Year: 2010

An Interview on Discipleship

Posted on August 2, 2010

Joe Thorn was kind enough to interview me on the topic of discipleship. I’ve included an excerpt from one of the questions below.

What is the biggest mistake the church is making when working to make disciples?

I can’t answer that question definitively. However, the dearth of suffering, the absence of hope, the trivialization of the Spirit, and the lack of mission among disciples of Jesus is terribly concerning. We have tried to minimize suffering through convenience, eliminate hope through self-made retirement, reduce Jesus to redeemer of the past, and surrendered any sense of discipleship as a call to die to ourselves that others may live. Instead, discipleship has been reduced to having a good marriage, handling finances well, raising good children, securing a future, and knowing your Bible. Our mission is very different than Jesus’ mission, our lives very different than Jesus’ life. This should scare us.

Read the rest of the Interview

Develop Missional Leaders in your Community

Posted on July 28, 2010

The GCM Collective Conference

GCM Collective Conference 2010: The GCM Collective will be hosting their first GCM Conference in Austin, TX this October, bringing together church planters, pastors, and leaders to collaborate on the practice of missional communities. This three-day conference will feature main and breakout sessions under the theme of GOSPEL, COMMUNITY and MISSION.

Speakers: Ed Stetzer, Steve Timmis, Jeff Vanderstelt, Caesar Kalinowski, David Fairchild, Drew Goodmanson and Jonathan Dodson.

More breakout and conference details coming very soon! Keep an eye on the site for updates!

The Porterbrook Network

The Porterbrook Network has launched a two year program for local churches to train up leaders. Porterbrook Learning helps Christians learn how to serve Jesus and his people better — whether they are church leaders, church planters, or simply Christians wanting to become more mission-focused. The course is flexible and has been designed to be integrated with your whole Christian life in whatever context you’re serving. It’s not theology for theology’s sake: the course is written by practitioners for practitioners.  http://www.porterbrooknetwork .org/

Gospel Centered Discipleship.com

Posted on July 27, 2010

Check out the new website: www.gospelcentereddiscipleship.com!

This is just the beginning of a discipleship resource site. We will be adding new books and resources this year. It currently features Fight Clubs, a way to promote grace-driven discipleship in your life and church. Some of the current features include:

  • Blog, Twitter, and Resources page that include articles, audio, & video.
  • An IN CHURCHES page that links to examples of other churches implementing Fight Clubs.
  • Preview the Book, order a Sign, or check out the FAQ.

What a Missional Community Isn’t

Posted on July 27, 2010

The missional leaders of Soma Communities, Jeff Vanderstelt and Caesar Kalinowski, have helpfully distinguished missional communities from various other church structures by stating what they are not.[1] In their helpful document, “Building Missional Communities” they state that a Missional Community is NOT primarily:

  • A Small Group
  • A Bible Study
  • A Therapy Group
  • A Socially-Minded Small Group
  • A Weekly Meeting
  • A Cell Group

This is both clarifying and intriguing. What then is a missional community? While missional communities contain aspects of these types of groups, they are not defined by one of these characteristics alone. Missional communities do study the Bible, often reflecting on a sermon or a passage of Scripture. They do provide gospel-centered counsel (not therapy) for one another. They are socially minded and socially active, frequently engaging the social needs in their part of the city. They do meet numerous times a month for a more formal gathering, but their community is not restricted to a meeting. Like a cell group, City Groups are evangelistic; however, they practice evangelism within a much larger understanding of mission and nature of the church.

What then is a missional community? A Missional community is a local community that gathers and scatters throughout the week to share and show the gospel of Jesus Christ in their cities (towns, villages, or suburbs). They are where the church can be the church to one another and the city. Missional communities are shaped by three primary elements—Gospel, Community, and Mission.[2]

[1] Vanderstelt and Kalinowski, “Building Missional Communities.” I have adapted their list. See www.gcmcollective.com/resources for more.

[2] This post is an excerpt from the chapter, “What is a Missional Community?” in my forthcoming book on this topic.