| Rev. Mark Gorveatte visits CCD
On Wednesday, April 7, At the invitation of DS Hodgins, Rev. Mark Gorveatte (DS of Western MI) visited the CCD Office to lead in a discussion of church planting. Present were members of CCD DBA Exec and Evangelism and Church Growth Exec.
In the last nine years, Rev. Gorveatte has led the Western MI District to plant 22 churches. He says that very early on, he discovered that he himself was not a planter, but for some reason God would use him to assist others in that area.
The process in Western MI is totally different than the one on which the CCD is embarking, but it was evident throughout the day that many of the principles would be transferable, and many of the lessons learned would be beneficial.
Two full time pastors
Perhaps one of the major differences from the way that CCD has ever moved, is that in Western MI, almost all of the churches have been started with two full time pastors. "If you want to plant a church that will be 200 after two years, then fund it that way. If you want a church that will be 35 after two years, then fund it that way." They look for four things to be in the mix of giftings on the pastoral teams.
- Preaching - teaching
- Worship
- Children's Ministry
- Administration
More important than money:
Pastor Gorveatte tells us that there are three things that Western MI have built into the DNA of their church planting that are "more important than money". No one is given the blessing of the District to be a church planter unless they have done the assessment, the training, and will commit for an ongoing period of coaching.
At the beginning of the day, Pastor Mark pointed out that all he would be doing was sharing his experience, and that everything he said would be "in my view".
"In my view" this was a very valuable exercise for the members of the CCD who were privileged to attend, and on behalf of us all, I thank Pastor Mark for the gift of his time and expertise.
Please continue to pray for him and his family. He has recently been appointed as President of Bethany Bible College, and will be moving to Sussex, NB this summer.
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