Category Archives: Plant Jersey

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Why Last Sunday WAS INCREDIBLE

This last Sunday Princeton Alliance Church and 217church did a “pulpit swap” with the lead pastors of each church.  It was a weekend full of energy and passion.  At three different campuses in Plainsboro, Hamilton and Robbinsville the word was preached.  Six years ago, 217church was the first church plant of PAC, and man what an incredible journey it has been since then.  But there was something different about last weekend.  God has taught us many lessons along the way about being a church plant multi-site movement.  This movement started in 2010, we are on the move and you are a part of it.  #Unitymatters

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“Pastor Josh Conn of 217church and Pastor Boyd Hannold of PAC preaching last week in a pulpit swap.”

“So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”  Acts 9:31

When you look at the possibilities of the church in Central New Jersey, the upside is staggering.  Multiplication is entirely possible.  We live in the most densely populated state in one of the most diverse states. There is one problem, it is widely known up here in the northeast that churches that are sending disciples of Jesus and multiplying churches are hard to be found.  We want to reverse this trend.  We want God to move in our county and state.  We will do everything possible in order to reach people.  This is why weekends like last Sunday were so important.

It Reminded Me…  

#1 God Wants to Use us to Bring Hope – I had the opportunity to preach in the “Hope Unleashed” series at PAC.  Hope is a key word for this movement and a powerful concept for us.  I shared last Sunday that God gives us second chances, has a great work for us, and God is about to surprise us.  God hasn’t given up on Central New Jersey and is about to do something BIG through us.  All we have to do is follow him in humility and unity.  #Incredible

Ephesians 4:4 “…just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call.“ 

#2 God Wants us to Work Together – From the moment I walked in this weekend to speak at Princeton Alliance Church last weekend, I was met with nothing but absolute hospitality from our mother church.  From the audio visual team working with our worship teams and myself, to the hospitality team, people were so warm and welcoming.  This is what it is going to take to help people know the Gospel.  The ‘BIG C’ CHURCH always working together in unity.  I can’t say enough about the attention to detail and servant’s attitude of the people at both churches last Sunday.  #Incredible

Ephesians 4:3-4 “…eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit—

#3 God Has Called us to be a Sending Church – Can you imagine a church planting, disciple making community movement spreading across this area exponentially greater than we are already experiencing?  This will no doubt involve us focusing on the training and deploying of disciples, groups of disciples and larger gatherings through new worship sites and  churches.  If we believe that God wants us to multiply than our role is to take the next step.  It will involve sacrifice, it will involve some discomfort but it’s worth it!  We have already started 3 new places where the Gospel is going forward.  It won’t be perfect, it probably won’t be our timing, but it will be all for HIS GLORY if we are willing to be sent.  #Incredible

Last Sunday was #incredible.  I can’t wait to see what God reveals next.

Matthew 10:40  “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.”

 

Josh

Princeton Alliance Church meets every Sunday at 9:45 & 11:15 at 20 Schalks Crossing Road in Plainsboro.

217church meets at 10 AM at the Hamilton AMC24 Theater  11 AM at the Robbinsville Sharon Elementary School

If it is your 1st time, we have a special gift waiting for you!

Join us at 217church, a multi-site, contemporary church in Mercer County NJ.  217church is a family with small groups in New Jersey and Pennsylvania that meets Sundays in the Hamilton AMC24 Theater 10:00am and Sharon Elementary school in Robbinsville, NJ at 11:00.  Our new Robbinsville/East Windsor Campus meets every Sunday.  If you are looking for a church in East Windsor NJ, Lawrenceville NJ, Ewing NJ, Robbinsville NJ, Hightstown NJ, Hamilton NJ, Mercer County, Middlesex County or Bucks County, PA, we would love to have you join us.  Don’t miss our weekend services. Visit www.217church.com for more information. or watch a weekend message here

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100 New Churches For New Jersey

Listen To Our New Plant Jersey Podcast    Episode #1:    What to Look For In A Leader

Matt Murphy and I have been partners in ministry over the last 6+ years. We, both along with Boyd Hannold of Princeton Alliance Church, embarked on a vision to reach New Jersey with the Gospel through church planting.  I led the first Plant, 217church, and Matt is leading the 2nd church plant, Element Church. It is our goal to start with 4 “Hub” church plants that ultimately plant hundreds of NJ contemporary churches. Will you pray with us and for us as we pursue God’s dream for the church in New Jersey? It is our prayer that the Gospel transforms and brings revival through church planting in New Jersey.  We are calling this PLANT JERSEY.

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”  Mark 2:17

The Plant Jersey Vision:   “Extending the Gospel in the Garden State through church planting”

Matt and I spend a lot of time talking about what we are learning and then we take our learning from each other back to our churches. It is a benefit to both of us to learn from one another. In our many conversations we came to the conclusion that our church leaders could learn from what each of us have to say. We have done pulpit swaps, co-taught our staff, mentored different leaders at each others churches, and have had combined baptism services. There is a lot of unity between our 2 church plants. We want to see both churches as catalysts for revival. So, we decided to launch a monthly podcast for the leaders of Element Church and 217church.

The Plant Jersey Podcast

This podcast is to communicate leadership principles that we have learned as we have planted in Jersey. New Jersey is a different culture and many ways a culture unto itself. As we looked around, many of the church leadership concepts we have seen are geared toward other cultural contexts and we wanted to give some teachings that will be very relevant to our leaders. Hopefully this podcast will serve to help anyone seeking to Plant in Jersey. We hope that anyone serving Jesus in New Jersey will learn and enter the dialogue with us. If you are currently a church planter or pastor in New Jersey we would love to learn from you as well and possibly have you help us teach our leaders. Ultimately, we want to help anyone with the vision to plant churches in New Jersey. If you are passionate about reaching New Jersey for Jesus let us know so that we can pray with you.

Podcast #1 What To Look For In A Leader 

Click Here to listen  or  itunes users Click Here

The first podcast which you can find on this blog post is called “What to look for in a leader.” As church planters we have so many people ask us about being in leadership at our respective churches.  Identifying leaders is the greatest challenge of growing any endeavor.  We will look at 4 key traits we look for in developing leaders.  People who love Jesus, love people, love the vision, and love self discipline.  As church planters we have to be careful in the early stages of a church plant who we entrust leadership to. We hope this helps as we discuss what we look for in leaders at Element and 217church.

Josh