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 …
In our fifth annual time together, 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 path ahead in our churches, …
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
There is a seismic shift in American culture, the church now finds itself in increasing irrelevance in its “come to us” posture. The Church is invited to break down the sacred/secular divide by creating sustainable missional faith-communities while providing services and relational connection to local neighborhoods. This is where Mission and the Market can converge in context. As early Trappists …
The V3 Movement is overjoyed to offer new innovative learning cohorts this fall. MarketPlace Planting Early Trappists Monks created enterprises to that funded their missional work, so today’s marketplace planters and pioneers will artistically find ways to start businesses that contribute social good and while engaging civic structures of a particular place. Join us this fall as Hugh Halter trains …
A pastor friend of mine, Jonathan Cleveland, recently reminded me of a metaphor that is not necessarily new but is good to revisit, especially when talking about missional church planting and ecclesiology. The imaging of this metaphor revolves around the differences between an oak tree and aspen tree. I live in Colorado, at a higher elevation, where Aspens are an …
Most of us as church planters are probably eager to get the ball rolling, set some concrete rhythms of gathering our community together, and implement worship services from the get-go. But, as our community was in its launching phase, I took note of two vital thoughts that pivoted my own church plant’s focus. Pathways One, I participated in a Praxis …
What does pastoral leadership look like in a post-Christian world? What changes should be made? Should development be revamped? Or perhaps things should stay the same? One thing is for certain. We live in an age where “pastor” means little to non-churchgoers. The vocation is often deemed archaic and perhaps even nefarious. For good reason too. The shift in cultural …
In my previous post I suggested that after years of teaching students to preach the way I was taught to preach (assign 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?” To put it more positively, I began to imagine, …
We are honored to have Dr. Christine Pohl join us for our June webinar: Life Together in a Fragmented World. Dr. Christine Pohl speaks regularly on recovering the practices of hospitality and community and is the author of many publications including: Living into Community: Cultivating Practices that Sustain Us (Eerdmans, 2012) and Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition …