Tag: Ed Stetzer

Simple and Missional are not Church Models

Posted on November 11, 2008

Loved this from Ed Stetzer’s new article, “Simply Missional”:

There are so many unaddressed issues in our books (intentionally so) that prevent “missional” and “simple” from being comprehensive church models…

All types of churches should be simply missional. What we are advocating is for church leaders to distill their ideology of what church is to the irreducible minimum that defines a church as God’s gathered people, sent to a particular community as His redemptive gift to that community.

We need all types of missional churches–big, small, traditional, contemporary, with country music (did we say that?), hip-hop, some with guitars, some with organs. We need churches in homes and churches in well-marked buildings.

The container is not the issue. The issue is not staying contained.

Churchplanting Landmines

Posted on October 21, 2008

In his book Church Planting Landmines, Gary Rohrmayer and Tom Nebel warn planters of ten landmines to avoid, especially post-launch. In the Foreward, Ed Stetzer writes:

Most of us don’t listen well. I usually don’t. Most of us have to learn by painful mistakes. Yet, those who God blesses most are those who listen best. This book could save your church plant. More importantly, it could save your marriage, your health, your ministry, and so on…if you listen.

In summary, here are the 10 Church Planting Landmines:

  1. Ignoring personal health and growth
  2. Lack of leadership development
  3. Leadership backlash
  4. Personal Evangelism Entropy
  5. Corporate Evangelism Entropy
  6. Inadequate Enfolding Strategy
  7. Fear of Money
  8. Underestimating Spiritual Warfare
  9. Misfiring on Hiring
  10. Delaying Missions Engagement

Missio ad Gentes

Posted on October 15, 2008

Being a “missionary” in North America is common parlance among church planters and missional advocates, and though center of gravity of global Christianity has certainly shifted to the South and East, I don’t think that puts the West on an even mission field with many non-Western places. To be sure, we should all redemptively engage peoples and cultures with Pauline missionary passion, but more than passion is at play in planting missional churches.

In order to effectively mobilize and strategize for the global glory of God, it seems that the missional movement needs to hold missio Dei in one hand and missio ad Gentes in the other.

Read the rest here…