The City to City Asia Pacific International Intensive, a two-week training program for urban church planters, is kicking off today in Taipei, Taiwan. This year CTCA is sending planters Jeremy Tan (Redemption Hill, Sydney) and William Tjoa (mosaiXchurch, Sydney) to join other church planters from across the Asia Pacific region and be trained in church planting basics and theological principles contextualised for the Asian context.
The International Church Planting Intensive has been CTC's foundational training for nine years. The Intensive was originally held only in New York City, but in 2012 it became clear that the demand for this unique, month-long crash course in church planting was needed in the major cities of Asia Pacific. This year the Asia Intensive will be held at STAR Church, a church plant in the CTC family, for the fifth Asia Intensive.
A portion of the first Asia Intensive was held in Taipei in 2012, so the return to Taipei this year is a testament to the growing gospel movement in Taiwan and a celebration of the launch of CTC Taiwan and the growing number of church planters in this amazing global city.
Please join us in praying for this Intensive in the following ways, and then continue reading for more details.
- Pray for strength, clarity of mind and health for all of our trainers and participants.
- Pray that the Intensive will be a launchpad to life-long coaching and mentoring for church planters.
- Pray that we can care for the Intensives well as they start their church planting journey.
- Pray for the participants and trainers as many will be away from family, job and church commitments to be part of this training. Pray for them as they prepare for this trip, and pray that God will protect them and their families as they are separated from each other during this time.
- Pray that the Holy Spirit would make the gospel real to the trainers and participants during the Intensive.
- Pray that we would get a glimpse of the kingdom as we get to know this year’s church planters.
This Intensive is significant for a number of reasons. In addition to the growth in class size, there will be a pilot Master Class, which is the first of many special topics classes to be offered to all Intensive alumni. CTC has learned that church planters, now in the first few years of their church plants, want to learn more about preaching, discipleship, growing leaders in their church and various other aspects of leadership development. The topic for the first Master Class is Christ-Centered Preaching and will be taught by Dr. Stephen Um, a Korean-American pastor and church planter of City Life Church in Boston and professor at Gordon-Conwell Seminary. Since the desire is not just to help leaders start churches, but also build growing and sustainable gospel-centered churches, training must continue beyond the original Intensive classes.
Another new component to this Asia Intensive is the partnership with Parakaleo, a ministry serving the needs of church planter spouses. Parakaleo will provide two trainings during the Intensive. One will be a four-day retreat, where women will receive care and coaching as they navigate the often broad and undefined role of a church planter’s wife. Parakaleo has partnered with CTC for the last three NYC Intensives, and now a second training will teach women in this growing Parakaleo community how to build out this ministry in their own cities so that they are equipped to care for other church planter spouses and to use the tools offered through Parakaleo to remind each other of the truths of the gospel as they walk this path together.
If you would like to find out more about City to City Australia's training options for church planters, please visit our Join a course webpage or contact us at info@citytocityaustralia.org.au