Why we plant churches
Note: This blog entry is excerpted and adapted from my upcoming book, tentatively titled The Church Planting Journey. We’ll be posting excerpts about once a month here and we’d love to hear feedback from you. We hope you are getting as excited about it as...Light of the World? The Missional Church
The Missional Church You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine...In and through: how transformation connects to mission
I’ve been meditating on Colossians 1.28-29: “So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ. That’s why I work and struggle so hard,...Where mission and formation intersect
A while back I posted a blog entry from Mark Fields with Vineyard Missions about how much better his board meeting went when he scheduled spiritual formation retreats just before them. Mark makes some interesting points about how mission and formation intersect. He...Fire and mission
Take some time this Friday morning to meditate on this insight from German theologian Emil Brunner: “The Church exists by mission as fire exists by burning.”Definitions: What makes a church a church?
Instead of the tangible things we usually thing of that make up a church– a full-time pastor, a large group meeting space, music and a sermon at a Sunday morning gathering, legal incorporation– let’s think less tangibly. Let’s think along the lines...The 4 most common barriers to an outward focus
An outward focus means looking outside the walls of your own church. It means being more concerned about reaching out and meeting the needs of the community around you than you are about the level of comfort inside the church. For most churches, it’s much easier to...