Day 1 of Modular Training Part 2

The church planting training is broken up into two sections- Modular Training Part 1, which David attended in August, and Modular Training Part 2 which is what we attended today (Tues., Nov. 9th) and will attend Wednesday and Thursday as well.

We loaded up the van this morning along with our 5 new Australian friends... I just love their accents! They all work together at an established church in Melbourne and are looking at leading their church in an effort to begin planting churches both in Australia and other nations- possibly the Philippines or India.

At Northwood, there were about 20-25 of us (church planters or Northwood staff) gathered in a room together for about eight hours of training and discussion. Northwood Pastor, Bob Roberts, started off talking with us about "Starting Right." Basically talking about being a church that focuses on a Sunday event vs. being a church that focuses on transformation of people, cities, and countries. We want to be the latter. He encouraged us as church planters to think of ourselves as community developers instead of church planters. He was fascinating to listen to... totally a unique Christian. He has alot on his plate this week as he prepares for the Global Faith Forum that is taking place over the weekend. Go to the website to learn more about it.

The remainder of the training we discussed small groups that take place in homes, otherwise know as discipleship groups, home groups, cell groups, etc. David and I have both been huge believers in the power and purpose of "small group" meetings and are definitely wanting to see this done, and done well, in the church. After the discussion on small groups, we heard from a guy by the name of Todd McMichen. He talked with us about stewardship and the financial piece of church planting. He was another dynamic and informative speaker. What I liked most about him though was that he lives in Birmingham, AL! He is the pastor of a church plant there called The People's Church at Oak Mountain. Oh how I love Birmingham!!! Finally, after a day of soaking up information, they put us to work with something called Wild Works. This is a series of small group activities centered on brainstorming, problem-solving, and vision-casting. At the end of it all, each person had to take 15 minutes to draw or write out how their church plant would look in three years if everything was perfect and then present it to the group. David and I did ours independent of each other and we both got some great feedback and affirmation from the group. Thankfully, we both had a very similar vision! After this, everyone's brains were fried and stomachs were hungry. So, we went to a fabulous Mexican restaurant to solve one of the problems : ) So far, I think the best part has been being with and talking with other people who are in the same boat as us. It's nice to know that there are other crazy couples who are also raising support, starting families, moving to new cities, and trusting God. It's nice to not feel alone.

Lindsey