Word of Hope Blog
Read the latest thoughts from Ralph Moore, a veteran practitioner in disciple making and church multiplication.
Your Church as a Launch Platform
Platform vs Portal——-Two Operating Systems Partition your “hard-drive” Run two operating systems at once—one as “normal,” the other as an experiment Graduating from Level 3 is more about evolution than revolution I want to introduce an operating system that we’ve used, successfully, in the United States. However, I learned it on a teaching trip to…
Six Shifts Toward Movement Making
Most cars come with four- or five-speed transmissions. Today’s Corvette sports a seven-speed unit. The car nearly flies at speeds in excess of 200 miles per hour. The purpose behind all multi-geared cars is efficiency. An engine doesn’t need to work as hard to get the vehicle moving in the lower-ratio gears. And as a…
“You’re NOT all in! (Greg Wingfield–guest blogger)
You’re NOT All In! I can’t begin to tell you how much those words stung. I went to the front of the church auditorium in Costa Mesa, CA for prayer. The speaker said, “If you are struggling in ministry and you want us to pray for you, please come to the front.” So I did.…
Here Comes Another Podcast…
I’ve decided to produce a podcast. I find myself coaching a lot of younger men and women who are deeply committed to ministry. As I do, it seems that many share the same set of ministry challenges. This is true of church planters, but also of everyone facing a culture that is increasingly immune to…
People are against religion, you know…
“People are against religion, you know…” I’d just sat down to eat my two hot dogs when the man sharing our table informed me that people are against religion, including him. My wife and I were celebrating our 53rd wedding anniversary at a Ringo Starr concert in L.A. We grabbed food at a concession outside…
How the Weak Win Wars
About a hundred years ago, while I was in high school, I memorized the entire Gospel of Matthew for a 1960s style “Bible Quiz.” I got a scholarship out of the deal along with a fierce understanding of Jesus as the leader of a revolution. In fact, all great revolutionaries from Jefferson to Gandhi seem…
Benefits of Career/Freelance Church Planting
Planting microchurches as a freelance pastor carries many strong benefits. There are the obvious financial strengths like medical benefits, paid vacations with bonuses and retirement accounts. These goodies come with a career but not necessarily with a bivocational fallback to make ends meet. But one of the greatest benefits associated with having a career while…
Reaching Rural Communities: Where do you start?
I was sitting in a pub in Cork, Ireland when an interesting blog popped up in my email. In, “Rural Matters: Part of God’s Plan to Transform Our Communities and Our World,” Ed Stetzer points to the, often unmet spiritual needs in rural communities. The people across the table were American missionaries making their home…
Church Planting vs Evangelism
Had an interesting conversation, yesterday, about church planting and evangelism. A strong financial supporter of my Mission Hope ministry overseas challenged me to include evangelism in the things I write. In my mind, I always do. However, he made a valid point. I assume that church planting is all about evangelism, but that isn’t necessarily…
Equipping for Growth and Multiplication
Every wonder why the gospel grows so fast in developing nations? I think it is because its presented in simpler terms. And this has implications for the church in America. I’ve planted three churches, each in a relatively sophisticated culture. But it is simple, colorful, teaching that seems to bring the most change to human…