Category: Missional Church
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4 Possible Paradigm Shifts for the 21st Century Church
I am not sure in what context or venue he said this, but billionaire financier Warren Buffett is credited with having noted: “In a chronically leaking boat, energy devoted to changing vessels is more productive than energy devoted to patching leaks.” Whatever the initial context, there is much wisdom in this insight that can be…
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Contextual Asessment Starter Questions
One of the greater frustrations I have experienced in the church I serve has not come from the people within the church as much as it has from well intended (I presume) outsiders and fringe folks who espouse a missional approach. This is surprising because I want to embrace a missional approach. But much of…
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When Helping Hurts
With the re-emergence of ministries of mercy by Evangelicals have also come definite challenges. I am delighted that this trend of compassion continues on the upswing. But I am also aware of both the theological and practical dilemmas that inevitably face anyone who is engaged in such outreach. The video above in an interview with…
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Can Mission Become an Idol?
“There is a first-rate commitment to a second-rate mission.” That is what Roger, a leader in global church planting, said as he looked at the rock climbers ascending a cliff in the Alps. Many of us called into ministry feel the same way. Rather than giving our lives to climbing a rock, building a business,…
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Gospel Clarity for Missional Calling
The article below by World Harvest Mission‘s Josiah Bancroft is a tremendously insightful and clear explanation of the relationship of the gospel to culture. Not only is this an important understanding for the mission field overseas, but Josiah explains why it is essential even within the local church in North America. The video above is…
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Numbering Those on the Ranch
With the following illustration, Alan Hirsch offers a different way of gauging a church’s effectiveness: In some farming communities, the farmers might build fences around their properties to keep their livestock in and the livestock of neighbor farms out. This is a bounded set. But in rural communities where farms or ranches cover an enormous…
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Lessons from The Externally Focused Church
Although everyone outside the Church is a potential ministry focus, the Externally Focused Church moves intentionally toward two groups: Those on the margins The City – from Externally Focused Church These are important points to remember when designing an outreach strategy for the local church. The first, people on the margins of society, probably…
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Total Church
I have recently been listening to Tim Chester and Steve Timmis speak about Total Church. I appreciate their emphasis that two key principles should shape church life: gospel and community. As Tim Chester writes: Christians are called to a dual fidelity: fidelity to the core content of the gospel and fidelity to the primary context…
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Moving Toward Missional
Some questions I have wrestled with over time: Can someone live missionally without a conscious embracing of missionalism? I suspect “No”. It is possible to engage in activities, but without a conscious approach there is no “mission”. Such a life is more frenetic, aimless, and haphazard. Mission requires intentionally carrying out a preconceived plan and/or…
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Missional Shift
In his book The Present Future, Reggie McNeal reveals and contrasts different ways leaders can think about the church and its ministry. McNeal reflects upon the different paradigms that pastors can have as they lead and conduct ministry in the church. Being missional is a shift in thinking about the nature of the church. Once…
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No Need to Reinvent the Church
Let me just say it straight, up front: I see no need to reinvent the church. What I do see is the need for God’s People to act more faithfully as Christ’s Church. I like what Kevin DeYoung has to say in the Introduction to his book, The Good News We Almost Forgot: No doubt the church…
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Every Church Missional
Every church is called to be a “missional church”. The fact that we have turned the word mission into an adjective testifies to the American church’s frayed ecclesiology. A non-missional church is not a church in the first place, but in a culture largely devoid of theological vocabulary, this language has become necessary to remind…
