No Mission Without Incarnation

John 1:14 from the Message reads:“The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” There’s something significant, inspiring, and mysterious that the Creator of all things dwelt in a neighborhood.  Accessible God That God would care to be known in a simple and tangible way to humanity is a powerful reflection of the incarnation. It makes God from “way out there” …

Invitation to Transparency

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 …

Essential Elements of Kingdom Movements

(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 …

Five-Fold Proclamation: Part 3

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, …

Meet Praxis Presenter Nikki Toyama-Szeto

The Praxis Gathering 2019 is overjoyed that Nikki Toyama-Szeto will be joining us to explore Life Together is a Fragmented World. As Executive Director of Evangelicals for Social Action, Nikki Toyama-Szeto guides the execution of ESA’s mission and vision. Nikki has a long history of working with leaders of faith communities to help ignite a passion for biblical justice among the …

Meet Praxis Presenter Hugh Halter

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 …

Praxis 2019 Partner: Missio Seminary

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 …