The Center for Church Planting @RTSCharlotte: Some Exciting Upcoming Events
Back in Fall of 2016, RTS Charlotte launched the Center for Church Planting (CCP) and it has been exciting to see how God has blessed and grown it since. You can read original press release here.
The purpose of the CCP is to become a national and international resource for the planting of Reformed churches committed to the authority of Scripture, the centrality of preaching, and the great commission. It specializes in training future pastors for the unique challenges, complexities, and opportunities that church planters face.
The CCP offers a Master of Divinity emphasis in church planting, specialized internships, mentoring by seasoned church planters, and generous scholarship support. In … Continue reading...
Remembering the Rural: Do Modern Church Plants Focus too Much on the City?
One of the wonderful developments in Reformed denominations in the last generation is a renewed emphasis on church planting. It is a burgeoning movement in my denomination (PCA), and one of the reasons that RTS Charlotte launched the Center for Church Planting last Fall.
One of the notable features of this new church planting movement is the near exclusive focus on planting churches in cities. Most church planters, it seems, want to go urban and not rural.
And let me say that there are many positives about this focus on cities. Certainly, and most obviously, cities are filled with lots of people and for that reason alone make a good … Continue reading...
@RTSCharlotte Launches New Center for Church Planting
Last night, RTS Charlotte hosted a special event that formally launched our new Center for Church Planting (CCP).
The new center will include a MDiv emphasis in church planting along with a host of other types of specialized training for church planters. The church planting students will benefit from church planting conferences and lectures, mentoring from experienced church planters, internship opportunities in local church plants, and a church planters fellowship were students can grow and learn in a tight-knit community.
To my knowledge, this is the only program of its kind at a Reformed seminary in the United States.… Continue reading...
Where Are They Now? RTS Charlotte Alumnus Chad Grindstaff
One of the things we love here at RTS Charlotte is church planting. In fact, we have just launched this fall the new Center for Church Planting on the Charlotte campus. It’s still in its infancy, but you can read the initial announcement here.
On this note, I am pleased that this installment of our Where Are They Now? alumni series features Chad Grindstaff (class of 2005 ). Chad is a church-planter in Cincinnati and is a great example of how our grads are planting new churches all over the country (and the world) .
Here is his interview:
1. What are you currently doing?
We are in the … Continue reading...
Where Are They Now? @RTSCharlotte Alumnus Tyler Dirks
Over the last number of years, God has really used RTS Charlotte to help train folks headed into two strategic areas: campus ministry and church planting.
In fact, we have an entire institute designed for the former, the Institute for Reformed Campus Ministry (IRCM), and we just announced the Center for Church Planting to help prepare folks for the latter.
The next installment in our Where Are They Now? alumni series highlights a person who has done both of these. Tyler Dirks (class of 2007) was the RUF pastor at Johnson and Wales University and now is the church planting pastor for East Charlotte Presbyterian Church.
Here is his … Continue reading...