Rohadi Nagassar's Blog, page 10

Prepare for Fear & Loneliness in Church Planting

Please enjoy this repost and edit from 2015. This previous post describes one attribute common in church planting: if you’re brave enough to pioneer you have to deal with inevitable fear. Once you enter the fray by starting something new, when there’s no turning back, you encounter another realization of loneliness. Embarking on a risky […]

Some Updates and Holding Space for Christians of Colour

I have an announcement to share at the end of this post. But first…. You may notice that I tend to write about big picture ideas over personal stories. I’m going to try to write more about my own ministries and experiences because I think it helps practitioners. You may also notice I’m putting more […]

Re-Designing Church Structures in the 21st Century Critique

I recently wrote an article called, “The 9000 Church Challenge,” as a means to engage conversation about church land use in the face of widespread closures. We need new leaders and new ways of thinking on how to utilize assets in better ways. The other side of the coin is not about existing assets, rather […]

The 9000 Church Challenge – 3 Ideas to Re-Think Building Assets

A CBC article citing a report from a non profit group called National Trust Canada (https://nationaltrustcanada.ca/), suggests that within 10 years 9000 Canadian churches will have to close. Most of these churches are from mainline denominations. They the ones who enjoyed inherited privilege at the centre of Canadian culture for generations. Privilege equates to wealth […]

Never, Now, and Not Yet. Why Dull Hearts Fixate on Dull News

Fixating on bad news, worst possible outcomes, the SKY IS FALLING!, changes the way you view the world. It also changes you. In my home province we just had a polarizing election where old conservative ideology reclaimed power. In America, the Mueller Report became public (a redacted version mind you), setting off another firestorm of lament […]

Ways Church Planting Strategies are Changing

For most institutions, the extent of their church planting know-how amounts to “have a service and they will come”. A tactic that starts in skinny jeans and ends in a soft-launch. Which is fine, but denominations can’t all be using the same strategy. I suppose they could, but that would lead to widespread stagnation…which may […]

Everyone Does NOT Belong in Your Cool Church

In my city, one of the coolest churches blundered over the weekend. A gentleman with Tourette’s visited the main service in a search of a church home. He audibly tics, which is normal for him, and abnormal for most all in the white suburban evangelical church. During the main service some congregants were disturbed by […]

E-Book Sale! Thrive on Sale

My book, Thrive, is on sale in the e-book format. The cheapest/best place is to purchase is on my website here. It’s on sale for 2.99! That’s over half off. If you purchase from Amazon it’s a bit higher for Canadians. I tried to time this sale with a huge church planting conference but alas, […]

The Best Behind and the Best to Come

Suffering a loss in a relationship either through a breakup or a death is challenging. It’s normal to shy away from processing hurt directly either through avoidance or dwelling in the past. Some of these emotions are expected, but not healthy when we cling to them. Some ways of processing hurt is naturally gravitating towards […]

Without Permission – Building Brave Space for Christians of Color

I’ve made my debut over at Sojourners with an article on decentering whiteness through new venture activity led by people of color. For posterity sake, I’ve included most of the first version of my article here on the blog as it takes a somewhat different approach on an important (to me) topic for the contemporary […]