How to Plant a Church
via www.youtube.com
A Missional Church for the World
“The church doesn’t exist for itself; it exists to serve the world. It is not ultimately about the church; it’s about the people God wants to bless through the church. When the church loses sight of this, it loses its heart.”
Missional: The Origin of the Missio Dei from Barth
Here’s a little bit more from Barth for you (from the book, “The Witness of God”):
CA missionary, Phil Graf on the trans-cultural Missional Life
via www.youtube.com
Missional Church in Europe
Diego from Uruguay Talking about Missional
Diego is a part of one of our projects in Latin America. The Project's name is El Living Listen as he explains the unique nature of doing mission in Uruguay.
The Church as Sign, Foretaste & Instrument of God’s Wonderful Kingdom
Just in from Spokane where Rob Fairbanks and I facilitated our second session of INFUSE, CA’s training in the theology and practice of missionary living. Some 70 – 80 leaders, missional pioneers and church folk participated in this second beta. From a presenter standpoint I think it went okay, though I feel I have yet to find a stride in presenting some of Lesslie Newbigin’s ideas. On a conceptual and very practical level, Newbigin has really helped me understand the church’s call in a much broader and more positive light. When Newbigin returned to his native England in 1974 after decades of cross-cultural immersion and ministry all across India, he recognized the dire need of his own culture to have what he called “a missionary encounter with the gospel.” The church in the UK had lost its ability to relate to the lives of normal people. It had failed to listen and adapt to the soundings of context, which left it seriously crippled in its capacity to interact and juxtapose its own key Story within the cultural milieu of secularism and emerging postmodern diversity. The gospel (which literally means “good news”) was no longer viewed as relevant to the needs and lives of Western people.
The Video Venue Farce: Why Video Venue is the Antithesis of Missional – by David Fitch
Help Us to Live Like We Sing
David Fitch on having a Purely Attractional Approach
“If you’re not careful (with the attractional ministry approach), you’ll end up looking back after 30 years of ministry realizing the high point of your ministry was that one moment in time when you finally got all 300 people to come to your church and be happy at the same time.”