The following are some of the things that I envision to make such a program come to fruition:

• Pastors would identify 1 or 2 gifted individuals or couples from our churches who have express interest in being part of a bi-vocational church planting team. Pastors should look for individuals who have differing skills in evangelism, teaching, preaching, worship, etc.
• Invitations would be sent to these individuals asking them to participate in a church planting basic training at a central location. I will lead this training program and it will be done over several months with assignments being completed in their church or community. Where necessary I would bring in people who are experienced in the different facets of church planting to facilitate the learning process.
• Basic Training will be designed to walk a church planting team through an intensive journey of exploring the strategic issues of a church planting process and of assisting them in developing a customized strategy for planting healthy, reproductive churches.
• The following topics would be covered:
  • Prayer
  • Dedication
  • Vision
  • Values
  • Focus Group
  • Mission Statement
  • Evangelism Core group
  • Worship
  • Leadership Development
  • Building Relationships
  • Master Plan
  • Administrative Issues
  • Mileposts

• During training, we will trust God to pull team members together into a cohesive group that have the same heart and mission for planting a church in a viable area.
• Our aim is to put these teams on the field in bi-vocational positions where they will begin to form home cell groups within their community as they plan for a launch date within 15-18 months.

Please join me in prayer that we could see such a training program up and running in the near future. I want to wish all of our churches a very Merry Christmas and I pray that God will use your church in a mighty way in 2008.Danny Kirk

1. America has been identified as the largest mission field in the Western Hemisphere with the number of unchurched Americans now doubling between 1991 to 2001. If every church in America were to double its attendance this Sunday, there would still be 190 million people not in church to hear the good news of the gospel.

2. We are losing the battle in keeping up with our population. In 1900 there were 27 churches for every 10,000 Americans. In 1950 the ratio had dropped to 17 churches for every 10,000 people. Today there are 30% fewer churches than in 1950 but our population continues to grow. There are now 3 times as many churches closing each year than are planted.

3. Many of our churches are in survival mode. It is estimated that 80-85 percent of all churches in North America are on the downside of their life cycle. That is, 8 out of 10 churches are either standing still, declining, or dying. These churches have little or no evangelistic impact in their town or community. Nearly one half of all American churches did not baptize one soul in the past year.

4. Today’s churches are not reaching today’s young people. The vast majority of Christians are saved before reaching age twenty. Yet, today researchers estimate only 4% of all young people below the age of 22 are saved. We are losing a whole generation of young people. New churches with young pastors and leaders are our best hope for reaching millions of unsaved young people.

As a local association we have been concerned that we have not been successful in planting a new church in Missouri in the new millennium. That concern should continue to burn within our hearts so we will continue to pray for laborers, search for open doors, and give our resources to the work of missions. During our next quarterly meeting on December 1 at Landmark, Desoto, I want to share with our churches some steps that we can take to raise up new church planters. Bro. Ray Freeman from Mississippi will be our special speaker and it should prove to be a good meeting. Please make every effort to attend.

We also owe Bro. Leonard Compton a debt of gratitude for stepping up and taking care of the finances until a new director could be selected. He has kept meticulous records and has made the transition as easy and simple as possible. Thank you, Bro. Leonard!

I am in the process of having mailing envelopes printed to make it easier for our church treasurers to send in funds for missions and the revolving loan fund. It will be a couple of weeks until the churches will receive these. Until that time please send all correspondence to the following address:

Director of Missions
224 N. Hwy 67, #255
Florissant, MO 63031

I have received invitations from the following churches to come and speak about missions and/or church health: Charity, Westview, First Matthews, and Berean. Pastor, I would love to come to your church, introduce myself, and speak on behalf of missions. I have a lot of Sunday evenings open and this summer, I am available on Wednesday nights as well. If there is any way I can help you, please let me know. My office number is (314) 921-2378, Home is (314)837-8321, and my cell is (314)265-6265. My email address is pastordannykirk@gmail.com.

We are currently putting together a webpage for our association. It is under construction, but you can check it out at www.meramecassociation.org or www.meramecassociation.com. I will soon send out a questionnaire for you to complete so we can add information about your church to the webpage. Check out the Alive Youth link on our webpage. If you desire you may register for the Alive Youth Conference and pay your fees online. All Alive conference forms are available for downloading and printing.

Let’s pray that God will soon put together a missionary team that will plant a new church in Missouri. The need is great!