RIVERSTONE HAS PLANNED TO BE SUCCESSFUL
God is interested in BUILDING PEOPLE, not people in buildings! Pastor John MyersHow will RiverStone calculate success?
Not buildings, attendance, or money. Not even number of baptisms!
Success is when a person follows Christ as a disciple (learning and doing), learns to trust (faith) Him, accepts Him as Savior and Lord, is baptized and begins being discipled, has a life visibly being transformed and becomes a natural disciplemaker.
Yes, this will take money and facilities, but those aren't the measure of success! You are.
RiverStone is doing the right things to ensure success.
For one, we are partnering with the Evangelical Free Church of America (EFCA) which has an impressive 87% church plant success rate! This doctrinally sound denomination is committed to church planting. Only 1,200 congregations yet they have almost 300 church plants!Most of all, we are trying to follow God's will. That means not running ahead or lagging behind WHAT HE IS DOING (but isn't that the Christian life?)
Critical success factors are revealed in The Church Plant Survivability and Health Study 2007 by the North American Mission Board (Baptist)done by church planting expert Ed Stetzer. Here are a few success factors and how RiverStone will address them.
Success Factor: A Church Planter Support Network
"The church planter meeting with a group of church planting peers at least monthly increases the odds of survivability by 135 percent."
RiverStone: The EFCA has an intensive training, partnering, coaching and accountability plan. The Church Planter is not left alone to struggle, misstep and fail. John Myers will have a formal Coach and Advisory Team of Pastors that meet monthly. This, coupled with the incredible effectiveness of the Cowboy Church model developed by the Texas Fellowship of Cowboy Churches that the planter has used the last 5 years, and a systematic/systemic discipleship plan and we've got something amazing.
Success Factor:Leadership Development for Church Members
"If the church planter provides leadership development training for new church members, the odds of survivability increase by over 250 percent."
RiverStone:
The name RiverStone was chosen to signify the maturing process. We will take rough stones, move then down river together, rounding them into the image of Christ, and polishing them to bring out their unique God given characteristics. We will teach and nurture everyone to maturity in Christ and His service. The RiverStone Process is an intentional Discipleship plan. Through teaching, modeling and serving everyone will discover use their spiritual gifts, be trained to lead, disciple, even to be ministers for those who are called and confirmed by the church. In addition, the Cowboy Church model we are using engages everyone in ministry work quickly. Discipleship is on the job training.
Success Factor: Church Planter Compensation
"Church plants with full-time compensated Pastors have larger attendance."
RiverStone: RiverStone will "launch" when we have a fully funded budget, including full time compensation for the Church Planter. It is more than a full time job to start and grow a church plant, let alone bring new disciples to maturity in Christ.
Even if you don't attend RiverStone, you can partner with us to get the job done. The help of our Partners feels just like you are on the front lines with us. Thank you.