Word of Hope Blog
Read the latest thoughts from Ralph Moore, a veteran practitioner in disciple making and church multiplication.
A Church Planter’s Version of Paradise
The last seven days were incredible. My wife and I first attended the 45th anniversary of the first Hope Chapel in Hermosa Beach, Califonia (www.hopechapel.org) . We hung out with Zac and Julie Nazarian who carried the church far forward while launching many churches. We saw friends we have loved from afar and got to…
Church Planting With The Right Crew
Recently I was able to spend several hours hanging out with a church planter who is in trouble. It seems he called the wrong bunch when launching his church. This church plant was a congregation “hiving off” of a larger church that has a vision for planting churches. He had freedom to recruit anyone but…
Making Disciples Relationally
Two young boys taught me the essence of “true” disciplemaking. I grew up in an environment where making disciples meant working with another person to fill in the blanks in a book focused on the Gospel of John. These guys put it back into the perspective of the New Testament. I mean, can you imagine…
Making It Easier To Plant A Church
Let’s consider making churches more easily reproducible. There are three costs involved in church planting. Each of which can be overcome by starting “simple churches” or “house churches” as some call them. The Education Factor The first cost is the expense associated with a seminary or even a Bible college education. Tuition costs are…
Church Planting In England
My wife and I recently visited England where we trained a group of pastors and church planters to launch churches from within their own congregations. The group leader is Surekha Hulugalle, a missionary to England from Sri Lanka. You can watch him in an interview we recently made about church planting in the British Isles. Planting Multi-Ethnic…
No Worries Mate!
Okay, it’s just Aussie slang. But it carries a punch… Much of the Bible teaches us to put aside worry and anxiety, yet most pastors are plagued by this unhealthy duo. Dwight Eisenhower was quoted, “Worry is a word that I don’t allow myself to use.” As a young pastor a mentor taught…
Muslim Refugees Converting To Christianity
I just returned from England where I heard that the Lutheran church in Germany has grown by more than 30 percent as a result of refugees from Syria and Iraq. Many of these are Christ-followers who fled the persecution and war brought on by ISIS but apparently many are converting from Islam to Christianity.…
Beware: Church Planting Pitfalls
I just came away from a wonderful two-hour reunion with some old friends. We hadn’t seen each other for about three years. The wife is approaching the highest level of Alzheimer’s. The husband is 85-years-old and showing few signs of slowing down. Their family is full of love for the Lord and for each…
Technology Rocks…In Japan
Think with me for a minute… A pastor touches 5,000 people each week in a country where churches average 27 in attendance! That’s just what Rob Flaherty does with humorous, biblical and practical YouTube videos. The videos are never more than six minutes long. He has a huge following which he uses to change lives and plant…
Lookin’ Good In The Dark Continent
Several years ago I met Jeff Roper in California. He challenged me to come work in the neediest mission field in the world… Europe. I tentatively agreed to come. It turns out that the world’s ten people groups most resistant to the gospel all reside in Western Europe. It is the “dark continent.” But while…