Limited Time Only! Special Opportunity from Our Friends at Missio Alliance

Our friends at Missio Alliance are hosting their Annual Gathering May 7-9, 2015. Here’s how they describe it one the event website: BEING TRULY HUMAN: RE-IMAGINING THE RESURRECTIONAL LIFE The Cross is Not Enough. While obviously of profound significance, the cross seems to have usurped the resurrection as the unique centerpiece of Christian faith, practice, and even how we understand the nature …

Three Opportunities to Serve Neighbors From Another Culture

“Then Paul stood up in the meeting of the Aeropagus and said: Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going …

A Shepherd Rules?

“… for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people.” (Matthew 2:6, Micah 5:2) Shepherd my people? In light of the rulers and ‘kingdoms’ of Jesus’ day and ours, this sounds like a contradiction in terms. Yet, a shepherd was the ideal of kingship according to Old Testament writers (e.g. Psalm 78, 2 Samuel 5:2). God’s …

How Will Missional Survive the Apocalypse?

I’m a total Sci-Fi fanatic. Most of the sci-fi post-apocalyptic movies or books that come out get me all jazzed up. I’m fascinated with the concept of how humanity survives when the existing structures previously depended upon on are no longer dependable. The Western World is changing. Many of the cultural structures that formed the church for centuries are disappearing. The images …

Help Wanted! A Critique of DIY Spirituality

Sometime around 1410, Andrei Rublev painted an icon of the Trinity. The image depicts the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit gathered around a table. As they are seated they are positioned with an openness to the viewer inviting each person who reflects on the image into the communal moment they are sharing together. Thomas Merton reminds us that “when we …

Three Loves of Wholehearted Church Planters

It has been a year since my friend Allan Karr and I released our book, The Wholehearted Church Planter. This past fall, however, was the first time I actually formally used it to teach any group. The context: San Quentin Prison in a semester seminary class on Missions, Evangelism, and Church Planting. Yes. Along with dozens of others, serving as …

3 Critical Elements to Building Collaborative Ministries

‘Collaborative’ is a particularly popular descriptor that excites ministry leaders today. Like its cousins ‘missional’ and ‘incarnational,’ it attempts to capture a unique temperament of the ministry enterprise. Namely, the desire to seek partnership in mission and values through the contribution of a number of uniquely different voices. But what are we saying and what are we doing in our …

Start the New Year Right – Take a Spiritual Audit

Welcome to a new year filled with incredible potential. Here in Seattle the sun is shining, the Olympic mountains are covered in snow, and it is not hard to believe that only good things lie ahead. By the end of summer, the snow will be gone and the hope and promise they offered may be gone too. Unfortunately, our new …