Ask yourself this question? How many homeless people do you know personally? I'm not talking about the ones you ignore on your commute or see on occasional forays into the city. How many do you know by name? With how many have you had a conversation lasting more than the 5 seconds it took to Read more

Missional churches are not necessarily anti-traditional. We gladly submit to apostolic Tradition and find value in many traditions of the the Church throughout the centuries. Problems arise when churches of any tradition expect  other churches, even churches they help plant, to hold to the same traditions it took years for the traditional churches to develop. Read more

Last October I was standing in my garage in our suburban home packing boxes getting ready to move to Philadelphia. I received a call from my brother John who had recently moved back into the city. He told me someone wanted to speak with me. The voice on the other end said, "Do you remember Peter R"? Read more

I have read a number of critiques of the “missional” church planting model. An upcoming conference this month hopefully will shed some light on defining and critiquing this model. I haven't seen "the" missional model. Neither has anyone else. There are multiple understandings and practical outworkings of missional. My concern is that this might be Read more

Our first year back in Philadelphia, the city of my birth, has been interesting in many ways – some unexpected. During the summer I applied to the Census Bureau for a temporary position for a little money on the side and to meet people in our community. I took and passed the test (really) but was Read more

In an earlier post I mentioned reading books and listening to guys who have actually planted churches. By no means do I wish to disparage those who contribute to the formation of church planters in ways that I could not. I am a strong proponent of seminary training and took courses in church planting from Read more

Prospective church planters in college or seminary who spend their time in an established church miss out on many aspects of ministry. They should consider working with a church which more closely parallels the ministry they will be involved with.   While in seminary back in the late 70s and early 80s I had the opportunity Read more

Normally I would not run a 5k on Sunday, or any other day. At 55 years old my running days are few and my walking days many. On Sunday I do not care to have other distractions in preparing to worship with God's people. That takes precedence over everything.   It is true that the Read more

Church planters need more than classroom instruction. If you are presently in college or seminary and taking church planting or missions-related courses, ask yourself this question. Has my professor ever planted a church? Does he have any experience in actually starting a church from scatch or with a core group and seeing God raise up a church? Read more

          After planting a church in Philadelphia in 1982, my wife and I with children went to France in 1988 to work with a French national to plant churches. One of my mistakes was thinking that since I had planted a church in Philadelphia that I knew something about planting churches in France. I thought Read more