imagining how the church can reorient around mission

I love this quote by Francis Chan.  He writes, “I don’t want my life to be explainable without the Holy Spirit." Forgotten God read more

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 One person has stated that hospitality is resistance.  In a world that caters to the rich, uber gifted and best looking, true Biblical hospitality is a prophetic voice.  When the larger empire disregards and dishonors certain persons, small acts of respect and welcome are powerful gestures of a greater Kingdom!  The apostle Paul commanded the Christian as part of what it means to “offer our bodies a living sacrifice…” to “…practice hospitality.”  This is not an option.  That really is what is amazingly attractive about Jesus for me.  He was not a respecter of persons.  I find myself in this dual processing battle daily on how to mete out my “precious” time, but Jesus seemed to sashay through the daily with an ease and acceptance of the moment…that each person he met held the same value and importance as the next and he stopped and ate.  He broke bread and drank (Luke 5:30) with people who probably could or would never repay him.  Counter-culturalism at its finest.

Luke 14:12-14 (The Message) – Then he turned to the host. "The next time you put on a dinner, don't just invite your friends and family and rich neighbors, the kind of people who will return the favor. Invite some people who never get invited out, the misfits from the wrong side of the tracks. You'll be—and experience—a blessing. They won't be able to return the favor, but the favor will be returned—oh, how it will be returned!—at the resurrection of God's people."

I would like to invite you to join us for the INFUSE training for missional pioneers.  Infuse is designed to equip existing and prospective missional leaders and churches in the theology and practical expression of “missionality” in Western culture, while seeking to identify and mobilize pioneers to embark on the journey of creating missional communities locally and beyond. read more

What do you think of my new look Blog thanks to Rogier Bos?

In an attempt to describe a missional ecclesiology in brief, I am reminded of one of the most

  influential theologians of the last century, Karl Barth.  He reintroduced the classic doctrine of missio Dei, this idea in scripture where you have God the Father sending the Son, and God the Father and the Son sending the Spirit, and then the Father, Son and Spirit sending the church into the world for the sake of the world.

via jrwoodward.net read more

Here I am in Belfast at the C.S. Lewis library.  Lewis has long been one of my hero's and Belfast was his birth place.

Brian McLaren has grown tired of evangelicalism. In turn, many evangelicals are wearied with Brian. His most recent book, A New Kind of Christianity: Ten Questions That Are Transforming

  the Faith (HarperOne), must be understood as his latest iteration of a project of deconstructing the old and reconstructing a new kind of Christian faith. In it, he poses a question that this review will seek to answer. It is a question he asks of himself: "How did a mild-mannered guy like me get into so much trouble?" Or, as he asks one page later, "How did I get into this swirl of controversy?"

via www.christianitytoday.com read more

While sitting with my friend Martin Robinson the night before last, the
topic of whether the church is needed to do mission in Western culture came up.
Many people that I know at this point are extremely interested in missional
living, but are taking on the attitude that forming churches simply clutters or
confuses their efforts.

Martin, who is a theologian and missional leader in the UK,
suggested we look at our Mission ventures with

  the picture of two tables. One
table is an open table, free for everyone to come and join and eat. He would
say that that is the missional venture part of who we are as Christians. The
second table, he would say is a “sacramental” table. The idea is that we invite
everyone to a large table or feast regardless of faith or background or gender
or anything else, but our call has to be to also invite them to the sacramental
table as well. Mine along with his experience has shown us that the sheer
mission without connection to the Christian community is a shortsighted
approach. The hope for each of us is that people become Jesus followers not
only now but in the future. The problem with doing unattached missional
pioneering is that there’s no tether or connective point for people to continue
to grow in their understanding, love and knowledge of Jesus Christ. read more

I am going to go ahead and step into being an apostle and a prophet – for the good of the underdogs.  I don’t care what is on my business card, or how big the liquid movement is, or how this might be perceived anymore.  I see that the underdogs in the city need more apostles and prophets.

via www.uffizimission.org read more