What a way to end the day

After spending half of my day in NYC attending The Journey Church's Activate Seminar, and taking in a few Manhattan sights (it's been awhile since I've walked through Times Square), I managed to make it back to Albany by 4:15pm; just in time to pick up our bread and milk donation from Stewart's Shops and make it to The CORE Church for our Feed-a-kid community meal. It was a great sight and blessing to see many children and their families partaking of this free community dinner, which is co-sponsored by The CORE Church and Missing Link Street Ministry. This evening's meal was, once again, provided by Olde Daily Inn Catering. Olde Daily Inn has been gracious and generous, as they have partnered with us in feeding hungry children and their families, who may very well go without a nutritious, hot meal.

Frank, a friend and licensed electrician, came and offered to look over our aging, ailing electrical system. After a thorough examination he was able to determine the cause of the problem and quickly fixed it. We are thanking our Great God for providing for our needs and sending Frank, along with another friend, Mike, a roofer by trade, who got up on our roof, found the cause of our leak and then fixed it. These and other building maintinance issues have challenged us as we have sought to be diligent and obedient in God's call to be His hands and feet, and bringing His good news of a risen Savior to harassed and helpless people.

If you feel led by the Holy Spirit to pray for us, please do. Additionally, if you'd like to help us serve our community and make Christ known, through financial giving and/or volunteering, please give us a call: (518) 526-6079 or send us and e-mail: corechurch@gmail.com.

May the peace of Christ rest upon you!

My Model and Pattern for Church Planting

I’ve decided to stick with the true, tried, and tested model.

46-47They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved. (Acts 2:46-47) Message

The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18) NLT

There is a church planting movement currently sweeping across the globe. This is not just happening nationally, but internationally. There are a lot of conversations going on as to how we should plant, who we should follow, what methods and patterns we should use. However, there is the original blueprint as recorded in the book of Acts.

A local church is not planted overnight. There is a period of preparation that must take place in order for a new congregation to succeed. The book of Acts is God’s training manual for church planting.

Church planter preparation begins with preparing the planter. Jesus spent three and a half years showing His disciples the one and only way into the kingdom. He is that way. By looking to Him, and then leading others to look to Him, the kingdom of God will be seen. The purpose of planting churches is not to establish an organization, it is to bring people into a personal relationship with the one true God, and then raise them up to be mature followers of Christ, so that they can go out and share their personal relationship and experience with others.

There is a clear pattern presented in the book of Acts. Therefore, a clear understanding of Acts is necessary for a church planter who desires to plant a Christ-centered, Biblically based, community of faith. Additionally, a well rounded understanding of the entire Bible is essential.
From the book of Acts we see:
Jesus instruction to His followers. “Wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and then you shall be my witnesses."

The disciples obeyed and waited, and then the Holy Spirit came, as Jesus promised. Then they went out, filled with the power of God, and turned the world upside down.

They preached the gospel; the good news of a risen Savior, who came to take away the sin of the world.

The preaching of the word pierced the hearts of those who heard it. It was not reaching for a decision, but it was the supernatural flow of what happens when man hears the word of God (Heb.4:12).

Those who heard the word of God responded. They asked, “What must we do to be saved?” Peter responded. Believe on the name of Jesus and be baptized.

Those who believed were baptized and IMMEDIATELY added to the church. There was no membership class; no “Church as we do it 101” They believed, they were baptized, and automatically added to the church—not by anything the disciples did (except for being obedient to Jesus’ instructions) but what the triune God did. “The Lord added to the church, daily, those who were being saved.

No slick marketing campaigns, no “How to break the next growth barrier strategies,” just the power of the gospel at work in the hearts of people as the disciples obeyed and did what Jesus commanded them to do.
The results? The rest of the book of Acts.

We see this same pattern repeated over and over throughout Acts as the gospel traveled through Jerusalem, then to Judea and Samaria, and to Rome and the ends of the earth.

1. The gospel was preached
2. The hearts of people were pierced with conviction of their own sinful nature and their need for what Jesus came to provide
3. The people who heard the word responded in faith and believed in Jesus and were saved.
4. The new believers were baptized and assimilated into the body of Christ.
5. They met regularly for
   i. Teaching – together they learned and grew from God’s word. I heard John Piper refer to sound doctrine as "Putting edges around our understanding of who God is and what we can know about Him." Through the teaching of the word of God we come toknow God's purpose and plan for our own,personal lives, as we live together in community as the people of God; born-again, adopted children of God
   ii. Fellowship – together they learned how to live as a family; a unit; the body of Christ; living, breathing and moving together in the same direction (upward towards the summit of God’s holy mountain).They shared life and all of its facets; good times, bad times, pain and suffering, struggles, victories, etc.
   iii. breaking bread – always remembering the reason we assemble together in the first place; to celebrate our resurrected life in Christ and to recognize Him as the head of the body that each follower of Christ is a part of. When we meet together for meal, and we break bread and have a time of community, something supernatural takes place. The God of the universe enters our midst. The one who lives inside of each of us becomes magnified. One believer in the community at large would not stand out. It would not make much of a difference. But 3,000 people assembled in one place, singing and praising God, rejoicing, happy, exuberant, where people’s lives are being changed, their problems and struggles are no longer dragging them down, paralyzing them with fear, and crippling them with physical and mental illnesses. That makes a big impact. People can’t help but notice; either negatively or positively, what’s going on in that growing band of Christ followers.
   iv. Prayer – Someone (I’d like to say it was D.L. Moody, but I don’t remember where I heard the phrase) once referred to prayer as the glue that binds us and holds us together. Prayer maintains our connection with the living Triune God. He reaches inward to each of us, as we reach upward to Him. He then uses us to reach outward as He lives His life in us and through us. Through prayer He breaks down the walls that our fallen human nature has erected; walls of separation; racial, social, religious and denominational, etc. Then there are the personal walls that have been built by pain, suffering, being hurt by others; walls of guilt, shame and fear. Then there are things like anger, depression, anxiety and addictions that become defense mechanisms. We use these emotions and fixations as excuses to keep people out of those places where no one is allowed to go. Personal prayer breaks down these walls and takes us outside of ourselves and our own problems and, through corporate occasions of prayer, we come together and are connected to Christ, who is the True Vine. As fellow branches in the Vine, we are no longer out there all alone fending for ourselves. God is with us and among us and as we pray together, we learn how to live together and to love one another and to stop biting and devouring one another, and before you know it, the kingdom of God is present; right here in our midst, because WE are the kingdom of God on earth. If we truly desire to present in Zion, His eternal kingdom, then we must let “His kingdom come and His will be done ON EARTH as it is in heaven."

That’s was it. No long business and committee meetings, not too much structure, except for what was necessary to maintain order and discipline within the body. They met both in the temple (large gatherings) and from house to house (small gatherings) all the while enjoying fellowship, breaking bread, and maintaining simplicity in Christ, which merely means pure and undivided devotion to the One who shed His blood for them.

As new believers were added to the body of Christ the rest of the body welcomed them and together they nurtured them and helped them to grow in their personal relationship with God, so that they overcame their problems and struggles in life, and became equipped and empowered to go out and tell others what they had seen and heard and experienced in their own lives, as they met God and walked with Him daily.

The idea and picture of “community” is present throughout Scripture, and particularly in Acts. This is what came out of the new believers meeting together, in the bond of the Holy Spirit.

Church multiplication happened supernaturally as the body of Christ lived, and breathed, and moved together.

2008 National New Church Conference

Rick Warren to Join over 40 other speakers at Exponential!

Rick is one of the most influential leaders of our time. He leads one of the largest churches in North America, he authored one of the most popular books of our century, and he oversees one of the largest church-based networks on the planet. So why did he choose Exponential? Rick loves the local church and he loves to encourage pastors. Rick sees the value in connecting with over 2,000 entrepreneurial church leaders together in one place for the common purpose of starting new mission minded churches that impact the world.

Check out Rick's letter on his P.E.A.C.E plan:
"Dear Friends:
The P.E.A.C.E. plan is our strategy to have every small group in our church, and then tens of thousands of small groups in other churches, become engaged in solving the five biggest problems in the world: Spiritual Lostness, Lack of Godly Leaders, Poverty, Disease, and Lack of Education.
These giant problems are so big that neither the governmnent, nor all the NGOs (non-government organzations) can tackle them. There is only one group large enough to tackle these global issues- the Christian church in all its local expressions around the world.
Nothing else can compare to the distribution channel of the millions of churches around the world. Even in villages where you cannot find a clinic, a store, a school, or a post office, you can often find a church.
The PEACE Plan will address these five "giant" problems by Planting new churches... Equipping leaders... Assisting the poor...Caring for the sick... and Educating the next generation.
These problems, and the answers, are not new. But the way we intend to tackle them using the small groups of local churches in large numbers is revolutionary.
The bottom line is that we intend to reinvent mission strategy in the 21st century. This will be a new Reformation. The First Reformation returned us to the message of the original church. It was a reformation of doctrine - what the church BELIEVES. This Second Reformation will return us to the mission of the original church. It will be a reformation of purpose- what the church DOES in the world."

Rick is passionate about inspiring, encouraging, equipping and challenging church leaders. We are blessed to have him at Exponential. See www.exponentialconference.com for more information

A New Understanding

This is the beginning of a great vision God has given me. No, nothing strange or cult-like, just a fresh understanding . As I recently began studying the book of Acts I have begun to see the story of the church unfold with new eyes. I have read Acts more times than I can remember. Most recently I began a new journey through the New Living Translation's version.

Two and a half years ago I entered the realm of church planting. Having never planted a church before I felt ill-prepared. However, there was vision from God, coupled with a burning desire to impliment the vision he had given me. So I prayed, and prayed, and prayed some more for God to give me the confidence of those who have gone before me.

In November of 2005 my wife and I accepted the call to return to the city of Troy, New York, the place of my birth and youth, to start a new inner-city church in a neighborhood that had been largerly abandoned by the church. As we obeyed and went to the place God was showing us I began to seek a Biblical plan for planting and growing this new church, as such, the Holy Spirit has brought me back to the book of Acts, where the church began. As I stated before, I have read the book of Acts numerous times. I have read through it at least once since we came to Troy. However, I felt an urgent need to not only read through Acts again, but to embark on the most intense study I have ever undertaken.

As I started this new study of Acts I began to see it as more than just a narrative of the Church's infancy. The book of Acts is a journey. It is the story of a few good men, chosen by God to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Most of you are familiar with the book of Acts, so this won't be another running commentary; as if I could add to or improve upon the works of Matthew Henry and other scholars who have already provided us with an ample supply of explanation.

My goal in reading and studying the book of Acts, this time around, is to see church planting through the eyes of the Apostles and early church, and then apply what I see and learn to a modern, twenty-first century, Troy, New York context. After spending two years re-learning both the geographical and human landscape of Troy's inner-city I had reached a point where I began to ask God to show me how to build a church from the ruins of Troy's darkest, most depressed neighborhood.

The book of Acts is the next piece in the church planting puzzle God has given me to assemble. He has taken me back to the beginning of the church, to the very roots of the body of Christ, so that He can break down and destroy my previous preconceptions of who (not what) the church is and how the church functions. Like many church planters, I grew up with the notion that church is the place we go to to worship God. It is a building and an organization with structure. However, as I have entered the threshold of this new understanding of the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit has been empressing upon me that the Church was never intended to be what it has become. It was, from the beginning, a relationship with Christ.

In addition to this new study of the book of Acts, God has been preparing me through other means. I have been reading and digesting just about everything I can on missiology and the emerging church movement that is taking place globally. Leading thinkers such as Ed Stetzer, Tim Keller, Alan Hirsch, Andy Stanley, Mark Driscoll, Erwin McManus, John Burke, etc. have shaped my thinking and strategy to the point where I am beginning to think "Missionally," and "Incarnationally," In my own endeavor to plant a culturally relevant, Christ-centered, Biblically based, community of Christ followers.

The question that lingers in my mind during this new journey through the bookof Acts is,"How can I bring this new community of faith along in this journey?" There is so much being written these days on how to plant churches. It is mind boggling, to say the least, to keep up with it all. In the midst of my own spiritual and mental workout I am seeking a Biblically defined, simpler way to plant this church. I keep thinking about how Peter and John did it, and then Paul and his cohorts after that. Their journey is my journey; the same journey I would like to lead others on. They had a simple approach...Preach the gospel, reach for a decision, baptize new believers and assimilate them into the church, meet regularly for teaching, fellowship, breaking bread and prayer. As they did this many miraculous, unimaginable things took place; to the point where everyone in the church was awe-struck. This resulted in church multiplication as people from the larger community were drawn to the smaller community of Christ followers. They began to impact and transfrom the community around them. All because twelve ordinary men said, "Yes, Lord! We will obey."