mission
Halloween Is A Good Time To Share The Gospel
Jeff Vanderstelt offers helpful insight on how our culture’s method of celebrating halloween offers an opportunity to share the good news of God’s kingdom with neighbors who show up on our…
Kingdom Work Is Not Identical With Western Development
In the video above, Brian Fikkert points out how Western notions of success are flawed and lead to a failure to promote human flourishing. In complement to the video, Joshua Butler explains in the article below that we in…
13 Marks Of A Mission-Minded Person
Mission-minded people are different. That’s it. Somehow they manage to see the world from another perspective. The things they do and the decisions they make are just different than what other people would usually do. You can find them…
Sunday Sermon: The Cross Reconciles Us To God AND To One Another
Is not the mission of God to see people not only reconciled to God, but also diverse groups reconciled to each other? In this video Leonce Crump challenges us to pursue racial reconciliation in light of the…
Charting A Better Course For Unity In The Body Of Christ
When the path to unity starts with the meeting/church service/ or gathering, then I think its trajectory is skewed from the beginning. I think mission is the better path to unity. Unite in the furtherance of the gospel. Unite…
5 Things We Can’t Do If We Are Going To “Be Missional”
I cannot define the word “missional,” at least not in an authoritative or definitive way, for everyone. But I can tell you why I think it must include Jesus’ mission to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10). This…
Francis Chan And David Platt Stay Focused On God
Francis Chan and David Platt discuss the problems with losing focus on God in favor of focusing on other good things such as mission, discipleship, productivity, etc. These are good things, but they are not more worthy of our…
How The Good Samaritan Critiques Our Busy Lives
The story of the Good Samaritan is easily the most famous parable that Jesus told. A priest and a rabbi refuse to help someone hurt along the road, but a Samaritan, the one hated by the Hebrew people not…
Sunday Sermon: Your Family & God’s Plan, Part 2
Dr. Rob Rienow shows how the first command to humans to be fruitful and multiply is still in effect. The primary means by which this happens is through families passing on faith from generation to generation. The Great Commission…
How To Lead Your Children Into A Missional Mindset
Paul Tripp shares his thoughts about how parents can lead their children in a process of becoming mindful of God’s mission and purposes so that they can be aligned with that mission and purpose. In other words, this is…
5 Questions To Keep You On Mission
Every Christian and ministry faces the slow, subtle, suffocating pressure of the ordinary. The creeping clutch of worldly concerns confronts us all. We settle into routines and ruts. Our zeal cools as we have our minds and then our…
Counting The Cost Of Apostleship
Many churches seem to have forgotten the two most basic impulses of an organism: reproduce and adapt. Or to use more Biblical language: We have forgotten how to be an Apostolic movement. Key to understanding what the Church is…
One Family’s Story Of How They Stay On Mission Together As A Team
Ed and Mel Zwyghuizen have three children—Gabe (19), Christian (17), and Greta (15). Together, they are known as Team Z. We always knew we wanted to invite our kids to participate in God’s big story for the world, but as…
What It Looks Like To Be The Church
For Throwback Thursday, I’d like to recall a post that features a video from Jeff Vanderstelt of Soma Community in Tacoma, WA. This video offers examples of what it can look like for a group of people to be…
How The Great Commission Can Be All Talk And No Walk
Leaders tell members to do the Great Commission without teaching them how. Most churches are guilty here. We tell folks to share the gospel with their neighbors but seldom train them to do so. We speak about discipling others, yet expect members to learn…
Why The Missional Movement Will Fail | Mike Breen
In honor of Throwback Thursday, I want to recall one of our earliest posts. Mike Breen puts his finger on a problem that is plaguing the so-called “missional movement.” It’s time we start being brutally honest about the missional…
What Happens When The Mission Shifts From Making Disciples To Bringing Justice
Unfortunately, in some of our circles there’s been a subtle shift away from the main thing. Justice has replaced Jesus as the new North Star. First priority is no longer bringing Jesus to a lost and dying world. It’s bringing…
It’s Always Someone Else’s Fault That Disciples Are Not Being Made
The refrain of the garden echoes through the halls of our churches. It’s always someone else’s fault. We have become masters at diverting responsibility and placing blame. Everyone is to blame except the one who is actually responsible and…
Could The Mission Of The Church Be Considered A Sacrament?
The Anglican Book of Common Prayer defines a sacrament as “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace given unto us, ordained by Christ himself, as a means whereby we receive the same, and a pledge to…
A Case Study In Making Disciples Of All Nations
People tend not to know us as individuals, but as part of “that group” that meets in “that house” behind the soccer field. I am Just fine with that. In fact, I prefer to be counted as part of…
Francis Chan’s Vision For Church As Loving Family
Francis Chan shares a compelling new vision for the Church, except that it’s actually not new at all. It’s actually quite old. It only sounds new to us today because most of our ideas about church are so far…
3 Words That Will Change Your Understanding Of Mission
Apostasy is sort of a self disfellowship that leads to being mission-less and motionless, an attachment to detachment, or an unsanctified stationary posture. Apostasy is missional paralysis. Apostasy is un-sent-ness. Rejecting mission… God’s mission, is the path to apostasy. Resurrection,…
Discipleship: So Crazy It Just Might Work
This 9 minute interview shows how discipleship is not a mission of the Church, but THE mission. “I don’t know any pastor who has been more personally fruitful in discipleship ministry than Randy Pope,” Tim Keller observes. “Nor do…
Being The People Of God
This 14 minute video offers flesh-and-blood examples of what it looks like for the people of God to live as a community on mission, as opposed to a bunch of people trying to do church. Jeff Vanderstelt of Soma…
Disciplism By Alan Hirsch
So how do we get from “admirers” of Jesus to “followers” of Him?? I suggest that we start with reimagining evangelism through the lens of discipleship, which requires that we let go of seeing salvation as something we can deliver…
Go Make Disciples
This 2 minute video reminds us that the mission of the Church is to make disciples. Our well-intentioned activities may actually distract from that…
Why Small Groups Fail At Making Disciples
Small groups are things that trick us into believing we’re serious about making disciples. The problem is 90 percent of small groups never produce one single disciple. Ever. They help Christians make shallow friendships, for sure. They’re great at…
Are Short Term Missions Trip A Good Idea?
11 minute video considering the relative value of short-term missions trips. …
Why The Missional Movement Will Fail
It’s time we start being brutally honest about the missional movement that has emerged in the last 10-15 years: Chances are better than not it’s going to fail. If you make disciples, you will always get the church. But…
On Mission With Your Children
Clearly, going and making disciples must be a high priority for all who follow Jesus. Some families are called to go to the nations, to proclaim the gospel among those who have not had a chance to hear. Their stories are…
Two Lies That Keep Families From Being Missional
When talking with parents of young children about the idea of being in a Missional Community, of joining a small group of believers who work together to declare and demonstrate the gospel, I usually get one of two…
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