Connect, Engage, Love, Tell

Seems you can't have a blog post about church planting without a quote from someone, so here's a nice one from Al Stewart about the core message from the Acts 29 church planting conference:

...the message from over here is ‘get out there, connect with unbelievers, engage with them, love them and tell them about Jesus. Just do it!’

That's the kind of thinking we need more of in every church context - although I can see how this attitude is forced to the front in church plants, where more established churches can get slack.

Two questions I have though, about some of the other comments Al made:

1. Can we really replicate the Assemblies of God church planting success in the 70's and 80's? They would have been coming off a very low base of existing churches, whereas established denominations often have a whole bunch of existing churches full of christian people who still need to be acknowledged. Mobilising them as evangelists is often tough, but bypassing them has problems too. I guess denominations are going to have to make some important decisions if they want to be in on this church planting thing in a big way.
   
2. Are the skills needed in church planting that different from the skills needed in other ministry? I see evangelism, teaching and personal ministry being central for both.