Month: January 2010

What Does a Gospel-centered Church of Missional Communities Really Look Like?

One of the dangerous things about publishing and writing online is that you can get an exaggerated presence. People begin to inflate your ideas, your church, your leadership well beyond their actual capacity. I think this is a real danger among church planters. We’re all “trying to make a mark for God” by employing the latest missional thinking. We comb the web for innovative ideas, best practices, and training in order to make the “best mark for the glory of God.”

I want to deflate any exaggeration that might be out there about Austin City Life or my own leadership. Not just to deflate, but to bring balance and realism into the picture. A lot of young church planters are captivated by methodologies and best practices. These methods and practices are often downloaded without any effort to rethink them for their own vision and context. That, too, is dangerous.

At the risk of promoting more uncritical downloads, and with the hope of bringing realistic balance to what I write, I thought I would point to some actual stories of Gospel, Community, and Mission told by our own people on a Sunday morning. We often bring people up to share about how God is working in their life during a SUnday gathering. We do this, not to be cool, but to a) As the psalmist says “tell of the works of the Lord b) to reinforce that church is a family not an event c) to encourage others.

This past Sunday was a vision/story-telling Sunday. I brought three people up from our community, who are not leaders, to share how they experienced God’s goodness in 2010 in the areas of Gospel, Community, and Mission. The stories are earthy, inspiring, real. They are not canned. And because of that, I hope you’ll find them helpful. They are little windows into an imperfect church, clinging to a perfect Christ, that is trying to live by the gospel, in community, on mission.

RENEW Resources

On Sunday we launched a new vision series called RENEW the CITY. We looked back on evidences of God’s goodness in 2009, and looked forward in hope for more goodness in 2010. Here are a few resources related to the Austin City Life RENEW vision for 2010:

  • Mission for Moms: Check out Little Helping Hands an organization that hooks parents and their children up with volunteering opportunities around the city.
  • Community Spotlight from Nixonsstory of gospel community in action from our very own Nixon family!
  • The Art of Patrick Watson fascinating article on the music of Patrick Watson, as reviewed by Miranda
    RENEW the CITY: Thanks for the Past, Faith for the Future –sermon audio and manuscript from Sunday

Top Posts of 2009

Here are some of the top posts from Creation Project in 2009. As you’ll see, just because they were the most popular doesn’t mean they were the most important.

Can Christians Believe in Evolution? (follow up with Keller’s new article)

Resources for Biblical Womanhood

Is Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder?

8 Ways to be Missional (without overloading your schedule)

Fight Club, the booklet

Gospel-centered Family Resources

Dark Thoughts from The Dark Knight

Why Do You Obey God?

Confessions of a Failing Disciple

Austin City Life Baptism

The Gospel in 3 Dimensions