As of this April, The Journey Church of Marietta is an official candidate church of Acts 29!

What does that mean?

     Acts 29 Candidates are church planters that have been approved through 3 phases of the Acts 29 application process and a formal assessment interview but not yet full members.  To be full members within Acts 29 a church planter must complete any conditions set in their assessment, gather 40 commited adults, and of course launch the church services.

What is Acts 29?

Here's how Acts 29 describes itself:

The Mission of Acts 29 is to band together Christian, Evangelical, Missional & Reformed churches, who, for the sake of Jesus and the gospel, plant new churches and replant dead and dying churches across the United States and the world. This work is done in obedience to the great commission (Matt. 28:18-20), with the goal of seeing millions of lives changed by the power of the gospel.

     Acts 29 Network exists to build a unifying and an uncommon alliance of smaller networks to advance the mission of Jesus through church planting churches. We are planting churches that are missionaries in their respective communities sent by Jesus with the gospel (John 20:21). It is our commitment to focus our efforts on planting multiplying churches and training leaders. We count it an honor to partner with you and to serve you.

Acts 29 is a network of Spirit-empowered pastors following Jesus united with this gospel community of planters on mission to all people groups for the glory of God.

For more information on Acts 29 check out the FAQ portion of there website here.

So why Acts 29 for you?

     First of all, let me state the obvious by saying that planting a church is a pretty big deal.  Before I plant a church I had better know the answers to a lot of questions such as:

Am I called to plant a church?
Why do I want to plant a church?
Am I the type of person who should plant a church?
Do I know how to plant a church?
At what point in my life should I plant a church?
Where should I plant a church?
etc... the list of questions go on and on...

     Feeling called and led by God to plant a church in Marietta Ohio has been the most extensive discerning process of my entire life by far.  After 6 months of prayer and discussion with my family as well as close brothers and sisters in Christ, I included Acts 29 in on this process in my life.  Over the past year they have taken me through a rigorous application process that has explored every motive, belief, and desire of who I am and what I'm called to accomplish.  I've written countless papers, had a 2 hour phone interview, a conference in Dallas, a 3 hour assessment interview, and I'm just now a candidate.  To be honest, this brutal process has been a lot of hard work and late hours outside of my already busy job. 
     So why mess with Acts 29?  I've asked them to take me through this lengthy process because I want to be sure that I'm as ready as I can possibly be to do the hardest thing God has ever asked me to do.  They've been incredibly helpful, extremely encouraging, and abundantly informative to this task.  I thank God that He put Acts 29 in my path.

What benefit will Acts 29 be to our church?

     Outside of making sure that I'm ready to plant this church, A29 offers many advantages to us in sharing the gospel.  Being a part of A29 will network us with other like-minded churches, network me with like-minded pastors, provides me with additional training and encouragement, holds our church accountable to being gospel centered, and much more. 
     Not to mention, we want to be a church that plants churches.  We're now connected with one of the most remarkable organizations to help accomplish this!

I can't wait to launch this church in September and I'm grateful to be an Acts 29 Candidate Church!

Cody Parman