One of my all-time favorite missional practitioners (who hates the word missional, by the way!) is Kathy Escobar, co-pastor of The Refuge in Broomfield, Colorado, and author of Down We Go: Living Into the Wild Ways of Jesus (2011, Civitas Press). Kathy has been a co-conspirator with me in the TransFORM Network for the past few years, as well, and I’m just grateful to call her a friend. There are two Kathy-related items this week that I want to commend... Read more
Christianity Today is reporting: “A Presbyterian Church (USA) commission has voted 15-5 to allow non-geographic presbyteries. The move, which would allow churches to choose their own groupings for ‘missional purposes,’ follows defections over the denomination’s vote to ordain noncelibate gays and lesbians. The recommendation needs approval at the General Assembly this June.” CT has compiled reactions from mostly conservative voices (people like Al Mohler of the Southern Baptist Convention). I’m wondering what more moderate to progressive missional mainliners think of... Read more
Here’s that big announcement I mentioned would be coming yesterday from the Forge America network, in partnership with InterVarsity Press and the Sentralized conference: Lance Ford mentions “one or more” people could win a book contract with IVP, but you have to attend the Sentralized conference, September 27-29 in Kansas City, and you have to follow some instructions in how to submit your book proposal. (Instructions will be posted on the Sentralized conference website in the near future, apparently. UPDATE:... Read more
Missional slactivists, it’s time to get clickin’: Chase and LivingSocial are giving away $250,000 grants to small businesses, and Cindy Todd of the Snohomish Soap Company (Snohomish, WA) is asking for your vote! Just use your Facebook account to login and then search for “Snohomish Soap Company” and click “Vote.” Cindy (who also works with Tom and Christine Sine at Mustard Seed Associates) writes, “I’m trying to get this whole ‘parish soap’ thing off the ground. I’m competing for a... Read more
Here’s a quick recap of last week’s major highlights from the missional conversation: The new Missio Alliance network held its first regional gathering, as part of a larger conference at Northeastern Seminary, featuring David Fitch. Fitch used Peter Rollins, Brian McLaren, and Alan Hirsch & Michael Frost as his foils to discuss the dangers he perceives in the emerging missional church movement of: de-incarnationalizing the Scripture (Rollins), de-eschatologizing the kingdom (McLaren), and de-ecclesiologizing the Church (Hirsch & Frost). Fitch’s talk... Read more
One of the speakers at the recent Children, Youth, and a New Kind of Christianity conference — and one who I’m looking forward to seeing at Wild Goose Festival this coming week — was Dori Baker, who also happens to work for the Fund for Theological Education. Dori has written a fabulous new book called The Barefoot Way that invites youth and young adults (and the people who walk with them) to “spend 10 minutes a day [for 21 days]... Read more
David Csinos and Brian McLaren recently collaborated on the landmark Children, Youth, and a New Kind of Christianity conference in Washington, D.C. I wasn’t able to attend, but the conference was well attended and well documented by those who did. On the heels of that event, Csinos and McLaren have just published “Breaking the Bubble Wrap,” the cover story to the latest issue of Sojourners magazine, in which they continue this conversation about “nurturing an incurable, chronic, and healing passion... Read more
Could it really be that simple? and that difficult? That’s the message of a cool new video produced by the Fund for Theological Education, which calls it “an open invitation for a new generation of leaders to hold the church accountable by becoming a part of it.” Become a part. Participate. The question is: Will they? Will we? Read more
It’s such a great question. It’s a very missional question. That’s the question that Sarah Bessey builds to in her recent blog post “Ringing Doorbells.” Bessey talks about the joys and challenges of doing missional youth ministry with “a few lonely kids” in her neighborhood: “… over the years, as I’ve been committed to missional life in actual practice rather than theory, a life that seeks to be outside of structures and institutions and programs and models, centered on embodying... Read more
I’m always fascinated by what Leonard Sweet has to say, and his comments in this recent interview with Steve Gladen, Pastor of Small Groups at Saddleback Community Church, were no exception. Len suggests that “this missional component is huge” for the content of large church small group gatherings: “The download today is not just ‘your baptism is your ordination into ministry’ [but] your baptism is your commissioning as a missionary. You have a ministry to the body [of Christ] and... Read more
Missional Shift
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