Rohadi Nagassar's Blog, page 12

“Thrive” Makes Top Ten Church Planting Books of 2018 List from SEND

My book “Thrive” made the Top 10 Recommended Books on Church Planting from the Send Institute. They build denominational leaders into new ways of thinking on church planting. SEND operates out of Wheaton College, connected to one of the largest evangelical denominations around. I hope Thrive becomes widely read for up-and-coming planters. It was also […]

Third Sunday of Advent – Luke 7 and the Woman “bad in character”

Here’s my contribution to an advent reader put out by the New Leaf Network. This version contains my original ending which was changed in the New Leaf one. What God Looks Like The pinnacle of God’s announcement to the world is Jesus and during Advent, we immerse into a rhythm of Gospel re-discovery. Jesus intercedes […]

Advent Reader 2018

I have a very small piece in a unique Advent reader put out by the New Leaf Network. This season, consider these reflections as you enter a time of reflection that leads into the darkness, through Christmas joy, and the hope found in Epiphany. The New Leaf Blog is excited to offer a daily Advent […]

Why Don’t Church Planters Collaborate?

What would it look like if we built church planters and leaders to join existing churches in the neighborhood regardless of affiliation? *Originally posted in 2015, edited, and reposted.* I remember when I started my first church plant in 2009. Within a couple of years a ton of new church plants poured into the same place […]

Challenges Leading Change in Large Churches

Pastors often ask me for ways to re-imagine and lead change in declining congregations. They’ll ask something along the lines of, “how do you get people to do, X, Y, or Z?” Be it how to build multi-ethnic communities, realize better discipleship, or increase missional activity in the neighborhood, one thing is constant: few of these […]

Thrive wins best e-book cover (non-fiction)

My book, Thrive, won the top e-book cover design for the month of September over at Thebookdesigner.com. Although it’s mostly for bragging rights, winning the non-fiction category demonstrates the quality we were shooting for in production. My friend Riley and I worked on the concept over a month and then had Riley’s friend and (talented […]

Can We Guarantee Church Plant Success? (and how to start a movement)

***Originally posted December 1st, 2014 and updated with additions. This post was the precursor to about 3 chapters in my book, “Thrive” now available. *** In this post I want to use a model many of us are familiar with to describe how to build a growing church plant. Full disclosure: I’m not a fan […]

Re-imagining Church Leadership in post-Christendom

I had the pleasure of being invited to hold a session at the Praxis 2018 gathering in Philadelphia, put on by the growing church planting movement V3. The theme of the entire conference centered around a much needed conversation on re-imagining leadership. Little did they know in preparation of the talks that so much of […]

The End. How Losing the Last Millennials from Church Exposes Leadership Problems

This would be a nice song to play while reading this post. In the final chapter of my book, Thrive, I tell a story about an old Presbyterian church that invited Darrel Guder (of Missional Church fame) to speak. As I sat in the crowd listening to his lecture, the congregation was struggling. They were […]

You’re Doing What?! Cancelling a Successful Service in Search of Deeper

In my current church plant we’ve come to a crossroads. A decision needs to be made. First some context. Cypher Church is unlike any church plant you’ve seen before, and simultaneously like every church plant you’ve seen before. Our gatherings are unique. Both of us (co-planters) share a part-time position (actually just less) which means […]