The pastor asked an earnest question: “Why don’t we do this?” The teaching had been compelling. He was stirred, convicted, convinced. Of course, love of neighbour is central to what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Of course, care for the communities where God has placed us is a reflection of God’s Kingdom’s desire—human flourishing, the redemption of …
The Real Reason We Don't Enter the Promised Land
“We must start with the basic fact that there is no such thing as a pure gospel if by that is meant something which is not embodied in a culture” declared Lesslie Newbigin decades ago. He continued by asserting, “Every interpretation of the gospel is embodied in some cultural form.” But for many in the church today, these cultural forms …
How to Find Your Call through Experimental Discipleship
Recently I had a conversation with someone in which I asked the question, “What would you say to other followers of Jesus to encourage them to consider what it might mean for them to join God in their neighbourhood?” My question produced a grimace and a sigh. “I’ve tried, nothing works,” they said. I persisted. “It’s a hard shift,” I said, …
Reflections on the End of Tradition
It’s tempting to want to take control, especially as church planters and leaders with passion, vision and commitment. Right? We want to get things moving and push our agendas forward according to our systems and to tradition. But I recently re-watched the film, Whale Rider and was reminded of the power, beauty and effectiveness of a contrarian way. Koro, the …
5 Tips to Become a Place-Based Church
What if God is inviting us to let go of some of our defaults in order to join the Spirit in our neighborhoods? As those on the Neighbourhood Life (NL) journey in Edmonton attempting to do just that, we are discovering, among other things, a number of shifts in our thinking and doing that illustrates for us the new ways God …
Whom God Sends
Over the last several years, I (and many others) have spent a great deal of time pondering Luke 10:1-12. We have noted how Luke’s context is similar to our own. We have wrestled with how counterintuitive, how countercultural the instructions to the seventy-two “sent ones”—and us—are. The following prayerful ponderation has come out of such dwelling on this text—actually, on …
Let Us Encourage One Another
Murphy’s Law says, “If anything can go wrong it will.” If your doctor’s appointment is for 4:00pm and you have something else at 5:00pm, he or she will be an hour behind. If you’ve decided to go on a ski holiday, it will be the mildest, most snowless winter on record. This is just one reason why we all need …
Confession: How I Get Church Wrong
I have confessed that I have been guilty of three leadership assumptions that work against the missional work of God. In case you missed it, here are those assumptions (the more I confess, the better it is for my healing): We just need to find the right program. More is better. Hub-and-spoke leadership is effective for missional leadership. The truth …
3 Leadership Assumptions that Destroy God's Mission
It’s one thing to verbally affirm that in our postmodern, post-Christendom world we face adaptive challenges. It is entirely another to respond to these challenges adaptively. We naturally assume (at least I do) that we can formulate the strategies, organize the resources, and outline the steps for leading our people in participating in God’s mission. But if we are in …
Don't Miss the Whole Point of Christmas
Christmas is about Incarnation: God becoming tangible. Because God has become flesh and now dwells among us, we can rest assured that God knows us! He’s “been there done that”, as the saying goes. God Has Felt… God has felt tired, hungry and thirsty. He’s been tempted, roused to anger, tears and laughter. He wore toga-pajamas (a holy onesie?) and …