Why Acts29 For Church Planting?

I think one of the strengths of our church plant in Madison, WI is our alignment with the Acts29 church planting network.  Bob Thune has a great post on why their church feels like this is a strength as well.  Just consider some of the stats.  He writes:

• From 2006 to 2009 Acts 29 assessed 414 potential church planters and approved 240 (58%) to go forward as Acts 29 Candidates. (Candidates must gather a core of 40 people before moving to Full Member status). Two hundred of those men are now Full Members who are active in church planting; the rest didn’t make it through the candidate phase.
• Of church planters who are assessed, approved, and progress to Full Member status, the viability rate within Acts 29 is 98.4%.
• Acts 29 currently has 204 Full Members and 85 men in candidate phase (including our own Will Walker), for a total of 289 churches affiliated.
• With over 40% of applicants rejected, you’d think that aspiring church planters would be going elsewhere. But the exact opposite is happening: in 2009, Acts 29 had 470 new applicants – an average of 39 per month. God is raising up an army of men who want someone to shoot straight with them. They want to know if they’ve got the right gifting, calling, and experience to plant churches – and they’re coming to us because they know we tell the truth.

Read the rest.