As you all know, here at the V3 Movement we are deeply passionate about helping men and women plant churches that reflect the viral, grassroots work of movement. We are not interested in merely starting new worship services. We want to join God in seeding Jesus-centered communities and serve those who plant those communities with resources that make the church …
Discipleship is a lost love in our culture of “Go Big or Go Home.” At Praxis Gathering 2016, however, we will gather to recover the act and art of discipleship. This unique, annual church planting experience combines real-time practice with rich theology and deep reflection. Participants of all backgrounds, denominations and ecclesial styles will join together to plummet deep into the …
One of the main ways we are building a movement here at V3 is through our learning cohorts. Because we are a communal movement, we’re glad to bring you more personal interviews with other church planters who love what is happening in the church today, are engaging it in a fruitful manner, and are utilizing V3 Learning Cohorts to ground …
It has been a challenging season for me. Every time I write something it seems keyboard warriors are out in force, criticizing, abusing and telling me why I am wrong and they are right. Our Christian society is becoming more polarized, not just around political issues, but over issues of race, immigration, gender and homelessness to name just a few. …
This is the second in a series of articles on recognizing immaturity in fivefold ministry and what to do about it. If you have no idea what fivefold ministry is, check out Alan Hirsch’s brief descriptions here, or JR Woodward’s video introduction here. Missional church planting isn’t easy. You’re trying to grow something from the ground up in a healthy way, but …
Lent is the forty-day period before Easter that commemorates Jesus’ sojourn in the wilderness in preparation for the launch of his ministry. In the early church, Lent was a time to prepare for baptism. Today, it is usually regarded as a season of soul searching, privation, and repentance. It begins with Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Maundy Thursday. …
Rory Sutherland recounts in a TED Talk the story of how potatoes were introduced to eighteenth-century Prussian peasants in what is now modern-day Germany. Frederick the Great wanted to bring potatoes to Prussia because the only source of carbohydrates at the time was wheat. He believed that the introduction of the potato would diversify and stabilize the economy, making it …
I’ve been going at this church planting thing for a few years now. I must say that it’s taken more years off my life than my previous decade in ministry. If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that there is a plethora of expectations pummeling a church plant. Many nights I’ve experienced myself tossing and turning over the projected …
One of the most pressing pastoral concerns of our day is addressing the overwhelming fear that binds us in the Western world, and particularly in the United States. The noted writer Marilynne Robinson has an essay in her recent collection The Givenness of Things that boldly names this pervasive culture of fear in which we live (I highly recommend reading …
At Christmas, we remember again for the first time that God became a human being. God became a someone who could be touched and smelled, heard and seen. God became tangible. Tangible. What could be more tangible than needing to be burped and have your diaper changed? Almighty Creator is nursed in the arms of a teenage girl. Her betrothed …