Woodfins in Wyoming

I have said many times, to different people, the process towards planting a church feels like we are working towards a bachelors degree. A large chunk of our learning and training is a list of books that we will read and then discuss in the context of church planting.

Before we moved to Wyoming as we applied to NAMB to be church planters we were recommended a small stack of books that introduced us to the ministry of church planting. Kent and I have always been members of well established churches, but we knew very little about what it would take to start a church or how to set a church up for success in sharing the gospel in its community. This was the main reason we applied to be with the Send Network and NAMB, they have years of experience church planting and they have programs and resources to help aspiring church planters like us.

Don Whalen sent a handful of books after we first spoke with him, including, Kingdom First by Jeff Christopherson, The Church Planting Survival Guide, and The Church Planting Wife by Christine Hover. These were our introduction in to church planting and the attitude that we needed to have to be a church planting family: ‘Church Planters 101’ if you will.

We then started on our Church Planters Application and Assessment Questionaire, where we were recommended The God Ask by Steve Shadrach, so we could be preparing on how to raise support; but it also did something unexpected. It challenged us to think about our ministry in more detail than just ‘We will be church planting in Pinedale’ Many of my early post were basic transcripts of our presentation for asking churches to partner with us, and we developed those based of The God Ask.

Then we read The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson, a church planter in the DC area. Now this book is not about church planting and was actually given to us years earlier by Kent’s dad, Kyle. This is a book on prayer, and how to really pray for God to move in you life and ministry over the long haul. Both mine and Kent’s prayer life was extremely weak and we knew if we ever wanted to move to Wyoming and plant a church in Pinedale, we were going to have to get on our knees more and pray like our God was the God who could accomplish such a complicated and overwhelming task.

After the assessment our reading list has exploded, especially with the apprenticeship. Kent read through Gospel Eldership by Robert H. Thune as apart of Outfitter Church Leadership Pipeline Class that started back in April. I just finish up Disciplines of a Godly Woman by Barbra Huges. Kent also finished 9 Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Denver and is currently reading The Ruthless Eliminiation of Hurry by John Mark Comer (I plan to read this one next.)

9 Marks and Ruthless Elimination were both assigned by Tyler as apart of the apprenticeship and Kent is writing 2-3 page papers for each book he reads summing up the book and how to apply its principles to the future church plant. Before the end of 2023 Kent will also read Growing Up by Robby Gallaty, Emotionally Healthy Leader by Pete Scazzero, Old Paths New Power by Daniel Henderson, and Habits of the Household by Joshua Early. I will read these as well.

Along with these Kent is also do NAMB Church Planter training with Don Whalen that has its own book list. Church Unique by Will Mancini, Church Planting Thresholds by Clint Clifton, and Love where You Live by Shauna Pilgreen. These have assigned chapters with each unit along with assigned articles, so it will take us a while to get through the whole of these books.

And then we have a whole other stack of books that are not required reading but have either been recommend to us or have caught our interest. Here is a picture of the books that we currently have ready, are reading and will read. (Minus 3 from Tylers list)

All in all we have a lot of reading to do, and will learn so much in between now and the time that it comes to plant. Pray for us as we are reading and absorbing a whole new way to do ministry and, reading along with us if you can.

We have not only learned things we didn’t know about ministry but have also read many things that Kent and I have previously talked about for our ministry and the church plant. We have been comforted by the fact that we are not the first people to think of it and that someone else has actually charted a path for us and hashed out some of the details. We have learned that even though we are starting a new church we don’t have to come up with every detail from scratch. We have resources and the experience of others to help us.