Church Plant Accelerator

church accelerator church plant providence ri andrew mook Sarah Cowan Johnson

PROVIDENCE / NEWPORT RI

[date]

FOR CHURCH PLANTERS & MOVEMENT LEADERS

Over the past eight years of church planting, we have begun to notice a gap: a gap between content and application. A gap between helpful information and embodied learning. As a church planter or young leader, there is an immense amount of resourcing and conference-going available. However, the more we spoke with others, we began to recognize a distinct need for smaller groups of leaders to gather outside of their local context to dream with and learn from church planters who are further up the road; an experience where they can connect with God, conspire with others, and learn from a select group of experienced practitioners from post-Christian contexts.

This accelerator experience is a process of immersive learning aimed at accelerating the life cycle of your church and leadership, compressing years’ worth of learning-by-doing into a transformative event that begins a 9month cohort that will extend even beyond the time in Providence together.

OUR FOCUS

It is difficult to fully embody robust formation, thoughtful mission, and a culture of prayer in our churches. Rarely it seems to you find all three. Over the course of our four days together, these priorities will serve as our frame work for talks, workshops, resourcing, and fun.

Formation

Following Jesus is not a life we get to live in a vacuum, free of powerful influences; it is a contested path of obedience against many of the dominant cultural narratives of our time. We want to equip and resource you to disciple your church in our complex, post-Christian moment.

Mission

No strategy will reach every kind of person except a strategy that mobilizes every kind of person. Because we are invited to join God in the renewal of all things, we want to equip you with fresh ways of thinking about releasing the priesthood of all believers.

Encounter

There is a powerlessness in much of the western church. We want to equip you with more than “wise and persuasive words” but with a framework to help your church move in power and cultivate a greater hunger for the Spirit.

OUR CONVICTIONS

There are many pastors’ gatherings, networks, and conferences. This accelerator is deeply relational, focused on leaders in secular contexts, and committed to shared imagination and practices for life and ministry. Our core philosophy of ministry is anchored in these 7 convictions from Searock and six affirmations from the Covenant church.

Courageous

Fidelity to Orthodoxy. We hold to the historic faith with joy, boldness and confidence in a time of widespread theological and ethical compromise, particularly in the areas of scripture, sex, money and power. We are committed to the Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus.

Charismatic

Moving in the power of the Spirit. We embrace the gifts and ministry of the Spirit to equip the church for fruitful missional engagement. We seek to be a people of God’s manifest presence, so that many may say, “surely God is among them.”

Contemplative

Practicing Counter-Formation. We practice a slow-down spirituality in a hyper-connected, over-busy, and exhausted world. Recovering ancient practices of sabbath and contemplative prayer. Living by a rule of life, and aiming to becoming desert fathers and mothers in the city.

Contextual

Thoughtful engagement with secular culture. We preach the Gospel in a way that deconstructs cultural idols and proclaims the Gospel as the fulfillment of all personal and existential longings in our cultural moment. We seek creative mission and ecclesiology that fit the context and reach the lost.

Contending

Seeking spiritual awakening. We pray fervently for an outpouring of the Spirit, that brings revival to the church, and a spiritual awakening in the larger culture.

Compassionate

Remembering the poor. We will live among and serving the poor, overlooked, and marginalized in a way that embodies the way of Jesus and seeks to find God in the face of those on the outside.

Communal

Category defying relationships. We will cultivate deep, loyal, and united friendships across the boundaries of race, class, politics, and sex, in a world that seeks to polarize and divide based on categories of power or privilege.

WHAT WE WILL GET INTO

TALKS / WORKSHOPS

building a culture of passion & hunger; seeking revival; preaching in our cultural moment; the LGBTQ+ community; leader development; tools for formation; movement dynamics; best practices in mission; rest and urgency; multicultural ministry

EXPERIENCES

two days in Newport on the water and two days in the city; some of the best food in the country; time to rest; collaborative time; a local revival tour; worship; and a surprise evening experience

SPEAKERS

[who]

Logistics

COSTS

The program has been generously underwritten bringing the cost to $200. Travel and lodging are not included.

FLIGHTS

Fly into Green Airport (Pvd) or Logan (Bos) – we recommend arriving no later than 3pm on Monday, and departing after 1pm on Thursday. If you would like to join us for a Sunday, either before or after the week, you are welcome to do so.

About Us

Accelerator.church finds its home at ______. It is designed and run by a team of pastors and leaders from the NorthEast who are bound together by a love for the church and a longing to see the fame and deeds of God renewed in our time.

Questions

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