Pillar Church Planting Timeline

clintclifton — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:17:09 +0000

Aquireing The Skill of Leadership

clintclifton — Tue, 22 May 2012 18:25:42 +0000

We’ve all heard the old adage, “If you think your leading but no one is following, you’re just taking a walk.” Most people can be divided pretty easily into the leader or follower category, so which one do you fall into. Being a follower isn’t a bad thing; in fact we’re all called to be faithful followers of Jesus as we lead. We are under-shepherds; we pastor others but we receive oversight and direction from the Word of God. So the question for the man who aspires to be a pastor is, “Do you have the ability to submit to Christ and to lead others to do the same?

The good news about leadership is that it is a skill, and like all skills, it can be acquired. Moses was a reluctant and unqualified individual who didn’t view himself as worthy or able when God called him to deliver the people of Israel to safety. Moses lacked virtually all of the necessary qualities a leader must posses in order to be successful in leading others. Moses had very little confidence in his own abilities. When God called him to go to Pharaoh he responded by saying, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”(Exodus 3:11) God reassured Him by promising to be with him as he went, but even that wasn’t enough to boost Moses’ confidence. He questioned God further, “they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you.’” (Exodus 4:1) You can almost since the terror in his words. In addition to Moses lack of confidence he also seemed lack another essential leadership quality, the ability to speak eloquently. “Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” (Exodus 4:10) How many great leaders do you know that are “slow of speech and of tongue”? Moses was utterly unqualified and he knew it, that’s why he begged, “O Lord, please send someone else” (Ex. 4:13). You may feel or be just this unqualified as Moses was in the area of leadership. But if you dedicate yourself to learn and grow as a leader you will be come better at it.

Video: Church Planting Networks w/ Jamie Limato

clintclifton — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:00:14 +0000

I sat down with Jamie Limato recently to discuss the value of being a part of a church planting network. Although I think it’s best to be involved in a small network with closer relationships here is a list of national networks you might find useful. Both Pillar Church and Aletheia Church are planting churches and making a network out of the churches they are planting – an approach that I think has tremendous value for the planters and the churches.

Excellent Photo Gallery of Haiti

clintclifton — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 03:19:30 +0000

My wife an I are in the process of adopting two children from Haiti. Today we ran across Jeremy Cowart’s excellent Photo collection called, “Voices of Haiti” Check it out and learn more about our adoption HERE.

Pillar Churches Process for Ordaning Pastors

clintclifton — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:37:18 +0000

This is the document i promised i would put up in a previous post Ordination

Video: Why We Ordain Our Church Planting Pastors

clintclifton — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:00:43 +0000

Ordination is the way some churches have traditionally assessed the preparedness of a man before laying hands on him and commissioning him as a minster of the Gospel. But it’s not a practice that’s popular these days. Very few young churches are practicing ordination at all. Even hero’s of the faith such Spurgeon rejected the practice. It’s said that George Truett only submitted himself to be ordained at his church’s insistence.

It seems the only people who value ordination these days are Old Southern Baptists, The IRS and The Chaplaincy of the Armed Forces.

Ordination has fallen from grace by some young restless types as well. Honestly, I agree with the popular sentiment that its not a practice we find in the scripture… However, we’ve decided to continue practicing ordination in our church for several reasons that we will outline for you here in this lil’ segment. My comrade here is Jonathan Davis, Pastor of Pillar Church of Locust Grove.

New Series: “Sojourn” a study of 1st Peter.

clintclifton — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:00:49 +0000

This Sunday we’re starting a new series at Pillar Called Sojourn. When Peter wrote to early Christians he repeatedly described them as exiles and sojourners, people living in one culture who find that their roots, identity, treasure and greatest hopes belong to another. Scattered throughout every culture of the world is a culture of people who are not of this world, sent there to serve the mission of heaven. So, how do Christians faithfully serve the mission of God while sojourning in the real world? During this series in 1 Peter that is exactly what we hope to discover, so come join us.

Spurgeon on Church Planting

clintclifton — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 17:00:57 +0000

On April 23, 1865 Charles Spurgeon said to his congregation at the Metropolitan Tablernacle,

We have never sought to hinder the uprising of other Churches from our midst or in our neighborhood. It is with cheerfulness that we dismiss our twelves, our twenties, our fifties, to form other Churches. We encourage our members to leave us to found other Churches; nay, we seek to persuade them to do it. We ask them to scatter throughout the land to become the goodly seed which God shall bless. I believe that so long as we do this we shall prosper. I have marked other Churches that have adopted the other way, and they have not succeeded.

- C.H. Spurgeon, The Waterer Watered

Spurgeon didn’t just say this. While pastoring the Metropolitan Tabernacle, and seeing tremendous growth, he played a vital role in the planting of over 200 churches in and around London. What a beautiful example of Kingdom mindedness, missional focus, and gospel passion.
HT: joe thorn

Video: Creating a Culture of Planting in Your Church

clintclifton — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:13:23 +0000

Lot’s of pastors believe that we should plant new churches in order to obey the great commission. I’d even go as far as saying many would give it a try if the believed their congregation would be supportive of the idea. The truth is many congregations will resist the Idea of sending people and money away to establish a new church. So… how do you begin to change the mindset of the people in your congregation to help them understand and obey God’s call to plant new churches? I sat down with church planting pastor Jonathan Davis to talk with him about how our churches have created a culture of church planting in our churches. We basically outline four things you can do to help change the mindset of your congregation – Here they are and have added a 6th that I forgot to mention in the video.

Celebrate Church Planting and Church Planters

Teach the Theological Underpinnings.

Make the goal of all of your ministries to produce future leaders (that could potentially be used in new churches)

Develop a training program for those headed for ministry in your congregation.

Let potential pastors teach and assist you with other pastoral duties.

Pray publicly for the advancement of other churches in your community, especially new churches.

Video: Church Mergers w/ Jamie Limato

clintclifton — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:44:27 +0000

I sat down with my good friend Jamie Limato, pastor of Aletheia Church of Norfolk VA. Aletheia is in the process of Merging with Symphonic Church, also in Norfolk. In the talk Jamie references an article in Christianity Today that you will find HERE. BTY… Yes, I’m fully aware of how puffy my jacket is. Thanks for noticing.