This experience shaped the past nine years, as I have led national church planting residencies for various organizations. In 2019 and again in 2023, we did a full-scale revision of our residency work. On one hand, The Equipping Group is collaborating with more organizations, churches, and planters than ever before. On the other hand, these revisions came from many lessons learned in training dozens of residents, from many states and beyond, who are now ministering in five countries.

As I reflect on the past eight years and look to the future, I wanted to capture and share five lessons we learned.

I want to submit that Barnabas was a far more vital leader in the early church than we give him credit for — at least in a western, “leaders-are-those-with-the-best-stage-presence” mentality. Without Barnabas, the Jerusalem church would have struggled financially -- and the Antioch church might not have existed….

What keeps churches from planting churches and sending missionaries? For nearly a decade in various roles, I’ve been honored to create and oversee training for discerning one’s ministry fit and for equipping potential church planters to plant across North America and in multiple nations. I've also been honored to serve, coach, and train church planters in various cultures all around the globe. (I often learn more from them as they learn from me!)

I want you to imagine for a second the person you know who is the least likely to wake up on a Sunday morning, get dressed, eat breakfast, get their family in the car and drive to a church gathering. For many of us this is pretty normal behaviour, it is what we do, because we are followers of Jesus, and this is a part of our rhythm of following him. But for many the likelihood of this happening is becoming increasingly unlikely.

“PREACH THE WORD”: This was the motto at the school where I received ministry training. It was known for its commitment to biblical exegesis and literal interpretation. So, semester after semester, I learned what the actual words on the Bible’s pages meant, and how to explain that meaning to others. I was young in my faith and just learning to know and love the Bible during those years. But looking back, I think I learned to preach the Bible’s words, but not actually preach the Word. And there’s a difference.

While it’s probably true that 18-25 year olds of every generation are sort of anti-institution, we have not seen any other generation born into the age of the internet, extremely heightened by social media, raised in an economic recession, plagued by mental health diagnoses, navigating college during the most politically and racially divided moment in our lifetime, and then thrust into the workforce in a global pandemic.

Gen-Z is not a snowflake generation. They’re just accurately reflecting back to us the cultural chaos that started off this decade.

The birth of Jesus was the deepest, most heartfelt song the world has ever heard. God’s beautiful masterpiece made its debut with a note ringing out clear and bright. It has resonated throughout the ages in the hearts of those whose longing ran too deep to be satisfied by the pervasive but placid promises of this broken world. For centuries, followers of Jesus developed Christmas into a joyous recognition that where there is darkness, the Light of the World will shine through.

For Christians, suffering produces real hope by pointing us away from possibility and to what has already been done in Christ and the love of God that has already been given to us through the Holy Spirit.

Suffering produces hope, and I really wish there was another way. But if hope were earned through chances and striving and results and luck, who could attain it? And how many could attain it?

As we wait through our own silent periods, we wait in hope. The One who heard and answered Zechariah is the same One who hears us today. The One who sends snow to quiet the world is the same One who quiets our hearts even when we can’t hear him…

As we wait through our own silent periods, we wait in hope. The One who heard and answered Zechariah is the same One who hears us today. The One who sends snow to quiet the world is the same One who quiets our hearts even when we can’t hear him…

How do you join civic action with the work of faith? I look forward to discussing this with you in the upcoming (free!) workshop “Faithful Discipleship in a World of Activism” (September 14th, 1p ET / 10a PT).

Did you know that the Bible never refers to itself as God’s Word? Of course, the Bible is a primary means by which we can know God’s message and God’s Son, but we must distinguish the two concepts. Because God’s words, rightly read, point us toward God’s Word.

There comes a day when a wall is simply too high to get over with the usual means. This is a mercy. It is an opportunity. It is God’s means to “crucify our ministry” and bring us into greater awareness of our union with Him.

Communicating the gospel is difficult work, but when you break it down into “goal and hurdles,” the work can be shared.

Surely, Jesus meant it when He said the weary find rest in Him. There must be something to Him saying, “My yoke is easy and my burden light.” It can’t be that we’re meant to do Kingdom work feeling endlessly empty and continually anxious.