Make sure to check out the other posts in this series on Preparing2Plant Churches
Part 2a of this blog: Discerning the Call – Our Calling to a “Method” (The Local Church)
2. A “Receiving” Church/es
Church planters, especially those who “parachute” from the outside, have a reputation for disrespecting the already-established churches in the area. We can easily view ourselves as the enlightened saviors of the city who finally “get” how to do church, and if people would just do ministry like us (never mind that we’re not actually practicing, and this is …

Planning2Plant (P2P) is a series by Bryan Barley following his year of preparation for church planting.
While the first post dealt with the individual call, this post examines my calling to a particular “method.” My team’s methodology is to do everything we possibly can through the local church.
I struggled whether to make this the first post in the calling series. Which comes first – your own sense of calling or the church’s recognition of that call? In an ideal world, we would see churches and their pastors so consumed with …

Planning2Plant (P2P) is a series by Bryan Barley following his year of preparation for church planting.
My guess is there are a number reading this right now who are attempting to discern the call to plant. Especially for you who may be in seminary, where anything from a PhD to being a missionary to an unreached people group are viable options, the question is naturally, “what is God calling me to do?”
There are varying views within the church as to how to understand “God’s will for my life.” The most prevalent …

Preparing to Plant (P2P) is a new series by Baptist21 contributor, Bryan Barley. The series follows his year of preparation to begin planting a church in urban Denver, CO in early 2011.
The series strives to offer a unique look into church planting, providing a glimpse into the life of a planter well before an actual “launch” is in view.
You can also check out his website or follow his team’s efforts on Twitter.
Dear Reader,
I probably shouldn’t commit to this blog series.
My name is Bryan Barley, and I am a …

The GCR and the Need for Clarity
Reeves is certainly right, GCR discussions are quite muddy. And there doesn’t seem to be any signs that things will change. So, where do we go from here? This answer, of course, is complicated. But, to throw in our two cents, we’ll offer one suggestion.
We think that the conversation will only advance with clarity. That is, we think the conversation will only advance in a way that is pleasing to Christ when all of the pertinent facts are communicated about the issue.  Nobody will …

The 20/20 Collegiate Conference is fast approaching and we would like to invite you to be a part of this exciting conference at Southeastern Seminary. The theme for the 2010 20/20 Conference is A City Within A City: Church, Culture & Counter-Culture. We hope you would consider making the trip to Wake Forest for this important conference. You can register for this conference by clicking here. You will find all the information below.
Date: February 5-6, 2010 on the campus of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Topic: A City Within A City: Church, …

At the last SBC, 95% of Southern Baptists in attendance voted in favor of having a presidential appointed GCR task force. It was an exciting day by all accounts. Over the past several months many of us have followed with excitement and prayed with hope, as the GCR task force carried out its weighty task. Exactly what they’ll report and how their report will be received is yet to be seen.
In the meantime, we thought it would be helpful to talk a little about how things are going. It seems …