Tom Schmidt's BlogActs 29 Assessment As Rachel and I plant Cross of Christ Fellowship in Naperville, we have sought to be a part of the Acts 29 Network. This network of churches is united in several core convictions (gospel-centrality, reformed theology, complementarian leadership, empowered by the Spirit, commitment to church planting) and serves to train, equip, and […]
Calvin on “The Sum of a Christian’s Life (Forgetting Self)” Part of my training for being a church planting resident at Redeemer Fellowship–as we hope to plant Cross of Christ Fellowship in Naperville–is to read books in preparation of ministry. The longest and oldest book I’m reading is John Calvin’s “Institutes.” I’m reading about 125 […]
Coffee and Christ–Talking With Others about Jesus in Naperville Perhaps one of the most difficult tasks in planting a church is sharing the gospel with unbelievers. How do I go about connecting with unbelievers? Who should I talk to? Where will this take place? Church planter Jamie Page–pastor of the Church of DeKalb–provided me with […]
Cross of Christ Fellowship: Church Plant Celebration This past month we hosted an event at our church to inform and gather support for Cross of Christ Fellowship (an Acts 29 Network church plant in Naperville, IL.). The event was a great success, as over 70 people turned out to hear about Cross of Christ Fellowship! […]
3 Impossible Church Planting Tasks for Naperville (I’ve shared some of this in our most recent newsletter, but here’s the extended version) As we strive to plant a church in Naperville (Cross of Christ Fellowship), we are working on 3 seemingly impossible tasks. These pursuits are daunting and at times overwhelming, but we are encouraged […]
Church Plant Celebration 1/26: Cross of Christ Fellowship One of the challenges of planting a church is informing others about it. How do we spread the word and get others on board with us to plant a church in Naperville? One way we hope to do this is through a church plant celebration. A church […]
Sharing the Gospel with Religious Nones in Naperville The other day I shared the gospel with a ‘none’ in Naperville. Not a nun–a Catholic woman devoted to a life of chastity, poverty and service–but a ‘none.’ I’m referring a person who claims to not adhere to any religious beliefs. A recent poll shows a dramatic […]
5 Long Term Hopes for Our Church Plant: Cross of Christ Fellowship We hope and pray that God will work through our church plant Cross of Christ Fellowship to bring about long term impact to the cultural landscape of Naperville. Specifically, we pray for five areas of redemption: 1. A greater presence of those who […]
Will You Be 1 of the 100 to Join Our Prayer Support Team? Prayer is vital to the life of the Christian and to the life of any ministry. It is God who opens doors for evangelism (Col 4:3). It is God who brings spiritually dead people to life in Christ (Tit 3:5). It is […]
Church Planting: Next 6 Months In my previous post I spoke about some of the highlights from the first three months of my church planting residency. Here’s what we hope to accomplish in the next 6 months: –Build a prayer team: We hope to find 100-200 people who will commit to praying for us and […]