Missional community is happening all over the place. A story from Brian Williamson:
“Last Friday, I was asked to come and share some time and encouragement with one of our missional communities. As I looked around the room here’s what I saw: Two women who are asking to be baptized and will be doing so this Sunday night. As I facilitated the guy’s small group break out, I one man was begging for the basics of what it means to be a follower of Jesus and another was wide open to learning the same. That’s a taste of what my life is like as I think about our experience in moving toward a decentralized network of missional communities linked by our discipling vehicle—the huddle. It has been a great joy for me to start to see the first fruits of leaders empowered and shepherding their friends.
“Last week, I also met with another of our missional community leaders who was struggling. The challenges and pressures that come along with leading created some real challenges to her identity and sense of confidence as a leader. I spent hours with her, listening, speaking truth, and challenging her to wrestle through this with God. I wasn’t sure if her community was going to make it and I admit to some disappointment in my heart about the possibility of our first missional community going under. After that conversation, this leader met with her huddle and after some difficult but life giving conversation, God gave some new missional direction and energy. By God’s grace, breakthrough happened and these bones will live.
“I could say a lot about the joys and challenges of developing a network of missional communities, not the least of which it seems so slow at times. I’m always encouraged by the words of Charles Spurgeon who said, ‘It was by perseverance that the snail reached the ark.’ Hang in there. I would never go back because the fruit of empowered disicples on mission is way too rich to trade out. You are pursuing something that in the words of Jesus will bear much fruit (John 15:8).