As you make choices about what to do each time you gather, always run everything through the filter of your mission context: you are there to reach those people. Don’t expect your unchurched friends to do the culture jump into the church world – you are there as missionaries to that people group, so you must do the shifting!
As someone who helps lead a local church, and as someone who regularly coaches pastors wanting to learn how to lean into this whole ‘missional’ thing, one of the most frequent questions I hear is, “How do I start a Missional Community?”
Missional communities come in all shapes and sizes. And this goes for Missional Community leaders too!Over the years and in many contexts, my observation is that there are four main, but different, ways Missional Communities have developed.1) ‘Plant’ A core team of Christians (around 3 – 8 pioneering leaders) with some others interested & connected…
By Jessie CruickshankFor three years I played on an all-women’s flat-track roller derby team. I joined the team at the behest of my husband after the MMA gym closed and I no longer had an appropriate outlet for my energies. Always up for an adventure, joining roller derby held possibility. I knew going in that…
By Neil ColeI read an article once highlighting the missional strategy of a church. At Christmas time they sent their choir to the local mall to sing Christmas carols at the patrons walking past as a means to get the Gospel out. This was presented as a successful outreach. No one was spoken to. No…
By Neil ColeWhen I was a younger man, pundits often spoke about curtains that needed to be removed so that our societies could be open and influence one another, hopefully for the better. The bamboo curtain that kept communist China from interaction with the world eventually parted. The iron curtain that separated communist Russia was…
By Alan HirschLast week I suggested that the idea of incarnational mission is grounded in the being and purposes of God demonstrated in Jesus’ life, mission, and ministry. This week I simply want to underscore how the model of Jesus must inform and shape our methodology as we seek to follow in his Way. If…
By Alan Hirsch“Just as the Father sent me, so I send you.” (Jesus in John 20:21) As our name suggest, 100Movements is all about movement. We really do believe that an authentic movement form of the church is the only one that will advance the cause of Christ in the 21st Century. In seeking to…
By: Neil ColeFrancis Chan has used an analogy to shake up our view of church. He says: “Imagine you were alone on a desert island and had no experience at all with Christianity, and a bible washed up on shore so you read it cover to cover. If you then decided you would do church,…
By: Alan HirschReJesus the church!This is the first post in the series. For the next month we will focus on the first and most important mDNA Jesus is Lord and its associated competency, what we call Identity Declaring.Much can be said about the defining role of Jesus in the ecclesia…what we call the church. Christians have…