When my church plant began it was perfect. We had a full roster of mature leaders who were experts at shared leadership and conflict transformation. There were people eager to be discipled in the way of Jesus and willing to substantially commit to that endeavor. Because of the relational depth we had cultivated, we agreed on everything, and our gatherings …
What is it that keeps us from seeing the missional movement of people, whether from our ideas or one of our congregants, as our greatest asset to expanding the Kingdom and growing the breadth and voice of our church community?
As people who live and lead within missional communities, church planters and pastors often bear the weight of keeping the vision and mission in mind on behalf of their people, but in the midst of all the busyness of leading and caring for others, we sometimes miss keeping the main thing the main thing. What is the “main thing” in …
In my first blog in this series I suggested that after years of teaching students to preach the way I was taught to preach (assign each student a text, which fit me well as a “teacher” on five-fold), I started to wonder, “Am I trying to force apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds, to preach like teachers?” I began to imagine, …
In our fifth annual time together at The Praxis Gathering, we will plunge into the hands-on-work of Life Together in Community with particular emphasis on creating a missional-community, a tethered community, a multi-ethnic community, a peace-making community, and a healing community. We’ve gathered some of the best on-the-ground church planters and practitioners to furnish us with the possibilities for lighting a …
The Praxis Gathering 2019 is pleased to announce that Deb Hirsch, Australian-born writer and speaker, will be joining us to explore Life Together is a Fragmented World. Deb is a beloved addition to our list of presenters and speaks from a place of experienced and practiced wisdom. She is among the best on-the-ground church planters and practitioners to furnish us …
In our fifth annual time together at The Praxis Gathering, we will plunge into the hands-on-work of Life Together in Community with particular emphasis on creating a missional-community, a tethered community, a multi-ethnic community, a peace-making community, and a healing community. We’ve gathered some of the best on-the-ground church planters and practitioners to furnish us with the possibilities for lighting a …
Money. Money, finances, giving, budgeting, tithing, offering — however which way we try to spin it, it leaves most of us, especially in the church planting world, feeling uncomfortable. I wonder if the focus of our conversation is amiss when we talk about money, and instead, we, as shepherds of our missional communities, should actually be honing in on something …
As church planters, one of the key questions we need to be able to answer for our missional communities is this: “What is the Church?” The premise for being able to answer this question lies on the fact that, most people who have gone through some sort of negative experience with an institution will fall into a distaste and a …
We love featuring what God is doing through church planting around the US. In this episode of the Church Planter’s Life we highlight Aaron Monts from Seattle who started a missional church. Listen in! Join a Fall 2019 Learning Cohort