Recently I read an article by a person I highly respect about gathering a team for a launch. The ideas were solid, but every suggestion offered was dependent on a culture that was seeded with enough Christians to make it easy for churches to borrow or enlist people who are already Christians. How the Church Planting Scene Has Changed I remember …
Leroy Barber is the author of Embrace: God’s Radical Shalom for a Divided World and numerous other books. He is Co-founder of The Voices Project, which brings together influential African American leaders for important conversations about the current challenges and triumphs of the Black community. He is the Director of Hope Mob, the world’s first platform dedicated to resourcing leaders …
This past weekend, church planting practitioners gathered in Washington, D.C. to work together and share on the topic of discipleship. Missional-movement leaders such as Deb Hirsch, Kevin Doi, Paul Sparks, Mark Scandrette, Natasha Sistrunk Robinson, and David Fitch worked with other missional-movement leaders like you from all over the country. This year’s focus was discipleship, and the workshops were phenomenal, thoroughly engaging the relationships …
In my previous blog post, I shared how leaders establish culture through what they teach and model, as well as by what they pay attention to, reward and sanction. I want to continue the topic of creating culture by looking at Christ. A Thought Experiment Imagine Jesus is the leader of your church—Hopefully he is!—in a sense similar to when …
The RePlacing Church Podcast with Ben Katt In this episode, I explore the Teachers as “Sage” by looking at the story of Apollos from the early church, and identifying the three main practices of Sages as they pursue restoration in the neighborhood. Series Summary: In Ephesians 4, the Apostle Paul mentions 5 gifts for the church – Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, …
After over a year of prayer and preparation, we’re just a few days away from kicking off The Praxis Gathering! We’re bringing together world-class missional practitioners, such as Don Coleman, Natasha Sistrunk Robinson, Soong-Chan Rah, David Fitch, Deb Hirsch, Mark Scandrette and many others to discuss what it means to be part of a movement that shapes disciples for Mission. …
It’s that time of the year when many of us are in transition. Students of all ages begin a new school year. Some of us are starting new jobs, and at church we are getting ready for the new seasons of Advent and Christmas. Even the created world is in transition, that season between summer and autumn when, at least …
When the whole story of the Bible is not the context for the life and formation of communities of faith, it is too easy for parts of the gospel to be mistaken as the entire gospel itself. One example of this is the particular version of the gospel that has been the predominant rendering in evangelical communities in the United …
The RePlacing Church Podcast with Ben Katt In this episode, I explore the Shepherd as “Healer” by looking at Psalm 23 and the story of Barnabas from the early church, and identifying the three main practices of Healers as they pursue restoration in the neighborhood. Series Summary: In Ephesians 4, the Apostle Paul mentions 5 gifts for the church – Apostle, …
“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 …