This past week, my wife and I, along with some close friends packed up our bags and headed up to Deerfield, IL., on the campus of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, for a two-day church planting conference hosted by Acts 29.This trip was kind of like a "third heaven" experience for me, because it was 10 years in the making.
Acts 29 is a church planting network co-founded by Mark Driscoll. Yes, the Mark Driscoll. (Just type his name in the search box at the top of this blog to see other postings about him and you'll know that I'm a big proponent of his, and have been for over 10 years.) I'll post about my personal thoughts, and put up a photo with him in a later post.
This church planting "bootcamp," as Acts 29 calls them, was very, very insightful, and comes highly recommended for all current Pastors, and anyone interested in possibly planting a church some time down the road. See their website for a full list of topics that are covered, doctrinal beliefs, current churches, etc., etc.. You can also subscribe to their free 'podcast' and listen to previous bootcamps from previous locations.
At this conference, on top of meeting and conversing with Mark Driscoll, I was also able to meet and converse with other Men who have taught me much about life and church planting thru the years.
Men like Darrin Patrick, who serves as VP of Acts 29, Dr. Ed Stetzer, Scott Thomas, director of Acts 29, Dr. Mark Dever, founder of 9marks ministry, and Tyler Powell, asst. director of Acts 29.
These Men were first class in all respects. Polite, courteous, intelligent, and willing to converse with people until they felt all their questions were answered.
Some topics we heard teaching on were:
- Leading the Mission
- Preaching the Mission
- Kingdom focused Church planting
- Missional and Biblical Church planting
- Church planting evangelism
- Vision for Church planting
- Q and A concerns for church planting wives
Thanks to the Acts 29 team for a first-class church planting experience. The gospel was proclaimed unashamedly!
