Church Planters: Advanced

2012 European Church Planters Network: Advanced Track

Background:

In 2011, Raphaël Anzenberger (France) and Øivind Augland (Norway) took the responsibility to lead and monitor a network for church planters under the umbrella of the European Leadership Forum. Thirty-five participants from approximately fourteen nations were gathered during the four main days of the Forum. The response was very good. In 2012, Øivind Augland will lead the Church Planters Network. To build upon the success of 2011, the 2012 Network will be split into two tracks: Foundational and Advanced. Speakers featured in the Advanced Track will be Raphaël Anzenberger, Stephen Beck, Magnus Person, and Dietrich Schindler.

Advanced Track:

The goals for the Advanced Track are the following:

• Give the participants an overview of what is happening in the arena of church planting training in Europe, providing best practices.
• Learn from each other and share resources for church planting training, assessment, practice, and coaching.
• Use the structure of the Forum to link different networks and places of high-performance church planting in Europe to practitioners.
• Relate church planting to evangelism, apologetics, discipleship, leadership, and other pertinent topics.

Meeting Times During the Forum: 

Monday, 21st May: 10.15-15.00   
Tuesday, 22nd May: 10.15-15.00   
Wednesday, 23rd May: 10.15-15.00

The Advanced Track will continue through lunch, so participants will not be able to sign up for and attend Luncheon Workshops. The lunch time and coffee breaks will be used for informal discussion.

Applying to the Advanced Track:

All Advanced Track applicants will go through a selection process before being invited to that Track. All participants will be expected to join into conversation and also bring with them examples of church planting training materials they are using. Øivind Augland, as the Network Leader, will send participants additional information before the Forum. Prior participation will be set for all participants.

NETWORK LEADER

Øivind Augland (Norway) is a pastor and church planter in the Evangelical Lutheran Free Church of Norway. He is a leader of the DAWN network and is involved in the training and networking of church planters in Scandinavia and the Baltic. He also developed the “M4” training for church planting. He is founder and owner of Xpand Norway and Persolog Norway. Øivind’s call in life is to get multiple generations—especially young people—leaders, churches, denominations, and nations side-by-side to increase the expanding of the Kingdom (Nehemiah 3:1). Øivind is married to Linda, and they have four children.

NETWORK SPEAKERS

Raphaël Anzenberger (France) is an evangelist, apologist, church planter, author, and speaker serving in France with a passion to raise a new generation of evangelists and church planters for the French-speaking world.  Married with four children, he lives in Loches where he just started a new urban church plant.  He recent completed his doctoral degree at Columbia International University. He is General Secretary of France Evangelisation and author of Moi aussi je voudrais croire, mais... (BLF Europe, 2008) and co-author of Questions autour de Dieu (Farel, 2009).

Stephen Beck (Germany) is a career church planter. An ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church of America, he returned in 2005 to the country of his youth, Germany, as a missionary with Greater Europe Mission. Until 2005, he planted churches in the USA and Toronto, Canada, and has been part of a global urban church planting network out of the Redeemer Church in New York City. He is considered one of the "cutting edge" GEM`ers in regard to church planting and multiplication in Europe. He is also Professor of Practical Theology at the Freie Theologische Hochschule in Giessen, Germany. He has also been guest lecturer at a number of institutions on the European continent, is the Europe director for the “City Mentoring Program”, the senior director for the new European Institute for Church Planting and Church Growth, and most recently the senior pastor planter of Church For All Nations in the city of Frankfurt, where together with 30 of his seminary students he is shaping a multi-site, multi-cultural, multi-lingual church community that focuses on the plight of the immigrant. Stephen has been married to Susan for 34 years. They have four children.

Magnus Persson (Sweden) has planted United Malmø, a Baptist church that has grown to 500-600 people in the last seven years. He is leading the United Network, which is planting churches around Europe. He is a part of the Pentecostal movement in Sweden and has the responsibility of leading the church planting network within the movement and training church planters. Magnus is one of Scandinavia’s most renowned teachers and communicators. He is married to Gunilla, and they have two children.

Dietrich Schindler (Germany) is a German-American missionary church planter who is currently the executive director of church planting for the Evangelical Free Church of Germany (Bund Freier evangelischer Gemeinden). Under his leadership the denomination is striving to plant 100 new churches in Germany in ten years. After five years 54 churches have been planted. He has himself planted five churches in Germany and has written and lectured on what it would take to see a church planting multiplication movement to take root in Germany and in Europe. Dietrich has been married to Jan Carla for thirty years, and they have three adult children.

 

NETWORK PROGRAMME

Day 2  (12.00-15.00)

First Things First: Church Planting is About Winning People for Christ

Raphaël Anzenberger (30 minutes)

Without mission, no new community and church plants will be started. Church planting communities are sociological mirrors of society. In this context, how do
we breed apologetically minded communities where love – the relational aspect of God’s revelation – and truth – the propositional aspect of God’s revelation – come together to reveal the full revelation of God to his people? No church plants will grow without catching God's heart for the lost people and understand how to give the Gospel to new people. We need all to understand to whom we are sent and pathways the church plant has to new people around.

Magnus Persson (30 minutes)

Five hundred baptisms within the last five-six years: Why are the secular people open for the Gospel? What are the bridges into their life and how do we mobilise the church to use them? Shifting our focus from ministry in the sacred church to mission in the secular world. Going from reaching to relating; from pressure to process; from exclusivity to inclusivity; from programme to people; from one to everyone; from here to everywhere.

Break

Discussion, Reflection, and Prayer in Groups

Day 3 (10.15-15.00)

Multiplication: The Challenge of Discipleship in a ME Culture (combined with Foundational Track)
Magnus Persson

Discipleship: Teaching to obey in a culture where the ME is the center. This session will outline the seven most important lessons of doing discipleship from the context of secularised city of Malmø.  In a culture that worships the selfish trinity of “me, myself and I”, the whole concept of discipleship – “lay down your life, take up your cross, and come follow me” – is utterly countercultural. How do we remake self-centered, secular, urban, post-modern people into Gospel-centered, unselfish followers who live to give rather then get, serve rather then being served? This talk will be followed by discussion, reflection, and prayer in groups.

Discussion, Reflection, and Prayer in Groups

Training, Assessment, and Tools for Church Planting

Dietrich Schindler (20 minutes)

The speaker will discuss how The Freie Evangelische Gemeinde in Germany is doing assessment and training of church planters. What has been the common experience? What materials have been used? The five most important lessons learned also will be presented. 

Stephen Beck (20 minutes)

The speaker will share from his experience of seeing 15-20 churches planted during the last four-five years in Germany. The session will specify which training programmes and tools are being used in a city mentoring programme and what have been the five most important lessons learned.

Magnus Persson (20 minutes)

The assessment and training of church planters in the United network and the Pentecostal movement of Sweden will be discussed. The speaker will discuss the movement’s experience and the materials used. The five most important lessons learned also will be presented.

Øivind Augland (20 minutes)

From the experience of church planting in Norway, “M4” was developed. The speaker will break down the content and idea behind this tool used for training church planters in Norway and the Baltic.

Break

Discussion, Reflection, and Prayer in Groups

Day 4 (10.15-15.00)

Movement: How to Create a Jesus Movement of Multiplying Churches, Part I
(Combined with Foundational Track) 
Dietrich Schindler

This session will explore how to create a Jesus movement of multiplying churches in a European context. While most people look to the Apostle Paul for their teaching on church planting, we dare not miss what Jesus has to teach us on how to plant churches. This session will highlight the life of Jesus as a church planter and the lessons we can learn from Him on how to plant churches that reproduce and become a movement.

Discussion
Coffee Break

Movement: How to Create a Jesus Movement of Multiplying Churches, Part II
Dietrich Schindler

This session will continue the discussion of how to create a Jesus movement of multiplying churches in a European context. While most people look to the Apostle Paul for their teaching on church planting, we dare not miss what Jesus has to teach us on how to plant churches. This session will highlight the life of Jesus as a church planter and the lessons we can learn from Him on how to plant churches that reproduce and become a movement.
 
Conclusion:
The Challenge in Europe: What Is Our Response?

Discussion, Q&A, Summarising and Prayer