Winter 2008

It was 10 years ago that I first met Jeff Bailey and Steve Nicholson. Jeff was a student at a seminary near where my parents lived, and he had invited Steve to speak to a small group of his classmates. Through a series of improbable events, I found myself in the room.
At some point, slumped down on the couch and looking somewhere between bemused and bored by the questions, Steve looked around the room and asked a question that has stayed in me- “Where are the young adults willing to lay it on the line, take a risk, trust God, and go plant a church?”

Rich Nathan is the senior pastor of the Columbus Vineyard and an internationally known writer and speaker on a remarkably wide variety of topics. Under his leadership, Columbus Vineyard has grown to over 7,000 weekly attenders, and has become a major influence for the kingdom in it’s community. They have planted 22 churches, established a massive community assistance center, seen hundreds come to Christ, founded the Vineyard Leadership Institute, and contributed deeply to the Vineyard movement as whole.

Not many people understand the power of partnership in missions like Phil Strout does. As a former missionary and now a senior pastor of the Lewiston Vineyard in Lewiston, Maine, Phil has the advantage of seeing missions from both ends of the spectrum—the giving and receiving. Cutting Edge caught up with Phil to get his working insights on the power of partnerships in missions and how church plants can get involved in the mission field sooner rather than later.

What is so important about partnerships among churches in missions?

What pressures or challenges do pastors of smaller churches face today ere not that much of an issue 10 or even 5 years ago?

How did your church grow in terms of numbers and gathering people. Did it happen in spurts? Was it pretty quick?

One of the great challenges of ministry is to understand what our purpose is and try to find ways to measure our progress. In other words, figuring out what business we are in and asking, “How’s business?” Bert Waggoner has spent decades helping pastors develop healthy ministries and think about their growth. We asked him about how to assess growth and set helpful goals for the future.