By Brad Brisco
Within the missional conversation people often speak of how God’s mission (the missio Dei) needs to be the organizing principle around which all activities of the church should operate. In other words, participation in God’s mission should inform or shape how the church does small groups, youth ministry, children’s ministry, corporate worship, teaching, etc.
By Beau Crosetto
26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” Mark 4
Today I am sick in bed 🙁
But I am thinking about all the work we are doing here in Los Angeles and some of the things that have not come to fruition yet are giving me anxiety.
By James Choung
From Numbers 10.29-32, Moses is having an interesting conversation with his brother-in-law, Hobab. In the previous chapter, it was clear that God was leading the camp. When His cloud lifted, they would march. When it settled, they would stay. And they would follow the cloud.
What’s clear is that God is guiding them, right?
But when Hobab declares his intent to leave the Israelite community to head back to his family in Midian, Moses begs him to stay. His reason? “You know all the best places to camp in the wilderness. We need your eyes.”
Wasn’t God leading them?
Kimberly Culbertson is a Shepherd Teacher who recasts the story of identity and community. She has taught in the inner city of Chicago, founded a publishing company, and designed group life strategy for both Axis at Willow Creek Community Church and for the newly-launched Mission Church. These days she works as Forge America’s Director of Communication & Care, where she gets to help equip missional leaders all over America, and blogs at BeBeloved.com, where she journeys alongside some amazing women in pursuit of healthy identity. As wife to Ben, mommy to Jack, and family-by-choice to Christa, Zeke, Zekie, and Elli, she spends her energy to move her family toward a full life. Kimberly is a recovering approval addict, a paint brush loving workaholic, and a walking billboard for hope in all its many manifestations.
We Culbertsons are an adventurous family.
In just over a decade of marriage, we’ve moved into Chicago to teach at an inner-city high school, adopted some family-by-choice, started an independent publishing company and snarky Christian literary journal, moved to help plant a church, and then moved again to become apartment missionaries in Schaumburg, Illinois.
After this last move, we started to refer to ourselves as gypsies.
Here is a great post from Linson Daniel’s blog I came across. Check it out
I have been discouraged to see many young men losing vision for their lives. I have observed this both on campuses and churches at which I speak. It seems that many men are caught in perpetual adolescence. They don’t want to move into the “major leagues”. Some of these men see themselves as 16-yr old boys, and consequently everyone treats them that way.
All the InterVarsity Greek Staff
I like going to conferences and being around people, especially when they are helpful. But lets be honest, we have all been to bad meetings, conferences and retreats.
A couple of weeks ago I went to Greek Staff Conference (where all the InterVarsity staff that work with fraternity & sorority students gather) and it reminded me how much I love these meetings.
So it made me think, as an apostolic evangelist, why do I love them so much?
By Jon Hietbrink
As APE leaders operating on the fringes of traditional Christianity, we’re keenly aware of a couple things.
As movement leaders, we must obey Paul’s command to “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” (Rom. 12.11)–we must fuel our own fire.
By Sarah Carter
It’s a beach-worthy Saturday morning as they often are here in San Diego, even in the winter. But instead of soaking up some rays, I’m with a friend at church learning how to catch feral cats. We put out metal traps, line them with tuna, hide them in the tall brush and watch from a distance. Part of me has that rush of adrenaline when hunting something, and the other part of me is wondering…”What the heck am I doing?” (This thought becomes especially acute when I catch the cats, and then have to keep them overnight, lug them to a vet, and stand in a line to get them fixed. Lest there are some worried cat-lovers out there, we are partnering with a very humane organization.)
The reason I’m spending my Saturdays catching cats is because our church property has become a breeding ground for wild cats, with litters of kittens in the bushes, pooping all over the property. It might not be that big of a deal, if you can stand stepping in cat poo every now and again, and avoid the cats criss-crossing the church grounds.
Mike Breen’s new book Leading Kingdom Movements comes out tomorrow! I want to buy it and you should too. Here is a taste and follow my link to see more from this book and even download a few chapters if you like!
There seem to be seasons where the world doesn’t just need change, but is actually begging for it. It’s aching for it, desperate for it. That’s how the world was in Jesus’ time. And I believe we find ourselves in that world today. This book is about learning to lead Kingdom movements that just might be able to produce that kind of change.
You may be wondering, “What is the history of the missional church? How did all this start?” Well here is a great place to read more about it. Brad Brisco does a great job laying out the foundation on his blog. Here is an excerpt here.
The Influence of Lesslie Newbigin
Upon returning home to England in 1974 from missionary service in India for nearly 40 years, “Newbigin took up the challenge of trying to envision what a fresh encounter of the gospel with late-modern Western culture might look like.”[4] In the book Foolishness to the Greeks, he posed the question: “What would be involved in a missionary encounter between the gospel and this whole way of perceiving, thinking, and living that we call ‘modern Western Culture?”[5]