The Blog Has Moved

CLICK HERE

I decided to move the blog over to Wordpress for all of the obvious reasons.

This blog will no longer be updated and I'll eventually pull it down.

Going forward, everything will be at
http://danielfusco.wordpress.com

Please update your bookmarks, browser, links, etc.

God bless

Exciting Things Folks!

Hey Everyone-

So we are fresh back off of our trip to Yosemite and the Fusco 4tet had a blessed time indeed.

I was just stopping in to let you all know something exciting.

I love talking and working with Church Planters. It's a great honor and privilege (as well as quite humbling) to have my inbox buzzed or my phone ring and to get to talk church planting ideas/strategy.

This past week I received phone calls from 3 Calvary Chapel Senior Pastors who are all contemplating transitioning out of their present fellowships to step on out and plant churches. It's exciting to see pastors seeking to honor God with their lives. It's also humbling that folks are referring people to me to talk through some of the logistics of transitioning. I find that I know what articles I need to write based on the conversations that I have. So while I continue to write the 'Perspectives on Church Planting' series, tomorrow I hope to begin a series of articles called 'Passing the Baton: Reflections for Pastors who are Praying about Stepping Out'.

On another front, I'm getting ready to do a series of talks at the fellowship (hopefully in June) to preach through the bones of the book that I've been praying about writing. It's a book about post post-modernity. I'm calling it the Integral World-view, following philosopher's Jean Gebser's terminology. It's already here and needs to be hashed out (by greater minds than my own). I'm hoping just to get the ball rolling.

I can use prayer on both fronts.

God bless you all.

Oh yeah, by the way, Twitter is up and running and great fun. You can find me there are just follow the shenanigans here on the blog.

Podcasts available

Hey Everyone-

Just wanted everyone to know that both our Wednesday night Psalms study and our Sunday morning Philippians study is available for podcast via iTunes.

If you are looking for it, just go to the iTunes store and search for either Daniel Fusco or Reason to Rejoice and you'll find it.

God bless you

"Being A Young Pastor" Audio posted

Hey Everyone-

I finally had the audio of the round table discussion on 'Being A Young Pastor' posted online.
I did this round table discussion at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Ca

You can listen to the audio here.

God bless you all

A Quick Update

Hey Everyone-

Just wanted to take a few minutes to give everyone a quick update on a few things.

Calvary Church Planting Network

I've been both sensing from the Lord and have been recently encouraged to keep on writing for the edification of the body of Christ. So I've decided that I need to continue to use my time well and write. So I have written two new articles for the Church Planting Network (as well as posted Church Planting Specific Audio) as part of the Perspectives on Church Planting series. The two new articles are called 'Understanding Your Context' and 'Dealing with Numbers '. You can access these resources Here.

There is also a blog site for your discussion and edification. You can find the articles and blog Here.


Lord Willing I'll Begin to Write a Book on Post Post-modernity

A few posts ago, I mentioned some insights that the Lord has bestowed in regards to the emerging world-view that has been called in some circles, Integral. As the church grapples with post-modernity, many areas have already progressed past this. The area that I am in (the San Francisco Bay Area) was post-modern about 20 years ago. In an effort to get out ahead of this, I'm hoping to find some time to write a book about the topic. Not sure how that is going to happen (or that anyone either cares or would publish such a writing), but I'm trusting the Lord to give me the wisdom and wherewithal to accomplish this important task.

Calvary North Bay

The ministry here in Mill Valley is simply doing amazing. It is a great experience to be part of. The Lord is doing a very special work in this area. Here's our website. Please do me a favor and take a few minutes and pray for our leaders.

The Fusco Family

Obadiah just turned four years old. Maranatha is 11 months. Lynn is beautiful. I am a blessed man.

Calvary Chapel North Bay Men's Conference

I'm excited to announce that the Calvary Chapel's in the North Bay of San Francisco are putting on a one day Men's Conference on May 23rd called 'To Him Who Overcomes' at Calvary Chapel Petaluma, Petaluma, CA. The Speakers will be Dave Rolph, Bill Holdridge, Zach Vestnys, and Yours Truly. Please keep this in your prayers.

What I Am...

Reading
- Leviticus and Revelation (very light reading, I know)

- Feed My Sheep - A Passionate Plea for Preaching by Various Authors
* All I can say is 'Wow!'. If you are a teacher, run, don't walk to get this one

- The New Testament and the People of God by NT Wright
* Still working through this one. The Bishop of Durham is way to verbose sometimes, but there is some amazing historical exegesis in this volume.

- The Revolution by Ron Paul
* A very interesting read and NY Times #1 Bestseller

Listening to

- Sermons by Alistair Begg

- 'Romans in a Week' by NT Wright

- Podcasts by Ken Wilbur and Andrew Cohen (Integral Philosophy Pundits)

- Keith Jarrett - Live at the Blue Note - The Complete Recordings

- I've been dreaming of Nirvana's Nevermind lately.


Well God bless you all

Calvary Church Planting Network - New Article Series - "Perspectives on Church Planting"

This is the introduction to a new article series called "Perspectives on Church Planting" that I am writing for the Calvary Church Planting Network.

I just posted the first article called 'Understanding Your Context'

Here's the introduction to the article.

At the time of this writing (March 2009), it has been about a year and a half since I began the Calvary Church Planting Network. I began the ministry as a resource to church planters. I saw the need for the ministry based on my personal experiences as a young church planter. Having planted two churches in the past six years, one on each coast, both in decidedly anti Christian areas, I began to see that there was a need to fill in an educational and relational gap for church planters. Having grown up in a ministry context that was simply ‘see a need, meet a need’, I took it upon myself to begin to compile resources, write articles, and put up a website and blog to have information on the web for church planters. Now a year and a half later, I am even more convinced of the necessity of this ministry. Since we began, I have corresponded with literally hundreds of church planters (via email, telephone, and sometimes in person) and potential church planters who have contacted me through the website. I find it a great privilege to be able to encourage, pray, and be involved in these men’s lives. These men have picked up their lives and families and heeded the call to see new transformational Christian communities established. Oftentimes they are working full time to keep their families going while trying to see a church get going (which easily translates into 70+ hour work weeks) all the while being many miles away from their personal support base. Over these last 18 months or so, in talking to men from all over the place, I’ve found that certain themes have emerged as major areas of discussion. My hope is that over the next month or so, to write a series of articles called Perspectives on Church Planting. Some of the major themes of discussions that I’ve had with church planters, and have pondered/experienced myself, are understanding your context, the necessity of being ‘called’, how to deal with church attendance, understanding your context, actually doing outreach with a small church, the need for pastoral fellowship, and the need for delegation, casting vision, and leader development. I’m hoping to write articles on these topics individually, as well as anything else that seems pertinent.

I Think A Clarification is Needed - Re: Mark Driscoll 'We are a Movement' Bootcamp Message

What follows is thoughts based on Mark Driscoll's talk that you can find here.

First let me say that I have nothing against Mark Driscoll. I have advocated, both on this blog and on other's, that before his own master a servant stands or falls. That master is not the blogosphere, nor the court of public opinion, but the true and living God. He is Mark Driscoll's Master and it's to Him that we all will give account for our ministries. God is using Mark and I continue to pray for him.

Second let me say that I am a Calvary Chapel pastor and church planter and I've been one for 8 years now. What will follow is not some sort of sour grapes, as I'm not sour as all. I am writing a clarification because I think one is necessary. Mark didn't ask me to write one. I am taking it upon myself to write it because I think it is important for perspectives to be clarified.

In the body of Mark's discussion on how Acts 29 is a movement, he addresses other church planting movements and he inevitably comes to Calvary Chapel (and the Pentacostal CC offshoot, Vineyard). First I applaud him for that. The reason that I do is because as I hang in denominational circles as I do, and read many books by denominational/seminary professors on church planting, I'm shocked that people aren't talking about Calvary more. 1300 churches in 40 years is a movement indeed. It is great disservice to the greater body of Christ to not at least acknowledge the organic church planting movement of Calvary Chapel in this generation. So I applaud him for making mention of his semi-pelagian brothers.

But as he discusses both Calvary and Vineyard (and I'm going to leave off his slanted takes on Calvary and Lonnie Frisbee that he got from David DiSabbatino and his leanings) he keeps emphasizing that what Calvary did in 30 years, we'll have done in 5 years. What Vineyard did in 20 years we'll have done in 3. Now I realize that at an Acts 29 Bootcamp they want to show their guys (or potential guys) that they are a part of something big. And they are. All conferences are like that. The body of Christ is like that. There is little doubt that Acts 29 is going to be a force in evangelicalism in the 21st century. But Mark's characterization is not a good analogy. Here's why-

1) Acts 29 wants to be a movement, Calvary Chapel did not

The goal of Acts 29 was to facilitate church planting. Calvary Chapel was simply a church pastored by a guy who God chose to use. Chuck Smith never sought to 'facilitate' church planters (and much to my dismay the movement shys away from any centralized facilitating or helping of church planters)

2) Acts 29 is a parachurch organization, Calvary Chapel is a church.

Acts 29 exists outside of any specific church. It helps churches facilitate church planters (in a sense). The Calvary Chapel movement was and is an organic movement that is church based.

3) Acts 29 pools potential candidates from any where they want to, Calvary Chapel church planters are raised up from within local Calvaries and sent out from local churches not a sending organization..

This for me, is where the analogy really breaks down. And where it is much easier for Acts 29 to proliferate churches. Any one can come to an Acts 29 Bootcamp. There are guys from Baptist, Presbyterian, Calvary Chapel, AOG, anything backgrounds can go. I know guys who get out of seminary, want to plant a church, know that Acts 29 funds planters, and affiliates. In a sense, Acts 29 is a clearing house for men who are predominately already trained by other churches, educational organizations, and missions groups. Calvary Chapel is nothing like this. All ordained Calvary Chapel pastors were raised up within a local church's ministry (notwithstanding that many come from other backgrounds). It's not a clearing house, but a disciple making movement. This takes time. Others have taken the time to raise up the Acts 29 guys (and they through Bootcamps and mentoring get to put the finishing touches on a guy). The best analogy for sizing up Calvary would be more of the Sovereign Grace Movement as it is church based like Calvary. CJ Mahaney is a great teacher and has a similar vision to what Calvary has done (except from a Reformed perspective). But the Acts 29 compared to Calvary example doesn't have any legs.

4) Acts 29 fully funds church planters (and expects church plants to tithe into Acts 29 to keep it going) and as we well know Calvary Chapels do not.

There is really nothing to say more about this point.

For Mark to make the comparison with Calvary (and it be an honest one) it would have to be something like this. Mark how many church planters did you send out from Mars Hill Church in Seattle? How many did they send out? How many did they send out? Do your numbers rival that? It is an interesting question. How many guys has Driscoll sent out from Mars Hill proper? He's been there for over 10 years now. Because in comparing to Calvary, Chuck Smith has sent out literally 100s of guys from Calvary Costa Mesa proper to start churches. Jon Courson was sent out from Costa Mesa and sent out some 50 guys from Applegate. It's easier to have a mega church when you don't send your leaders out to start other churches but simple multiply campuses.

So I think that for Mark and Acts 29, it is better to assess yourselves against say that North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. They are doing the same thing. Pooling together potential talent from all over the place, assessing them, coaching/mentoring them, and sending them out. I'm sure either way Acts 29 is going to look good by numerical comparison. But the real test will be the fruit in 15 years, not in 3. My prayer would be that the fruit would be golden. But only time will tell. Flash in the pans happen all the time, let's pray that Acts 29 isn't one of them (and Mark Driscoll for that matter).

On a final thought, I have always advocated that within Calvary there would be a Church Planting Conference. Not in the Acts 29 sense where a guy comes and later he applies, is assessed, coached and sent. But in the Calvary sense. There is really no reason that Calvary's won't continue to proliferate around the globe. If Driscoll was right and it took 30 years to get to 500, then it took another 10 years to bring 700 more! So if Calvary's are going to continue to plant churches, why not give these potential church planters (and sending churches) a conference where they can come and get built up, encouraged, and some proper tools. Most often theses guys are sent out and they don't have a clue about anything other than the Bible. Granted, the Bible is what we need to know, but there is not chapter on how to be 501c3 determined or 4 John on Articles of Incorporation. Why can't we have a church planting conference so that folks within Calvary's who are considering stepping on out can get equipped for that specific task. Have Pastor Chuck share as he is the founder of the movement and he'll no doubt teach us to teach the Word (amen!). Have Roger Wing share on church planting administration. Have someone like Britt Merick share about starting churches in cities. And get some guys who have planted churches recently (and not we broke off 1000 people from a mega church and now in 5 years we have 5000 or someone who is young but took over a megachurch, or someone who God bless them planted a church in the middle of a revival and has no idea what it is like to work for the first 10 people, 50 people, 100 people) to share about 'doing bivocational ministry', or 'the church planter and keeping the first church of your home', or '10 things I wished someone told me about church planting before I did it', or 'ideas for your launch' or whatever. Either way we are going to keep planting churches as individual churches will continue to raise up leaders and send them out. But it is wise, Biblical (and not denominational) to equip the saints for the work of the ministry!

Just my thoughts