Next week Nate and I (Tony) will be attending the Acts 29 Lead Pastors Retreat in Miami. If the assessment process goes positively, Imago Dei Church will officially be part of the Acts 29 Network (http://www.acts29network.org/). Our good friend Steve Timmis is the Executive Director of A29, and the President is Matt Chandler. We hold both men in the highest regard. We love the new trajectory of A29, including their commitment to plant churches internationally, as well as domestically.
In addition to this network, the elders also agreed to be part of the Redeemer City to City Network for three years (http://www.redeemercitytocity.com/). We will receive training, and will also support at least one global church plant in one of sixty-five cities, led by a planter that has been through the City to City network. We will share more about the church that we will support later. Regarding the training piece, the staff elders will enjoy personalized instruction from Tim Keller regarding church planting and missiology over the next two years. We are excited about what we might learn, as we seek to mobilize the large number of missionaries/church planters that we have at IDC.
While IDC will continue to gladly be part of the North American Mission Board and the International Mission Board of the SBC, we are excited about working with these two conservative evangelical networks. We anticipate being part of A29 for the foreseeable future, while the City to City network is only a three year commitment initially.
Since A29 is the long-term commitment, then allow us to answer this question, “Why join A29?” Here are a few reasons. First, theologically, we treasure the gospel-centered focus in A29. Second, personally, we love the leaders and pastors in A29. When we started IDC, a handful of churches supported us, including A29 churches like Summit and Vintage (here in RDU). Some of the IDC elders have close relationships with many of the pastors in A29, and we feel that we identify with them, and want to be associated with them formally. Third, we love the evangelistic passion in A29 (which we hope rubs off on us). Fourth, we share their passion to see diversity in local churches. Fifth, the elders believe that “churches plant churches” not organizations, boards, or seminaries. The mission statement of A29 is “churches planting churches.” We embrace this ecclesiology. A29 exists in part to help churches like us, plant other churches by resourcing, equipping, supporting, etc.
Finally, we need another network practically. We have a ton of people being sent out of IDC and we want them to have some options for fulfilling their calling. While the majority of our folks will probably go through the SBC organizations, we know that some won’t. In fact, some continue to face challenges as they work through the process – both domestically and internationally. At times this has been very frustrating, especially when it comes from philosophical differences.
We appreciate your prayers as we enter this season as a church. Our church is like a military base. We are training and sending soldiers out all over the world. Pray that we will send them out as healthy and prepared soldiers, ready to faithfully advance the gospel, and plant churches all over the world for the glory of Christ.