New church planting school opens in London

Last week I went to meet with the founder of the new Amnos Church Planting School in London. Since then an article about the school has appeared in the local newspaper the Brentwood Gazette. What follows is excerpts from that article:

"The Amnos Church Planting School is opening at Trinity Church in Coxtie Green Road, Pilgrims Hatch, to create Christian leaders for the future and "plant" new churches where old ones have died out.

It is hoped the newly qualified pastors will help to reverse the rapid decline of Christianity in Europe, with more than 10,000 churches having closed in the UK alone in the last half century.

"The school is the brainchild of South Korean-born pastor the Rev Dr Daniel Chae, who says he is keen to pay back the debt of the gospel to the UK church.

"He said: "I was shocked coming from Asia and having such a high respect, especially being from Korea, where we are indebted so much to the UK church. I think the decline is sad and I think British people in general need to feel sad about this, whether they are Christians or non-Christians."

"Dr Chae has plenty of experience spreading the word of God, having previously been the managing director of a floating Christian community that travelled the world on board the MV Doulos ship.

"He most recently founded a new church on the outskirts of London but decided to launch the Pilgrims Hatch-based school in a bid to revitalise Christianity in Europe.

"He said the new school was unique in the way it incorporated the practical side of "showing the gospel" and working in the community in a positive way.

"The planting school will officially be launched with an inauguration service at Trinity Church, with Mr Kavoor [the Rev Canon George Kovoor is chaplain to Her Majesty the Queen] as guest speaker, from 11am on October  1."

Church planting in... the Balkans?

Recently I was in Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia meeting people involved in church planting. It is pretty challenging. There could be almost as many evangelical Christians in my church as there are in all of Bosnia! But some exciting stuff is going on, with more to come. Watch this to find out more...

Big faith in France

An ECM missionary in France recently posted this on her blog. It is well worth a listen!

Raf, a missionary and evangelist has moved from the church in Tours to plant a church an hour away in Loches.  He has just done a very interesting interview (in english) on the state of church planting in France.  If you want to listen, here’s the link: http://www.ccfof.org/podcasts/index.html

Photo used courtesy of Tom Curtis:  http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=178

Church. In a rugby club!

Today I drove to the services near Junction 13 of the M4. It was crowded and loud, but a convenient place to meet up with the head of Church Planting Initiatives and his wife. 

Over coffee (I had a latte if you must know -- is there a personality test you can run based on what someone drinks?) he mentioned a church plant being run in a rugby club. This church plant meets at a  time when people are in there drinking at the bar. They room is divided in two, with the bar on one side and the church on the other. But to get to the toilets you have to walk through the back of the church area!

What creative thinking! Can't wait to hear how it goes...

Image used courtesy of Tina Phillips: 

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=503

Hear about God moving in Italy!

Yesterday I was meeting with Martin Robinson of Together in Mission (togetherinmission.co.uk) and he told me about a church plant in Milan that has grown to 650 people and planted 7 new churches in the last year! Click on the link to hear its pastor talk about how she changed from being a Roman Catholic to now leading one of Italy's most influential churches. It involved fasting for a year, so I don't necessarily recommend trying this at home!


Untitled from Mary Publicover on Vimeo.

Who is reaching who?

A couple of nights ago I was at a goodbye party for the man finishing up as British Director of European Christian Mission (if Jenny reads this, the food was great!). While I talked my way around the nearly 30 people attending I realised it was quite an international bunch.

There was one couple where the husband is British and the wife is German who are preparing to go help with a church plant in Germany. There was a Lithuanian woman who is planning to work in England reaching out to other Eastern Europeans. There was a Nigerian man married to an English woman who plan to work with an English church plant. There was an English man working here in the UK doing European research but who pops across to Spain to offer consulting on Spanish church planting...

It was a good reminder that today is a unique time in the history of God's expanding kingdom. Increasingly He is using people from everywhere to go everywhere to reach everyone.

I can't wait to see the fruit of all this new activity. Go God!

How do you run a church where almost no one works?

Funding a church will be a struggle in any situation. But what do you do when almost no one in the church has a job?

I was meeting yesterday with a couple name Terry and Christine who are church planting in a rural part of Spain. Average unemployment in Spain is around 20% (about twice the average in the euro zone). But in their area it is even worse. There are only one or two people in their entire church of 30 or more people who even have full-time employment!

I don't have an answer to this one. Do you?

Church in Albania replaces bulbs in street lights

Yesterday I met a woman named Janet who was recently in Lushnje (no that is not misspelled) Albanial. Lushnje is a town with some real needs. Such as unemployment is a staggering 60%!

A church plant led by an Albanian man in Lushnje is trying to be "transformative". When I asked what this meant, she shared the example that they have started a school that is teaching English lessons, providing jobs for teachers and education for young people.

But what I thought was the best example was this. Someone had stolen all the bulbs from the local street lights, meaning it was quite dangerous for local girls to go out after dark. So the church replaced all the light bulbs!

We are told to be a light to our community. Now that is taking it literally!