Category: Missional Church

Missional Prayers of Elderly Saints

Posted on June 24, 2009

We need the prayers (and the wisdom) of elderly saints. My wife has befriended an elderly saint. We will call her Emma. Robie visits Emma with our two kids. It’s good for them because the average age in our church is about 30. Emma seems to really enjoy their visits too. Recently, Emma sent Robie this email containing a prayer for our church:

Dear Robie and all,

In my quiet time today, I was reminded that God sent Ananias to a street called Straight. Also I was reminded of Luke 3: 4&5, ” The crooked shall become straight.”  Then I praised God that you are going to the crooked to help them become straight! I’m believing God that He is changing East 6th St into a street called Straight,because of your ministry.  Miss you.  Blessings on you all!

Love, Emma

We need the missional prayers and insights of older saints. What an awesome prayer–that God would make straight the crooked street our church gathers on every Sunday, the infamous 6th St. We would appreciate your prayers as we move into more bars on 6th, prayers for the wisdom and power of the Spirit to engage the lostness in our city.

The Crazy Life of a Pastor's Wife

Posted on June 22, 2009

The Crazy Life of a Pastor’s Wife. That’s the name of my wife’s new blog. It’s candid and insightful. She also happens to be a church planter’s wife, which makes her double crazy. If you are a planter, and your wife doesn’t have a steady flow of fellowship with another planter’s wife, perhaps Robie’s thoughts will help fill some of the gap. Those kind of relationships are so important. If you’re a planter, her thoughts just might help you love your wife better, even to pastor better. Robie offers refreshing, challenging honesty wrapped around the gospel. Enjoy.

8 Ways to Be Missional Download

Posted on June 20, 2009

Due to the popularity of my 8 Ways to Easily Be Missional (and because I want to try out Scribd technology), I have included a downloadable version of the article below. Feel free to make as many copies as you like, provided the content is not substantially altered and proper credits are given.

Advice for First Year Planters

Posted on June 19, 2009

Here are a few tips for early stage church planters on everything from fundraising to evangelism:

  • Don’t forget to ask the pagans! If you are fundraising, remember that God used the pagan king Cyrus to fund the rebuilding of an entire city. He can definitely handle your church planting needs. Most pagans know more about your city than you do, and some of them love it more than you.
  • Spend more time with people and less time with books in the first year of church planting. Learn your city, know its lostness, love your city, re-learn how to share the gospel in your context. Fall in love with your target people. The more you know and love them, the better your witness to the gospel will be, including your preaching.
  • Identify the top 10 Obstacles to the Gospel in your Context. Don’t do this from the armchair, do it from anecdotes (conversations) and cultural exegesis (spending time in pockets of resistance or indifference).
  • Identify the top 10 Obstacles to the Church in your Context. Anecdotes and exegesis. Learn the history of hypocrisy in your city or town so that you can apologize and distance yourself from mockeries of the Church. What do people think of when they think “church”?  Have they ever gone to one? Why did they stop?
  • Don’t spend ungodly amounts of money or time on developing your first website. It will all change anyway, several times. You should be with people, not websites and blogs (!). Here are two good, inexpensive web solutions for early stage church planting: Church Root & Clover Sites.