By Christopher Brown and Scott Hagley The Church has a problem: most of its future leaders are being prepared in ways that don’t work and for ministries that don’t exist. Ways that Don’t Work My (Chris’s) first call out of seminary was to be a bivocational church planter. For more than five years, I worked part-time at an independent café …
By Josh Oxendine, Lead Pastor of The Grove Church I don’t know about you, but I have become an avid mixed martial arts fan. Almost every week there seems to be a new “great fight” to watch. What most people don’t realize is the amount of work that it takes for the fighter to get to the point of peak performance before …
Mark Scandrette actually takes Jesus seriously. He believes that Christ’s words are meant to be lived out in the everyday experiences of life. As such, he is a perfect fit for Praxis Gathering 2016: Shaping Disciples for Movement. At Praxis Gathering 2016 we are gathering to recover the act and art of discipleship, and we want you to join us. This unique annual church …
The spiritual practice of retreat is one of the most powerful tools we can implement to increase our faith and draw us closer to God, to each other and to our responsibility for God’s world. The Bible is full of examples of people who periodically removed themselves from the world to draw closer to God in spiritual retreat. In fact, Jesus …
“How to Create Strategies for a Missional Vision” is the second of a three-part series created to help you set a vision for your church or organization and strategize for it. If you haven’t read part one, “A Practical Guide to Having Missional Vision,” you may want to do so, as there are practical exercises I suggest there for determining your organization’s vision. Back From the Future Now that …
Introducing a brand new church planting resource: Missional Church Multiplication One of the dynamic results that developed out of last year’s Praxis Gathering was our relationship with Daniel Im, the Director of Church Multiplication for NewChurches.com and LifeWay Christian Resources, and Dr. Ed Stetzer, the Executive Director of LifeWay Research. This relationship with New Churches has culminated in the visionaries over at NewChurches.com developing and …
Discipleship is a lost love in our culture of “Go Big or Go Home.” At Praxis Gathering 2016, however, we are gathering to recover the act and art of discipleship, and we want you to join us. 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 …
In the current worldwide refugee crisis, an unparalleled 60 million people have been displaced from their homes. Approximately 20 million are refugees (the highest number since World War II), and the rest are mostly either asylum seekers, stateless persons, or internally displaced from their cities or towns but still living in their country of origin. Just 3 countries, Turkey, Pakistan and …
Discipleship is a lost love in our culture of “Go Big or Go Home.” At Praxis Gathering 2016, however, we are gathering to recover the act and art of discipleship, and we want you to join us. 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 …
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 …