Midweek Roundup: Four Articles

To Plant or Pot?

A study of the effectiveness of church planting in the Sydney Diocese has found “pioneering” plants and “repotted” churches have higher success rates than other types of church plants. Read more

This study suggests that before planting in a new church in particular community, church planters should determine what types of new church plants are enjoying the most success in the community. Church plants fail for a number of reasons. One reason is that the type of church plant was not a good choice for a particular community.

Five Reasons Millennial Pastors Are Not Moving to Larger Churches

...more Millennial pastors sense God’s call to the smaller and mid-size churches. Why has their attitude been so different from their predecessors? I asked a number of these young leaders, and here are five of the responses they gave me. Read more

Should You Preach from a Full Manuscript?

When it comes to the question of how to preach, there is no shortage of books, articles, and blog posts offering advice and guidance. And once you start sifting through these materials, it becomes apparent that there is no shortage of disagreement about the particulars of the preaching task. Read more

You Just Need to Obey

Many who profess Christ today emphasize a wrong view of grace that makes it a free pass to do whatever they please. Tragically, they have convinced themselves that the Christian life can be lived without any binding obligation to the moral law of God. In this hyper-grace distortion, the need for obedience has been neutered. The commandments of God are no longer in the driver’s seat of Christian living, but have been relegated to the backseat, if not the trunk—like a spare tire—to be used only in case of an emergency. With such a spirit of antinomianism, what needs to be reinforced again is the necessity of obedience. Read more