying Church

38 10 YEARS OF MIDWESTERN WOMEN'S INSTITUTE 40 FACULTY HIGHLIGHT Rustin Umstattd 42 STUDENT HIGHLIGHT Bryan Dermody 44 ALUMNI HIGHLIGHT The Llulls 46 CHURCH HIGHLIGHT Emmaus Church 48 RECENT NEWS 54 CAMPUS LIFE

FROM THE PRESIDENT

4 Being an Equipped Planter Tony Merida

58 RESOURCES FOR THE CHURCH A selection of articles from the For the Church site at ftc.co

Matt Carter

Paul Chitwood

ARTICLE

ARTICLE

ARTICLE

8 Ten Traits of a

12 The Heart of a

16 The World’s

Church Planter

22 How Church Plants Cultivate Meaningful Partnerships

Church Planter

26 Thinking

Multiplication Noah Oldham

Ashlyn Portero

View past issues of MIDWESTERN MAGAZINE at mbts.edu/magazine.

Greatest Problem Has No Close Second

30 Reclaiming the

34 The Toughest

Jeff Dodge

John Mark Clifton

Dream of University Churches

Ministry You’ll Ever Love

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FROM THE

President JASONKALLEN.COM

hurch planting has never been more needed than it is today. With the continued rise in global population, churches committed to the task of multiplication will push back the darkness in our times. Multiplying churches looking for an example to follow need look no further than the Apostle Paul himself, for Paul was a church planter.

In fact, listen to how he described his ministry amongst the Corinthians, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Though he is responding to specific issues in the church at Corinth, the agricultural metaphor Paul chose reveals one of his primary passions: preaching the gospel where it had never been proclaimed for the sake of converting the lost and establishing churches of Jesus Christ (Romans 15:20-21).

Perhaps you can relate to Paul’s desire to plant churches for the glory of God. Whether you are

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 JASONKEITHALLEN

 JASONKALLEN

called to the task of church planting or aspire to support God’s work of magnifying His name amongst the nations, this edition of the Midwestern Magazine is for you. I pray these pages will encourage and equip church planters, aspiring church planters, and sending churches everywhere. May God use the faithful efforts of the seasoned leaders featured in this edition to call even more of His people to the task of multiplying churches.

Sincerely,

JASON K. ALLEN, PH.D. President, Professor of Preaching & Pastoral Ministry Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Spurgeon College

ED I T O R’S N O T E ISSUE 46

ADMINISTRATION

Regarding the growth of the church and renewal of the body of Christ in and among cities, Tim Keller once said, “the vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy.”

Jason K. Allen PRESIDENT

Jason G. Duesing PROVOST

James J. Kragenbring

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR

INSTITUTIONAL ADMINISTRATION

Charles W. Smith, Jr.

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT FOR

INSTITUTIONAL RELATIONS

EDITORIAL Lucas Hahn CHIEF EDITOR

Brett Fredenberg

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Abby Schroeder

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Karsten Harrison PROJECT MANAGER

Kody Gibson

VICE PRESIDENT OF COMMUNICATIONS

ART Hyacin DeBusk Logan Wade LAYOUT & DESIGN

Zach Walker

PHOTOGRAPHER

© 2023 Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is strictly prohibited.

5001 N. Oak Trafficway Kansas City, MO 64118 (816) 414-3700 Midwestern Seminary maintains professional and academic accreditation with three accrediting associations: The Commission on Accrediting of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) in the United States and Canada, The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (HLC), and The Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE).

If the local church is the focal point of God’s plan for the gospel to go forth, for cities to be transformed, and for lives to be redeemed by the power of Jesus, then being for the Church means being for the church multiplying across neighborhoods and the nations.

That’s why I’m excited to introduce this fall’s issue of the Midwestern Magazine. This issue’s theme—The Multiplying Church: Proclaiming the Gospel through Planting Churches—seeks to address the importance of church planting and the multiplication of the gospel through the local church. Our hope is that the content in this issue will serve as an encouragement for current church planters, a resource for prospective church planters, and informative for those in the church who desire to support the work of church planting.

As always, I would like to express my deep appreciation for the contributing authors in this issue: Dr. Jason Allen, Dr. Tony Merida, Dr. Matt Carter, Ashlyn Portero, Dr. Paul Chitwood, Noah Oldham, Dr. Jeff Dodge, and Dr. Mark Clifton. Each article is full of gospel-centered hope and encouragement for planting churches.

And finally, this issue would not be possible without the talent and hard work of a gifted team of authors, editors, photographers, and designers.

In particular, I want to recognize the design work of Hyacin DeBusk and Logan Wade who brought this issue together with stunning beauty, and the editorial and content work of Brett Fredenberg and Abby Schroeder who captured the heart behind this issue. We hope that this issue on church planting stirs up in you the desire to see the church multiply for the glory of God and the good of others.

For the Church and For His Kingdom,

Lucas Hahn Chief Editor, Midwestern Magazine Managing Editor, For the Church Director of Marketing & Content Strategy

 lucasbhahn

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SUBSCRIBE to Midwestern’s weekly e-mail newsletter, The Midwestern Weekly, at mbts.edu/subscribe.

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by J A S O N K . A L L E N

FROM THE PRESIDENT

ew men have shaped the 21st-century church more than John Piper, and few of his books have proven more helpful than his Brothers, We Are Not Professionals. Piper was right. Ministers are not to be professionals, and his call for radical, sacrificial, selfless ministry is spot on. Yet, when it comes to ministerial service and planting churches, we are not called to be amateurs either.

A ministerial amateur is not one who lacks formal training or advanced degrees from reputable institutions. An amateur is one who lacks the knowledge base, skill set, and experience for a particular task, in this case, planting a church. This is to say, one can still be an amateur though holding an earned degree, and one can be a faithful minister/church planter though lacking one.

In fact, Christians—and especially ministers/church planters—are called to be 1 Corinthians 1 people, confidently preaching the foolishness of the cross.

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Moreover, the list of those who lacked formal theological training while impacting the world for Christ is long, including luminaries such as John Bunyan, Charles Spurgeon, and Martyn LloydJones. I have learned much from men in times past and present who lacked formal education.

Yet, never before in the history of the church has theological education been so accessible, and never before has it been so needed. Advanced technology, innovative delivery systems, and proliferating resources all make being a ministerial amateur—as a permanent state—inexcusable. So, as an aspiring church planter, why pursue ministry preparation?

The Complexity of Our Times

Our cultural moment necessitates rigorous ministry preparation. Every generation presents the church with particular challenges, but our generation comes with unique baggage and angularity. It is not that the 21st century is more fallen or more secular than previous ones, but it may well be more complex.

Befuddling ethical questions, the often tortuously complex ramifications of sin, and a cultural intelligentsia devoting its best energies to undermining the Christian belief system all present the church with serious challenges.

The lost need more than shallow answers from ill-equipped ministers and church planters.

They need ministers prepared to bring the full complement of Christian truth to bear in a winsome, thoughtful, and compelling way.

The Centrality of Teaching the Scriptures

The preaching and teaching of Holy Scripture is the principal responsibility of the minister/church planter, and it is the central need of the church.

Paul repeatedly charged Timothy to a faithful ministry of the Word with exhortations like, “retain the standard of sound words,” “guard the truth which has been entrusted to you,” “rightly divide the word of truth,” and “preach the Word.”[2]

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These exhortations, and many others, require a renewed mind—and an informed one. There simply is no place in church planting for sloppy exegesis, shoddy interpretation, or shallow sermons. One can be a faithful church planter without a seminary degree, but one cannot be a faithful church planter without knowing the Scripture.

The Consequences of Ministry

There is an alarming inverse correlation between the seriousness of the ministerial task and the casualness with which it is often approached. We would not let an untrained mechanic rebuild our transmission nor would we permit an unlearned pediatrician to diagnose our children. Yet, churches often place individuals with the lowest levels of preparation in the highest office—the pastorate.

Why would one knowingly receive soul care and biblical instruction from an amateur, and why would a minister be content as one? Souls hang in the balance. There is a heaven to gain and hell to shun. There is divine truth to defend and proclaim.

Satan is serious about his calling; ministers/church planters must be serious about theirs. The ministry is too consequential not to be.

The Priority of the Great Commission

The end to which the church planter labors is the proclamation of the gospel and the furtherance of the Great Commission. Fulfilling the Great Commission necessitates a burden for the lost, a passion for the glory of God in the salvation of sinners, and an equipped mind to reason, teach, and persuasively present the gospel.

Furthermore, the Great Commission is a call to make disciples, not just converts. Though often conceptualized as primarily an act of zeal, the Great Commission also requires knowledge. It requires a readiness to “give an answer for the hope within you,” an ability to “contend earnestly for the faith once and for all delivered to the saints,” and the skill to “teach these things to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.”[3]

Conclusion

Once I heard a professor rebuke a student who argued it was appropriate to read his sermon manuscripts because Jonathan Edwards read his.

The professor shot back, “You fool, you’re no Jonathan Edwards.” Similarly, don’t look to models like Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones as justification for not pursuing formal theological education. They were self-taught geniuses. Likely, you are not.

God may well use you as a church planter in spite of a lack of formal training, but if you have accessibility—and virtually every person on the planet now does—to theological education, why miss out? Church planters will be judged for their faithfulness, not their academic accomplishments, but it is impossible to be faithful without being rightly equipped. Brother, you are not to be an amateur minister/church planter.

DR. JASON K. ALLEN | President, Professor of Preaching & Pastoral Ministry

[1] II Timothy 1:13–14; II Timothy 2:15; II Timothy 4:2.

[2] I Peter 3:15; Jude 1:3; II Timothy 2:2. *This article was originally published on 1/20/14 and was later adapted and included in my book Discerning Your Call to Ministry.*

THE END TO WHICH THE CHURCH PLANTER LABORS IS THE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL AND THE FURTHERANCE OF THE GREAT COMMISSION.

T E N T R A I T S O F A C H U R C H P L A N T E R

by T O N Y M E R I D A

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O

nce a year for over a decade, I had the privilege of teaching a week-long seminar to a group of church planters in Kiev, Ukraine, at Kiev Theological Seminary. One of my favorite memories was when we were doing student introductions and testimonies.

I will never forget one particular (muscle-bound) brother from Lithuania named Emmanuel. Before his conversion, he had spent some time in prison. He spoke about his rough former life, sharing that the only time he opened a Bible in those days was to use its pages to smoke various substances. But now he’s opening the Bible to proclaim it!

How do you go from smoking the Bible to preaching the Bible?

Jesus changes lives. That’s how. Due to Christ’s work in his heart, Emmanuel not only became a new creation, but he also became a humble and effective church planter.

In addition to the obvious necessity of conversion, what else is needed to be a faithful church planter? Please allow me to list ten traits of a faithful, Christ-centered church planter.

1

Spiritually Vibrant Planters

Faithful and effective church planters live out of the overflow of a Christ-adoring heart. They walk with and depend on God. As those who have been raised with Christ by the Spirit, they walk by the Spirit, displaying the fruit of the Spirit in their character and fruitfulness in their ministry. This kind of godliness not only glorifies God, but it also makes up for a lot of gaps in one’s gifting.

Spiritually vibrant planters realize that, as George Mueller used to say, the first business

of our day is to get our hearts “happy in the Lord.” The church flourishes under humble, happy, and holy leaders.

2

Theologically Clear Planters

We need leaders who understand Scripture, lead from biblical convictions, and are gospel-fueled in motivation. Faithful church planters and pastors desire to saturate their cities and the nations with sound doctrine. Therefore, having theological clarity in one’s teaching and leadership is essential.

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Christianity is not the only religion in the world to have missionaries and preachers. What makes our mission and our proclamation unique is what we declare—namely, the gospel. This is why theological clarity matters.

3

Ecclesiologically Robust Planters

Christ-centered church planters understand what a healthy church is. They understand who makes up the church; they have a grasp on sound church polity; they comprehend the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper; they seek to shepherd people faithfully. Further, they desire to plant more healthy churches through intentional leadership development.

A clear ecclesiology on the front end will motivate church-planting efforts. And it will inspire faithfulness to shepherd those God places under the church plantingpastor’s care (Heb. 13:17).

4

Relationally Healthy Planters

Faithful church planters who are married seek to cultivate strong marriages, and they manage their households well. Planters who are single seek to be faithful in their singleness.

Additionally, relationally healthy planters practice the “one anothers” in an exemplary way, and they seek to deal with conflict in a gospel-centered, God-honoring way.

Moreover, good church planters know the importance of friendship and they seek to cultivate gospel partnerships. All of these relational dynamics flow from a big heart for people. Spurgeon once said that “a man must have a great heart if he is to have a great congregation.” Such warmth, love, and welcome arises from one’s own deep awareness of Christ’s warmth, love, and welcome.

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Expositionally Skilled Planters

We need leaders who handle God’s Word faithfully and Christocentrically, and who lead people to worship and mission in their application of Scripture.

While the ability to teach is a gift from God (Rom. 12:7; Eph. 4:11; 1 Pet. 4:10–11), it is also a skill that planters/ pastors should seek to develop (1 Tim. 4.11-16). Good church planters will seek to improve in their preaching through evaluation, personal reflection, observation of good preachers, reading, and by attending helpful preaching seminars and workshops.

6

Evangelistically Passionate Planters

Faithful church planters do the work of evangelism with everyday gospel intentionality. They live missional lives as they engage with people in their networks (where they shop, live, play, eat, and work). They also practice hospitality, opening their lives and their homes to outsiders.

Good church planters desire to see people saved in their city. Therefore, they will pray for unbelievers, invite them into their home, to a restaurant, or to some kind of event, serve them, give resources to them (such as books or podcasts), and share the gospel with them. They are constantly looking for opportunities to explain the good news.

7

Contextually Wise Planters

Exegeting one’s context is important in church planters. Good planters are culturally savvy. They live as missionaries in their cities, designing ministries that fit their context.

While there are some normative aspects of church planting (such as the gospel and our confession of faith), there are also situational aspects of church planting. The former are unchanging, but the latter seek to apply the unchanging truths to the lives of people in a certain context. Good church planters pay attention to the various trends, beliefs, hopes, fears, and idols of those in their community. They will seek to apply the gospel to these issues.

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Globally Engaged Planters

We need leaders who immediately think about the nations from the beginning of their plant, and who seek to invest in the Kingdom of God around the globe. Christcentered church planters are called to make Jesus’ last command our first priority: to make disciples among the nations (Matt. 28:18–20).

mobilize the local church for mission. They will pray consistently for people groups, and for the gospel to advance around the world. These kinds of planters will also give generously to this work, and will lead others to do the same.

9

Practically Diligent Planters

Church planting is hard work, and faithful church planters seek to develop good rhythms of work, rest, and play.

Wise planning, retreats, and learning to sabbath are essential for the longhaul.

One doesn’t have to neglect practicality to be a theologically driven church planter. Good church planters should seek to implement best practices if they are in alignment with sound doctrine and fit one’s context.

Such planters are constantly learning, evaluating, and improving systems and structures, initiatives, and events.

10

Eschatologically Motivated Planters

We need leaders who take the long view, doing everything for the glory of Jesus in light of His return and coming Kingdom.

The “well done” we are looking for is from Jesus. When we have an eschatological vision, we can endure hard times, suffering, grief, disappointment, and challenges.

Good church planters can say with Luther, “There are two days on my calendar: this day and that day.”

We live today in light of the coming of Jesus Christ.

All the trials and pains of church planting should be viewed in light of the glorious future that awaits the saints. One day we will see His face. And we will not regret having served Jesus faithfully through all the highs and lows of life.

TONY MERIDA | Vice President of Planter Development, Send Network; Pastor of Preaching & Vision, Imago Dei Church, Raleigh, NC

Great Commission church planters will build global partnerships in order to make disciples and to

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by M A T T C A R T E R

If you ever consider planting a church, there are numerous questions you should ask yourself.

Questions like: Is God really calling me to this? Does my wife support my calling?

Am I biblically qualified to be a pastor? But there is one question I feel many church planters aren’t asking themselves, and it's crucial to the whole process: Do I have the heart of a church planter?

I think it’s important to clarify two things.

First, when we say the heart of a church planter, we’re referring to their inner being. The heart is what makes a person who they are. Because of the physical, emotional, and spiritual rigors of church planting, a planter needs to have a certain makeup. They need to have a certain type of internal fortitude and character, or the task can quickly become overwhelming.

Second, in considering the type of things that make up a church planter’s heart, the list is extensive. But I want to focus on three specific qualities, in order of importance, that should makeup a church planter’s heart.

1. Church planters need a heart that is deeply moved by the gospel.

The question is not: have you received the gospel? If you’re planting a church,

I’m assuming you’re already saved. The question is: are you still deeply moved by it?

I planted a church in 2002 called The Austin Stone. God used it (and still is) in ways I could have never imagined. When hiring senior level staff, one of the questions that I always asked them was this: “When was the last time the gospel made you weep?” In other words, when was the last time the reality sunk in that, when you didn’t deserve it and couldn’t have earned it, Jesus died a horrible death to pay the penalty for your sin, offering you eternal life in heaven and abundant life here on earth?

If they couldn’t answer the question, or if it had been a really, really long time, I simply didn’t hire them. The same should be said for church planters. Only those who have a deep and profound understanding of the gospel will truly want to plant a church. Church planting is a response to the gospel.

2. Church planters need a heart that is deeply humbled by the gospel.

While a deep and profound sense of humility is essential for any pastor, I’m increasingly convinced that it’s especially important for church planters. Here’s two reasons why: First, church planting is hard, and you just might fail. As a matter of fact, a huge percentage of church plants never make it. If your church is one of those that don’t make it, how will that impact your view of God? Will it crush you? Will it make you question His goodness? Planters must be humbled

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by the reality that, though God doesn’t owe you anything, He graciously gave you the greatest gift He could ever give—His Son. Second, church planting is hard, and you just might succeed. In my opinion, success is even more dangerous than failure. I’ve seen so many successful young church planters turn into arrogant failures of a pastor. We all know the stories. So, what keeps you from becoming one of those stories? Humility.

Humility means considering others more important than yourself. It means that, as a pastor you’re willing to serve more than to be served. It means that you strive not for the applause and approval of man but of Jesus. It means that no matter what, deep down you know that your success is only because of the grace of Christ in your life.

3. Church planters need a heart that is deeply rooted in the gospel.

The reality is that church planting is so difficult, it’s

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at times so gut-wrenching, that if your heart is not deeply rooted in the gospel, you simply won’t make it. And when I say, “you won’t make it,” I’m not talking about the success or failure of your church plant. I’m talking about the success or failure of your walk with Christ. I’ve seen far too many young church planters walk away not just from their churches but from Jesus altogether.

I believe there are two primary reasons for this occurrence, both of which remind us of the importance of establishing our hearts deeply in the gospel. First of all, we must remember that we have an enemy. And the enemy hates church planting. I’m convinced that if you rarely attend church and never make an impact for the Kingdom, the enemy doesn’t care much about you. But if you’re a church planter, someone reaching an unreached city and preaching the Word of God while lifting high the name of Jesus, you become a target of the enemy of God. Satan looks at his demons and asks: What’s his name?

"Your success is only because of the grace of Christ in your life."

What’s his wife’s name? What’s his kid’s name? You need to be deeply rooted in the gospel of Christ to endure the spiritual battle ahead.

The second reason you need a heart deeply rooted in the gospel is because of the attack of everyday people. Recently, I was asked to help mentor a group of young megachurch pastors. Each of them began as church planters, but through the years they saw significant growth. These are men that if I shared their names you’d recognize them, men that can preach and lead with the best of them, and God has blessed their ministries powerfully. But as we talked and shared our stories, there was one thing that was common to all of them: betrayal.

Every one of them, at some point in their church planting journey, had an extremely close friend betray their trust and friendship. Additionally, every one of their wives had a story of a close friend that deeply wounded them. When it comes to church planting, the question is not if betrayal will happen but when. And when it does, the pastor and

Learn more about the SEND NETWORK at namb.net.

his wife better be deeply rooted in the unchanging, unshakable love of their heavenly Father.

As I look back on my time as a church planter, two things are simultaneously true. It was one of the most rewarding and fruitful times in my life, and it was also one of the most difficult.

These three characteristics of a planter’s heart are crucial to possess. If you have them, it will still be difficult, but there’s a much greater likelihood that you’ll still be married and walking with Jesus at the end of it.

MATT CARTER | Vice President of Mobilization, Send Network

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The World's Greatest Problem Has No Close Second

by P A U L C H I T W O O D

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W

hat makes a problem great? Do great problems affect the most people? Or do they bring the most difficulty to your life?

Imagine that you were one of the 18 million people around the world diagnosed with cancer each year. Surely this qualifies as a great problem. Cancer diagnoses are oftentimes accompanied with the feelings of fear and devastation. Not only is such a health report largely unexpected, but it’s also life-threatening.

Now imagine that you were one of the 50 million people living in South Asia’s Himalayas, the world’s highest mountains. Despite living in one of the most beautiful places on earth, the Himalayan people are burdened with alcoholism, domestic abuse, and poverty—problems which tend to compound on one another. Does a combination of issues make a problem even greater?

No one would question that these problems are great, but even they are not the greatest problem.

The world’s greatest problem is lostness. Nothing else comes close.

How do I know? The Scriptures make it clear that the eternal destiny of those who die without Christ is in the lake of fire (Revelation 20).

What matters most is this: that we labor day and night so that those who die before Christ’s return die in Christ (1 Thess. 4:16). No work is more important, more

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pressing, or more urgent. Nothing we could do out of concern for the poor in the Himalayas, the refugee in Greece, the neighbor in Johannesburg, or the stranger you walk by on the streets of Lima, begins to rival the importance and urgency of sharing the gospel with them. If people do not die in Christ, they die lost and condemned to an eternal hell.

Planting the church required perseverance, sacrifice, and determination. But the price paid was worth it. This work to find and reach the lost made an eternal difference for Shanti.

Jesus made His approach to lostness clear: He left the ninety-nine to go after the one that is lost (Luke 15:4-7).

At the IMB, we track numbers about lostness very closely. Here are a few stats you need to be aware of:

This truth captivated Sandeep and his wife Lalita, believers living near the Himalayas. Every weekend, they load up their family to journey on buses through rough terrain to reach a slum area deep in the mountains. Working with International Mission Board missionaries Mike and Beth McKenzie to locate unreached people groups, these and other national partners faithfully go into such hard-to-reach areas and research 13 remote peoples with no gospel access.

They located and built relationships with many people in these groups, including one woman named Shanti.

Shanti had a great problem. Not only did she live in a society rampant with alcoholism, domestic abuse, and poverty, but she recently received the dreadful diagnosis of cancer. Shanti’s greatest problem, though, was that she was without Christ.

She was set to be one of 61.8 million people who die spiritually lost each year. That’s 173,451 souls in our world who die every single day separated for eternity from our life-giving, soul-saving Lord.

During the last months of her life, Shanti met Sandeep and Lalita and heard the news of what Christ had done for her greatest problem. And praise be to God, the gospel reached Shanti just in time!

Shanti trusted in Christ and a few months later became the first among her people group to die in Christ. Mike McKenzie reported that she finished her race faithfully. She had become part of a healthy new church planted among her people group in partnership with national believers.

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Despite the joy this story elicits, at the same time my heart grieves.

•

The global population sits at more than 8 billion people, growing by more than 200,000 a day.

•

Every day, 391,941 people are born and 185,452 people die.

•

There are more than 7,000 unreached people* groups consisting of 4.8 billion people and growing by 123,151 every day.

•

There are more than 3,000 unengaged* unreached people groups consisting of 288 million people and growing by 7,394 every day.

The most sobering of these facts is this: more people will die without Christ tomorrow than those who die without Christ today. Why? Simply put, global gospel sharing isn't keeping up with global population growth.

We have a responsibility to change that.

God’s Word to us is clear: “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?” (Proverbs 24:11-12).

We do know. And we must act.

Because the IMB’s priority is addressing the world’s greatest problem, we are a church planting organization. The numbers make it clear that

the addition of churches started by a relative few missionaries will not be sufficient to give everyone an opportunity to respond to the gospel.

Local indigenous churches started by people such as Sandeep and Lalita are needed to help reach those staggering toward eternal separation from Christ. Multiplying healthy churches and leaders—the view of multiplication modeled

by Jesus with the twelve Apostles—is vital for sustained disciple making and Kingdom growth.

The urgency of this work cannot be overstated. We must send more Southern Baptist missionaries to the nations to train and mobilize more national believers. The question is, who will go? But that isn’t the only question. We must also ask, who will send?

We must search our hearts for how we can undergird the work of getting more missionaries to the nations.

Calling out the called, praying earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest (Luke 10:2), and committing ourselves to faithful financial support are all essential tasks for this work.

There is much harvesting yet to do. Like Shanti, may those who die, as much as it depends on you and your work and your witness, die in Christ.

PAUL CHITWOOD | President, International Mission Board *A People Group = an ethno-linguistic group with a common self-identity. *Unreached People Group = fewer than 2% of the population are evangelical Christians. *Unengaged Unreached People Groups = groups with no missionary presence and likely no gospel access. No one is engaging them.

Learn more about the INTERNATIONAL MISSION BOARD at imb.org.

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The Story of Northland Church

E I G H T W AY S T O B E C O M E A M U LT I P LY I N G C H U R C H Northland Church is known for making disciples and multiplying churches in Kansas City. While methods vary between contexts, the mission of multiplying through church planting remains the priority for Northland. These eight methods of multiplying churches, displayed in eight church plants from Northland Church, are not exhaustive, but seek to illustrate the diversity and contextualization in church planting.

HOUSE OF GOD CHURCH FELLOWSHIP OF GRACE Northland Church invited a church planter to attend Northland for several months before sending a group of 30 to start Fellowship of Grace.

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SET FREE CHURCH Northland Church blessed a church launch team not only with resources and equipping but gifted them their own building to plant Set Free Church.

Northland Church invited House of God to meet in Northland’s building for a season of growth before purchasing their own building as a vibrant and healthy church.

DEAF FELLOWSHIP Northland Church sent a gifted member to plant a new church amongst deaf communities, and they continue to support the church through administrative work.

NORTHTOWN TRINITY CHURCH

NORTHLAND EN ESPAÑOL Northland Church invited a seasoned church planter to plant again in their building, focusing on reaching Hispanic communities.

Northtown Trinity began as a campus of Northland Church.

After a season of growth and maturing, Northtown Trinity became an autonomous church in 2023.

NORTHSIDE FELLOWSHIP

BLUE HILLS BAPTIST CHURCH

After meeting weekly with a student interested in church planting, Northland pastors established a church planting residency to further equip and send him to plant with four pastors and 40 core members.

Northland Church sent several families to join a planter and help replant a dying church, Blue Hills.

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by A S H LY N P O R T E R O

Planting a new church, with all its ups and downs, is an incredibly exciting endeavor. Every prayer, possibility, hope, and certainly a few fears lie before you.

When I think of the church plants I know and their leaders—including some I count as dear friends—I am instantly encouraged by their deep desire to bless and establish themselves in their communities. Many have left the comforts of well-established congregations and familiar places to reach the unreached with the gospel.

One of the beauties of churches is to model the

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generosity of the Lord Jesus—to bless and serve those around them with freedom and love.

In a practical sense, this is a very exciting time in the life of the church, deciding exactly how to go about this work. As almost anyone who is a semiaware citizen of his or her community can attest, the needs are great everywhere. While it can be

daunting to know where to begin, community engagement should not be an overly complicated process. Even in today’s climate when trust of churches is often low, great opportunity remains for churches to contribute in significant and meaningful ways to the flourishing of their neighbors and communities.

Start Where You Are One of the simplest and best ways to pursue local partnerships as a new church is to begin with your own people. Don’t overthink it! If there is even one set of parents with kids in school at your church, engage them on how the church might help meet educational needs. If you’re in a college town, you likely are within driving distance of a large international student population. This is a great opportunity to reach out to a college or university and simply offer to support students, perhaps by sponsoring meals or offering to drive students without cars for errands and shopping trips.

Sometimes we think each new initiative needs to be fully fleshed out, branded, and explained in three talking points fit for Sunday announcements before we can begin. While organization does matter and clarity is a marker of excellence, the emphasis in the early days of church planting should be on just going for it. Start by taking stock of your congregation and seeing what is already happening. Is there a hand serving in a yet-to-be noticed space?

Support him or her, come alongside with resources, ask questions, and discern whether the church can more fully partner.

For example, a family at my former church founded a non-profit organization when their very young son was battling a serious form of cancer. They desired to serve families with children who faced lifethreatening illnesses or disabilities, offering support for those who often felt alone and forgotten by the community at large. At first, our church desired to support these members with their efforts, but we quickly realized we

could contribute much more and help these efforts grow to bless many more. Today, their organization is fully functioning and serving hundreds of families in the city, many of whom have entered the doors of the church, heard the gospel, and found support as a result. Not everyone’s passion will materialize into a formal community partnership, and that’s okay. Still, as the old saying goes, “Start where you are.”

See and Meet Needs By nature of their life phase, new churches have a unique advantage in establishing community partnerships—they have the constant need to get creative and innovate. Budgets are low, leaders may be inexperienced, and just about everything is uncharted. But this also provides a clean slate from which to work. New churches aren’t tied to much—nobody’s saying, “this is what we do, not that.” At my home church, the first way I served inside the church was by helping paint the walls of our newly acquired warehouse (the church plant life, am I right?). But the first way I served outside the church as a representative of the church was in a concession stand at a varsity high school football game. Perhaps not where one might expect, but let me explain.

If you asked me how a church might best serve a local public school, I would say what most people would probably say: tutor, mentor, donate school supplies, provide breakfast for teachers.

These are all good and needed, and I know many churches who do exactly these. In the very early days of our church, though, we became aware of a unique challenge. Through connections with faculty and coaches, a few of whom were part of the church too, we learned that many of the parents of football players had never really been able to watch their kids play. They were busy each game running the concession stands, which funded the booster program, which expanded opportunities for their sons through the athletics program, which in turn provided scholarships and opportunities beyond high school. The church stepped in and had volunteers sign up to run the concession stands for all home games, allowing MBT S .EDU

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parents to, well, be parents. The parents were able to be present and support their children doing the thing they loved, which helped them grow as young men and connected them in deeper ways to the community around them.

At the same time, this partnership served our church by providing a low-entry way for people to serve outside of the church walls and foster friendships through a shared, very fun activity.

Manning a small, hot, over-crowded stand in the rush of halftime forges bonds that are slow to be broken. This partnership continues to this day and has expanded to the church initiating a kickoff lunch for all high school football programs, backpack drives, mentoring opportunities, and Bible studies hosted on campus at various times over the years. Starting with one thing and committing to it with dedication and excellence led to true partnership: mutual commitment to serving a community within the city to contribute to its overall flourishing.

Start Small and Be Consistent New churches must remember that it is okay (and probably even better) to start small and slow in cultivating partnerships. This doesn’t mean people should hold back their generosity or eagerness to serve. If a need exists and it can be met, meet it.

In the same way, churches shouldn’t overthink getting started. They shouldn’t overthink strategy.

There will always be more needs, which is why a plan is helpful and why you can start just about anywhere. However, young churches should focus on doing a few intentional things very well in their early days while they are figuring out how to grow together as a united body.

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Leaders should be clear about partnerships. It is better to choose only a couple of opportunities for the church to officially support while still encouraging church members to pursue their own individual ways of serving and supporting the community as representatives of the body. This allows church members to know that their church is actively engaged with purpose and intention to serve and bless the community in meaningful and effective ways, while also equipping and freeing people up to find their own ways of loving mercy and living justly within their spheres of influence.

It is good for churches to be involved in their community, to bless the people around them, and to contribute to the flourishing of society.

Even as orthodox Christianity moves toward the margins, churches must be beacons of light through joyful generosity and real presence.

They must enter the lives of the people whom they hope to reach. This is not always easy, but it is also not negotiable. The forms and approaches will look different, but the call is the same: to seek the welfare of the city, to give generously without expectation, to model the reality of incarnation. The Lord will bless these efforts, both within and without the church.

ASHLYN PORTERO | Director of Groups and Partnerships, Redeemer Queens Park, London, England; Director of Operations, Alliance for Transatlantic Theological Training

STARTING WITH ONE THING AND COMMITTING TO IT WITH DEDICATION AND EXCELLENCE LED TO TRUE PARTNERSHIP: MUTUAL COMMITMENT TO SERVING A COMMUNITY WITHIN THE CITY TO CONTRIBUTE TO ITS OVERALL FLOURISHING.

T H I N K I N G

M U L T I P L I C AT I O N

by N O A H O L D H A M

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n Matthew 28, Jesus commissioned His disciples to a worldwide disciple-making project: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.” Then, in Acts 1, He promised to give them the power to make it possible: “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” That day arrived, the Holy Spirit came, and the Church was birthed.

God shows us in the book of Acts, and the rest of the New Testament, that His plan for His global mission of expanding His Kingdom in cities and nations all over the world is not in a random scattering of individuals or families. At the center of His plan is a tool. In fact, the only tool established by Jesus for the expansion of His Kingdom is the local church. These communities of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord gather regularly for preaching and worship. And these same communities, unified by the Spirit, scatter to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission.

we take a group? We begin to partner up with a newer church or a church reaching a different culture within driving distance and we call it “Samaria.” We connect with a foreign missionary, and we call it “the end of the earth.” But is this all that Jesus had in mind?

Jesus said the nations are His inheritance. God promises to bring people from every corner of the globe, every tribe, language, people, and nation, to worship at His throne. Therefore, the mission demands that we think multiplication.

Every church in the New Testament was planted by another church. The Apostle Paul wrote many of his letters to ask churches to participate in the mission or to thank them for the role they’ve already played. There is a clear synergistic thread all throughout the first century church.

This model of Kingdom collaboration resulted in a movement of multiplication that led to today. The mission Jesus had (and has) in mind is vast and immense. And no single church can accomplish the mission by itself.

Yet, if we’re not careful, that is where our definition of the local church can end. Maybe not in official definitions, but in the real practices and rhythms of our churches. We feel responsible for “right here.” This neighborhood.

This town. This city. This county. This region.

This is our area of responsibility. This is where we focus our time, attention, and resources to be disciples and make disciples. As we should!

To say it plainly: according to Scripture, networks don’t plant churches. Denominations don’t plant churches. Even individuals don’t plant churches.

Churches plant churches. And if we are going to see a true movement of the gospel spread across the United States, North America, and around the globe—a movement I hope that we are believing God for—we must see thousands of churches and church leaders commit to think multiplication at every level: multiplying disciples, multiplying leaders, and multiplying churches.

But then we’re reminded of Acts 1:8. And it’s then that the mission trips get planned and the youth pastors start making phone calls. Where can

But stated like that, we might let ourselves off the hook. If thousands are required, then I don’t matter. But you do. You matter. Your

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church matters. Your obedience to the Great Commission matters. And your leadership to lead others into that same obedience matters.

In 2009, I led a team of five to plant August Gate Church just south of downtown St. Louis. Our desire, as our name alludes, was to be a church that sought God for a harvest in St. Louis. So, we planted pregnant. No, we weren’t ready to send out a team (we could barely gather enough people that first six months to keep the nagging thoughts of “did we miss this?” at bay!). But we were pregnant with vision: “By God’s grace we will see disciples made, churches planted, and St. Louis littered with gospelcentered, missional churches.” And then we got to work.

in reaching this community. And then we got the call. A few months prior, we had committed to help plant a church on the other side of the city. We committed prayer, coaching, finances, and a blank check of “anything you might need.” Well, it just so happened that they needed a worship leader. Up to this point, it was one of the hardest “yes” answers we had to make. In a culture of multiplication and sending, the disciples belong to Jesus. He will move them and use them where He sees fit. Our job is to faithfully multiply and send.

A WILLINGNESS TO EXPAND THE VISION Within two years we were growing, reaching people from a 25-mile radius. This meant that some of our members lived an hour away from each other. Then one of our core families spoke up. They understood the mission and vision of being disciples and making disciples— gathering, growing, and going together. They were all in. But they couldn’t convince the neighbors they were reaching to make the drive to be a part of August Gate. Did they have to leave? We committed to praying.

The disciples belong to Jesus. He will move them and use them where He sees fit.

Our job is to faithfully multiply and send.

And over the past 14 years, I’ve learned that there are four non-negotiables in the harvest field of the Lord Jesus: a willingness to multiply and send leaders, a willingness to expand the vision, a willingness to multiply and send congregations, and a willingness to multiply the vision.

A WILLINGNESS TO MULTIPLY AND SEND LEADERS From the outset, we had the desire to plant a church that would reach the diverse context of south St. Louis City. We knew that we’d need a diverse team to make this happen. We prayed.

And as we prayed, God brought a young man into our lives. He was a young disciple of Jesus, newly married with raw skills on instruments and singing.

God heard and answered!

Over the next several months, our pastors poured into him, discipling him in life, marriage, and worship leading skills. He was ready to begin leading and we were going to take our next steps

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And after a season of prayer, it was clear that God was moving us to plant another congregation of August Gate Church. God was moving our focus from a smaller, focused geographic area in South City to a larger, regional area that included the south part of St. Louis Metro East. On our third anniversary as a church, we celebrated the launch of August Gate Metro East, and the transition to an expanded vision of one church in multiple locations.

A WILLINGNESS TO MULTIPLY AND SEND CONGREGATIONS Sending out members and leaders to expand the vision and mission of the church is one thing.

But sending out members and leaders to start something autonomous and new is different altogether. Well, a culture of multiplication and sending is contagious, and in short order we were faced with that decision.

One of our original five, one of our first ordained pastors, began to sense God’s call to an area of our city: both the geography and the people. It was an area that hadn’t seen church planting activity in quite some time. If you’ll indulge my anthropomorphism: the area was hungry for the harvest. Yet we were just barely a year beyond planting a second gathering.

We had sent leaders, resources, energy, and attention elsewhere. It was a season where we could have justified saying no to what’s next.

You see, we were concerned with growth. But God was calling us to multiply. So, we did. One of our pastors and his entire small group were sent (before we turned five!) to plant a new church on the northwest side of the city.

A WILLINGNESS TO MULTIPLY THE VISION Over the next several years, the mission and the vision kept moving forward. We served as the sending church for a handful of other churches in the St. Louis metro region. We partnered as supporting churches for another couple handfuls around the country, and even in Canada. And in some very miracleladen ways, we were able to be a part of Kingdom-expanding works among the nations. Disciples were made, developed, and ended up in lots of other churches around the city.

Decisions to multiply and send were still hard, but they got easier each time. Until we were hit with the hardest one of all.

In the fall of 2019, just after celebrating our 10-year anniversary, our elders were faced with the question: Is it time for

something new? Specifically, as our church matured, our congregations and contexts both changed. We were at a crossroads. Do we fight to keep this thing together? Or do we make the decisions necessary to keep the multiplication of disciples and churches at the forefront. We knew we had to multiply the vision.

In January 2020, we began the process of moving from one church in two locations to two autonomous churches laser-focused on our individual contexts with the nations in mind. As I look back, I see God’s sovereign power and kindness to move us in the direction He did when He did.

Three years later, these two churches continue to multiply disciples. We both work to reach our neighborhoods so that the nations might know Him. We’re working to plant churches and send missionaries. The vision is still the same. It’s just bigger, broader, and some might say, more beautiful. This is our multiplication story. What will yours be?

NOAH OLDHAM | Lead Pastor, August Gate Church; Senior Director of Church Planting Deployment, Send Network

by J E F F D O D G E

T

here once was a day when churches were drawn to the university campus and found it to be an ideal place to plant new churches. Churches worked hand-in-hand with universities to raise up the next generation of leaders. It was a healthy and mutually beneficial alliance.

Visit virtually any university campus in the U.S. and you will find a common phenomenon: a beautiful central campus surrounded by church buildings representing a host of denominations.

Sometimes you will even find churches situated in the very heart of the campus!

Those campuses represent a day when the university and the church worked side-by-side in a symbiotic relationship to form the next generation of local, national, and global leaders.

Today those historic church buildings are often empty or nearly so. Of the churches whose

doors have not been shuttered, many have abandoned the evangelical impulse that fueled their founding. Those church buildings stand as haunting sentinels of a bygone day.

Moreover, many universities have become suspect of (even antagonistic toward) Christfollowers, Christian beliefs formed from the Bible, and of course, churches. Churches can often return the favor by harboring suspicion and even animosity toward the university.

Because of this relatively new state of reality, few church planters make university communities their destination of choice. It's a tough, uninviting, and suspicious (and often expensive!) place to try to get new Kingdom work going. Here I am, Lord, send me… just not to those scary universities!

That’s the unvarnished truth of it. Nevertheless, we need to reclaim the compelling dream of MBT S .EDU

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establishing churches in university communities.

Here are five reasons why:

2. UNIVERSITY STUDENTS ARE ACTIVISTS— AND THAT IS AN ENERGY THAT CHRIST SEEKS TO CHANNEL.

1. UNIVERSITY COMMUNITIES HAVE AN UNPARALLELED PLATFORM TO SHAPE CULTURE.

Intriguingly, not since the late 1960’s have college students been more eager to engage in protests (according to a recent Higher Education Research Institute report). Now, what are students protesting? Many are ambivalent—they simply want to protest. But gospel-transformation can channel that innate impulse into divine activism: “turning the world upside down” with the message of Christ (Acts 17:6).

Churches stationed in university communities are proximate to some of culture’s strongest headwaters. While this places the church in a precarious position, it also affords it a unique place for gospel transformation.

Churches that emerge in the university community must be prepared to hold an unflinching grasp of its divine purpose. God has created His Church to possess, in the words of

College students are looking for a mission.

Churches focused on reaching universities can multiply their impact for the Kingdom of God by

TRAIN FUTURE LEADERS IN A UNIVERSITY SETTING AND YOU HAVE PREPARED THEM WELL FOR WHEREVER GOD MAY SEND THEM. theologian Herman Bavinck, “unique spiritual power.” Christ is present in the church as the means of supernatural transformation. The church is the steward of divine truth able to “demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God.” And once embraced, God’s truth is capable of extending far beyond the walls of the gathered church. “Because of Christ there radiates from everyone who believes in him a renewing and sanctifying influence upon family, society, state, occupation, business, art, science, and so forth.”

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reclaiming the vision of next generation ministry.

Mobilize the next generation of Kingdom-minded leaders during these four strategic years and watch how the Lord might use these graduates to reap a harvest for decades to come.

3. OUR NATION'S UNIVERSITIES ARE MAGNETS FOR EMERGING LEADERS.

As the late Tim Keller said, “If you’re on a college campus, you’re on the culture’s cutting edge. It is our best leadership development pipeline. By exposing people to the cutting

edge of culture where they have to deal with the modern mindset, where they have to deal with non-Christians—that is the best way to develop pastors and lay leaders.”

in the U.S. but churches can also experience an even greater impact on the nations by sending believing international students back to the nations as disciple-makers.

Train future leaders in a university setting and you have prepared them well for wherever God may send them. In this way, the college campus becomes the training ground for a lifetime of disciple-making in any context. Whether you send graduates to the workforce or throughout the world, they’ll have the right tools in place to grow in their faith and reach their neighbors.

5. UNIVERSITY COMMUNITIES STAND AT A CRUCIAL SPIRITUAL CROSSROAD.

4. THE NATIONS (EVEN SOME OF THE MOST UNREACHED PEOPLES) ARE COMING TO OUR UNIVERSITIES.

According to the Institute for International Education, colleges and universities today are rebounding to pre-pandemic numbers of international students with 1.08 million on our campuses in January 2023.

Many of these students are coming from nations that are difficult to reach through mission enterprises— yet, here they are coming to our university communities. Let us establish churches to welcome them and point them to Christ!

As the nations come to universities, churches have even greater opportunities to reach the nations. Not only can churches work to reach international students while the students are

Think of college campuses as a cultural revolving door—perhaps even a cultural bottleneck. Millions of young adults gather for a short season of life in these concentrated population centers and then leave for destinations unknown. While in this window of time and space, students will often make some of the most consequential decisions of their lifetime—especially in the spiritual realm.

Like myself, students often hear the gospel of Jesus Christ on university campuses for the very first time.

The power of that gospel transforms their lives for eternity. Let this gospel proclamation ring from churches who have intentionally set themselves at this, albeit risky, crossroad. And may future church planters head to university communities while praying with the boldness of Jim Elliot, “Father, make me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.”

JEFF DODGE | Teaching Pastor, Veritas Church, Iowa City, Iowa; Assistant Professor of Theological Studies

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by J O H N M A R K C L I F T O N

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grew up near the tiny town of Spickard, Missouri—population 487. If you spread out a printed map of the Show Me State on a table, you’d have a tough time picking out Spickard.

You won’t find a grocery store, a gas station, or even a stoplight in the town.

Yet for decades there was a small Baptist church, where my father served as pastor starting in 1947. Spickard may not have had a fancy department store or a professional baseball team, but it had a faithful gospel witness.

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A few years ago, I got a call from the local director of missions. First Baptist Church was closing down. He wondered if I might want some of the leftover heirlooms from my dad’s era in the church.

That day, as I drove the two hours from my home to Spickard, I grieved for the town’s lost gospel witness—and for the loss of hundreds of other churches each year.

Unfortunately, the same story is playing out in small towns across America. Among Southern Baptists alone,

over 900 churches will close their doors this year— and over 77% of them are not in places declining in population, but are in fact growing. Just since 2000, the median worship attendance in a Southern Baptist church has plummeted from 137 to 67.

Thousands of churches are on the brink of death even as America desperately needs the gospel.

RECLAIMING GOD'S GLORY I spent the first several decades of my ministry planting new churches. I rarely gave a second thought to the dying churches next door. But in 2005, as I was serving as an associate director of missions in Kansas City, I was approached by a group of older women from a once prominent inner-city church whose congregation had dwindled as the surrounding neighborhood changed over the decades. They asked me to help prevent the church from dying.

But I knew that wasn’t enough. In my associational role, I had seen so many other churches in a similar spot. I knew a dying church—or even a barely surviving church—didn’t bring God glory. Above all else, everything we do should bring glory to God (1 Corinthians 10:31, Romans 11:36).

So instead of helping Wornall Road Baptist Church survive, I went there to help it reclaim the glory of God in that neighborhood. About a decade later, I handed the pastorate of the church over to another leader. The church had grown from 18 members to around 150.

But what really mattered wasn’t the numbers of people in the pews each week. What was once dead was now alive. Wornall Road was a picture of the gospel at work in our Kansas City neighborhood.

Wornall Road’s story wasn’t my story. It wasn’t even the story of those precious saints in the pews. It was Jesus’ story of resurrection.

It’s a story I’ve read in the Bible over and over again ever since.

It’s God taking Ezekiel to the valley of dry bones and telling him to preach to spiritually

dry people who appeared to be well-past their heyday—and making the audacious claim that one day these dry bones would live again.

It’s Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus boldly declaring: “Lazarus, come out!”

But I wish I could say revitalizing a declining church was as simple as a conference, book, or weekend seminar. Only Jesus Himself by His Spirit through the gospel can bring new life to His bride.

Practically speaking, replanting a church requires preaching Christ-centered truth in the power of the Spirit, ceaseless prayer, compassion for the church and community, and commitment for the long haul.

Let me briefly unpack these four critical elements.

PREACH THE GOSPEL I know when you come to a dying church you want to take the silk plants off the stage because they have dust all over them. You want to take down the bulletin board that still has stuff from 1986 on it. Maybe if you’re really brave, you want to change the name. But none of that will change a heart.

None of our plans for revitalizing a church will ever get off the ground in our own power. Even the best-prepared and the most eloquently preached sermon won’t bring a church back from the dead.

Paul told the church in Corinth that he didn’t come to them with fancy words or great wisdom.

Instead, Paul writes, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

I came to you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not be based on human wisdom but on God’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:2-5).

Standing before dying congregations, pretty words won’t do much—they won't resurrect that church.

Our single goal must be to see cold hearts ignited again by the convicting work of the Holy Spirit

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through the gospel. Only the resurrected Christ preached in God’s power has the ability to breathe new life into dry bones. This Spirit-empowered gospel proclamation changes everything.

We must not cease pleading for Him to revive dying churches through the convicting work of His Spirit until their hearts are ablaze once more.

When the gospel takes hold of the hearts of God’s people, cherished traditions fade in the light of God’s glory.

Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10 gives us a great picture of what this looks like. Think of what set the Samaritan apart from the priest and the Levite. It wasn’t what they wore, what they believed, how they knew Scripture, or how many times a day they worshiped. It was compassion.

PRAY CONSTANTLY The work of revitalization is war. As John Piper says, “Prayer is wartime communication.” You won’t revitalize a church without constant, unceasing prayer.

In our day, church culture focuses on programs. We often relegate prayer to a rushed agenda item instead of being the crucial wartime communication it’s designed to be.

But the New Testament church understood that only God’s power unleashed through prayer enables bold ministry. Without persistent prayer, our words will be powerless to pierce hearts. But on our knees, crying out for God’s Spirit to move, miracles can happen.

We need two kinds of prayers as we’re revitalizing churches. Yes, we need to pray for the sick and the shut-ins. Those are important prayers. But don’t stop there.

Look at who the early church prayed for most fervently—themselves! They begged God to embolden them in their gospel witness. Paul didn’t just pray for the lost by name. He pleaded for God to empower his own preaching of the gospel message (Colossians 4:3-4).

When we’re replanting churches, we need to beg God to unclog our ears and open our eyes, to remove the spiritual scales that blind us. Only through prayer will we hear God’s message and accomplish His glory-filled purpose in replanting.

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LOVE THE CONGREGATION, LOVE THE LOST

The Samaritan had compassion for someone who was nothing like him. You only get compassion like that through Jesus. The more time you spend at the cross, immersing yourself in the gospel, the more compassion you’ll have for your congregation and your lost neighbors.

Notice how the Good Samaritan cared for the man. He bent down and tended to the man’s needs. He was willing to get dirty. He paid the costs out of his own pocket.

That’s what it looks like for us to care for people in a replanting situation. We need to be willing to get dirty and put everything on the line to love people unselfishly.

We can’t love like that in our own power. I’m an introvert. Most days, I want nothing more than to stay in my basement and read history books.

I crave solitude. I can only love people the way Jesus does because I’m in a love relationship with Him. The more I love Jesus, the more I love the congregation, the lost around me, and my family.

The priest and the Levite walked past the Samaritan because they knew caring for the man would interrupt their lives. That’s why dying churches are in the position they are in. They’re unwilling to interrupt their lives to care for lost people.

In church revitalization, people often worry about expenses. Certainly, there is a financial cost to caring for your neighbors. But, as Henry Blackaby has said, “God is under no obligation to resource your plans for His church, but He’ll spare nothing from heaven to resource His plan for His church.”

STAY FOR THE LONG HAUL

The reality is those questions have no answers and are of little consequence to the work of replanting, but we argue about them all the time.

Our charge, instead, is love. Paul describes this in the next verse: “Now the goal of our instruction is love that comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 3:5).

Remember what Paul told Timothy when he wanted to leave Ephesus, “As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus” (1 Timothy 1:3). You must refuse to leave your post when it gets tough. I promise you that it will get difficult.

Replanting a church is hard in the first year or two.

It’ll get harder in years three and four. Then, when you don’t think you can handle anything more, it’ll get even harder. But our charge is to love and stay when every bone in our body wants to leave.

Replanting a church is hard. On your own, you’ll be like Timothy. You’ll say, “This isn’t going the way I thought it would. I’m not having the results I thought I would. I better go somewhere else.”

DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE

Almost weekly, I get an email from a pastor who says his work is done. I listen and engage, but here’s what I’m thinking: I don’t think it matters whether you think you’re done. Most days I think my work is done, too. But Jesus has other ideas.

God can work in many ways in a replanting situation. He could turn around a church in a split second if He wanted. But God seems to prefer to work through His servants over a long, difficult period.

Notice why Paul tells Timothy to stay, “so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies” (1 Timothy 1:3).

Many New Testament scholars aren’t sure what Paul is talking about here. But as someone who has served in many tough places, I can tell you what it is. Those endless genealogies are questions like, “Should we bring coffees into the sanctuary? Should we have pews? Should we not have Sunday night?”

God has given us only a short time on this earth.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to waste a second of it. That’s why I urge you, go to the hard places. Go to the places you can make a difference. Go to a place where 20 or 30 elderly saints return to their first love.

Come back to the genuine joy of seeing the church begin to reach people in their own community.

And watch that church come back to life.

That’s a living testimony.

Churches all over the country are dying. I can’t think of anything better to do with the rest of my life than to watch Jesus do the impossible in them.

Will you join me?

JOHN MARK CLIFTON | Senior Director of Replanting and Director of Rural Strategy, North American Mission Board

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CELEBRATING 10 YEARS OF MWI This year Midwestern Seminary celebrates the 10-year anniversary of the Midwestern Women’s Institute led by Mrs. Karen Allen. Midwestern Women’s Institute exists to equip women to serve their families, churches, and communities by providing them with ministry training, spiritual encouragement, and biblical fellowship. Offering classes in Old and New Testament, Teaching, Discipleship, Hermeneutics, and more, MWI offers women the opportunity to learn and grow alongside other women as they prepare for a life of ministry and leadership. To recognize this special anniversary, we’ve asked Mrs. Allen to highlight several key components of MWI and its impact.

MBTS What is the Midwestern Women's Institute, and how does it seek to edify and equip women, both inside and outside of the Midwestern Seminary community?

KAREN B. ALLEN Midwestern Women’s Institute is a certificate-level program for any woman seeking encouragement and equipping to serve her family, church, and community. We foster a Titus 2 learning community by providing our courses in an intentionally social environment. We carry out our courses in love and humility, according

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to the mindset prescribed in Philippians 2. Practically, this means that our instructors not only have a deep passion for their subject matter but also love teaching women and desire to see them strengthened in their spiritual lives and service to God. In all we do, our goal is that of Ephesians 4—that we would “grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.” That means that our courses are meant to equip students so that they can go back to their families and churches and love others well for the glory of Christ. MWI is never an end in itself but is

meant to propel students into greater service to those God has placed around them, whether inside or outside of the home.

MBTS What are some highlights or joys of MWI's

past 10 years?

KAREN Truly, the deepest joy is in the people.

It’s a joy to watch students come through the program and finish feeling more equipped and more prepared to serve. I love that we get to “send” them into their next ministry opportunity surrounded by a community that is rooting for them! A personal joy is serving alongside other women—our instructors, faculty wives, and volunteers—and seeing them cultivate their gifts and then multiply themselves by serving and training other women. And then there’s joy that grew out of trial. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down residential classes, we made the choice to begin an online program. We now see that program growing and flourishing as it serves women around the country!

MBTS What hopes and desires do you have for the future of MWI and the women it serves?

KAREN The aspects of MWI that have been constant over the past decade will steward us into the future. We desire for our purpose and values to become increasingly evident in all that we do. We look to God to continue to provide instructors who exemplify Christ and who are gifted in exhorting women to know and love Christ more. We seek to “excel still more” in how we love our students—both in the content we are teaching and the way we offer our courses—meaning when and how often courses are offered, clearing obstacles to participation through keeping course costs very low, providing free childcare for students, and making room for fellowship and sisterhood.

We are praying for both our residential and online programs to continue to grow, not just in numbers but also in depth. We are asking that God would open doors for MWI to be a resource to many—both individuals and churches in the Kansas City community and beyond.

"What would you tell another woman who was interested in taking an MWI course?"

I would strongly encourage anyone to take the MWI courses.

They are manageable for anyone's schedule and allow you to deepen your Bible study skills. These courses have been great accountability to keep me growing and learning as a follower of Christ, as well as a ministry leader in our church. The opportunity to learn alongside so many women from around the country at such an affordable price is a gift.

CHRISTY CERVANTES , Sugar Hill, GA

Enroll today. mbts.edu/mwi

RUSTIN UMSTATTD Assistant Dean of Doctoral Studies, Associate Professor of Theology and Ministry

Dr. Rustin J. Umstattd serves as Assistant Dean of Doctoral Studies and Associate Professor of Theology and Ministry at Midwestern Seminary. He received his M.Div. and Ph.D. from Southwestern Seminary. Dr. Umstattd came to Midwestern after serving more than 15 years in student ministry. In addition to his role at Midwestern, he serves on the pastoral leadership team at Northland Church—a church with a passion for planting churches in Kansas City. Dr. Umstattd enjoys playing guitar, riding motorcycles, and watching science fiction shows with his daughters.

He has been happily married to his wife Leslie since 2001.

MBTS How would you explain Northland’s philosophy and passion for church planting?

RUSTIN UMSTATTD Northland Church has a long history of desiring to see new churches planted in Kansas City. This passion is driven by our understanding that each community needs to have a healthy church ministering to people in it. In the book of Acts we see Paul and others travel around the Mediterranean establishing new churches that then sent people out to continue the work of spreading the gospel.

We want to be part of that same mindset where we send people out from our congregation to reach new people by starting new churches.

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One of our mottos is that we want to multiply churches, not chairs. Given the choice of having one thousand people on our campus each Sunday or having ten churches planted that are averaging one hundred people each Sunday, we believe that those ten churches will have a greater impact upon the city than our one location could have. We, therefore, want to disciple our members to be ready to leave our church and be a part of planting a new one. As those members are sent, room is made in our facility for us to reach a new group of people, who we then want to disciple to potentially be sent out to plant another church.

MBTS For those interested in church planting, can you give us a behind the scenes look at how to plant a church?

FACULTY HIGHLIGHT

RUSTIN Planting a church is not an easy task, and there is no cookie cutter method to how it should be done. Our two most recent church plants were done very differently.

For one of the plants, we had approximately forty members join together to plant the church. They gathered regularly as part of Northland, but when the day came for the church to be planted, they became an autonomous church immediately. Our most recent plant has been a campus of Northland for a little over a year and will become autonomous this fall.

The common feature between both plants was that the church plant pastoral team served at Northland and was trained before they planted their church. They were also sent out with enough members from Northland to give the new church momentum. We believe that a church planter should begin his plant with a strong group of members who can act as seed and starter fertilizer for the new church plant. Having a strong group of believers as the core of the church plant optimizes the chances of the new plant taking root and thriving in its new community.

MBTS How can established churches equip future church leaders and planters?

RUSTIN Established churches are the best place to train future church planters, because the goal of each church plant is to become an established church with deep roots in the community. A key component in training church planters is exposing them to the regular ministry routines of a church. The initial phase of planting a church is different from what is needed a year after planting, five years after planting, and a decade after planting.

Bringing a potential church planter on the staff team enables the planter to grow relationships with members that will join him when he plants, as well as allows him to sharpen his ministry skills.

The sending church also needs to have the mentality that any of its pastors could be a planter. What I mean by this is that the church’s culture should be open and willing to send not just its newest pastor, but any pastor on staff to plant a church. Being willing to send out highly effective and loved pastors can be scary for a church, but it also sets the tone that God has called us, as a church, to expand His Kingdom through planting new churches.

MBTS How have you seen the landscape of churches in Kansas City develop and grow throughout your years at Northland Church?

RUSTIN I have had the pleasure of being a member, as well as serving as a pastor, at Northland since 2009.

During that time, I have seen an increased desire among churches to start new churches, and this is deeply encouraging. Another change that I have noticed among seminary students who are training for ministry is a desire to be part of church planting efforts.

These men are not primarily looking to join large, established churches, but want to reach an area of the city that does not currently have enough churches. They are looking to join churches that can equip them and deploy them to plant a new church.

MBTS Why is theological education important for church planting?

RUSTIN As a professor I love theological education. I love meeting with students to discuss the deep theological issues they are wrestling with in their classes. As a pastor of a church planting church, I also see the need for theological education from a different angle. It is one thing for seminary students to gather with each other to discuss what they are studying, but it is quite another thing to connect with people who have never gone to church before as you plant a new church and reach people who have no prior understanding of the Christian faith. The questions they ask are deep and profound, but the church planter needs to be able to answer those questions in a way they can understand. To be able to simplify the biblical answer for them requires that you know that answer very well, and this is where theological education pays great dividends. The more you understand your faith, the more you can explain it to others who have no understanding of it at all. Seminary often gets the bad rap of being an ivory tower where only intellectuals discuss ideas that are irrelevant to the average person, but this could not be further from the truth. Midwestern’s goal is to train people “For the Church” and this requires that each student engages deeply with the Bible and their faith, so that they can engage the lost. This engagement is even more pronounced in a church plant because the people you are reaching are mostly unreached people.

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STUDENT HIGHLIGHT

BRYAN DERMODY Midwestern Seminary seeks to provide theological education for students in a variety of Kingdom assignments, including those currently serving in ministry. Bryan Dermody, one such student pursuing his Doctor of Ministry degree, exemplifies the value of pursuing theological education while serving in full-time pastoral ministry. Bryan serves as the Community Pastor at Veritas Church in Iowa City, Iowa. Veritas is part of the Salt Network and hosts the Veritas School of Theology. In this edition’s student highlight, we asked Bryan about theological education, church planting, pastoral ministry, and more.

MBTS Can you tell us more about your ministry at Veritas Church and how your church seeks to prioritize church planting?

BRYAN DERMODY I currently serve as the Community Pastor at Veritas Church. I help facilitate small groups, lead men’s ministry, and teach equipping classes. My greatest passion is discipling men, whether that is coaching small group

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leaders, teaching Bible studies, or leading early morning coffee shop discipleship groups. A close second ministry passion is theological education.

One of the ways I get to exercise those mental and spiritual muscles is by helping to teach at the Veritas School of Theology.

Although we consider church planting to be part of the DNA of Veritas Church, we have no pipeline or

STUDENT HIGHLIGHT formal church planting program in place, and this is intentional. Two of the more conventional ways we prioritize church planting is by talking about it regularly from the pulpit and dedicating money to it in our yearly budget (whether or not a new church plant is on our horizon). We also prioritize church planting by discipling the people of our congregation. If consistent discipleship is happening, regardless of whether or not that discipleship is specifically focused on church planting, many of those disciples will inevitably make this part of their vocation and following of Jesus. Finally, we make a concerted effort to never allow our plans and strategy to trump the Holy Spirit’s leading. For example, we had no intention of planting a church this year in Dubuque, IA, but through the Holy Spirit’s leading we did!

MBTS How does Veritas Church partner with the Salt Network? Can you share more about the Salt Network?

BRYAN The Salt Network is a family of churches that work together to plant churches in cities with major colleges and universities. We believe that one of the keys to Christian revival across the United States (and beyond) is reaching the next generation with the gospel. There are currently 24 churches in the network, with five upcoming plants to come in the near future.

Veritas Church was the original church planted

by Cornerstone Church (Ames, IA) on September 10, 2010. We have continued to partner with the Salt Network by sharing financial resources, raising up church planting candidates, and sending existing staff and community members to join new church plants.

MBTS How do you balance theological education with full-time ministry? What advice would you give to ministry leaders with a desire to pursue more theological education?

BRYAN Doing theological education and full-time ministry requires sacrifice. To balance the two, you must understand where this sacrifice is to come from and then settle it in your heart to live that out. The sacrifice is not to come from time in God’s Word every day (abiding in Christ), shepherding your family well, or doing your job with excellence and integrity. It comes mostly from your “free

time,” the time that we often think we are entitled to use in whatever way we choose (i.e. watching TV, scrolling through social media, etc.).

I was told by many professors up front that my theological education would be a failure if I did not become a better disciple, spouse, and parent as a result of it. Therefore, I would tell those seeking to pursue more theological education to do it with three goals in this order: (1) grow to better love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30), (2) grow as a spouse and parent, and (3) grow in theological knowledge. Of course, I would also tell them to, in fact, get the education. It will be worth it!

MBTS How have you seen church planting change over the past 10 years? What do future church planters need to know about ministry today?

BRYAN Church planting has only increased over the last 10 years. With this increase has come a rise in both church “networks,” such as the Salt Network, and multi-site churches (planters are going into their first plant with the vision of future multi-sites).

Maybe the most marked change, in terms of church planting strategy, has been that church planters are going into new plants with a missionary mindset in the United States. Secularism currently dominates American culture—churches and Christianity are an afterthought at best—resulting in church planters going into new plants with a mindset not all that different from planting a church in a foreign culture.

Future church planters need to know that slower is better when being raised up and sent out to plant.

The consequences of planting a church before the necessary spiritual maturity has developed can be devastating. It’s better to take more time to be discipled by older, wiser Christian men and women who have followed Christ for a long time, endured trials, and been faithful to serve God’s church. Future planters also need to know that this is God’s church, not theirs (Matt. 16:18). The goal is not to build your own little “kingdom” in the form of a local church.

God’s Kingdom does not need another Tower of Babel. Finally, future planters need to be cautious of sacrificing their family for the church. God’s church is a beautiful gift, but the most important people we need to shepherd are our spouses and children.

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ALUMNI HIGHLIGHT

Meet

RAYMOND AND NOORA LLULL Midwestern Seminary’s Missions Moonshot aims to send 100 missionaries each year to the nations.

Many of these missionaries serve in such high-security locations that their information is unable to be disclosed to the public. In light of this reality, we want to highlight the work of Midwestern Seminary alumni serving in high-security locations. Though their names have been changed and pictures are concealed for their safety, we hope this year’s alumni highlight reminds each of us of the urgency of the mission and the courage of missionaries around the world.

MBTS Can you tell us a little bit more about where you serve, what your roles entail, and your ministry priorities?

NOORA We serve with the International Mission Board (IMB) in Pakistan. Our focus is a desert province the size of Iowa, consisting of a population of about 32 million Muslims. There is little to no access to the gospel in our province—around 200 believers total. Most of my time in our first year here has been spent learning the Urdu language in any and every way, including sharing the gospel and sitting with ladies in Bible studies.

RAYMOND We joined a team of 2 other families, who are coincidentally all Midwestern and Fusion alumni. Our focus is simple—abide in Christ, obey the Great Commission, and help others do the same. The Scriptures give us clarity as to how this is to be carried out—gaining access into unreached places, prioritizing bold gospel proclamation to anyone and everyone, laying new foundations of discipleship for local indigenous churches, and appointing local indigenous M I DW E S T E R N M A G A Z I N E

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leadership among those who believe. This role is itinerant in nature, and we resonate with the Apostle Paul’s expressed tension for both the breadth of gospel expansion (Romans 15:20-21), and the concern for depth in each and every church established (Philippians 2:12-18).

MBTS Why is church planting central to the missionary task?

NOORA Our context is highly uneducated, mostly illiterate, and extremely poor. For many new believers, the first book they have ever read or listened to in an understandable way is the Bible. It is encouraging to see the eagerness of brand-new Christians learn the Word of God, and immediately obey it. In many cases this is met with persecution. For these believers, to both grow and multiply, the local church is essential.

They need to be able to lean on each other and hold forth the word of life (Philippians 1:16).

RAYMOND Lone-wolf Christians don’t last long here. If

ALUMNI HIGHLIGHT

they do, their walk remains quite weak. If we look back, there is no expression of New Testament Christianity without the local church.

As the definition of “missions” continues to expand to include everything under the sun, the local church must be continually emphasized.

Churches birthing churches has to be the goal, and our role is to simply help facilitate this process in a pioneer context. Pragmatically we understand our limits, but we also realize that our limits only highlight the biblical impetus for spending time and resources in equipping the saints in the work of the ministry.

MBTS How did your sending church encourage and prepare you for ministry overseas? How do they continue to support you while you remain overseas?

NOORA Through Emmaus Church in Kansas City, we have a support group of members who were hand-picked to closely relate with us on a monthly basis. We give them updates on our ministry, our struggles and accomplishments, our family life, etc. They ask tough but needed questions. Oftentimes missionary update emails/groups tend to go in only one direction, but we feel that Emmaus’ initiative to add this smaller and more intentional group has created healthy, two-way communication. They have been a great source of encouragement for us during difficult times during our first year on the field. We are deeply grateful for them and their commitment to pray and advocate for us.

RAYMOND Emmaus was helpful in at least two big ways. First, though I was primarily interested in preparing to serve as a missionary, Emmaus allowed me to jump into their pastoral residency program. I was a bit of an odd duckling as the “Muslim guy” and most of my assignments had an Islamic or missionary application, but I was grateful for the opportunity and learned much from these brothers. Second, we were given so much freedom to lead out in evangelism seminars, establish a weekly prayer group for the nations, and provide input for the church’s GO School for future goers. As a missionary, so much

of our foundation-laying work is contingent upon a team’s creativity, initiative, and resilience, and Emmaus equipped us by giving us opportunities to practice carrying out a God-given plan for how to spend time and resources.

MBTS Can you share one or two key convictions related to the missionary task that your time in Kansas City and at Midwestern Seminary helped instill in you?

NOORA We were both very involved with the Fusion program during our undergraduate years. Probably the biggest takeaway was a deep conviction of how integrated the ministry preparation process needed to be. The classroom was just one part of the whole training experience. I learned how to share the gospel and how to disciple others, but I was also challenged to actually go and do it. I was closely discipled myself. My cohort ate together, slept together, budgeted together, even sweat together! We fought for each other’s holiness.

Fusion always pushed for active local church membership, which I believe is the best expression of many of these principles.

RAYMOND First, Midwestern instilled in me the belief that the Bible is sufficient, clear, authoritative, and necessary for both faith and practice—and I am indebted to several men on faculty for reinforcing these convictions. This conviction and precision in defining the missionary task is common at Midwestern, as the number of Midwestern alumni serving overseas continues to grow. Second, I learned that if you’re not evangelizing and making disciples now, you won’t then. For those aspiring to the nations, Kansas City is a great training ground. Living among literally hundreds of people groups in Kansas City equipped me in Muslim evangelism and discipling Muslim-background believers. For us, seminary life looked different—it meant moving off campus, taking jobs where we knew we’d run into nonChristians, and sometimes submitting missiology papers late because of late night gospel conversations with my Saudi Arabian roommates.

But I found this to be a good balance.

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CHURCH HIGHLIGHT

Emmaus Church LOCATION: KANSAS CITY, MO

Midwestern Seminary is blessed to be located in Kansas City, a city continuing to grow in its number of gospel-centered, healthy churches. One of these churches is Emmaus Church. Emmaus exists to declare and display the gospel of Jesus.

Since Emmaus began in 2015, the church has sent dozens of members to plant churches and pastor congregations around the world. Tyler Greene, Emmaus’ pastor for preaching and leadership, joined us for this edition’s church highlight to discuss training church planters and developing church planting churches.

MBTS Since Emmaus first began as a church plant, it has sent many leaders to plant churches throughout the world. Can you tell us a little more about the history of Emmaus and how your conviction for church planting has developed throughout the years?

TYLER GREENE Since the very beginning of Emmaus, our mission has been to declare and display the gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the key aspects of this mission has always been and will continue to be multiplying churches. In the past, our emphasis has been on equipping men to be pastors and church planters in whatever context God has called them to serve. There has always been a recognition that our

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proximity to Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College has provided us with a unique opportunity to equip men who are training for ministry. We get to be part of their development in a way that complements their seminary training.

In 2023, however, Emmaus had the privilege to plant a new church here in Kansas City. We sent about 30 of our covenant members to start Trinity Church, which gathered to worship God for the first time on Easter Sunday. In light of Emmaus’ vision to see churches multiplied, this was a pivotal moment of development for us and an absolute thrill. Sending Trinity is only the beginning, though. We want to be directly involved in seeing more churches planted and

CHURCH CHURCH HIGHLIGHT HIGHLIGHT

preaching the gospel in our city. So we’re looking ahead to see what’s next.

Such churches are a tremendous blessing. In fact, Emmaus wouldn’t be here without them!

MBTS Aspiring church leaders from across the country have moved to Kansas City for the pastoral residency program at Emmaus Church.

How do you seek to train members and pastoral residents for a variety of ministry callings through the ministry of Emmaus?

But by God’s grace, churches like Emmaus can make great church planting partners as well. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul effusively commends the strength of their partnership with him in the gospel (Phil. 4:14-15). Because of the support he received from a small community of saints in Philippi—a community that was radically committed to the promulgation of the gospel—Paul was able to plant a new church in Thessalonica (Phil. 4:16; cf. Acts 17:1-9; 1 Thess. 2:1-16). I praise God that he continues to raise up “ordinary churches,” like the Philippians, who devote themselves to church planting.

TYLER A major goal for Emmaus’ pastors, both past and present, has been to invest in aspiring leaders.

Pastoral residents have gone on to become pastors, missionaries, professors, teachers, and church planters. Our desire is to shape and train men for the work of ministry in a way that tangibly impacts local churches. This includes equipping in areas like spiritual formation, development in preaching and pastoral care, and hands-on ministry experience. We encourage feedback from residents once their residency is complete, so that we can continue to shape our residency around what best helps the pastors we send and the churches they serve.

But this expands beyond the residency to the life of Emmaus more generally. Throughout its existence, Emmaus has fostered a sending culture. We do a lot of what we call “gospel-goodbyes” with those who depart for ministry, whether pastoral or otherwise.

This includes residents and members alike. Our Sunday preaching and liturgy regularly remind our members that we are just one piece of the universal Church. Though it can be painful to see our residents and members leave, we see frequent gospel-goodbyes as one of the many joys of serving the mission of God.

MBTS What encouragement would you give to pastors who desire to encourage and equip their churches for church planting?

TYLER If Emmaus can do it, your church can too.

I’ve heard the misconception more than once that only large congregations with big budgets can plant churches. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m incredibly grateful for larger churches who give their energy and resources to planting.

MBTS What advice would you give to aspiring church planters and future ministry leaders on how best to prepare for their ministry calling?

TYLER The most important thing an aspiring church planter or ministry leader can do today is to be the best church member you can be. Show up in people’s lives. Find both big and small ways to add value to your congregation. You don’t have to wait until you have the title “pastor” to make a huge impact on the local church. In fact, at Emmaus, when we’re looking for leaders to develop, the first thing we ask is, “Who is doing the kinds of things a leader does? Who already embodies the leadership culture we want to build at Emmaus?”

I once had a pastor who used to tell me, “Don’t let a guy preach who is unwilling to clean toilets.”

Jesus was the greatest preacher, Bible interpreter, and theologian the world has ever known. And yet he said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve” (Mark 10:45). Being theologically trained is of immense value and I’m beyond thankful for the great work that institutions like Midwestern are doing. But serving and caring is what will win people’s hearts and make them want to follow you. Make such things a daily practice in your life, starting with the people right in front of you in your local church.

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RECENT NEWS

Recent News The latest news and events from Midwestern Seminary and Spurgeon College

KEITH & KRISTYN GETTY CONCERT MARCH 28, 2023 During the biannual trustee meeting, Keith and Kristyn Getty led an evening of worship on campus for the seminary community titled, “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death.”

MASTERS DEGREE EXPANSION MARCH 30, 2023 The faculty approved changes to the master’s program, including double the number of available emphases, clear and attainable pathways to doctoral degrees, and disciplinespecific cohort offerings for Global Campus students.

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RECENT NEWS

SPRING PREVIEW DAY APRIL 14, 2023 Midwestern Seminary welcomed hundreds of prospective students and guests to campus for Spring Preview Day.

SPURGEON COLLEGE COHORTS MAY 16, 2023 Spurgeon College announced a new cohort model for residential education called Spurgeon College Cohorts. Each undergraduate student will engage in intentional and formative community in one of several discipline specific cohorts.

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RECENT NEWS

100% TUITION SCHOLARSHIP SEPTEMBER 12, 2023 Starting in the fall of 2024, all new residential masters students admitted into Midwestern Seminary’s For the Church Cohorts program will receive a 100% tuition scholarship for the first year of studies.

The full-tuition scholarship includes all tuition costs for up to 18 credit hours of residential or practicum courses during the academic year. Additionally, those in the Fusion Master’s Cohort receive a $3,000 International Mission Board scholarship to cover a portion of their overseas cost.

Jason K. Allen, Midwestern Seminary's President, said of the cohorts, “For the Church Cohorts combines substantial scholarships for our students with cohort community and life-on-life mentorship by our stellar faculty. And it all fits squarely within our institutional mission to be for the Church. We're committed to continually ask how we most effectively serve our students and, ultimately, the churches they will go on to serve. It’s clear our generation needs more ministry formation, not less. For the Church Cohorts enables the seminary to invest in these students more intentionally, and for these students to more deeply benefit from their seminary experience.”

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RECENT NEWS

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RECENT NEWS

2023 SBC ANNUAL MEETING JUNE 14, 2023 Midwestern Seminary hosted two events at the SBC23 annual meeting: the Alumni & Friends Luncheon and the FTC MicroConference, both featuring worship led by The Worship Initiative. More than 1,500 people attended the events.

FACULTY RETREAT IN ISRAEL AUGUST 8, 2023 Faculty members traveled to Israel for a once-in-alifetime leadership development retreat, made possible by a generous gift from a donor.

NEW SPURGEON COLLEGE RESIDENCE HALL AUGUST 17, 2023 Spurgeon College students moved into the recently renovated undergraduate residence hall, marking the completion of all central campus updates since President Allen’s arrival in 2012.

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RECENT NEWS

MEET ON THE LAWN AUGUST 18, 2023 More than 1,200 students, staff, and community members gathered on campus for Meet on the Lawn, an annual event featuring family fun, fellowship, food and dessert, and a concert by Seattle-based band, Citizens.

THE REFORMATION AS RENEWAL JUNE 6, 2023 Midwestern Seminary celebrated the release of The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church (Zondervan Academic) by Matthew Barrett, professor of Christian theology.

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CAMPUS LIFE

SPRING PREVIEW DAY BOOK-O-RAMA

SECONDHAND SOCIAL

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CAMPUS LIFE

FTC WORKSHOP WITH GUIDESTONE

CHAPEL WITH H.B. CHARLES, JR.

GETTY'S CONCERT

SPRING PICNIC

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CAMPUS LIFE

FUSION COMMISSIONING SERVICE MBTS CHAPEL STUDENT PREACHER

MWI PAINTING PARTY

GO OUTSIDE BOOK TALK

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CAMPUS LIFE

SPRING GRADUATION

SBC 2023 BANNER GIVEAWAY

SBC 2023 BOOTH

FTC MICRO-CONFERENCE AT SBC 2023

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FTC ARTICLES

Pastors Are Paid To Stare Out The Window

by J A R E D C . W I L S O N

"But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word."

Acts 6:4

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Our modern contexts for ministry demand so much from a pastor in the way of strategy, administration, organization, and the like—and our ongoing Covid season is demanding even more—that it only exacerbates the sense among many ministers of estrangement from the fundamental stuff of shepherding. Our churches and our cultures expect pastors to be creative public speakers and entrepreneurial leaders, but the essence of pastoral ministry is simply this: prayer and ministry of the Word.

In his book Working the Angles, Eugene Peterson illustrated the tension this way: “A misnaming replaces ‘pastor’s study’ with ‘office,’ thereby further secularizing perceptions of pastoral work. How many pastors no longer come to their desks as places for learning but as operation centers for organizing projects? The change of vocabulary is not harmless. Words have ways of shaping us. If we walk into a room labeled ‘office’ often enough we end up doing office work. First we change the word, then the word changes us.”

I had an elder once challenge me about the same signage on my door. The placard I had inherited read “Office.” I took his advice and replaced it with an Amazon-ordered sign that read “Pastor’s Study.” I wanted to be reminded—and I wanted my people to be reminded— that they pay me, actually, to read, learn, contemplate, reflect, to be still, to be quiet, to be solitarily devotional, and above all to be prayerful.

This does not mean neglecting the pasture work that is also required of the pastorate. Peter exhorts elders to “shepherd the flock of God that is among them,” by which I take him to mean that faithful pastors are actually active among their flocks. But I do think it means pushing against the insecurity

about pastoral work not being “real work,” rejecting the insinuations (even if just assumed) that the pastor “only works one day a week.” They actually pay you, pastor, to read and pray.

Assuming they do pay you, they pay you to pursue a Christward affection in personal study and devotion.

It’s the sweetest gig in the world, isn’t it? I tell my students, “Right now, you are paying us to study the Bible. But one day there will be a great reversal. We will soon enough pay you to study the Bible.” Won’t that be a glorious privilege?

Churchfolk, expect and encourage your leaders to tend to their intellectual and spiritual development.

We want them to be brimming with Bible. It is for their and our good that they do. Pastoral ministry is more art than science, and as such, it requires deeply thinking and deeply formed people to carry it out. And deeply thinking and deeply formed people dive deep into ancient wisdom, push deep into intimate prayer, probe deep into their own souls, wage deep war with their sin. We want them not to become sick with hurry and drowning in the anxiety of productivity and efficiency. That only infects us with the same. We want them to stare out the window and think. That’s what we pay them for, and that’s what will pay off for us in the long run.

JARED C. WILSON | Jared C. Wilson is Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Author in Residence at Midwestern Seminary, General Editor of For The Church (and co-host of the For The Church Podcast), Director of the Pastoral Training Center at Liberty Baptist Church, and author of numerous books, including The Imperfect Disciple, The Gospel According to Satan, Love Me Anyway, and Gospel-Driven Ministry.

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FTC ARTICLES

To My Friends Who Are No Longer Friends With Jesus

by T I M C O U N T S

To my friends who are no longer friends with Jesus: I want you to know that if I am aware of you walking away from Jesus, I have prayed for you and even cried for you. A couple of years ago I was reading The Last Battle from C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia to our kids. I came across a passage that took my breath away and filled my eyes with tears. Tirian, the last king of Narnia, is meeting the former kings and queens of Narnia: ‘Sir,’ said Tirian, when he had greeted all these. ‘If I have read the chronicle aright, there should be another. Has not your Majesty two sisters? Where is Queen Susan?’

‘My sister Susan,’ answered Peter shortly and gravely, ‘is no longer a friend of Narnia.’

‘Yes,’ said Eustace, ‘and whenever you’ve tried to get her to come and talk about Narnia or do anything about Narnia, she says, ‘What wonderful memories you have! Fancy your still thinking about all those funny games we used to play when we were children.’

The reason I got a lump in my throat and then looked at my wife Melanie and saw that we were both tearing up is because we were thinking of you, friends. Walking away from Jesus is not child’s play. At the end of The Last Battle,

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it is revealed that there has been a crash and the kings and queens are in heaven. They are safe, eternally.

Susan is not. But there is still time.

of the devil like a roaring lion. It’s like Peter was remembering how he had felt the enemy breathing down his neck on the night that he denied Jesus.

God. Or you can run to the gaze of Jesus and see that there is forgiveness and acceptance and restoration in His eyes.

It seemed that you used to be friends with Jesus. You sang to Him, you read His Word, you prayed to Him, you talked about Him with me.

But there is someone else described like a lion in the Bible, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Jesus is the One who was promised to come and save us. He came and represented God to us as holy and righteous and yet as willing and ready and able to forgive for when we have failed Him.

This is what Peter experienced when the resurrected Jesus came to them later, when Peter had gone back to fishing. When Jesus appeared on the shore, Peter didn’t hold back. Peter couldn’t wait to be near Jesus again.

He couldn’t wait for the boat to get to the shore. Peter jumped into the water to go towards Jesus.

Only God, and maybe you, know if that faith was genuine. But I do know this: the Jesus you used to confess with your lips is the same Jesus who can save you today. It doesn’t matter if it has been years or months of walking away from Him, Jesus died and rose again not to make it possible for us to earn our way back to God, but to bring us to God. He will still do that for you if you will come to Him. You are not the first disciples of Jesus to deny Jesus. Do you remember Peter, one of Jesus’s closest disciples and friends? He denied Jesus three times, when Jesus most needed someone to come alongside of Him and stand up for Him. Decades later Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5:8-9, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” It has never been easy to be a Christian.

What stood true two thousand years ago stands true today: there is a great enemy of your soul.

Peter knew that Satan is active in the world today, and he didn’t just think

PRECIOUS WORDS OF PROMISE Some of the most precious words in the Bible are at the end of the Gospel of Mark. After Jesus has risen from the dead, the angel tells the women at the tomb, “…go, tell his disciples and Peter…” (Mark 16:7).

The other disciples had failed too.

They had also said they would follow Jesus all of the way. But only one of them, John, stood at the cross at the end. God made sure they all received the message of Jesus’ resurrection— “Go tell the disciples…” But he also put this nugget of grace on the angel’s lips: “…and Peter.” Peter was a disciple. But God was already moving towards Peter specifically in his specific sin, preparing his heart for restoration.

I don’t know what God has been doing in your lives recently. But reading this article is a start.

When Peter denied Jesus, Jesus looked at him. If you sense the Lord looking at you right now, you have two choices.

You can try to run from the gaze of Jesus just like Adam and Eve tried to run from the eyes of

He didn’t walk on the water this time; he simply threw himself into the water to get to Jesus. That may be what repentance looks like for you, what coming back to God looks like for you.

Just throwing yourself towards Jesus.

If you do that, I know that Jesus will be waiting for you. Jesus Himself promised it and sealed it with His redeeming blood: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out” (John 6:37).

Friends, if you come back to Jesus, He will welcome you home as His friends, now and for eternity. I hope to see you there.

TIM COUNTS | Tim Counts (M.Div, The Master’s Seminary) is the Pastor at Northshire Baptist Church in Manchester Center, Vermont. Tim has been a pastor in New Mexico, Washington state, and Vermont.

He loves preaching the gospel to both believers (including himself) and unbelievers, and dreaming of ways to reach his community with the good news of Jesus Christ. Tim blogs at HeMustBecomeGreater.com.

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FTC ARTICLES

How to Respond to Deconstructionist Social Media

by Z A C H H O L L I F I E L D

Last week, a young adult I pastor came into my office to ask about something he’d seen. It was a video of a deconstructionist influencer on TikTok “proving” that the Gospels are unreliable. He wanted to know what I thought. The video had shaken his faith. Videos on social media like these have millions to hundreds of millions of views. If you pastor younger generations, you’re likely already aware of this new reality. If you’re not, welcome.

The thought of those in our ministries being drawn away by a stranger through a screen is gut-wrenching.

As I’ve talked with friends who pastor junior high through college-age students, many feel daunted by this new trend. “We’re only with them a few hours a week, these accounts are available to them all day every day!”

“Should we start accounts where we combat these videos?”

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What is a pastor to do? How do we who’ve been charged with shepherding younger generations respond to this new reality and the threat it poses to those in our care? Before I try to answer that, let me first tell you what the answer is not.

As much as we might feel the need to, the response is not to go on TikTok or Instagram and watch every video we can find to know all the gauntlets being thrown. One reason is because the sheer amount of content out there is just too much for any pastor to try and get a hand on. To try to do so will only exhaust and discourage us. While some familiarity with the posts is wise, too much focus on them will distract us from who truly needs it—our students and young adults.

Rather than the trend, they must command our attention.

Moreover, focusing on the content isn’t the right response because the

questions being asked aren’t new.

Sure, there are new angles and implications because of the new realities of our day (like LGBTQ+ issues) but the foundational questions underneath every point being raised

by Exvangelical, deconstructionist, or atheist influencers are ones the Church has been asked and answered for nearly 2,000 years. It’s the medium that’s new, not the questions. The Church has a treasure trove of answers in its attic. We just need to open it up and familiarize ourselves with them.

At the same time, while old answers are what we have, new ways of putting them are what we need. Pastors should seek fresh presentations of old answers to fresh spins on old questions.

Thankfully, we have contemporary resources just for that. There are plenty out there that you can find via YouTube or TikTok. These resources are a great help to both pastors and students

because they answer the questions being raised in ways that most resonate with our context.

All of that being said, I strongly believe that familiarizing ourselves with the available resources is only secondary work. Worth a measured dose of our time? Absolutely! The most vital response we should have? Not by a long shot.

A TRIED AND TRUE RESPONSE So, what should we do? I want to propose the blueprint Paul gives in 1 Thessalonians 2:8: “We cared so much for you that we were pleased to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.”

This latest Christian-adverse social media trend is tricky to deal with, but I am convinced that the primary response must be life-on-life discipleship. What this moment demands of pastors of younger generations is that we keep doing what pastors have done since the dawn of the church. In our teaching, across coffee tables, at In-N-Out, by hospital beds, on drives home from youth group, we give the gospel and we give our own selves.

The “answer,” as it has always been, is life-on-life discipleship.

Why is this the particular solution to deconstructionist social media? Because we have something the influencer on a device doesn’t: physical proximity. This means we have the unique opportunity to validate the truth of our words

by our lives, to offer a front row seat to the gospel enfleshed in us. Through intentional, lifeon-life discipleship, we let our lives verify the gospel.

This was Paul’s strategy. Multiple times in his letters he appeals to his in-person life among those he ministered to as the validating criteria of the gospel he shared with them (Acts 20:18; 1 Corinthians 2:1-5, 2 Corinthians 1-12, 2 Thessalonians 3:7-10). That’s exactly what he does next in 1 Thessalonians 2. Right before and right after he tells them he loved them so much he shared not only the gospel but his very self with them (v.8), he says: “For we never used flattering speech, as you know, or had greedy motives —God is our witness — and we didn’t seek glory from people, either from you or from others.

Although we could have been a burden as Christ’s apostles, instead we were gentle among you, as a nurse nurtures her own children…For you remember our labor and hardship, brothers and sisters. Working night and day so that we would not burden any of you, we preached God’s gospel to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly, righteously, and blamelessly we conducted ourselves with you believers. As you know, like a father with his own children, we encouraged, comforted, and implored each one of you to walk worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory” (1 Thessalonians 2:5-7, 9-12).

Paul viewed and pointed to his tangible, in-person living among the Thessalonians as the case-in-point evidence for the

genuineness of his love for them and the reliability of the gospel he had shared with him.

The same is true for pastors today.

Life-on-life discipleship remains our authenticating witness to the gospel—and the effects are salvific.

That’s exactly why Paul exhorts Timothy to “pay close attention to your life and your teaching,” because “in doing this you will save both yourself and your hearers” (1 Timothy 4:16). A pastor’s life among his people is the greatest apologetic he has for the Word he teaches, and by it people are brought to and kept in the faith.

But in order for that to happen we must step off the stage and out of the office and get around our people so that our lives can be seen.

What is needed of pastors today amidst a rising tide of anti-gospel social media content? Answer our students’/young adults’ questions.

Resource them. Train them to defend the faith. But above all else, share with them the glorious gospel of the grace of God and your very own self through runof-the-mill, every day, your life on their life discipleship. That is the primary way pastors must respond to this latest challenge to our students’ and young adults’ faith.

ZACH HOLLIFIELD | Zach Hollifield (MAR, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary) is married to his best friend and favorite partner in ministry, Sydney, and they have two kiddos: Knox and Piper. He gladly serves as Pastor of Young Adults at Red Mountain Community Church in Mesa, AZ.

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