Tag: missional

Better be living it out…

listening to Matt Chandler at a church planting conference….

“If you’re gonna teach this (missional life) you better be living it out. Because eventually the people are going to look around and say – we haven’t seen any of your neighbors in the water”

– Matt Chandler from Resurgence Conference
Vision of a Church Planter

ouch! a slap in my face.

goes back to the ideas several of us have been talking about as far as what a leader/pastor/facilitator looks like for community groups and/or home churches.

what is a leader ::

a leader takes responsibility to create desire to know God more

how do they do it ::

live out the 6*
assumes the responsibility of others lives
assumes the responsibility of guiding others toward personal priesthood
creates an environment of:
– spaces of grace
– intentional relationships
– relevant truth

*the six (or what we do) ::

celebrating what God is doing (worship)
telling others outside what God is doing (evangelism)
connecting and accepting on another (fellowship)
intentionally guiding one another to Christ and towards personal priesthood (discipleship)
being sensitive to know and meet needs (serving)
living and being transparent and authentic

thoughts? ideas?

Missional living

I’m trying to tie my hands back some to keep from giving away too much from books I’m reading – especially those I’m still chewing on.
My latest read, A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren is giving me some great insight as of the last few days. First off, I love the sub-title:

Why I am a missional, evangelical, post/protestant, liberal/conservative, mystical/poetic, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, catholic, green, incarnational, depressed- yet hopeful, emergent, unfinished Christian.
Continue reading Missional living

What the American church should know

More from the e-mail files:

Ask yourself: Why are we less intentional about the gospel than our missionary friends overseas?

Does your first answer sound like excuse making? Mine sure does.

What do you think a group of missionaries would say if you asked them the question, “What 3 things do you think the churches in America need to know about missionary work?” Pastor Dave Hegg of Corona Evangelical Free Church in southern California asked this question to a group of American missionaries in Europe. Here’s the first thing these missionaries wanted the American church to know (and by “know,” they meant “understand” and “be devoted to” and “live”):

#1: We wish churches in America would do “church” the way we do missions.

Here’s what they meant: As missionaries, their focus is actually fairly simply. They plan their days, invest their energy, and focus their lives on this simple strategy. Make contact with unbelievers in the course of your everyday lives; invest time in turning contacts into friends; labor through the Word and prayer to see God transform friends into believers; teach and mold believers into disciples, who then start the cycle all over again, making contact with unbelievers in their world.”