Tag: city renewal

Working to Renew the City

The topic of work is all to often absent from church pulpits and Christian conversations. Yet it’s where we spent most of our time apart from our beds. To ignore the Christian perspective on Work is to fail in discipling the church and living on mission.

On Sunday we began the conversation about how Christians can work to renew the city. How can we work in such a way that we bring renewal to 0ur city? Consider the following three areas and read or hear more about them here.

  • Make Good Culture
  • Redeem Social Ill
  • Share a Whole Gospel

How the Gospel Works at Work

The real challenge is to work these ways out in the context of your own workplace. City Group discussions will be helpful. In addition, I wanted to offer some practical resources from The High Calling, a great resource on all things Faith & Work. Here are a few of my contributions.

Later this week I will be blogging on Work Resources for particular city domains, i.e. Business, Technology, Arts, Social Services, and so on. Check back for more resources to work for the city!

My Fall Speaking Engagements

In case you are interested, I will be speaking at a few conferences this Fall. I’m honored to speak along the other speakers.

September 15-16: Acts 29 Bootcamp

October 9-10: LEAD ’09

November 10-11: Missional Network Gathering

North American Mission Board (NAMB) we will be hosting a Regional Missional Network Gathering on November 10-11, 2009 in Kansas City. The conference will focus on the topics of Missional Church and City Networks. It will begin on Tuesday, November 10 at 1:00pm and conclude on Wednesday, November 11 at 4:30pm. The two primary presenters will be Eric Swanson and Jonathan Dodson.

City-wide Church Planting Networks

We are in the foundational stages of establishing the Austin Area Church Planters Network. The network has grown out of a group of cross-denominational planters intent on learning from one another and catalyzing a church planting movement in the Austin area. After eight months as a grassroots movement, the AACPN is now formalizing in order to strategically facilitate a Christ-centered, context-sensitive church planting movement for social and spiritual renewal of Austin and beyond. The purpose of this emerging network is to inspire, network, and resource church planters.

The potential of this organization is inestimable. There is an incredible level of kingdom-mindedness among evangelicals in Austin. Our board is comprised of a diverse group, four church leaders and four planters, including representatives from Hill Country Bible, ABBA, First Evangelical Free, & ABA. Here are some of the benefits for developing a network like this in your city:

 

Benefits of a Network

· Offering City-wide Planter Assessment

· Networking with other planters

· Shared cultural, demographic knowledge of the city

· Shared Best practices

· Learning the church planting landscape in the city

· Kingdom Cooperation

  • Developing strong pastoral relationships and accountability

· Connecting established missional leaders with new planters

· Directing visitors who don’t fit your church to other church plants

· Catalyzing a cross-denominational church planting movement

If any readers are aware of similar networks in other cities, please feel free to leave a link in the comments section. We are eager to learn from others who are doing similar things.