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 …
(inspired by Alan Hirsch’s mDNA) What does it look like to make disciples of Jesus who actually go and reproduce more disciples? We need to think about the big picture, plant small seeds that can sprout trees and in turn create forests. Plant from the beginning with the end in mind. We see this in the parables of Jesus about …
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 joins a number of key partners providing resources and opportunities benefiting missional church planters and practitioners. One such partner is Missio Seminary. Missio Seminary (formerly Biblical Theological Seminary) believes theology is applicable beyond the classroom and is best realized when it is embodied in the context of people, places, and the messiness of life and culture. Our …
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 …
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, …