We’re pleased to announce that The Church as Movement: Starting and Sustaining Missional-Incarnational Communities, co-authored by V3 Movement leaders JR Woodward and Dan White Jr. is the recipient of the Intervarsity Press Readers Choice Award! Church as Movement won for the category “IVP Praxis”. The publisher describes the Praxis line this way: IVP Praxis is a new line of books …
A Kick in the Seat of the Pants
Sometimes I just need a good “kick in the seat of my pants” to get me going. That phrase – kick in the seat of the pants – has always been a reminder that I need to open myself up to new ideas and get outside the box of my thinking, even in church matters. Roger Von Oech wrote a life-changing …
Church Planter, Find Your Tribe
Too many of us know how frustrating and even hurtful it can be to love Jesus’ church but not fit in any local church. Anyone who questions the elevated role of the Sunday service has felt the isolation. In light of this, The Church as Movement is more than the practical guidebook it sets out to be; it’s the resounding reminder …
The Engine of Jesus' Ministry
When it comes to discipleship, most of our churches follow the methods and ways of traditional learning. We teach classes, launch programs, or go through sermon series to cover an area of discipleship. While information is a part of the process of discipleship, it is incomplete as a whole to help us learn and practice the ways of Jesus. Discipleship …
A Textbook for Church Planting, Mentoring, and Missional Incarnational Movements
I love practitioner credibility. I love it when people who have actually done what they purport needs doing are able to share, from experience, in intelligible, compelling, and digestible ways, guidance about to lead. In The Church as Movement, JR Woodward and Dan White Jr. bring practitioner credibility in spades. Leaders of one of the most fruitful church planting movements in …
Becoming Missional Insiders
I still remember a day thirty years ago when I walked out of a large, new master planned community in Southern California. The gates were being installed, and because I didn’t live there, I thought I would never get back inside again to meet people and share Christ. On the way out, though, I noticed a small note posted to …
The Fear of Your Calling: A Narrative of Faith
Dip your toe in. Cold shivers up your leg, all the way to your shoulders. Excitement and fear flood over you as you stand in line. As you wait, you think of all the reasons why you should get out of line: It’s chilly. I might flop. They may laugh. There is a slight breeze. Yet, you stay in line. …
How to Know If a Missional Culture Is Flourishing
In my two previous posts, Creating Culture: When Values and Life Don’t Match and 4 Ways Jesus Established Culture, we determined that leaders build the foundation for a church’s culture by what they do, especially in the beginning. We saw that it’s not about just starting programs, having gatherings, or copying the ‘successful’ church in your city, but discovering, identifying, and articulating your church’s DNA, …
5 Ways to Become a Better Pastor in Your Neighborhood
I’ve been a pastor for 10 years, and I’ve never been a very good one.In seminary, I remember learning about how pastors are gifted at listening, and pastoral care, and counseling. That didn’t really sound like me.And then there was all of this energy and attention given to preaching—“pastor,” as it is in many Christian circles, was synonymous with “preacher.” …
Why The Church Must Join the Next Generation
I have some very good news—and some really bad news. First the Good News God seems to be at work not only through people of faith, but also people of compassion, who are bringing welcome change to our world in what some are calling an “innovation revolution.” In the last ten years there has been a veritable explosion of new …