Pursue Missionary Encounters Where You Are

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Vance Pitman
I do want to say thank you so much for joining us at this event this afternoon, as a part of this incredible conference. I am Vance Pittman, for those of you that don’t know me, my journey into church planning began in september of 1999 I was minding my own business. I was the senior associate pastor of a wonderful church in Memphis, Tennessee, as a church of a couple of 1000 people that gave a million dollars a year to mission, everybody thought I would be the next senior pastor of that church. I had a great relationship with the senior pastor. He was my dad. I’d known him my whole life. We actually never had the conversation. But we assumed one day I would take over that church and continue to pastor it. And I was sitting in my living room in september of 1999 reading the Gospel of Luke just in my devotional time, I came across a verse of scripture where Jesus said, in verse chapter four, verse 43 I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose. And as soon as I saw that verse that morning, you know those days when you read the Bible, then those other days you read the Bible, and it’s like the Holy Spirit of God pulls you into a text of Scripture and begins to make application to your heart. That’s what happened to me that day. I began to see some stuff in Jesus that wasn’t in me, this passion for the kingdom of God, this passion for the kingdom to be expanded to other cities, and everything in my soul said, Yes, I want to be a part of that. And when got my wife, we knelt down in our living room in Memphis, Tennessee, and we said, Lord, yes, we don’t know where, we don’t know when, we don’t really even know what, but the answer is yes. Now, honestly, we thought at that moment we were surrendering our lives to move to some village on the other side of the world and spend the rest of our lives in obscurity, learning a language and a culture to take the gospel to a people that had never been exposed to it before. But I had been raised a Southern Baptist. I did the only thing I knew to do as a Southern Baptist, I called the International Mission Board. Said my yes is on the table. My wife didn’t have 60 hours of college credit back then, so they declined and said, Thank you. No, thank you. Hung up the phone and I didn’t know what else to do. So we’re sitting there for two weeks just saying, Lord, we said yes, we don’t know what’s going on. And two weeks later, a church from Woodstock, Georgia, reached out to my family and said, we feel led of the Lord to start a church in the fastest growing city at this time in 1999 Las Vegas, Nevada. And they said, God’s put it on our heart. You’re to be the planter and pastor of that church. Two weeks earlier, I said, Yes. Two weeks later, God had the audacity to fill in the blank with Las Vegas. And I say that because I was born and raised in Alabama. Now, if you’re from Alabama, you don’t go to Las Vegas, and if you do, you don’t tell anybody where I’m from. They don’t think Las Vegas is hell, but they think you can smell it from there, like it’s close. But God called our family in 1999 to Las Vegas, Nevada to join in his activity of planting a church that would multiply and plant churches, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 22 years of my life. Living out in the Western United States, the West Coast is the best coast for any West Coast brothers and sisters in the room. But one reason it’s better is college football comes on at nine o’clock on Saturday morning and Monday Night Football kicks off at five o’clock. You don’t have to stay up till one o’clock in the morning to watch the game, but that’s where I’ve been for the last 22 years, joining in God’s activity of multiplying a church. When I started in church planting in 1999 there were no networks that were cool. There were no assessments. In assessment looked like this when I started. He’s got one. Let’s send him some of you know, there’s some OG planters in the room. You know what I’m talking about, right? But for the last 22 years, that’s what I’ve done. Our church has had the privilege of partnering to plant 80 churches out of our church in the western United States. We’ve had the blessing of sending hundreds of people out of our fellowship to join in God’s activities, seeing the church multiplied in the Western United States, our church launched a training, an intensive about, I don’t know, 789, years ago, called m3 where we took everything we’d understood and learned and church planting and boiled it down to a three day intensive. And we’ve now had over 800 planters from all over North America and places around the world come and be a part of this intensive training to teach them what we’ve learned in two decades of church planting in a very unchurched context like Las Vegas and most recently, about a year and a half ago, I stepped into this role as the president of sin network. After 22 years, I passed the baton of leadership to a young guy on our team that had been raised up with me 15. Years, and he’s now 35 and pastoring the church that God had allowed my family to plant there in Las Vegas, it’s our sending church into this role that I’m in now as president of sin network, one of the larger church planting networks in North America. Now I didn’t tell you that story so that you know my pedigree. I told you that story because I want you to feel the weight of the statement that I’m about to make. I’m somebody who’s given the large portion of their adult life to church planting. I believe in churches being planted. I believe in the local New Testament Church, and I believe the only method God gave us for the accomplishment of his mission is making disciples that plant churches, that send out to make disciples and plant churches. But here’s the statement I want you to hear me make churches being planted is not the goal. Church planting is not the goal. The local New Testament Church is not the goal. Let me prove it to you. Can I give you a word of discouragement? How many of you in the room are pastors? Let me see your hand. All right, a lot of pastors. How many of you are church planters? You’ve planted a church so a lot of church planters in the room the church that you are now pastoring, or the church that you are planting. Here’s the word of discouragement, the church that is keeping you up at night, the church that you are sacrificing sleep and resources and time to serve to give to to that church is going to die. You know, I know that they all do. If you don’t believe me, go find any church that got a book deal in the New Testament. Every church Paul wrote to is dead and gone. I’ve personally stood in the remains of the church at Ephesus and the church at Corinth. I’ve been to both of those sites, churches that in their heyday, in the first century, were thriving epicenters of gospel sending activity to change the world. We are sitting here today as followers of Jesus Christ, because we’re running in the trails that those first churches Blaze for us in accomplishing the mission. But today, those two churches are a pile of rocks in the Middle East. If the local New Testament Church, if church planting is not the goal, what is the goal? Let me show it to you in Revelation, chapter five. Revelation, chapter five and verse nine says, And they sang a new song. Now remember, before I read it, let me say this. You do know that what we’re reading here is not a hope. So maybe so one day we think so we’re literally reading God allowing in His sovereignty the apostle John to see into eternity future, something that is already happening in eternity future. You see, our God is sovereign. That means he exists outside the parameters of time. You and I see time play out like a movie. We go in watching a scene at a time. God exists outside the parameters of time. God sees time like a film strip. He can see the first scene and the last scene all at the same time, because God is the one that spoke time into existence. God allowed John to see into eternity future, a scene that had not played out in time, but is already reality in eternity. So let’s read it worthy. Are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain, and by your blood, you ransomed people for God from every if you know it, say it out loud, tribe and language and people and nation. How many of you heard that verse before Amen, right? You ever been to a mission conference you heard that verse? You know the problem with verse nine. We never read verse 10, and you have made them a say it out loud, kingdom and priest to our God. You know what this whole thing called Christianity is about the king building his kingdom. You know what eternity is. It’s not First Baptist Church and second Presbyterian Church and the. Eternity is King Jesus, ruling and reigning with the kingdom over over his kingdom that is made up of people from every tribe, every tongue, every people and every nation. The goal is the expansion of the kingdom of God in cities and nations all over the world. Did

you know that there are over 100 references in 16 different books of the New Testament to the subject the kingdom of God? You know one of them is Jesus said, Seek ye what now for the Greek scholars in the room? You know that’s not a prayerful consideration. He’s laying on the table for us to think about. It’s an imperative in the Greek text, meaning Jesus says the kingdom of God is to be the absolute number one priority in our lives, that everything else centers in and revolves around Christ and His Kingdom. The goal is the kingdom being expanded. Let me show you this biblically. I’ve proven it to you. Practically all churches die, but let me show you this biblically, that the goal is not the church, the goal is the kingdom. Now, when I say the goal is not the church, I’m not talking about the big C, bride of Christ Church that’s obviously synonymous with the kingdom. Before we read excellent let me give you a definition that that we use it at our church in Las Vegas for the kingdom of God. It’s one we wrote over about a decade of refining and working on it. Here’s the way I like to define the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is God’s sovereign activity in the world, resulting in people being in right relationship with Himself. The Kingdom of God is the big picture of what God is doing globally, from Genesis to Revelation. God is on a mission redeeming a people to Himself from every tribe, tongue, people, nation. It’s never been the goal is the church. The goal is the kingdom expanded. And what happened in North America is we’ve made the church the end all be all. Let me show you in the book of Acts, if you’d asked me for much of my probably the first decade of ministry before God called me to Vegas. What is the book of Acts about? I would have said the book of Acts is about the local New Testament church. It’s the birth of the church, it’s the growth of the church. It’s the multiplication of the church. But you know, that’s not what the book of Acts is about. Let me prove it to you, Acts, chapter one, verse three, I know you thought I was going to get to verse eight, because we think the first seven verses are just introduction to get us to verse eight. Verse three, he Jesus presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the what say it out loud. Now get this. Know the context. This is Jesus’s last 40 days physically on planet Earth, three and a half years of public ministry, death, burial, resurrection, for 40 days after His resurrection, before his ascension, Jesus makes appearances to his followers. And the text here in Acts, chapter one says for 40 days, Jesus only talked about one subject. It’s almost as if he said, if you forget everything else I’ve taught you in three and a half years of public ministry, don’t forget this kingdom of God. Now go to the end of the book of Acts, Acts. CHAPTER 28 the last two verses of the book of Acts, Acts, chapter 28 verses, 30 and 31 listen to what the text says. He now, is not talking about Jesus. Is talking about Paul lived there two whole years at his own expense. Now, this is not Paul in a condo on the beach enjoying vacation. This is Paul under house arrest, believing he’s facing imminent execution. Now, church history tells us he’s released here comes back later to be executed. But Paul thinks this is the end. I’m dying here. It says he welcomed all who came to him, meaning anybody that got within the earshot of Paul. Paul said, Come sit down. Let me talk to you about something. And it says he was proclaiming the what say it out loud. Here’s Jesus opening the book of Acts. His last 40 days on planet earth, He only talks about one subject. Here’s Paul closing the book of Acts for two years thinking his life is over. Anybody he can get to sit down. All he wants to talk about is the kingdom of God. Now does acts teach us about the birth, growth and multiplication of the local New Testament. Church, yes, but you can’t remove the bookends. Acts one Jesus says, kingdom, Kingdom Kingdom Kingdom kingdom. Acts 28 Paul ends, kingdom, Kingdom Kingdom Kingdom kingdom, Kingdom. In the middle you have the birth, the growth and the multiplication of the local church, which gives us the answer, the local church. Don’t let this offend you. Theologically, just hang on with me. The local church is the temporary tool. Established by Jesus for the expansion of the kingdom in cities and nations all over the world. The local church is the gathering place to introduce people to King Jesus, the discipleship station to train them in Kingdom living, and then the launching pad for the expansion of the kingdom by sending them out to the ends of the earth. What’s happened in the church in America is we’ve made the church the goal, and we’ve made the kingdom a department called missions, and that department is reserved for the spiritual weirdos who get the special ops training down the dark hallway at the church. The rest of us normal Christians, we just give our money so they can do the hard Special Ops stuff. You know we need to do in the church, we need to crucify the word, the letter s on missions. There’s no such thing as missions. There’s the mission. There’s only one. It’s the same one that began in Genesis, in Genesis three, when God began a redemptive work that climax is in the book of Revelation with every tribe, tongue, people and nation. It is the eternal redemptive mission of God. Of God redeeming to Himself a people from every tribe, every tongue, every people and every nation. And God birthed his church, not as a tool, as the tool for the expansion of the kingdom in cities and nations all over the world. And that’s why multiplying the church matters, because one church cannot accomplish the mission by itself. Think about Paul’s letters in the New Testament. How many of them was he writing one church to get prayer or financial or people support for another church that was being planted? Or why? Because the New Testament is about Kingdom collaboration. We’re joining together, and unfortunately, because we’ve made the church the goal in America now it’s not Kingdom collaboration, it’s church competition. What if we flipped our missiology, and instead of thinking we’re pastors going in to start preaching opportunities for us, we started thinking like missionaries who are engaging cities with the gospel so the disciples could be made. Listen when we start with this is the paradigm when we start on this end, all we’re doing is shuffling around deck chairs on the Titanic. We’re not penetrating the lostness of our community. Let me tell you another reason why we shouldn’t do it this way, starting on this end. Because if you do it this way, this only works. People say, Well, I did it this way and it worked. Yeah, it works in North America. It won’t work in other parts of the world. Here’s my premise. This book was not written for North America. This book’s written for the peoples of the earth. If our missiology won’t work everywhere in the world, why are we using it anywhere in the world as a biblical missiology. If our missiology is biblical, we should be able to drop it into any culture on any continent in any corner of the world, and see fruit from the power of the gospel. What if we begin to think about penetrating the lostness of North America? Why does this matter? I’ll close with this, there are only two continents in the world where Christianity is declining, only two, and we’re sitting on one of them with all of our resources and all of our know how that we’re trying to ship to the rest of the world about how to do Church. Maybe, just maybe, we should shut our mouths and listen to what God is doing in the church. On the other side of the world, where Christianity is actually thriving and exploding, there are two continents in the world where Christianity is declining, Europe and North America. Here’s the question that drove me and to accept the role that I’m in now within that word, what if? What if, for such a time as this God has raised us up so that we can pass to our children and our grandchildren a changing of the trajectory of the Kingdom on our continent. How do we do that? Here’s the question I began to ask, what would it look like to see the kingdom of God grow by 1% over the next decade in North America? If you don’t know this stat, there are roughly 280 5 million people in North America that don’t know Jesus as Lord and Savior. Of here. So what would it take to reach 2.8 5 million people with the gospel, not just going in and starting church services? That ain’t going to cut

it. That works in the Bible Belt. Listen, you can send your mailer in Las Vegas. Nobody gives a rip. They’re not coming. I try to tell people sending out a mailer in Las Vegas inviting them to church services like in my hometown in Alabama, 12,000 people moving in and starting a mile starting a mosque and sending out a mailer, hey, there’s a new mosque in town. By the way, you don’t have to wear a turban. We’ll provide a rug. It’s a cool mosque. Like nobody in my hometown got that mailer. Showed up on whatever day thinking, I think they have all the answers to life. Listen, that’s the way the lost world sees our mailer in our church services. They don’t think anything about our relevance to them. But when we begin to engage the city with the gospel, see disciples made. What would it take to reach 1% 2.8 5 million? Here’s what it’s going to take if we can say over the next decade, start somewhere between 910, 11,000 new churches, and every one of those churches multiply one time each, and each of those churches reach 125 people with the gospel. You know what that is? 2.8 5 million people. We can’t create movement. Only the Holy Spirit of God can do that. Here’s what we can do obey the principles of multiplication. Focus on multiplying disciples that are sent out to multiply churches by engaging cities with the gospel. And if we do that, I believe we lift up the sails so that should the wind of the Spirit of God choose to blow that 1% could be 5% or 10% and then our kids get to run in the wagon trails that God allowed us to blaze for His glory and honor, to see a kingdom movement that would not just touch North America, but the nations for the glory and honor of God. Amen, Father, for your name’s sake, would you do this in Jesus name? Amen, I’m gonna invite Tony Marietta to come and lead a panel talk about church multiplication. Yeah.

Tony Merida
If you’re on the panel, come on up, guys. So this final segment, before we pray, we want to just think a little bit more about Kingdom expansion and what Vance has shared with us. So I’m Tony Morita, Vice President for planter development, for send Network, also a board member at TGC. Next to me is my good friend Doug Logan. We’ve been friends for many years. You really can’t explain Doug Logan. You can only experience Him, and maybe you’ll experience some of him in this room today. He’s also a new council member at TGC, and has years of experience in Urban Ministry, urban church planting. Next to Doug is feliz Cabrera, VP of sin Espanol. It’s great to have you on the panel, brother and Matt Carter, VP of mobilization. So we just have like three questions, but all of you could answer this in a variety of ways, and I think would be helpful if we’re going to try to reach that 1% in North America with the gospel. What is something that we must pursue? Any of you can jump in first?

Felix Cabrera
Well, our churches need to reflect our communities. The nations are here. The Lord bring the nations to United States. For us as a Hispanics, we are over 60 millions. 40% of us speak only Spanish. They’re coming, pursuing the American dream, working 5060, hours weekly. They have the wrong idea of the gospel, a work based gospel, or a prosperity gospel, but they need the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we have in the other side. 60% of the Hispanics are born here that are bilingual or speak English, but they are too Hispanic for the first generation Hispanic, and that’s happening all ethnic groups, but they are too Hispanic for the white and as a network, we want to partner with local churches to reach The people that the Lord is bringing here. That’s great,

Tony Merida
Doug, you probably add to that the need to reach the urban cities. Yeah,

Doug Logan
yeah, I would definitely say that when, when we think the Great Commission, it says all nations. All nations must include all neighborhoods. However, we need a reorientation, because what Bishop Pittman was just walking us out with? I know y’all, I know we Baptist Bishop, I’m allowed to say it, I’m a visitor. And is that our theological education and a lot of our theological training has been oriented the. The reverse way that Vance just challenged. So we need a reorientation of that, so that that’s not, I mean, he said that. I mean, I was ready to to dance with them and and repent, because that’s that was, that’s my mentality often. But we got to do a reorientation of that that includes all neighborhoods, because when you get to the hood, you can’t I was forced to be the Rosetta Stone of all the theological books I learned at seminary. We need some books directly in training for the context, so you’re not doing double duty. Yeah,

Tony Merida
just for the listeners to give, give some context, where did you plant and what was that experience? A bit like I

Doug Logan
planted in Camden, New Jersey. 2011 sent by 10th Presbyterian Church and Epiphany Philly, most dangerous, most violent, most poor, most literate city in America. We fired our police in 2013 we had, we went from 400 police to 20. Somebody broke in a car of my assistance. They told me to take a picture of the person and email it to That’s a true story, and we’ll they call me back at 12. So it was a rough context, real context, but, you know, trying to do gospel ministry in a context like that, man, I love Dr Piper, but I gotta put collard green juice on Dr Piper sermons in order for me to talk them, you know. And so we need some resources. We need some resources.

Tony Merida
We need a Rosetta Stone for you. Doug. And I were in Europe one time. He was on a panel with a guy from Scotland. He said, y’all gonna need to talk to the translators. They’re not gonna be able to stay in this guy. And I was like, Doug, they can’t understand you right now. But anyway, yeah, it’s a good word. Matt, what would you add to that if we’re gonna reach 1% in North America with the gospel, what do we need to be doing,

Matt Carter
I think, as as pastors and leaders of the church, when you start living out Ephesians, four says that God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, preachers and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry. You know, if you were to look at the local church in the United States right now, you would think that that scripture says God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, preachers and teachers so that people could come to our church and hear us preach for 30 years and maybe work in our nursery. And I think we gotta start living that out, calling everyday people sitting in our pews that have inside of them the power of the resurrection, doing what we’re called to do, train them and equip them and then release them into expanding the kingdom of God where God calls them.

Tony Merida
Yeah, Matt’s in this VP mobilization seat, and he’s the right guy for it. He led a remarkable church in Austin called Austin Stone. And in fact, we used to say at our church that we planted in Raleigh, we want to grow up and be Austin Stone. And one of the things you guys did was send out a number of people. Could you talk just a little bit about this story?

Matt Carter
Yeah, I mean, I had not gotten a seminary degree before I planted a church. You know, Vance talked earlier about, you know, this is our assessment process, checking the pulse. I don’t think I’d make it right, you know, back then, through sin networks, assessment process, you know, I was not theologically educated, and so I did something crazy. When I got the opportunity to plant a church, I started reading the Bible. And try I did, but I’m like, All right, better figure this thing out. And I came across that verse in Ephesians four I was like, Oh, it’s my job as a pastor to train people and then send them out. And so that was part of the DNA from the Austin Stone from the very beginning, man, just really quickly we the Lord gave us a vision to send 100 full time vocational missionaries for two years to unreached people groups around the world and and man, I the very first time I did a that I preached on, I did a three week series on going to the nations and the call to of just the every believer to engage the commission. And after the third Sunday, preaching was in the evening, we had an informational meeting for how for anybody that wanted to come and hear about how to leave Austin, Texas for two years and go somewhere where you might get martyred. And and I thought, maybe 30 people might show up, you know, and I walked in the door of the meeting, and there were 520 people from our church that were in the room to get information about going to an unreached people group for two years and and I think it shows the pent up desire in the body of Christ to get in the fight for the glory of God. And I say the pent up desire because they have inside of them the Holy Spirit. It’s our job to just unleash that for the Kingdom.

Tony Merida
It’s powerful man. I think one of the things we have to do, you alluded to this, is continue to. Train and equip future church planters. Well, Trevin pointed out some of the great challenges that we have right now in our day, and so one of the things I’m excited about at sin network is just our commitment to build out a more robust assessment, training, equipping model that will continue to equip our guys in the gospel. I really want our sin to be known for developing theologically robust church planters who faithfully and effectively handle the word, handle the word well in their context. And so I think we’re seeing a lot of this happening right now as we think about this next piece. We’ll start with you, Felix, there’s a lot of good things happening among a number of networks, number of different organizations. We applaud that, but we’re Kingdom people. Want to be Kingdom people, but what is it that excites you right now about the sent network?

Felix Cabrera
Well as we hear churches plant churches, not networks, not seminaries, not convention, and if we believe that we are Better Together, we are seeing in the last couple of years. And the emphasis that Vance brings to said network is to train the guys, first, Timothy three, Titus one in the local church through residencies being focused in prepared them and help them to recruit a core group in their local church. And this core group also will be trained, well trained, theologically, but also with with the right mindset of what is being Kingdom minded. And after that, send them out. We are seeing this, not only in the Anglo side, but also is increasing and growing in the Hispanic church. And we are super excited about how Saint network is trying to reach every nation, every tribe, every language. Matt,

Tony Merida
what would you add to that?

Matt Carter
Yeah, I think there’s, there’s a couple things going on that that I’m really excited about. I could talk about this for a long time, but I’ll give you two. Number one is one of our values is deep in devotion. You’re going to talk about that briefly here in a minute. But Vance, as a leader, has been calling us to prayer. And when I say that, I’m not talking about we just pray for a couple minutes, you know, to transition between the music and the and the pastor. I mean, every event and meeting that we go to, we spend a significant portion of it on our knees, because we believe that’s the power behind all this. And so it’s been fun to be a part of a movement that really is trying to be grounded in prayer. I think the other is just what God is doing in terms of diversification. Man, the last, I believe it was three regional gatherings that we did, which we had about, I believe about 250 church planters that sin network had planted. Over 60% were non white, and that was not something that we planned on, but it’s something God’s doing, and I’m excited to be a part of a movement like that. Doug,

Tony Merida
you’ve observed a lot of networks through the years. You’re very old man, and you’ve traveled many, many distances. He’s not a very old man, very good looking man, as you just sort of your observation of what’s happening right now. At Sindh, well,

Doug Logan
being with Vance, being with Matt and you, I just met our brother today. But I’ll tell you this the the push, as Matt brought up for diversity, in authentic diversity, you know, we’ve just got, what I’ve seen from from Vance, is his creativity for mission without compromise of the gospel. This is so important, especially talking about diversity, because every and standing firm in that, as I listen to him and his heart, and knowing the church in Vegas so often, you try to do something, and there’s a push against they hear kingdom, and we hear the kingdom word too much. And next thing you know, we’re Pentecostal. No, we’re Bible. And so Vance willing to be a Bible man and lead as as creative without compromise, and then gather a team. When I think about you and the Ritz and you know, most people think Tony’s black, he’s not. And, um, what am I? Melungeon? He? He has a book coming out called preaching from the melungeon tradition.

Tony Merida
Nobody knows what that means, Doug, nobody knows what that means,

Doug Logan
but his, but Vance’s willingness to to create this, this gospel gumbo team that’s going after the gospel gumbo of the world is just amazing to me. It’s

Tony Merida
hard to follow Doug on these panels. I forget I’m moderating and I’m up here exegeting everything he’s just said in my head. Yeah, I think we’re an organization that believes the gospel that that may not sound remarkable, but in this day and age, you know it is. And when Trevin was was going through. His talk, I thought about Second Corinthians, 514 where Paul says that one has died, therefore all have died. And he died for all that those who live may here it is no longer live for themselves, but for him who, for their sake, died and was raised. And he talked about that, you know, this self absorption, the self this expressive individualism that we have to deal with, and the gospel is the good news. The Gospel frees us from our addiction to ourselves. Only the gospel does that. And this is an organization that believes in sound theology, prayer and ministry of the word, prioritizing evangelism and mission, a love for innovation and wise contextualization. There’s a movement happening. I feel like, just spiritually, that’s very exciting, and churches are being planted, and work is getting accomplished. So a lot to be excited about. We could go on about that. We talked a little bit, Matt, about you mentioned deep in devotion. Talk to us a little bit about what we mean at sind about that particular value. Yeah, I

Matt Carter
mean, the heart behind the whole thing is we believe that prayer is the power behind what it is that we’re called to do. We prayer is the work, and we’re, we’re we’re calling our church planners to it, and we’re calling our church planters to be not just men of prayer, but to lead their people in prayer. And so we’re calling them prayer and the Word of God, to be preachers of God’s Word and and we’re doing it along the way man. And so I’m excited to be a part of that. Every you mentioned it briefly, but one of the things that drew me into this the first time, first event I’d gone to was in New York. It was a regional gathering. And I’m gonna tell you something, no cliche at all. The Holy Spirit of God moved at that time. And I’m talking about old school man. It was just I was undone. It had been a long time since I’ve experienced the presence of the Lord in an environment like I did in that place. The only explanation is that we’ve been asking God for it. We’ve been praying so Yeah, talk about it.

Tony Merida
Yeah. We want to keep acts six, four in mind, prayer and ministry of the word that we really believe that prayer is an essential of the Christian life and Christian ministry, the word essential, you know, it’s so overused today we call everything essential, like oils, for example, that can we just, I like them, I use them actually, but maybe helpful oils, you know, nice oils. But can we not live without them? You know, like, that’s what an essential means. Like the prayer is essential. And when you read the book of Acts, what you see is what was essential for the early church has become supplemental for the contemporary church. The in the churches in Acts, had nothing and yet turned the world upside down. The book of Acts is a 30 year story. That’s it, of what the Holy Spirit did through a group of people who believed in dependent prayer. What might he do with us in a 30 year run, if we actually believe that it is essential, that it’s not something we do before the work, but that it that it is the work. And then, along with that, acts six, four, prayer and ministry of the word, you also see that through the book of Acts, in fact, you’ve got these summary statements in acts like the word of God continue to increase. Acts 1224, the word of God increased and multiplied. And this is my favorite one acts 19 after Paul spends, you know, some two years in Ephesus, teaching in what most scholars believe was during the siesta period of the day. It says, in this way, the word of the Lord flourished and prevailed. It doesn’t say that Paul’s ministry flourished and prevailed. It says that the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord flourished and prevailed. And the reality is, God buries the messengers, but the message goes on. We are, we are all, all replaceable. And so what else are we going to believe in but prayer and ministry of the word? I mean, look at the story in Ephesus. They’ve got all the idols, they’ve got all of the crazy religion. And here’s a little converted Jewish guy going in for two or three hours teaching the Bible, pointing people to Jesus. And you want to say, don’t we have a better method? Like, isn’t there something else we should be doing? And then you read on, they start burning their magic books. There’s a riot in the in the auditorium, in the amphitheater, and it still works. We have to believe that we need to get back to the old prayer of Jehoshaphat. We are powerless and we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you. I wish that that prayer would have become more popular than the Prayer of Jabez. That we need. We need a book on the prayer. Jehoshaphat, and get back to that. All right. Trevor, could write it today, probably actually. So, man, we believe in this like we want to. We want to be people of prayer in the Word. We want to make the hero of the bible Jesus the hero of every message that we preach. We want to keep the life changer Jesus at. The heart of every sermon if we want to preach a life changing sermon, and so we want to be an organization known who expound scripture Well, point people to Jesus, and we do so independent prayer.