Planting Prospectus

Steven Castello!! |! 205.422.6856! |! steven@ardentbirmingham.com

The Name, Mission, and Vision...................................................... !! About Southside, Birmingham........................................................! ! About Steven.................................................................................. !! Doctrine.......................................................................................... !! How is this Going to Happen? ....................................................... !! Timeline..........................................................................................! ! Appendix A: Does the South Need More Churches?.....................! ! Appendix B: What Does it Mean to Be Gospel-Centered?.............! ! Appendix C: What is a Missional Community?...............................! !

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The Name
Ardent means to passionately pursue or go after and glowing or shining. In the Bible, we see God pursue His people by sending Himself, Jesus, to pursue and rescue a people who sinned against Him. The offended pursued the offender and bought grace for us. Jesus pursued and bought the Church as a bride for Himself and presents her as ardent,glowing and shining, washed with His own blood. God is a sending, missionary God (John 1:1-5, 14, Matthew 28:18-20) and we want to be sent, missionary church, passionately pursuing the people in our city with the Gospel as Jesus did.

Mission
Gospel. Community. Mission. To advance the Gospel of Jesus by pursuing people in Community and on Mission.

Vision
To plant a gospel-centered, missional, church planting movement that brings redemption, reconciliation and revival through Jesus Christ to the Birmingham area.

Gospel-Centered
The Gospel is not simply conversion. It is salvation unto men from eternity past to eternity future. It is the power of God to purpose, save, and sanctify us. Everything is about the Gospel because God IS the Gospel (John Piper). The entire life of the church is about presenting, preaching and advancing the Gospel as the hope for sinners. Its not about how good we can be but about who Jesus is and what He has done. (See Appendix A for more information)

Missional
Being missional is living like a missionary. Its living intentional lives in a community before others in service, love, and passion. Its truly putting love your neighbor into practice. This type of life will create opportunities to share the Gospel. Every believer is a missionary (Ed Stetzer). Every believer is called to wrap his or her life around Gods mission with others in community. (See Appendix C for more information)

Church Planting
We want to see a gospel-centered church planted in every zip code in Birmingham. We want to share the Gospel, make disciples, get people on mission with us, train leaders and elders, raise up church planters and send people out to plant churches in other places. As we multiply missional communities and groups begin to form in areas, we want to start churches in those areas. Its not about one big church gathering in one place. Its about many churches incarnating in communities to pursue people with the Gospel.

Redemption
Ultimately, we want to see people come to faith in Jesus. We pray that God uses Ardent to show how Jesus has redeemed His people through the Cross and how His resurrection gives us new hope. Ardent Church is about the Great Commission. We want to advance the Gospel to every man, woman and child in Birmingham and beyond.

Reconciliation
Birmingham has several barriers and divisions. These range from racial to socioeconomic to class to neighborhood to family divisions. What would it look like to see the Gospel repair and reconcile the brokenness in our city? What a beautiful picture of Heaven to see a multiethnic, multigenerational, multi-community church movement show the reconciliation the Gospel brings!

Revival
Birmingham has seen a steady decline in church attendance, number of Christians, and gospel-centrality but has seen an increase in crime, hate, corruption, and abuse. We pray for revival to break loose in the hearts of believers to pray and engage our communities. We arent praying for Christendom to be reestablished but want to see the Gospel deeply penetrate darkness and turn the hearts of the people to God in worship!

About Southside, Birmingham

Birmingham is one of the most diverse cities in America. It is home to the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), a top medical school, that ranks as the third most diverse university in the United States. UAB is also the states largest employer with over 185 different countries and all 50 states represented. Over 200,000 people live in Birmingham proper with over 50,000 living in Southside. The median age is 34 and women make up 54% of the population. Among men, construction is the most common occupation and women most frequently work in the medical eld. Birmingham is a mix of college students, young professionals, working class, and has several immigrants that have created rich Middle Eastern, Latin American and Asian culture.

Southside consists of the Glen Iris, Southside, 5 Points South, Highland Park, Lakeview and Titusville neighborhoods. Southside is home to many entertainment districts such as Lakeview and 5 Points South, and several concert venues and theaters such as Workplay, the Alys Stephens Center, the Virginia Samford Theatre, and Birmingham Festival Theatre.

Birmingham is a city with a rich architectural, industrial, athletic and musical history. However, over the last 50 years, Birmingham has experienced urban ight, loss of industry, political corruption and inghting. Some look from afar wondering what has happened to our great city. (See Appendix A for statistics) But there is a renewal beginning here. Recently, an initiative called Blueprint Birmingham alongside our city government, led by William Bell, has committed $21 million dollars to jumpstart city growth and renewal by bringing businesses back to the city. The rst step was the recent addition of Railroad Park (just voted the best new park in America by thedailygreen.com). Railroad Park has added new life to the city center and a destination for young families and increased entertainment opportunities. Other plans include a new baseball park, entertainment districts, and a Light Rail system downtown. On top of that, people are moving back into the city. In the past year, 27 new loft buildings have been built, are being built or are being planned. As exciting as these things are, they can only affect the surface issues of our city. With Birminghams renewing spirit and diverse culture, there are incredible opportunities to join with others to see the Gospel redeem, reconcile and revive the people of this city for Gods renown. God has called us to plant Ardent Church in Southside, specically in the Glen Iris Neighborhood. Southside is a beautiful mass of humanity with rich, poor, homeless, afuent, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Middle Eastern, and just about every other background. Our city is broken and only the Gospel of Jesus Christ can restore her. Less than 5% of the people in our community know the saving grace of Jesus. We believe God is moving in this city. We believe God is going to do something beyond our comprehension in Birmingham! God has called us to plant roots here (Jeremiah 29:5-7) and seek the welfare of our city by planting the Gospel deeply, as God draw people from these streets to Himself to build His church and give Him honor and praise!

About Steven
I was born and raised in a suburb of Birmingham called Clay, AL. I went to high school here and graduated from Samford University with a Bachelor of Arts in Family Studies in 2004. I have over 10 years of ministry experience working as a youth pastor, camp director and counselor, church planter, and teacher in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona and Colorado. My life has perfectly resembled the parable of the prodigal son but not in the way you would think. I was the elder brother. Tim Keller says" Elder brothers in the church can pass the Gospel test with their words, but ultimately they believe their standing with God is based on performance. That was me. I knew all the right answers, went to church, and had a life of hidden sin I didnt want anyone else to know about. At age 17, God revealed the Gospel of Jesus Christ that my religion could not save me but that it was the mere pleasure of God to show His kind mercy by sending Jesus to become sin on my behalf and give me, freely, undeservedly, His righteousness. To echo Keller again, Religion: I obey therefore god accepts me. The Gospel: God has accepted me and so I obey. Thank God for the Gospel! God has richly blessed me with a wonderful wife, Amy, three beautiful daughters, Lily (4), Addisyn (2), and Karis (1). Pray for our family as we seek to missionally take the Gospel to Southside. My story is a microcosm Southern culture. There are a bunch of elder brothers in our culture who are just as lost the prodigals and need the Gospel just as badly! That is why God has called us here. Missions exists because worship does not. - John Piper God doesnt call the qualified. He qualifies the called. We are ordinary people trying to be faithful to the calling God has put on our lives. Our prayer as a family has always been to go and do whatever the Lord has called us to do with unbridled passion and trust. We see the spiritual state of our city and it breaks our hearts. God has given us a passion for His glory in Birmingham and the hope that we can plant a church that gives our city a glimpse of that holy city to come! We first moved to Birmingham in August 2009 to plant Ardent. After attempts to gather a core group, we came to a realization. There are very few believers, if any, within 15 minutes of our house. Most Christians we came into contact lived well outside of our context. Because of lack of engagement, it became apparent that we needed to go back to the drawing board.

Our desire has never been to simply start a worship service that meets in the city. We wanted to start a church that is for the city. A church is a community of believers applying the Gospel in one anothers lives. This conviction has led us to enter a fervent season of prayer for our city for God to open hearts to the Gospel, see people come to know Jesus, make disciples, and do the work of an evangelist and from that see a core group form. We realized we need to plant the Gospel before we can plant a church. We have been approved by the Acts 29 Church Planting Network (www.acts29network.org) as Candidates to plant Ardent. I recently attended the Acts 29 Boot Camp in Nashville and intend to attend Soma School (www.somacommunities.org) in early 2012 and the Gospel Communities on Mission Conference in September 2011 for further training.

Doctrine
Ardent Church afrms:
The Acts 29 Network Doctrinal Statement (http://www.acts29network.org/about/doctrine)

The Confessional Statement of The Gospel Coalition (http://thegospelcoalition.org/about/who)

The Three Universal Creeds of the Faith The Apostles Creed The Nicene Creed The Anthanasian Creed

How is This Going to Happen?

Pray
"Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers." - Sidlow Baxter I dont mean this as a cliche. Martin Luther believed, "If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer. We need your prayers. We are embarking on an impossible task! Without the Holy Spirits work, we cannot do this, but nothing is impossible with God. The same God who controls the winds and the waves controls our destinies. Pray for the Castello family as we will face much spiritual warfare. Pray that God opens hearts and doors for the Gospel. Pray that He prepares the hearts of the people we will meet and build community with. Pray for what Mike Hanafee (www.resdetroit.org) calls the Five-Fold Chain Reaction seen in Acts - empowerment (2:1-4), proclamation and harvest (2:36:41), community formation (2:41-47), mobilization (6:1-4, 8:4) and multiplication (9:31). Pray for God to gather the people called to advance the Gospel in Birmingham. Pray for the money necessary to plant Ardent to come in.

Give
We are planting Ardent in an urban context. Studies show churches in urban contexts can take up to 7 years to become self-sustaining. $100,000 Our goal is to be self-sustaining after 5 years. This means, to get $75,000 Ardent Church off the ground, we need to raise a $100,000 a year for $50,000 5 years. The money goes towards $25,000 salary (housing, health insurance, etc.), stafng strategic leaders, $0 administrative costs, outreach, training, special projects, and facility rental when the time comes.

Yearly Giving Needs

$10,000

$10,000 $30,000 $50,000 $70,000

$90,000

$90,000

$70,000

$50,000

$30,000

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4 Year 5 Ardent Giving Outside Donors

In order to meet our 5-year goal of $500,000, Ardent Church is looking for churches and individuals to join us as nancial partners. Some have the resources to give boldly and consistently, over the entire 5 year stretch, others may commit to a portion, while others can only commit at this time to a one-time gift. In the 8

life of a young, missional church in our contest, truly every dollar makes a difference! You can give online securely at www.ardentbirmingham.com or email me directly steven@ardentbirmingham.com about mailing a check to Ardent Church.

Share
Please forward this church planting prospectus to anyone who might be interested in what we are doing here in Birmingham.

Join
Some may consider moving to Southside. Imagine the Gospel advancing and redeeming our city, reconciling relationships, and reviving a people for the glory and renown of Jesus! Do you want to do something that will leave a lasting impact on a city? Do you want to step out and stretch your faith by doing the seemingly impossible? Pray about moving to Birmingham, getting a job here, starting a business, or raising money and being an integral part of Ardent Church. We are praying for at least 10 families to move to Southside and plant their lives here with us, on mission for Gods glory. Wed love for you to join us on mission!

Timeline
So, when do you launch? This is an interesting question. We want to dig deep into our community and plant the Gospel deep. If we do, God will plant HIS church. These dates are a working timeline but are not set in stone. If God blesses us and things happen quickly, then we will adjust or if things take a little longer, thats okay too. We want to

August 2011 - March 2012

- Fervent Prayer - Fundraising - Attend Gospel Communities on Mission Conference (September) - Develop Relationships with our Neighbors, the homeless, and the poor - Gather leaders and launch team members - Plan neighborhood projects and events to create presence in our community - Attend Soma School (January) - Begin meeting as a missional community

April 2012 - September 2012

- Aggressively engage neighbors through door-to-door conversation, relationships, meals, discipleship - Continue praying for 32:10:6 - 32 growing, discipling relationships. 10 families committed to move to Southside to be a part of Ardent. 6 new believers. - Continue neighborhood projects and events - Continue and multiply missional communities - Periodic worship gatherings

October 2012 - Continue periodic preview gatherings - Continue missional communities as the backbone of Ardent Church - At 40 committed adults, plan and publicize launch and ongoing worship gatherings

Ardent Church - The Future

Some of the goals for our vision: - A missional community engaging every neighborhood in Southside within the next 3 years - Start a 1-year homeless reentry program designed to take men off the street, disciple them, give them job and life skills and secure job placement and sufcient living quarters established within the next 5 years - Plant a sister gospel-centered church in the Birmingham area within the next 3 years - A gospel-centered church planted in every zip code in Birmingham within the next 15 years

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Appendix A: Does the South Need More Churches?

The Surface Observation
- Birmingham is the third most Christian-oriented city market in the United States - 84% of people self-identify as believers - In 1996 58% claimed to attend church regularly (Barna) - Birmingham ranked highest among all cities for people most likely to share their beliefs - 1.5 Million residents (32%) in the state of Alabama are members of a Southern Baptist church, 18% are Methodist, and 18% identify themselves as Catholic (Barna) - There are 695 evangelical churches in Jefferson and Shelby County (thearda.com)

A Deeper Look
- From 1991 to 1996, ALL denominations in Alabama saw a decline all ve years. The trend continues into 2010 (Barna). The Birmingham Baptist Association alone has seen a 25.5% decrease in church membership between 2003 and 2008 (bbaonline.org) - Congregations are greying (getting older) and are losing members faster than they are gaining them (Barna) - A Samford University professor, Penny Marler, found that, Church attendance is half what people report, i.e. 29% attend church weekly. That number can be cut in half for urban settings, i.e. 14.5%. - Birmingham has the tenth highest crime rate in the country. - Barna Group states that divorce rate is HIGHEST among Christians than any other group. Also, Alabamas divorce rate is 39% higher than the national average, ranking it fourth worst nationally. - Between 50 and 75 U.S. churches close their doors every week. - More than 80% of the churches in the U.S. have plateaued or are declining. - In the United States alone, there are over 200 million unchurched people, making the U.S. the third largest mission eld in the world. - Since 1991, the number of adults in the U.S. who do not attend church has nearly doubled. - The Southeast is growing faster than any other part of the country. - To keep up with population growth, there would need to be 29,000 churches planted in the next 20 years to maintain the current ratio of churches per capita in the Southeast alone.

Their is a disconnect somewhere. This is an epidemic in the South. We are a churchsaturated culture yet are not seeing changed lives in our cities. We need to plant gospel-centered churches across the metro area. This isnt to say there arent good, biblical churches in the South. We just need more of them. The problem is that, often, churches have drifted from teaching the Gospel, and its not always gross heresy (although this is present). It is a slight, almost unnoticeable, slippage away from the Gospel to nd a way to draw people or change them.

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A few of the things that get exchanged for the Gospel:

Moralism
These are the rules and standards. Now, meet them! Usually, beginning with good intentions to teach a pursuit of holiness, the focus turns from Jesuss ability to meet His standard to our best effort to live holy lives by trying harder, self-discipline, fear, rules, and commands. The result is either self-righteousness because the good people can follow the rules or despair for those who cant meet the standard.

Pragmatism
We need to do what it takes to reach people. No matter the cost. The desire to be all things to all people usually starts well but leaders trade in solid theology and practice for teaching the most effective techniques, principles, and lessons instead of pointing them to Jesus and preaching the power of the Gospel to change us.

Political Agendas
We want to affect change in our society. Too often Christians intend to have an impact on and inuence politics but the opposite ends up happening. Christians on every side of the political arena begin to equate the Gospel with a certain political party or platform. The focus goes from THE issue (the Gospel) to secondary issues. The point is this. In each of these approaches, God has been moved out of His position as primary focus. Good morals cant save us. Good practices wont change people. The government, no matter how effective, can really x the problems we see around us. Only the Gospel of Jesus Christ effectively proclaimed and lived out in the context of the local church is the hope to change peoples hearts and defeat sin. The South needs churches that roots everything it does in the person and work of Jesus Christ, relies on the Holy Spirit to actively work in the hearts of people, and lives out of the grace given to us by Jesus. Gospel-centered churches teach the whole Bible in light of the Gospel, apply the Gospel to every situation, practice grace among believers and unbelievers, are committed to not churn out rule-followers but people who are changed by the hope we have in Jesus, and love their communities so much that they cant help but serve them by advancing the Gospel. The Gospel begins and ends with Jesus as the focus. Gospel-centered churches display that in every arena.

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Appendix B: What does it Mean to be Gospel-Centered?

The Gospel is not just the A-B-Cs but the A to Z of Christianity. - Tim Keller Gospel-centered has become a bit of a buzz word. What it means is that we are all about Jesus, that we focus on the life, death, and resurrection as the climax and point of every message. One author stated that to be gospel-centered was to see the blood of Christ staining every passage within Scripture. To be gospel-centered is to see the Gospel as the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16). The Gospel is also a message to be proclaimed (Matthew 9:35, 24:14, 26:13), to be believed in (Mark 1:15), and taken to the nations (2 Corinthians 10:14). The Gospel saves us (Ephesians 1:13), ts us for service in peace (Ephesians 6:15), and abolished death (2 Timothy 1:10). Salvation is not only conversion but as Graeme Goldsworthy says, ...the gospel is
truly the power of God for salvation in that it is through the gospel we are called, regenerated, converted, sanctied, and nally gloried. Again he says, We mean that the gospel is the only means we have of beginning, continuing, and persevering in the Christian life.

Simply it means, that the church, our message, and as individuals work out our faith that we must focus every thought, every Scripture, every affection in light of Jesus and His finished work on the Cross. Its all about Jesus! Only where our piety forgets about ourself and focuses on Jesus Christ will our piety nourished by the ongoing resources the Spirit brings to us from the source of all true piety, our Lord Jesus Christ. - Sinclair Ferguson

For further reading about Gospel-centrality check out: The Gospel Centered Life by Bob Thune God is the Gospel by John Piper

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Appendix C: What is a Missional Community?

When most people, especially in the South, think of the church, the rst thought is building, The word church comes from the word ecclesia which means assembly. The church is the people. Growing up, I thought church was something you did on Sunday, maybe Wednesday, and really had no other interaction with those people and those teachings and I went about my normal life. It wasnt something that really had an impact on who I was on a daily basis. Several years ago, I started asking myself, What would it look like to live out the imperatives of the Gospel on a daily basis, walking hand-in-hand with other believers, to truly live out the two great commandments. How do we love the Lord our God with everything we are and truly love our neighbor, sacricially? We want to be a church of missional communities. Missional communities are groups of 15-20 people who tangibly live out the Gospel in a certain context by eating, praying, loving, and being on mission together (Acts 2:41-47). Each missional community has a mission within the larger mission (Jeff Vanderstelt). We dont want to simply meet or have these groups be Bible studies. We want to see the Gospel form us and our communities There are two elements here. Missional and Community. Missional is simply putting ourselves in position to share the love of Jesus in word and deed. This means we really get to know our neighbors, love them, share interests, serve them, pray for them, and live out the love of God before them and with them and share how Gods love is found in Jesus. This type of life will demand explanation as we live out what the Gospel demands of us. Living missionally isnt just social justice or service projects. Its digging deep into the lives of our neighbors and nding out how we can love them both as a community and individually. Community is family. Its sharing our lives together in the context of a Gospel-forming community. Its where we eat, pray, share, and serve together. Community is more than meeting one day a week. Its walking together daily. This allows those who are 14

just guring out who Jesus is a safe place to get involved in the life of the family. We share our lives together and see community as a place where the Gospel transforms us and shapes us for Gods mission. The heart of missional communities is to share the love and message of Jesus with others. Missional communities are about making disciples, training leaders, and multiplying by creating new missional communities. These new missional communities create new opportunities to share Jesus with more people and reach new areas with the Gospel. As the groups multiply, new churches are planted and the Gospel more fully penetrates our neighborhoods and communities. Missional communities are a part of the overall mission of Ardent Church and will gather for worship. We see still see this as an important aspect of the church where we come together to worship Jesus in song, teaching, and communion. Instead of Sunday gatherings being called church, they are more of a springboard for people to go be the church in communities together on mission. For more information on Missional Communities check out: Total Church by Steven Timmis and Tim Chester Soma Communities (www.somacommunities.org) Verge Network (www.vergenetwork.org)

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