What is Plant New England?
Plant New England is designed to equip churches and church planters to plant gospel-driven churches in New England. We want to see God transform New England’s spiritual landscape through the power of the gospel. The conference is co-sponsored by TGC, 9Marks Ministries, Sovereign Grace Ministries & NETS.
Who is the conference for?
The conference is for men and women, pastors and lay people—anyone who has a heart for New England church planting, whether you want to start a church or already lead an existing one.
When, Where and How Much?
The conference took place on October 10-11 at Redeemer Fellowship Church, a NETS Church plant near Boston. We hope to see you all next time!
What can you expect?
Mark Dever and Wes Pastor delivered talks (available online soon), while experienced planters led practical workshops (available online soon), Collin Hansen moderated a panel discussion (available online soon), and we met conference sponsors to learn about church planting opportunities in New England. Listen to the sessions online and come away with advice from seasoned pastors and planters, encouragement from fellow laborers, and a renewed vision for Christ’s church in New England.
The message is the medium. This is the idea (originating with Marshall McCluhan) that Neil Postman popularized 25 years ago when he dropped his literary bombshell, Amusing Ourselves to Death. Clearly, we Americans could do with less entertainment. However, Postman wasn’t critiquing entertainment per se; he was criticizing our attempts to deal with serious matters through it. His thesis:
We live in an age of entertainment, making thoughtful inter- action essentially impossible, since light media can’t support serious ideas.
Christianity is all about proclaiming the serious message of the gospel. What is a fitting medium for this message? The message actually contains the medium God has endorsed; the Word. This should profoundly affect the way we do all things “church,” including church planting. In gospel-driven church planting, the Word of the gospel is the church planting methodology. The message is the medium.
Wes Pastor, founder of NETS, discusses the theme of this year’s conference in his latest post to The Gospel Coalition blog. Read it here.