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Another Shout-out for My Church Planting Friends

By G. A. Dietrich on March 19, 2012 in Announcement, Church Planting

I posted this a bit ago but wanted to give one last shout to those that might have forgotten. Revive & Plant is coming up in just a few days…if you are close to Hampton Roads you should probably be at this conference!

Some of my friends in the Virginia Beach/Chesapeake area are organizing and hosting a church planting conference this March which looks to be a great gathering to promote church planting and church revitalization. I know a couple of the speakers well and have greatly benefited from them in my life.

Who is speaking?

Scott Osborne, one of the organizers, will be speaking in a couple of sessions. Scott is the pastor of Redemption Church in Chesapeake, VA. Scott and his wife were my campus parents while I was a freshman in college. Years later I had the privilege of being in seminary with Scott. The man loves the gospel and wants to show it through church planting.

Ian McConnell was my pastor in Philadelphia at Grace Bible Church. Spend 5 minutes around this guy and you’ll see he is serious about the gospel and church planting…and Philadelphia sports! I cannot speak highly enough of Ian. When I left Grace Bible Church a couple of years ago to come to Northland the hardest part was knowing that Ian would no longer be caring for my soul as my shepherd.

The third speaker is Tyler Jones, who is one of the movers and shakers in Acts29 (church planting organization) in the southwest area of the US. He and his family are pastoring in the Raleigh area of North Carolina.

When & where should I show up?

The conference is March 22 and 23rd in Chesapeake, VA. The schedule and registration information can be found on the Revive & Plant website.

If you want to connect with them you can find them on Twitter and on Facebook.

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Revive & Plant | A Church Planting Conference

By G. A. Dietrich on January 18, 2012 in Announcement, Church Planting

Who is speaking?

When & where should I show up?

The conference is March 22 and 23rd in Chesapeake, VA. The schedule and registration information can be found on the Revive & Plant website.

If you want to connect with them you can find them on Twitter and on Facebook.

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Grace Bible Church | Ian McConnell

By G. A. Dietrich on April 22, 2011 in Church Planting, Video

For those of you that know me well, you know that my wife and I lived in Philadelphia before we moved to Dunbar, WI. The hardest part of making that move for us was leaving the church that God has put us in and the relationships we were building there—Grace Bible Church.

Last week when I was at The Gospel Coalition I got to spend much of my time with one of the elders from Grace, Ian McConnell. Ian is a fireball for the gospel and sharpens me in so many ways. Over and over again at the conference, people were stopping him and thanking him for his recent testimony at Plant!, a church planting conference Sovereign Grace recently held. The video is online and I wanted to share that with you because it was such an encouragement to my soul. So please take 10 minutes to watch this video. Ian makes much of Christ not only in this video but in all of his life.

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Missions | A Random Rant

By G. A. Dietrich on March 29, 2011 in Church Planting, Missions

OK, so I saw the picture posted here over on the “Stuff Fundies Like” blog on Sunday. It brought to mind many of my friends who are out on deputation right now and struggling to get to their mission fields.

Here is the bottom line in my mind—the church is blowing it! Seriously…so many churches feel like they are helping fulfill the great commission by supporting 49 missionaries at $10/month. Even if a church is supporting a missionary at $100/month it is a drop in the bucket for what they need to serve on the field…or is it? Part of the reality most international missionaries face is working through a mission board. Mission boards seem to be one of those necessary evils. Mission boards can bring accountability, specialized expertise in international relations, and networking. However, is the cost worth it? What about the local church serving as the “board?”

There is a lot of conversation out there regarding the topic of missions, deputation, mission boards, etc. I don’t pretend to have any answers, however, I do think that as local churches we are failing when we try to support a breadth of people with pennies a day. It would serve missionaries and ultimately the kingdom if a church were to bring a missionary on board for 20-25% of their need instead of nickeling every single one. I would prefer to see a church support one at 20% than 20 at 1%. Think about it? If four churches committed to 25% of the need they would be on the field in no time. However, deputation takes forever because you have to find 100 churches to give you 1%. This takes years and significant financial resources in traveling the country.

So there you have it…my missions rant for the year. Like I said, I was thinking of some people I know that are out there raising support. You can pray for these people and check out their ministries: