Tag: Jesus

The “Anointed Amateur”: Ordinary Believers as Church Planters 

Posted on by Firestarters Network in Church Planting, Evangelism/Mission, Healthy Church Growth

Recently Alex wrote an article for the Together Magazine about trends he is observing in church planting in England. We’ve taken that article and broken into six short blog posts we hope will get you thinking.

So first, one of the most exciting trends in church planting is the rise of the “anointed amateur”—ordinary believers who feel called to start new worshipping communities. This shift is happening across denominations, and it’s changing how we think about leadership in the church. There is a new willingness to empower everyday disciples to step into roles traditionally reserved for clergy.

The barriers to entry are lowering, enabling more people to see themselves not just as church members, but as disciples who make disciples, and even as church planters. Movements like BigLife and No Place Left are encouraging the formation of small, agile, home-based churches, often called micro-churches. These movements are thriving, especially in hybrid models where traditional Sunday services coexist with smaller, more intimate gatherings.

This trend is incredibly significant because it shifts the responsibility for church growth from clergy to the entire body of Christ. When ordinary believers take ownership of their faith and feel empowered to lead, new and innovative expressions of church begin to emerge. This model not only encourages greater participation but also allows for a more flexible, adaptable church that can meet the diverse needs of different communities.

Growing Healthy Churches through Healthy Discipleship

Posted on by Firestarters Network in Discipleship, Evangelism/Mission, Healthy Church Growth

Hi, I’m Dave. I owe a massive amount to the Firestarter community, and was thrilled when I was invited to share a little something I’ve been working on with you all.

Let’s go back. In 2018 the church where I was a leader was at a crossroads: keep on as we were (and expect the same results) or explore new things? As part of my personal exploration of that question, I was encouraged to attend a Firestarter event in Reading. I mean this very literally: thank God!

What I heard challenged, stretched and excited me. People I met have become friends, mentors and colleagues in ministry. And in very concrete ways, it changed my ministry and the way I approach it. But I likely don’t need to convince you how great Firestarters is, and that’s not why I’ve been asked to contribute this blog. No, I’ve been asked to share about a book I’ve written, released next month.

But the reason I start back in 2018 is that it’s around then that I was (in part inspired by Firestarters) really investigating discipleship and disciple-making as foundational to any hope for churches to grow in healthy ways. If you’re a church leader, you know this. We know we can’t do the work of ministry and make disciples by ourselves. No, our job is to equip the saints for works of ministry and to make disciples who go on and make more disciples that we ever could by ourselves. We all know that, especially with our Baptist priority on the priesthood of all believers.

That’s not always how it feels though, is it? The Great Commission vision of disciples who make disciples can feel worlds away from our own contexts. And, at least in my own experience, that’s often because the quality of our discipleship isn’t always up to the task Jesus gives us. The hardware can’t handle the software. If my own discipleship isn’t healthy, what hope do I have of making healthy disciples who can go and do the same? 

So that’s what the book is about. It’s called ‘The DNA of Healthy Discipleship’ and it’s all about the kinds of discipleship Jesus had in mind when he gave the Great Commission. I pick up clues Jesus gives in that commission to the disciples, and build up a picture of what I call the CODE of healthy discipleship DNA. That ‘CODE’ is made up of:

  • Confidence, to let Jesus truly be Lord and King over everything instead of putting our weight on things that can’t hold us.
  • Obedience, to do what Jesus commands and discover the true freedom found in submission to him and pursuit of his path in our lives.
  • Dependence, to draw deeply from the well of spiritual resource that Jesus makes available to us instead of acting in our own strength.
  • Experience, to grow and mature with Jesus over the long haul of our lives instead of settling and standing still.

The book does a few things for each of those. It explores why each is so important and builds a biblical picture, then gives five practical tools for each to actually develop it as a stronger part of someone’s discipleship, and then it applies all of that to the Great Commission itself. It isn’t a practical ‘how to’ guide for making disciples – there are some brilliant books like that out there, but this isn’t trying to be one of them! What it is, though, is a ‘who to become’ guide for anyone who is a follower of Jesus and wants to take that seriously. My hope and prayer is that it will be a gift to Christians who wish to be formed more deeply, and a gift to leaders who wish that for those they lead.

Two of the friends I’ve made due to Firestarters are Alex Harris and Chrissy Remsberg. I’m so grateful to Alex for writing the foreword to the book, and to Chrissy for inviting this article to share a little about it. It’s not an exaggeration to say the book is a crystallisation of things sparked at that very first Firestarters event and have come to discover more and more deeply since.

The book is out on 12th September. If you’d like to see more about it and what others have said about it, you can head to www.davecriddle.com or drop me a line at dave@davecriddle.com.

Contributed by: Dave Criddle. Dave leads a church in Sheffield seeking to do discipleship and mission in creative ways, and learning lots through the process. He’s married to Natalie and they have a little boy called Jed.

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The Power of Evangelistic Prayer

Posted on by Firestarters Network in Evangelism/Mission, prayer

Charles Spurgeon said that prayer was the engine room of the church. It is the vital piece of ministry that engages us with the Holy Spirit. Evangelism is always a spiritual battle and prayer allows us to keep moving forward in that battle. 

Within the Firestarters Network we believe the most effective way to fight this spiritual battle is through prayer. We have observed that churches that have experienced significant growth through conversions have leaders who are committed to intentional, leader-led prayer and fasting. It is only the power of the Spirit at work that is able to “make his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ”. (2 Corinthians 4:6) Our work then is to join the work of the Spirit through prayer.

What motivates a commitment to evangelistic prayer is an understanding of what is happening through evangelism. 2 Corinthians 4:5-6 tells us that the same God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” is also the one who shines his light into the human heart to give us the knowledge we need for salvation. Thus, when we share the gospel universes are being created in human hearts.

This way of thinking about evangelism can be incredibly liberating because it reminds us that we don’t convert anyone. Those who become Christians do so only by the power of the Spirit. But at the same time, we can be filled with an incredible confidence that some WILL respond to the gospel. Some WILL become Christians. We know this because the great power that created universes, the power that healed the sick and raised the dead is the power at work in people’s hearts. 

Therefore, as Christians we can engage in evangelism through prayer, preaching and serving filled with an abundance of hope and freedom knowing that God is powerful and his Word never fails. We need not feel despair or fear because our confidence rests in God and his great power. Our work is simply obedience.

And this we can do!

How exactly do you pray evangelistically?

At Firestarters we believe there is great power in evangelistic prayer. But what exactly are we talking about when we say that we should pray evangelistically? We would break this down into three simple prayers that anyone could commit to praying regularly.

Famous Five

Your Famous Five are five non-Christians that you see and interact with regularly, from someone at the school gate to friends and neighbours to co-workers and colleagues to family and loved ones. This is a list of just five non-Christians that you have opportunity to interact with and hopefully get to speak to them about Jesus.

We suggest you use scriptures to pray for these five, inserting their names into the Scriptures as your prayer that the Holy Spirit would move their hearts toward Jesus.

Proclaimers

Your second prayer is for the proclaimers, those people who are regularly proclaiming the gospel. Paul would often ask the church to pray for him with words like, “And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.” (Colossians 4:3) We can use these same requests from Paul to pray for the proclaimers we know that God would use their preaching of the gospel effectively in the hearts of people.

Ourselves

Our third prayer should be for ourselves. Scripture is filled with evangelistic prayers we can pray for ourselves with words like, “…make the most of every opportunity…let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:5-6) and “…always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (1 Peter 3:15-16)

Sometimes, God will give us opportunities to speak the gospel and we must pray for ourselves that we will be prepared to share the good news about Jesus when those moments come. And perhaps, we might also need to pray that we can do what Jesus said in John 4:35 and have eyes that are open to see that the fields are indeed ripe for harvest.

Everyone Can Be An Evangelist

Evangelism is not ONLY prayer, but it is rooted in, motivated by, and made more effective through prayer. Evangelism is not only prayer, but perhaps, it cannot happen without it. At Firestarters we believe prayer is at the heart of what it means to be an evangelist. You don’t have to be particularly brave, theologically trained, or outgoing to pray. You just have to be faithful and obedient. And that’s why we believe that absolutely anyone can be an evangelist!

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