Tag: missional

Nine practices of the emerging church

A couple weeks back I shared a series of posts on on what I saw as the defining characteristics of the emerging Christian movement.

And Wednesday, I found that Urban Theologian (HT @knightopia) shared nine practices of the emerging church, according to Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger in their book “Remembering Our Future: Explorations in Deep Church.”

If you are unclear about what an emerging church is, Gibbs and Bolger define emerging churches as “missional communities arising from within postmodern culture and consisting of followers of Jesus who are seeking to be faithful to their place and time.” The nine “practices” are:

Continue reading Nine practices of the emerging church

What is emergent? Missional

what is emergent?

Read Part 2 :: What is emergent? Centered set

While there seem to be countless folks in the Church who are more than happy to avoid being labeled emergent, the exact opposite seems to be true for the term missional. More and more folks are rushing to use the term to define their ministries. Some have even suggested it may soon take the place of evangelical in the near future.

And while emergents can be included in the ranks of those using the term it shouldn’t be assumed that those claiming to be missional should also be labeled as emergent. But from my experience it tends to be a strong piece within emerging Christianity — and something I’m working to understand and practice more fully in my daily life.

attractional vs missional

Like I originally noted about sharing my thoughts on emerging, this is not in the least an exhaustive explanation of the term missional. There are far better places to find that information than here. My hope is that this will serve as a basic primer and how it relates to the emerging conversation.

The term missional springs from Missio Dei, or the Mission of God. While historically many have seen only certain “called” members as those active in the Mission of God (either on the foreign mission field or as full time pastors and ministers to their locale), emerging Christianity sees the role of all Christians to be about the Missio Dei each and every day — regardless of their occupation or locale.
Continue reading What is emergent? Missional

God’s heart for the poor

As noted earlier, God has a huge heart and love for YOU – but he also has a huge heart for EVERYONE ELSE – including the poor, the marginalized, the hurting, the oppressed. And if we’re to be on the side of God – we should be on the side of the poor.

As a refresher, check out this list of Scriptures from the MissionalChurchNetwork:

Continue reading God’s heart for the poor

Doing it all wrong

Shaun Groves just returned from a week+ long trip to India with a group of bloggers for Compassion International (read their thoughts here).

As part of their trip, Shaun he met with a couple different pastors who are choosing to do church outside of the norm.

Shaun Groves in India

Shaun writes…

This guy’s doing it all wrong.

He’s the pastor of a church in Kolkata, India that’s partnering with Compassion International – he says to “serve” kids in his community.

Pete and I saw a lot of unchurchy stuff going on at this church….

This is a common mistake for pastors in the developing world. They don’t know any better. They’ve never been to a pastors conference.

I’ve seen this time and again: churches in the third world doing stuff we Christians in America are savvy enough to get politicians and non-profits to do for us.

Check out Shaun’s blog for pictures and more info… and then I encourage you to say a prayer for all the guys doing it all wrong.

Does it matter?

My friend Briana sent this to me this evening relating to my message yesterday.

Had to share it here. Not exactly sure of the origin or author. If you know, please feel free to share so I can give credit.

I was hungry and you formed a humanities club to discuss my hunger.

Thank you.

I was imprisoned and you crept off quietly to your chapel to pray for my release.

Nice.

I was naked and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.

What good did that do?

I was sick and you knelt and thanked God for your health.

But I needed you.

I was homeless and you preached to me of the shelter of the love of God.

I wish you’d have taken me home.

I was lonely and you left me alone to pray for me.

Why didn’t you stay?

You seem so holy, so close to God; but I’m still very hungry, lonely, cold, still in pain.

Does it matter?

re: Better be living it out

Here are the notes I took from Matt Chandlers message “Vision of a church planter”

a church on mission ::

understands the centrality of the Gospel

committed to the authoritative, infallible, inherent, inspired all sufficient Scriptures

embraces the calling of God as sent missionaries into our own surroundings

– we’re where we are – to engage the world where we are for the purposes of God

actively seeking to be trained and equipped as missionaries

– doesn’t work programmatically
– how do you reach 20-30 year olds? – get the 50 year olds

dependent upon the Holy Spirit to use us to evangelize the entire world

develops relationships with the lost for the purpose of incarnating the lost for Christ

– leaders in missional church must be willing to die. die to self. die to stuff.

humbly helps others to find Jesus in their own timing rather than forcing them to make superficial decisions for their own glory

is committed to practicing faith in community

worships God in a relational, personal authentic way

– “worship is the enemy of evangelism” is not true

a church on mission is a theologically formed, Gospel centered, Spirit led fellowship who seeks to faithfully incarnate the purposes of Christ

the mission of the church is found in the mission of God who passionately invites us participate in Gods redemption of the world

what are you thinking? listen and see what notes you take and then share them. let’s continue the conversation.