Word of Hope Blog
Read the latest thoughts from Ralph Moore, a veteran practitioner in disciple making and church multiplication.
Your Congregation as a Church Planting Network
The Holy Spirit blesses church planting movements. While the twelve held council in Jerusalem, a bunch of un-named people planted churches in Cyprus, Cyrene and eventually in Antioch. From Antioch, the Spirit kicked off a church multiplication movement that would sketch the history of Europe and the Mediterranean. After the Goths and Vandals After Rome…
Surfers, a Sailboat, and “Special Kids”
“We’re buying a sailboat so we can sail to Peru and spend a year surfing…” With those words my discipleship group broke up or at least floated into the sunset. I had spent just two months discipling these three young men. I brought a couple of them to the Lord and spent lots of time…
Strong Leaders Mine “Crisis” Moments
Leadership is a funny thing. Often it requires little more than looking at a situation from a different angle. Good leaders do this well. When dealing with “crisis” moments we can either let them beat us up, or we can mine them for the gems hidden within. Leaders act. Others react. If you take control…
Planting Churches: More, Bigger or Both?
Should church multiplication be about planting bigger churches. Or, should church planting be about planting many small churches? Both are wrong answers. The true fruit of an apple tree is not apples (coverts in our churches). A better answer might be apple seeds, for the fabled Johnny to do his work. Instead the true fruit…
Planting “Pocket Churches”
Peter Drucker wrote that we must measure, or judge every effort. He added, “…the single most important thing to remember about any enterprise is that results exist only on the outside.” If results exist only on the outside, the size of your church is not an effective measuring device. God measures your results from the…
A Different Kind Of Church Planter
We were suspicious. His conversion story was bizarre at worst, unconventional at best. Tom McCarthy was a young medical doctor and faculty member at UCLA Medical Center. He showed up in church, in pursuit of one of our young women. He was also recently divorced. We were a small church and she had lots of…
Church Planting Innovation
A friend of mine, named Kaz Sekine, planted a successful church in the heart of Tokyo where real estate costs are among the highest on earth. With nowhere available to rent they had to innovate. Kaz and his friends planted the church in a park, during a typhoon. Flexibility comes from understanding that form follows…
Multiplying Short Life-cycle Churches
Some time ago, I spoke with a hurting former church planter. The church he led died a couple of years ago. He was feeling bad about the death of the church he loved. Where he saw failure, I saw a church with a shortened lifespan. The church was a success while it lasted. Planting churches…
Harnessing Mammon for Church Health
I sat through an interesting board meeting early this week. Church management underwent some healthy change. As we looked at our financial statement, someone voiced concern over some costly, “out-of-the-box,” expenses associated with an annual missions project. Specifically, moving resources through a certain country we “tip” officials at various checkpoints. The tips involve a lot…
A Dangerous Book–Todd Wilson/Exponential.org
Few times in my life have I ever read what I would call “a dangerous book.” I’m talking about content that leaves you questioning your thinking and challenges you to live differently—something that disrupts life. Today, we’re releasing a dangerous book. I had the privilege of writing the foreword and in it I said this…