We are celebrating our 6 month anniversary of being in Greater Boston. As you probably already know, a ton has happened in only 6 months. We have officially planted and launched Netcast Church. We are still way ahead of schedule. That being said, because of the quick growth, I am feeling a little behind schedule. With over 100 people as regular attenders of Netcast, it has been hard to identify leaders and create smaller groups for people to connect outside of a Sunday service. We currently have a plan in place and hope to have these groups established sometime in March.
From March 5th-12th, we will have a missions team joining us from FBC Oviedo which is in the Orlando area. They will be spending about 5 days serving our community and creating awareness on the North Shore. Pray that they make much of Jesus as they serve in Greater Boston.
Thus far we have seen God's hand at work in our ministry in ways we never expected to see so soon. We have seen broken marriages put back together, sin being broken and community being built. Most recently we have heard of a couple who was considering moving away from Beverly, but after connecting with Netcast decided that God was calling them to stay. One of the most exciting things about Netcast is the diversity we are seeing. We have skeptics, openly lost people, retired pastors, missionaries, college students, seminary people, and the list goes on.
Pertaining to our technology ministry, that has been far more effective than we ever thought. Already there have been a grand total of 2,188 vimeo plays, 8,450 downloads and 1,961 embeds (people putting our technology on their websites). To expand on that, we are currently working on a live Internet video stream broadcast which will then be replaced with the edited video version so individuals can also stream the sermon after the live feed ends. This will allow another 24/7 video stream.With all of our stuff online; Globally, we moved into Canada, Ivory Coast (Africa), United Arab Emirates, Romania, Guatemala, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the largest international plays and embeds outside the US are again from the Russian Federation. Netcast videos have been viewed in 28 countries to date. This is exciting to see since our goal has always been to spread teh gospel message as far as we can using technology. Praise Christ for all He is using us for. You can check out http://vimeo.com/netcastchurch for all of our media and for a good Netcast laugh check out http://vimeo.com/20353790
Thank you for making Netcast possible through your support.
We're Officially an Acts 29 Church Plant
Netcast Church Beverly, MA
Matt Chewning
Feb 23, 2011
Series: Church Profiles
Categories: Church Planting Articles
Briefly describe your story of your call to plant a church.
I started serving in youth ministry at Daystar Christian Fellowship in Greensboro NC in 2005. At the time, we had just hired a new associate pastor who had a big vision for the youth of our city. We gutted a church building and turned it into a youth facility where Jesus would be made much of. Within 1 year we went from about 30 students to almost 500. Because of the growth, it opened up a ton of opportunities to disciple young people, preach, teach, and shephard students. During that time, God began to plant in my heart the desire to move back to Greater Boston to plant. He did this through dreams at first and then began to confirm it through my wife. Because I was very young (24 years old) I knew I was not ready to proceed. So, I submitted the calling to 4 of my pastors and asked them to release us when they felt my family was mature enough to pursue this. About a year later all 4 men came to Beth and I indepedant of eachother and encouraged us to pursue the calling. From there we wanted to connect with a Network and submit to a process that would clarify the call or kill the call. We honestly were a little undecided about whether we wanted to do this. At the time, I was climbing the corporate ladder and was living the "American Dream" with a new house, new cars, 4 kids, and a well paying job. That is when we connected with the Acts 29 Network. The Network and assessment team did an incredible job seeing areas of immaturity, pride and a lacking in understanding the gospel outside of salvation. However, they said that they did see a calling on our family so assigned conditions for us to fulfill over the next year before moving to plant. We left our church, I quit my job, and began fundraising and interning at an Acts 29 Church Plant in Winston Salem NC called 1.21 Church. God was so gracious to our family during that time.
How did you build up your core? What advice would you give to guys in the core-stage?
We started to engage our demographic and culture through Q&A video's online. Since we were still living in NC and hadn't moved yet, we wanted to somehow connect with the area we would eventually move to. So, we connected with a college missions team and had them gather some of the biggest questions and issues that people had towards evangelicalism. Then I began to answer some of the questions via video, and post them all over the web via twitter/facebook specific to our demographic. This created a buzz that was unexpected. Before we even moved, I had already made a ton of connections with our area using social media. So, then as we moved and started getting settled, I was able to meet with these people in person. Some were believers, others weren't. This was key to both gathering a core and getting an understanding of what my culture believed about Christianity, Jesus and the church. From there, I connected with a guy online who runs all of th e local city facebook pages and has about 180,000 followers. He isn't a Christian but we became friends and he is now on our core team (Still not a believer, but Christ is wooing him). By God's grace he gave me access to all of his pages (again, access to 180,000 local people) and allowed me to plug Jesus and the church plant whenever I wanted. This opened up incredible opportunities from meeting with people, to getting in local magazines, to gathering a core.
What were the biggest challenges you faced in planting your church (and/or currently facing)?
The biggest challanges to us was the instability and change of schedule. Because being a church planter is who I am and not what I do, it was very hard for me to balance my life, family and the church plant. I would either feel like I was working too much or not working enough. I knew that my family was priority so I would at times feel that I was neglecting the church in order to be available to the family. Other times, I would feel like I was neglecting the family to tend to the church plant. It took a while to feel like I had a balance and I am still learning how to do this. Also, before we moved, I never really believed in a sabbath. It took about 2 weeks for me to realize the necessity of rest. I struggled with emotional highs, lows and occasional depression until I realized how important rest is.
How did you become involved with Acts 29? What have been the biggest benefits of being in the network?
My involvement with Acts 29 started with Driscoll. I started to listen to him years before I felt called to plant. Then as I studied reformed theology I got more fimiliar with the influencers of the Network. So, when we began to feel called to church planting, it was only natural to pursue a relationship with Acts 29. I trusted them. The biggest benefits that the Network has had for us has been in the brotherhood, coaching and assessment. Had I not connected with Acts 29, I would have no pursuit of humility (I am not a humble man), no understanding of the Gospel, and all about building a Sunday show so people would come and hear me speak about a moral lesson from the bible. By God's grace, the Network has helped me love Jesus and understand the gospel in ways I never though possible before.
What advice do you have for men who are wrestling with the decision to plant?
1. Make sure you are called.
2. Assessment is necessary. Humble yourself to a process.
3. Trust your wife. She sees things you don't.
4. Do not let fear dictate your decisions.
5. Seek older Godly wisdom from men who have told you "No" before.
What's the most important thing you'd want to share with a new church planter?
I would say; be patient. When God calls you to something, it very rarely means "NOW". Recognize that Jesus is more interested in your sanctification than he is in your church plant. Humble yourself to the process that God puts before you and don't rush anything. Christ will build his church and you may be one of those men whom he uses to do it. However, if you under-estimate the work of Christ in the process and only focus on the end goal, than you will miss what Christ desires to do in your heart, your family and your sanctification.
How do you pastor your family?
I am still learning this. Pastoring my family is much different than pastoring the church. I don't preach to my wife and kids, I don't have constant spiritual conversations with them, we don't do a formal bible study or have a consistant family worship time. I take Pauls words serious when he says, "Follow me as I follow Christ." I pastor my family by loving and following Christ. I use teachable opportunities to teach my wife and kids about our sin the cross, God's grace, love, and His sovereignty, etc. I pastor my family by modeling repentance to my wife and kids by being quick to appologize and turn from sin when I sin against them. I pastor my family by modeling a love for the bible by loving the scriptures. I pastor my family by serving my wife and kids.
Outside of the Bible, what is the most helpful book you have read for church planting?
Either Planting Missional Churches by Stetzer or The Reason For God by Keller.
Church Profile: Netcast Church
Launch Date: January 2011
Mission, Vision, Values of Church
Mission: Encouraging the world with the hope of Jesus.
Vision: A diverse community pursuing intimacy with Christ and influence in the city.
Core Values:
1. Diverse.
2. Community.
3. Intimacy.
4. Influence.
Our desire for Netcast Church is to be a Jesus worshipping, sent people (Matthew 28:16-20); Empowered and filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8); living in diverse community with each other (Acts 2:42-47). We believe that doing this will help us fulfill our mission of seeing people transformed by the gospel and equipped to live missionally in their worlds
What are some examples of God's grace that you have seen in your life and/or the life of your church?
How God used 1.21 Church and Daystar to give us a good balance of being missional and yet not unattractive. How God provided every financial need at just the right time. How God has built an incredible team at Netcast in just a few months. How God has used Acts 29 in my sanctification and the sanctification of my bride.
How can we pray for you?
Pray for wisdom as I am in way over my head right now.
Matt Chewning
Feb 23, 2011
Series: Church Profiles
Categories: Church Planting Articles
Briefly describe your story of your call to plant a church.
I started serving in youth ministry at Daystar Christian Fellowship in Greensboro NC in 2005. At the time, we had just hired a new associate pastor who had a big vision for the youth of our city. We gutted a church building and turned it into a youth facility where Jesus would be made much of. Within 1 year we went from about 30 students to almost 500. Because of the growth, it opened up a ton of opportunities to disciple young people, preach, teach, and shephard students. During that time, God began to plant in my heart the desire to move back to Greater Boston to plant. He did this through dreams at first and then began to confirm it through my wife. Because I was very young (24 years old) I knew I was not ready to proceed. So, I submitted the calling to 4 of my pastors and asked them to release us when they felt my family was mature enough to pursue this. About a year later all 4 men came to Beth and I indepedant of eachother and encouraged us to pursue the calling. From there we wanted to connect with a Network and submit to a process that would clarify the call or kill the call. We honestly were a little undecided about whether we wanted to do this. At the time, I was climbing the corporate ladder and was living the "American Dream" with a new house, new cars, 4 kids, and a well paying job. That is when we connected with the Acts 29 Network. The Network and assessment team did an incredible job seeing areas of immaturity, pride and a lacking in understanding the gospel outside of salvation. However, they said that they did see a calling on our family so assigned conditions for us to fulfill over the next year before moving to plant. We left our church, I quit my job, and began fundraising and interning at an Acts 29 Church Plant in Winston Salem NC called 1.21 Church. God was so gracious to our family during that time.
How did you build up your core? What advice would you give to guys in the core-stage?
We started to engage our demographic and culture through Q&A video's online. Since we were still living in NC and hadn't moved yet, we wanted to somehow connect with the area we would eventually move to. So, we connected with a college missions team and had them gather some of the biggest questions and issues that people had towards evangelicalism. Then I began to answer some of the questions via video, and post them all over the web via twitter/facebook specific to our demographic. This created a buzz that was unexpected. Before we even moved, I had already made a ton of connections with our area using social media. So, then as we moved and started getting settled, I was able to meet with these people in person. Some were believers, others weren't. This was key to both gathering a core and getting an understanding of what my culture believed about Christianity, Jesus and the church. From there, I connected with a guy online who runs all of th e local city facebook pages and has about 180,000 followers. He isn't a Christian but we became friends and he is now on our core team (Still not a believer, but Christ is wooing him). By God's grace he gave me access to all of his pages (again, access to 180,000 local people) and allowed me to plug Jesus and the church plant whenever I wanted. This opened up incredible opportunities from meeting with people, to getting in local magazines, to gathering a core.
What were the biggest challenges you faced in planting your church (and/or currently facing)?
The biggest challanges to us was the instability and change of schedule. Because being a church planter is who I am and not what I do, it was very hard for me to balance my life, family and the church plant. I would either feel like I was working too much or not working enough. I knew that my family was priority so I would at times feel that I was neglecting the church in order to be available to the family. Other times, I would feel like I was neglecting the family to tend to the church plant. It took a while to feel like I had a balance and I am still learning how to do this. Also, before we moved, I never really believed in a sabbath. It took about 2 weeks for me to realize the necessity of rest. I struggled with emotional highs, lows and occasional depression until I realized how important rest is.
How did you become involved with Acts 29? What have been the biggest benefits of being in the network?
My involvement with Acts 29 started with Driscoll. I started to listen to him years before I felt called to plant. Then as I studied reformed theology I got more fimiliar with the influencers of the Network. So, when we began to feel called to church planting, it was only natural to pursue a relationship with Acts 29. I trusted them. The biggest benefits that the Network has had for us has been in the brotherhood, coaching and assessment. Had I not connected with Acts 29, I would have no pursuit of humility (I am not a humble man), no understanding of the Gospel, and all about building a Sunday show so people would come and hear me speak about a moral lesson from the bible. By God's grace, the Network has helped me love Jesus and understand the gospel in ways I never though possible before.
What advice do you have for men who are wrestling with the decision to plant?
1. Make sure you are called.
2. Assessment is necessary. Humble yourself to a process.
3. Trust your wife. She sees things you don't.
4. Do not let fear dictate your decisions.
5. Seek older Godly wisdom from men who have told you "No" before.
What's the most important thing you'd want to share with a new church planter?
I would say; be patient. When God calls you to something, it very rarely means "NOW". Recognize that Jesus is more interested in your sanctification than he is in your church plant. Humble yourself to the process that God puts before you and don't rush anything. Christ will build his church and you may be one of those men whom he uses to do it. However, if you under-estimate the work of Christ in the process and only focus on the end goal, than you will miss what Christ desires to do in your heart, your family and your sanctification.
How do you pastor your family?
I am still learning this. Pastoring my family is much different than pastoring the church. I don't preach to my wife and kids, I don't have constant spiritual conversations with them, we don't do a formal bible study or have a consistant family worship time. I take Pauls words serious when he says, "Follow me as I follow Christ." I pastor my family by loving and following Christ. I use teachable opportunities to teach my wife and kids about our sin the cross, God's grace, love, and His sovereignty, etc. I pastor my family by modeling repentance to my wife and kids by being quick to appologize and turn from sin when I sin against them. I pastor my family by modeling a love for the bible by loving the scriptures. I pastor my family by serving my wife and kids.
Outside of the Bible, what is the most helpful book you have read for church planting?
Either Planting Missional Churches by Stetzer or The Reason For God by Keller.
Church Profile: Netcast Church
Launch Date: January 2011
Mission, Vision, Values of Church
Mission: Encouraging the world with the hope of Jesus.
Vision: A diverse community pursuing intimacy with Christ and influence in the city.
Core Values:
1. Diverse.
2. Community.
3. Intimacy.
4. Influence.
Our desire for Netcast Church is to be a Jesus worshipping, sent people (Matthew 28:16-20); Empowered and filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8); living in diverse community with each other (Acts 2:42-47). We believe that doing this will help us fulfill our mission of seeing people transformed by the gospel and equipped to live missionally in their worlds
What are some examples of God's grace that you have seen in your life and/or the life of your church?
How God used 1.21 Church and Daystar to give us a good balance of being missional and yet not unattractive. How God provided every financial need at just the right time. How God has built an incredible team at Netcast in just a few months. How God has used Acts 29 in my sanctification and the sanctification of my bride.
How can we pray for you?
Pray for wisdom as I am in way over my head right now.
Christ centered Momentum
3 ½ Years ago, we were living in Greensboro NC, going to Daystar Christian Fellowship; I was serving faithfully and working in Corporate America. One night, I put my head down to bed and had a dream that we were planting a church back in Boston. I didn’t tell anyone until the dream wouldn’t stop. Five nights in a row the dream would come until I told my wife and we prayed about it. Because I was young, we submitted the call to plant in Greater Boston to 4 of our pastors and asked them to release us when they felt we were ready. One year later they released us and we pursued an assessment with a church planting network.
Three years later, my wife and I, along with our 4 children, sold everything and moved to Greater Boston. We had no friends with us, no worship leader, no people; just us, funding and a God given dream. Within weeks, God began to send us a team. I met a worship guy who had just left his church for no other reason than “God was leading him away”, I met another guy who was looking for a church who knew the ins and outs of technology, video, etc. A month later my father in-law, who was a senior pastor for 30 years, moved to help with administration stuff. In December the North Shore Magazine, (Largest Local Magazine in Northern Boston) did a featured story on us and allowed me to explain the gospel to the 200,000 people who read their magazine. You can read the article online at
http://nshoremag.com/meet-matt-chewing-man-gospel/
God’s hand was all over the church plant. The local YMCA contacted me and asked us if we would meet at their facility for “FREE”. Are you kidding me? We didn’t even have people yet, and I’m being asked if I need “FREE” space. God knew what he was doing.
Since we had a few people interested, we wanted to have a “Vision Night”. The first night, 30 people showed up. The next “Vision Night” 40 people showed up. I can’t fit 40 people in my house, so we scheduled a launch service for January 23rd 2011 and we thought maybe 50 people would be there. We did no marketing, we did no mail outs, no posters; just a website, word of mouth and the magazine article. 120 people showed up for our first worship experience. We had to keep adding rows so we would have enough seats. Are you serious? We thought for sure we would be a part of the stats and only have 50 people show up for week 2. But we were wrong, again 100 people showed up and we had to add more and more rows.
Here is why this is so crazy. In a 12 mile radius of where we moved, there are only 30 Evangelical Churches. There are 700,000 people in which 90-98% (depending which resource you read) do not consider themselves evangelical or attend an evangelical church. Churches do not get off the ground in our area. In 2000 SBC planted 20 churches and only one ever got off the ground and is still around today. And here we are, only living in our city for 4 months and Christ is making himself known through Netcast Church. In 4 months we have more momentum than anything I have ever seen.
Pray for us as we desire to steward this thing well. Pray for wisdom as I am only 28 years old and in way over my head. Pray for discernment because we know that the enemy desires to send wolves and bring division. Pray for us as I work to preach and teach the word of God with authority and point people away from myself and towards Christ. Then, Praise Him for his faithfulness and blessing over us. We love you.
Three years later, my wife and I, along with our 4 children, sold everything and moved to Greater Boston. We had no friends with us, no worship leader, no people; just us, funding and a God given dream. Within weeks, God began to send us a team. I met a worship guy who had just left his church for no other reason than “God was leading him away”, I met another guy who was looking for a church who knew the ins and outs of technology, video, etc. A month later my father in-law, who was a senior pastor for 30 years, moved to help with administration stuff. In December the North Shore Magazine, (Largest Local Magazine in Northern Boston) did a featured story on us and allowed me to explain the gospel to the 200,000 people who read their magazine. You can read the article online at
http://nshoremag.com/meet-matt-chewing-man-gospel/
God’s hand was all over the church plant. The local YMCA contacted me and asked us if we would meet at their facility for “FREE”. Are you kidding me? We didn’t even have people yet, and I’m being asked if I need “FREE” space. God knew what he was doing.
Since we had a few people interested, we wanted to have a “Vision Night”. The first night, 30 people showed up. The next “Vision Night” 40 people showed up. I can’t fit 40 people in my house, so we scheduled a launch service for January 23rd 2011 and we thought maybe 50 people would be there. We did no marketing, we did no mail outs, no posters; just a website, word of mouth and the magazine article. 120 people showed up for our first worship experience. We had to keep adding rows so we would have enough seats. Are you serious? We thought for sure we would be a part of the stats and only have 50 people show up for week 2. But we were wrong, again 100 people showed up and we had to add more and more rows.
Here is why this is so crazy. In a 12 mile radius of where we moved, there are only 30 Evangelical Churches. There are 700,000 people in which 90-98% (depending which resource you read) do not consider themselves evangelical or attend an evangelical church. Churches do not get off the ground in our area. In 2000 SBC planted 20 churches and only one ever got off the ground and is still around today. And here we are, only living in our city for 4 months and Christ is making himself known through Netcast Church. In 4 months we have more momentum than anything I have ever seen.
Pray for us as we desire to steward this thing well. Pray for wisdom as I am only 28 years old and in way over my head. Pray for discernment because we know that the enemy desires to send wolves and bring division. Pray for us as I work to preach and teach the word of God with authority and point people away from myself and towards Christ. Then, Praise Him for his faithfulness and blessing over us. We love you.
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