RENEW south florida has a new home.  Check out our new site here:

www.renewsouthflorida.com

by Tim Keller, Senior Pastor, Redeemer Presbyterian Church

The vigorous, continual planting of new congregations is the single most crucial strategy for the 1) numerical growth of the Body of Christ in any city, and the 2) continual corporate renewal and revival of the existing churches in a city. Nothing else – not crusades, outreach programs, para-church ministries, growing mega-churches, congregational consulting, nor church renewal processes – will have the consistent impact of dynamic, extensive church planting.

Jesus’ Essential call was to plant churches: Virtually all the great evangelistic challenges of the New Testament are basically calls to plant churches, not simply to share the faith. The “Great Commission” (Matt 28: 18-20) is not just a call to “make disciples”, but to “baptize.” In Acts and elsewhere, it is clear that baptism means incorporation into a worshipping community with accountability and boundaries.

Bible’s premise: The only way to truly be sure you are creating permanent new Christians is to plant new churches. Why? Much traditional evangelism aims to get a “decision” for Christ. Experience, however, shows us that many of these decisions disappear and never result in changed lives.

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RENEW is a network of like-minded churches committed to extending God’s Kingdom through the spiritual, social and cultural renewal of Metropolitan South Florida.  We will partner together in order to identify and develop future leaders and church-planters, to revitalize existing churches, and to establish new churches in Metropolitan Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

We are compelled by this God-given vision to work together across denominational lines.  We will come together under a firm conviction of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and show grace to one another in peripheral debates. 

“He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!’”
          • Revelation 21:5