Fridays seem to be my “idea” day Here are a few of the ideas that are percolating in my spirit.

I’d love for us to have a church planting school in DC. I’m inspired by what Redeemer Presbyterian Church has done in NY city. I meet with church planters almost every week. We have a church planter in residence on staff. And that is our passion. I think we need to move in the direction of a church planting center at some point sooner than later. I don’t want this to be one of those ideas we just talk about or think about. I think my ministry mentoring small group this summer is my way of taking a step in the direction of pouring more of my life into people who are called to full-time ministry. I think the mentoring group and church planter in residence position are baby steps in the direction of a full-orbed church planting center. Part of my passion is the number of church planters who come to me asking us to help them.

I also continue to think about a conference for church planters. I’ve been invited to speak at a couple of multi-site conferences in the coming months. And I’ve done a number of church planting boot camps. But I think it’d be cool to do a conference for church plants. I think the target would be pastors from the pre-plant stage to 5-7 years into the plant. I’d love to tag-team with a church from NY city and create a DC/NY connection. I think our coffeehouse will be a great environment for a gathering of church planters. I think it would allow us to do small conferences for approximately 100 pastors.