BCNE News
The latest news from our network of New England churches. Looking for our New England Perspectives Articles? Click here.
David Jackson’s legacy of church planting in New England
Editor’s Note: Dr. David Jackson is a North American Mission Board employee who has been assigned to serve as the BCNE’s church planting director and strategist since 2014. Beyond the scope of this role, he has worked in many areas of church planting in the Northeast for nearly 30 years. NAMB has recently reassigned him to a new role as Replant Specialist for the Northeast, effective July 1. While we will miss having Dr. Jackson in our office as a member of our team, we support the new work he will be doing. If you are aware of any churches that have closed or are facing imminent closure, please have them contact Dr. Jackson at djackson@namb.net.
As a seminary student and the part-time pastor of a church going through the revitalization process in the early 1990s, David Jackson hadn’t given much thought to planting churches. But when he attended an event on reaching Californians, God laid an unexpected call on his heart.
“Never waste a crisis”
Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, as shelter-in-place mandates were decreed and churches were scrambling to make sure they stayed firmly connected to one another, a wise friend reminded me of these words by Sir Winston Churchill. His statement, given in my title above, was borne out of World War II, when his nation suffered terror and suffering beyond imagination for those of us who did not live through it. As we survey the loss of life and damage done by the pandemic, his words ring true. And yet, if we are not careful, in the hurry to get back to a normal—new or not—we run the risk of neglecting the lessons taught in this season of trial and heartache. We do so at our own present, and perhaps future, peril.
The three keys to an effective church
Our presence on the weekend at their church likely reinforces what many church planters, pastors, and church attenders think: what they “do” at their weekend service is the most important thing they do weekly for the ongoing effectiveness of their church.
I’m writing today to tell you I don’t believe that is true.
After Christmas, what?
After the anticipation of the holidays, it’s easy to feel uncomfortable or restless as we try to settle into a new routine. So, what’s a person to do after Christmas?
In Luke 2:21-40, we get a glimpse at some of the things Jesus was doing after the very first Christmas. Perhaps they can lend us counsel as we start off the new year.