We’re in the season of Advent: the beginning of the Christian year and a time of waiting, longing, preparation, and expectation. In the midst of a culture that wants to rush toward the warm fuzzies of a sentimentalized Christmas season, how can we cultivate the kind of attitude Advent is meant to evoke in us? How can we honor what this …
When it comes to discipleship, most of our churches follow the methods and ways of traditional learning. We teach classes, launch programs, or go through sermon series to cover an area of discipleship. While information is a part of the process of discipleship, it is incomplete as a whole to help us learn and practice the ways of Jesus. Discipleship …
I love practitioner credibility. I love it when people who have actually done what they purport needs doing are able to share, from experience, in intelligible, compelling, and digestible ways, guidance about to lead. In The Church as Movement, JR Woodward and Dan White Jr. bring practitioner credibility in spades. Leaders of one of the most fruitful church planting movements in …
When I first was captured by the idea of missional church, I started by coordinating service projects. Mostly because I didn’t know what I was doing. My imagination had been captured by a bigger vision for what life, faith, and ministry could be, but I didn’t know how to get started moving in that direction. Telling People to Live on Mission My wife …
In my two previous posts, Creating Culture: When Values and Life Don’t Match and 4 Ways Jesus Established Culture, we determined that leaders build the foundation for a church’s culture by what they do, especially in the beginning. We saw that it’s not about just starting programs, having gatherings, or copying the ‘successful’ church in your city, but discovering, identifying, and articulating your church’s DNA, …
Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev said God created the world by imagination. We see it in the creativity of kids and artists, but in the church, few of us are encouraged to maintain our creative imaginations. Yet, to become the people God intends us to be, it is necessary. So here are some tips for stirring creativity and imagination in your …
We live in a culture that is increasingly being referred to as digital, inventive, participatory, designer, and creative. As a result of this cultural move, people are discovering more about their identities and finding more meaning from what they create rather than what they consume. The shared language of this culture is one that is filled with potential-based words such as …
I’ve been a pastor for 10 years, and I’ve never been a very good one.In seminary, I remember learning about how pastors are gifted at listening, and pastoral care, and counseling. That didn’t really sound like me.And then there was all of this energy and attention given to preaching—“pastor,” as it is in many Christian circles, was synonymous with “preacher.” …
In this post, we continue what we started in my last post on Jesus and Movement (see bottom of this post). My two posts can be read separately or together (in any order). The Key to Movement In his book The Great Omission, Dallas Willard identifies the key reason why we don’t see movement take place in the West today. We have …
We’re pleased to announce that Church as Movement: Starting and Sustaining Missional-Incarnational Communities our very own JR Woodward and Dan White Jr. is now available! Purchase it as a discount rate here and get additional free resources here. From the Foreword One of the strengths of the book derives from the fact that JR and Dan are reflective practitioners; both have …