Gerry Stoltzfoos - Church Planting

The Great Commission is a picture of creating the body of Christ, not necessarily salvations.

New churches re-vitalize the area that surrounds it.

There is a great correlation to church attendance and morality/crime rate.

"You have to believe that God will bless you when you do His stuff"

"To reach America we have to plant churches"

We have to look at the 9% church attendance as a positive...that we can have a part of bringing America back to God.

The first opposition to church planting is other churches.

Family will either help the most or hurt the most; your ministry.

How do you sustain yourself when you first begin planting a church?

Church plants raise up new gifts in the Bible.

Steps For Church Planting/Church Growth

- call

- where?

- team: worship, admin, kids, youth, senior leader...later on: assimilation, hospitality,

- when? - time between call and when is usually around 3 years

- launch

- assimilation

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I really enjoyed and gained a lot of information from what Gerry spoke on today. I believe that God has called me to church planting and I know I gained a lot; everything from the start-up process, 10 years later, the hardships and the rewards.

Just talking about this stuff gets me fired up for what I believe God has called me to.