New Learning Cohorts for Planters & Pastors

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 …

Leadership in a Post-Christian World

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 …

Enter the Re-Wonderment of the World.

This year has been an amazing awe and wonder springtime on America’s west coast. In California the spectacular blooming of the desert brought thousands of people out to relish the brilliant oranges, yellows and purples of the flowers whose seeds lie dormant, sometimes for years waiting for rain. In Oregon brilliant purple lupines waved their heads across the mountainsides and …

Hamster Wheels and Holodecks

Well, the news is out again. Gallup’s latest faith poll showed church membership is “down sharply”[1] over the past two decades. Relevant Magazine recently reported that young people are leaving the church due to perceived judgment and hypocrisy [2]. These types of reports are all the more common today, and it is getting harder for church leaders to navigate the …

Feelings vs Commitments

If you’re a church planter like me, then you’re aware that there’s been a growing emphasis on the 5-fold person gifts found in Ephesians 4:11-16: And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the …

Will Your Church Plant Survive the Zombie Apocalypse?

Can I make a confession? I love zombie stories.The “zombie apocalypse” genre has always fascinated me, for some reason. I find myself attracted to movies, TV shows, and books that feature some version of a zombie apocalypse and what happens afterward.Part of the reason I think I’m interested is because of the questions these stories evoke: What remains when all the …

The Mechanics and Spirituality of Trust

Trusting others is always a risk. Many kingdom leaders get burnt and slowly clam up or lose the ability to keep loving and trusting those around us. It is vital for church planters to consider how this issue of “trust” is influencing their life and relationships. I believe there are two aspects of trust: (1) the mechanics of trust (how …

Statistically Significant

Christianity Today put out a recent statistic on just how much a decline the religion is facing today … in an astounding trending data set, within the past half century, all of the religions including differing denominations have been either a.) incrementally sloping down in numbers or b.) flatlining and experiencing no new growth.  Only one religion bucked the trend …

Why Listening is the First Step of Evangelism

Normally we think of evangelism as a process of telling. We are proclaiming or sharing something. And it is that, of course, but I’ve become more and more convinced that effective evangelism starts with listening. Here’s the thing: most evangelism strategies focus only on the telling part. They help people figure out what to say, how to present, the right things to proclaim. One size does NOT …

Become More Attached to Your Place

[The following is a guest post from our friend Steve MacDouell. Steve teaches at Fanshawe College, is the co-founder of Good City Co., as well as a Senior Editor at The Localist.  He is from Woodfield—a neighborhood in Central London, where he enjoys instigating place-based projects, hosting workshops, and inviting everyday citizens to leverage their time, their ideas, and their creativity for the sake of their …