Renewal and Release - Part 1

Many years ago, a small group of believers challenged the reactionary autocracy that the mainline Church had become. The church had imposed a creedal legalism on the people that effectively separated the ordinary man and woman from the simple but life-changing message of New Testament faith in Christ.

This new radical movement wanted to by-pass the religious and clerical constructs of the day and call believers to a simple Spirit-directed, Bible based faith. They studied the Scriptures together; they relished their common unity around the bread and the wine, and they proclaimed Christ - not the rituals and intrigues of established religion. The ‘brothers’, as they were known, coined the old Augustinian phrase: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things love.”

The fearless preaching of their leader disturbed the Church and the religious culture of his day so much that he was put to death by the religious establishment of his day! 

I speak of course, of Jan Hus and the Moravian movement of the 1400s. Though their legacy was to pave the way for the first large-scale protestant mission movement and for the Reformation a century later, the entrenched church culture of the day pushed their little movement to the very margins.

The Scripture story by which we live is about the conflict between two Kingdoms and their respective cultures – The Kingdom of this world with its powers and principalities versus the Kingdom of God, so radically proclaimed by Jesus.

The story of redemption is about personal  ‘culture change’ – it’s being birthed into God’s kingdom, a new heart and a new mind leading to new attitudes and new behaviours. Discipleship is about the lifelong, intentional reflecting on our attitudes and behaviours in the light of God’s calling. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

The people of God are to be this peculiar ‘halfway’ people – journeying from Egypt to the Promised Land with God. Learning to put off the mental bondage of captivity and becoming the free covenant people of God – a Light to the nations!

And yet the Bible is marked by struggle, failure, grace and redemption. The people of God are always struggling to leave behind the gods of Egypt and Canaan. Every Judge and every King of Israel struggles with entrenched culture. Which god are we serving? Which belief system? The tribes and clans of Canaan are married into and slowly their culture becomes endemic and Yahweh is marginalised. All through the stories of the Judges and Kings there is a downward spiral ending in exile to Babylon – and then grace, and God grows a new shoot from the dead stump.

In the New Testament most of the letters are written to deal with cultural issues – almost none of the Pauline epistles are about ‘vision’ or ‘governance’ or ‘programmes’ – it’s all about Jewish Old testament culture or Gentile permissiveness or Gnostic super spirituality or the spirit of Rome – humanity’s greatest attempt at heaven on earth contrasted to the Kingdom of God’s culture - and it’s very painful for Paul and the other leaders! Two steps forward, one step back!

The history of God’s church is the same – The slide into Christendom with Constantine through to the valiant resistance of martyrs like Jan Hus, culminating in Martin Luther’s nailing his 95 theses to the Wittenberg cathedral door and unleashing a chaotic, powerful reaction to the decadent culture of the medieval church.
The evangelical movements or ‘Awakenings’ of the 18^th and 19^th century revolted against the immovably, nationalistic state churches of the era. You see it in the evolution of the various movements such as the Wesleyans, the Salvationists, the various Disciples, Adventists, Brethren, and others. These various ‘waves’ - overseas missions, Pentecostalism, assorted para-church movements, the church growth era, and the emerging church all emerged in response to ossified church culture and each birthed fresh, fluid expressions of faith.

Most new church h movements tumble out of such turbulence. How wonderful that the radical Moravian slogan of four hundred years before should also mark the spirit of new movement too!  “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and in all things love.” The rich chaos of the Spirit of that time spawned many related but divergent movements. Movements always diverge and differentiate into more sharply defined entities. Out of the turbulence of the book of Judges, comes the sombre orderliness of Kings! Movements have always become ministries and then machines and then slowly un-noticed by their now conservative guardians, they freeze into stone monuments. But God in his grace sows seeds into the cracks of the weathering stone and new green shoots emerge.

And now the wheel has turned again and in 2000’s the fresh new movements of 200+ years ago are almost monuments themselves. Movements tend to be chaotic! Their members ‘live a conviction’ rather than ‘go to work’. They are highly relational, green-zone, fluid, self-organising, team focussed. The leaders proclaim the story rather than the policy! They are prophetic! They are imaginative culture-shapers – and their people interpret and build the new forms, experimentally, under-the-surface, in poverty, by faith, with passion. They expect resistance and difficulty, and learn to negotiate the possible. Sometimes they die prematurely. Too often it’s the dominant system and culture and that asphyxiate them! 

We see that our inherited paradigms are failing! Australia is not a Christian nation! Our numbers are declining; churches are aging and for most of the younger people in our society they seem way out of touch! This is no longer about servicing our going concerns but with urgency praying for renewal and creatively going out on a limb. If we fail, so be it!

We don’t want to be like the good proprietors of Cobb and Co anxiously peering out at the noisy T-model Fords puttering along asphalt roads and then turning to design a better horse! Cobb and Co exists no more! In a few years the motorcar will either be in terminal decline or will have re-invented itself for a new age. We pray for a cultural shift. How can we avoid either being immersed in consumer modernity or fortressed off from the world in a 1950s bubble.

What we aspire for our churches is cultural shift: A missionary paradigm; a bible-narrative from which to live; a contextual mission mindset; a centripetal culture, a discipleship culture, an incarnational mindset; an empowering leadership; a ‘sent’ membership and so on. 

This is not about change of programs but change of paradigm.

So – what might we respond? Our methodology will need to be different. Culture is changed in vigorous relationships, in sound pedagogy, in personal spirituality, in self-awareness, in being enabled to become response-able. It means we need to be modelling and delivering the opposite to the command and control corporation.  New movements rarely flourish long in tightly hierarchical organisations. Edgy ideas come from the edges. Can our respectable institutions, really become  dangerous insurgencies?

Click here for Part 2

Renewal and Release - Part 2

(From Part: 1) ... So, what might be the cultural shifts we need to consider if we are to see renewal? Here are some to think about. What would you add? What would you subtract from the list?

Theology rather than Tradition: It is encouraging to note the shift in emphasis from traditions and rituals, to a focus on our beliefs and practices. Grappling with the core elements of the story of the faith seems to be becoming key. This is important because our beliefs and attitudes will shape our actions into the future. Rediscovering and retelling the 'Story' for this age is key to becoming a living movement of the Spirit

Renewal rather than Reminiscing: This emphasis is necessary because it recognises two elements: (1) The Church of the day can never return to the form of the first century church. The New Testament does not function as a template or Church Growth manual to imitate; rather it is a living narrative that inspires.  (2) Our hope is in the reviving power of the living Spirit! Truly churches need to become a renewal movement more than a reminiscing or a resistance movement. Often we talk about going back to the good old days,'but the New Testament story is not a moment of truth frozen in time, but God’s quicksilver shaking the powers of this world!  We are the people of Jesus who are sent proclaiming a radical message that challenges the trends and patterns of the current age! We should be the least conservative of all people.

Interdependence ahead of Independence: At one end of the continuum are independent Christians and congregations with little collaboration and shared ministry. At the other end are ‘dependent’ churches locked into hierarchical systems that can strip the church of its creativity and spontaneity. We need to learn interdependence. Different shapes and emphases collaborating at a growing level of relationship to learn what God is up to. If the idea of 'covenant' expresses this idea of mutuality. There’s something about the messy dialogical, synergy that comes from discovering new ways forward together.

Says Ori Brafman (Spider and the Starfish):  “Cut off a spider’s leg, and you’ll have a seven-legged cripple[sic]. Cut off its head, and you’ll kill the spider. But cut off the starfish’s arm, and not only will it regenerate, but the severed arm will actually grow an entirely new body. Starfish can achieve this remarkable feat because, unlike spiders, they lack central control—their organs are replicated across each arm. Starfish are decentralized. Starfish forces don’t have a leader, clear structure, or defined hierarchy. These seemingly chaotic qualities make Starfish unexpectedly resilient.”

Unity rather than Uniqueness:  I recall sometime ago, hearing a group discussing whether a new attendee to their church shared the “DNA of their tribe.” It got me thinking about both of those words in regards to churches we are familiar with.  What is the non-negotiable DNA? The temptation for any faith movement or Church that has gone through many decades of evolution is to collect heroes, pioneers, traditions and practices that are of themselves admirable – but that append to the core DNA. A group that was once inclusive, bit by bit becomes exclusive, as fewer and fewer outsiders quite share “our DNA.” Subconsciously, as mores and shibboleths increase, the conservation of all this extra DNA brings inertia. 

For followers of Jesus – the DNA is the person and body of Jesus Christ! Time and again the Holy Spirit needs to renew us, and the New Testament needs to align us with what Jesus is doing in such a time us this. We gather humbly around the table in surrender, unity and love with all and any believers and to go out into the whole world extending the compassion and hope of the gospel. 

It means we serve and labour across creedal and cultural boundaries, we celebrate that: “in non-essentials there is liberty”. The aim is not for ‘them’ to become like 'us', but for the DNA of Jesus to bring all the tribes together in: “... complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:23). 

What would it look like to reframe our faith-tribes as an incubators or a mission agencies of this DNA for the whole Church, rather than one tribe amongst the many? Similarly, descriptors like ‘tribe’ may need reconsideration. 

Our language defines us. A ‘tribe’ is at the opposite end of the social continuum to a ‘movement’. Tribes are highly conservative. They live to their tightly defined rights of passage and rituals – they are creedal. Gatekeepers ensure that foreigners to the tribe do not enter and bring their DNA.  How can we ensure that we do not fall into the trap of celebrating our own perceived ‘uniqueness’ rather than the overwhelming imperative to ‘unity’ and renewal in Christ for all God’s people?

Multiplication rather than Management: Church multiplication has been declining. Over the last few decades the emphasis seems to have been more on strengthening existing congregations rather than multiplying new communities. The Australian population is growing. New and creative church initiatives have the added effect of inspiring Christians to be creative; evangelise courageously; and create fresh ways of understanding faith. Denominations have been closing down more churches than they have planted. We need a culture that gives permission to new and diverse mission projects, even if some of them fail.

Formation ahead of Function: Where there is an emphasis on equipping and supporting and releasing people, the ministry take care of itself. As we develop mature Christians and leaders, they will discover for themselves the ways of Christ. Deep discipleship based on solid pedagogy and a living spirituality are vital. We have not done discipleship and leadership formation very well over the last two generations. Our emphasis must be on the culture and attitude-shapers not the behaviour or program-shapers. 

- As a wise old friend of mine used to say: “The role of a leader is not to change people or their behaviours, but to change attitudes. People with changed attitudes will change themselves and their courses of conduct.”

I wonder how the Spirit will do it? I wonder what we will learn?

A New Faith Community?

 WHAT? 

We are hoping soon, (some time later this year), to start "Haven" in the Mernda area. We are praying that Haven can grow into a faith community that is a genuinely safe space in which to explore faith with others and participate in the way of Jesus. 

Take note, everyone -- Haven is NOT yet active, we are still doing the groundwork! We will let let you know more information closer to when we are ready to start!

There are many people with a deep spiritual hunger as they grapple with questions of identity and meaning, and there are also many people who used to do church or who have deep questions about the Christian faith as they have seen it -- And there are so many living locally, who are facing a range of  life challenges without a community to encourage them. Loneliness and poverty are just two such issues.

We want Haven to be a compassionate community that forms over conversation, prayer and food rather than just starting with a traditional morning service with songs and a sermon (tho’ there’s nothing wrong with that)!  

To that end, we are thinking that initially, the idea will be to hold our regular gatherings either in a home (or in a cosy hall), maybe early Sunday evenings over shared meals. In time, of course, that could well evolve into other times, styles and activities. 

There are three ingredients to this:
WAYS: Taste-testing the ancient ways and wisdom of Jesus together. 
WORKS: Seeking to act as instruments of peace in our local communities and beyond. 
WORDS: Engaging in life-giving conversation around faith, meaning & identity. 

WHY? 
You may be aware, the area all the way from Donnybrook to the north-west of Melbourne through to Yan Yean in the east, and up north towards Beveridge and Eden Park — and down to Woollert through to Doreen is a massive growth area! Many houses are going up, and thousands more people will be moving in over the next 10-20 years. 

Already there is an awesome placemaking programme and new baptist church starting further west in the Donnybrook area, and there are other church groups doing amazing work too. We’re looking more towards the East, broadly in the Woollert - South Morang - Mernda - Woodstock area. 

We want to birth a missional community that could in time partner with other congregations and agencies to strengthen the emerging neighbourhoods. Initially it would be through the friendships that arise in connecting with other local people through work, sport, school and other such activities. In time it could mean initiating or partnering in some sort of social enterprise or meeting space that meets the needs of the community. 

HOW? 
We’ve spent the last many weeks considering how Haven could work; doing some research, lots of prayer and having great conversations with insightful people to test the idea and tweak the planning! 

During second term, it will be time to invite some key people to meet up and to run the idea past them more formally. That will most likely be April/May.

After that we want to ask some of these to prayerfully consider becoming the core group and to then meet from time to time for  for prayer, some orientation and to ‘road test’ the idea.  

Some time after that we would agree on a timeline and date to invite others to come and join in.  

Please pray with us so that we find local, mature people of faith to join us for this stage of the journey. If any names come to mind - send me a message with their details!  

Please be praying for the people, homes and neighbourhoods around the Mernda, Doreen, Woollert, Woodstock and South Morang areas!  

Pray too for the other church plants getting established through these northern suburbs! 

Starting something new like this needs the Spirit of Jesus to bring about life and fruit! We can’t do that ourselves! 

As Paul puts it: "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” (1Corinthians 3: 6-7).

Zac's Place | Sean Stillman

Inspiring story!

Discipleship: A discussion starter - part: 1

The idea of discipleship is at the very core of the commission Jesus gave to that first little group of followers: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19-20).

What is discipleship? A disciple was someone who learnt from a teacher, but unlike our modern understanding, the image is not so much a student taking notes and passing exams, but an apprentice who watches and imitates the teacher so as to adopt their behavior and practice. Disciples became like their teachers.

The apostle Paul described this learning obedience like this: "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”  (Romans 12:2).

Disciples do not simply accumulate information in regard to the teachings of Jesus Christ but transformation (metanoia) toward Jesus Christ in every way - complete devotion to God. 

Don't miss our Discipleship Conference coming up soon! We will be hearing stories of discipleship focussed churches and learning core principles from experienced teachers. It will also be an awesome time to get to know each other and share about how we see God leading us. We’d really like you to join us. 

Friday 24 Feb 6:30pm - 9:00pm & Sat Feb 25 8:30am — 2:30pm. 

   - Cost: No charge, we really would like you to join us!

   - We’ll be meeting at Diamond Valley Baptist Church 
   - RSVP to our church office by 22 Feb 2023  Office: 0409 667 008 or office@dvbc.net

The times they are a-changing! Part: 3

Many years ago missiologist Lesslie Newbigin presciently  wrote:

“The most important issue for the Western Church has been that it has totally failed to recognize that the most urgent contemporary mission field is to be found in their own traditional heartlands, and that the most aggressive paganism with which they have to engage is the ideology that now controls the developed world….” 

In our October- November 2018 sermon series at Diamond Valley Baptist Church, we are going to explore seven questions to help us reflect on how to function as a community of faith into the future.

I’ve created a mnemonic to help us recall the questions:

Picture a cross; with a train travelling on the crossbeam. On it’s funnel there is strapped a Go-pro. In the lens of the go-pro is a heart, and growing out of the heart grows a large rambling strawberry bush. In amongst the strawberries is a large tomato sauce bottle, and leaning against the sauce bottle are a number of ladders. Got it? Good!

Continued ... 

10 Signs That a Company Has a Serious Culture Problem

Leaders need an understanding of ‘culture’ and the power of organisational culture to undermine good intentions. 

Often the focus is primarily on developing vision rather than understanding culture. Get the strategy right; make the people fit into it, and the results will come. Yet we cannot change people or groups of people by proclaiming a fresh vision and structure per se.

Culture is about the unspoken assumptions or paradigms that shape our corporate practices and personal behaviors. It’s the narrative or theology or myths or learnt ‘skills’ that define our common identity. It will contain all manner of habits and attitudes, both constrictive and dysfunctional. 

New vision or fresh priorities or revised programs or re-structuring means change – change to the ingrained culture. Change is highly energy-intensive at best - but if there are dysfunctional cultural elements or if the leadership culture is toxic then the energy required to handle the resistance; anxiety and often hostility may overwhelm the good intentions.

This article in Forbes Magazine caught my eye recently. What would you say are the signs of an unhealthy corporate culture? 

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE

Fourth Place Consulting

Over the years I've had the privilege and opportunity of sharing with a wide variety of congregations and their leaders in their ministry work. That has involved all manner of interesting conversations and opportunities to participate in a number of activities such as:

  - designing and taking training for team members,
  - running leadership development programmes,
  - speaking at camps, services and retreats,
  - helping groups put feet on their missional dreams,
  - consulting around vision or governance issues,
  - mentoring leaders in their roles,
  - offering support in times of transition,
  - preparing reports and recommendations for Boards,

As these opportunities continue to arise from time to time, I've decided to get a little more organised via some everyday tools such as getting an ABN, setting up a web-page and getting a fancy name and logo! (I hope you'll take note, that Mr Gates company also has four squares for a logo!)

The webpage is HERE (or at the top in the tabs for this page) and will give an idea of the sorts of things I might be able to help congregations, agencies, pastors or leaders with.

THRIVING CHURCHES | PART 6 | THE RIGHT CHURCH SHAPE

Q 5 | DOES OUR SHAPE AND STRUCTURE REFLECT OUR VISION AND VALUES?

It is vital to have an organisational structure (and constitution and policies) that best supports the mission-field, vision and people. Sometimes it can be assumed that there is only one traditional ‘shape’ for a church or an agency, namely a Board; a Minister; and the Congregation with an AGM. Some churches think that the labels: deacons; elders and pastors define the only ways to organise, but often they can cause confusion because of the conflicting ways different Christians understand them.

THRIVING CHURCHES | PART 5 | INGREDIENTS

Q 4 | HAVE WE GOT THE INGREDIENTS FOR THE RECIPE?
 When my kids were little, one of the fun things to do was to gather in the kitchen on a Saturday afternoon and cook something together - usually a chocolate cake or chocolate brownies or chocolate chip cookies or chocolate .... something! You get the idea!

Trouble was as we read through the recipe, unpopular ingredients were downsized and  more yummy ones were increased. 

    "Two cups of plain flour"
        "Eww! I hate flour, let's just add one cup."
    "Teaspoon of cooking soda."
        "Yuck! That tastes totally gross! Leave it out!
    " Two tablespoons of cocoa."
        " No! Double that! We want it to be really chocolately."

...And so on.

Of course the result would end up a rock hard, bitter slab of inedibility!

We realised that to get the magnificent, shiny succulent results promised in the accompanying photos, we had to sort of, follow the recipe and include all the listed ingredients in roughly the proportions suggested.

To use a terrible metaphor, there is a metaphor here for us baking a 'church cake.' There are vital ingredients that need to be folded into the mix if we are to be effective.

THRIVING CHURCHES | PART 4 | VISION

Q 3  | HOW CLEAR IS OUR VISION?

Our future will not be about duplicating the thing we’ve done for the last few hundred years. Reggie McNeal makes the point that he gets very nervous if someone says to him: “I’m called to plant a church.”  

The reason is that because alongside our other social silos like politics, commerce, sport, home, justice, education and so on, Christians tend to add a new silo called ‘Church.’ This is where people go to ‘get’ personal religion;  ‘do’ worship and ‘find’ religious succour. What would it look like to re-envision our role as being salt and light across all the other silos rather than just becoming a new and separate silo? 

THRIVING CHURCHES | PART 3 | BIBLICAL FRAMEWORK

2 | WHAT'S OUR BIBLICAL FRAMEWORK FOR MISSION?

As well as a team of Christians with ‘missionary-DNA’ we need to ensure that the theology 'underneath' the new mission-project is coherent and understood by the key leaders. Our belief-system shape our values and therefore our practises and choices. That means the team-leader (or minister) needs to be a person who is well-grounded in the Scriptures and can teach with some depth and help others to engage and interpret the scriptures. It is vital that the team-leader is released to keep learning, stretching, reading, teaching, mentoring and speaking forth prophetically.

THRIVING CHURCHES | SEVEN QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

THRIVING CHURCHES | PART 1 | CHALLENGE

Some time ago, I sat talking with a friend of mine from interstate. She was telling me the difficult story of how she and her husband, along with another half a dozen or so enthusiastic and thoughtful friends had found themselves attending an middle-aged, traditional congregation of about eighty folk on the edge of suburbia. It had been years since there had been growth or fruitful engagement with the neighbourhood. Now, new homes were being built and young families were moving in. Some were already joining in the life of the church.

"Why Churches Close" by Martin Robinson

I enjoy reading Martin Robinson's Blog Café Vista on the Together in Mission website. Martin is an author and the Principal of Springdale College in the U.K. Recently he has posted a series of articles about church planting and renewal.

Here's an interesting recent post:

"Why Churches Close" by Martin Robinson

I am part of a network of churches that is planting congregations at a fair pace. That is the activity we love to talk about and celebrate. However, it is also true that for every three churches we have started we have closed one. That is not a bad average but we don’t often look in detail at the process that ends with a church closure.

I am very conscious that when it comes to the final conversation about closure, the underlying reality is that the church really died some 20 or 30 years before. My observation is that there are at least four key stages in the pathology of decline and closure. I wonder if you recognise any of these stages?

Stage One. The church has been successful and has even seen some growth but there are some warning signs. Leadership does not have a broad vision for mission and tends to treat their minister badly. The leadership and to some extent the congregation has been worried by the growth of the past – too many people coming in who are not quite like us –  there is an emphasis on “us” on pastoral needs, on quality issues around worship. Connections with

the community are downplayed, devalued on the basis that whatever we do for the community they are not suitable grateful and responsive. There is a feeling that this congregation is beginning to close in on itself.

Read the rest on the Café Vista Blog: HERE


The follow-up article explores what can be done to turn the decline around. Read it here: Life Beyond Death For Churches Near Closure.

Dream Dreams

“‘In the last days, God says,
    

I will pour out my Spirit on all people.


Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    

your young men will see visions,
    

your old men will dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17)

It was great to be sitting in the cosy meeting space at the Ascotvale Church of Christ a few weeks ago with about forty people from a range of western and northern suburbs – it was an inspiring Renewal conversation. Two of the things I particularly recall were someone saying that we need to be ready to do whatever the Holy Spirit directs! And someone else saying we ought not be fearful because we may be an older or a smaller church.

Why the missional movement will fail...

This is a thought provoking article by Mike Breen originally posted HERE 12 Sept 2011

It’s time we start being brutally honest about the missional movement that has emerged in the last 10-15 years: Chances are better than not it’s going to fail.

That may seem cynical, but I’m being realistic. There is a reason so many movements in the Western church have failed in the past century: They are a car without an engine. A missional church or a missional community or a missional small group is the new car that everyone is talking about right now, but no matter how beautiful or shiny the vehicle, without an engine, it won’t go anywhere.

So what is the engine of the church? Discipleship. I’ve said it many times: If you make disciples, you will always get the church. But if you try to build the church, you will rarely get disciples.

JUNE 28 2013 UPDATE

3DM European Senior Leaders Retreat at Horsey Green. Over a hundred people with a great diversity of stories. Diversity yet shared passion and purpose and perseverance. The mark of an emerging movement.

A Summary

Well, it's been a while since the Pilgrimage Conference finished up, and I've been thinking about the principles I've heard and observed. Meanwhile the three of us have headed up north into Scotland, through Edinburgh, up past Perth and to the Isle of Skye. Beautiful, stark, dark and rugged countryside. More about that later.

As a first go at drafting a summary list:

TRAVELLING!

Hey everyone, 

I'll be away from: Wednesday 5th of June and back on deck Wed 3rd of July 2013!

I will be in the U.K. with Esmae and our daughter Caity.

I will be involved in three 'ministry' related activities:

• The 3DM Pilgrimage Conference  10 - 14  June 2013 in  Sheffield.

• Conversations with a number of church leaders whose congregations have been on transformative journeys.

• The 3DM Senior Leaders and Spouses Retreat  24 - 26 June 2013, Oxfordshire.

In the meantime, Esmae and Caity, with a lamentable lack of commitment will be taking in the sights on our road trip, and taking no notes on missional church stuff! It will be a great blend of time connecting with some very insightful mission and ministry practitioners as well as travelling with my two favourite girls!

I am hoping to journal some of my learnings and reflections. So if these sort of themes interest you - stay tuned! 

Cheers,

Martin 

What is a Missional Community?

One of the inspirational speakers that I heard at  “Exponential: On The Verge” back in April 2011 in Orlando, Florida was Mike Breen (Bio is at the end of the article). The journey he has been on resonates with my experience. I believe that this could well be an approach that helps us in planting effective churches here in Australia:

What is a Missional Community?

By Mike Breen

Often times people use the phrase ‘missional community’ to describe the state of a group of people. It’s descriptive. The question seems to be, “Is this community missional?” Or, as Neil Cole says, “Is this community joining the mission that God is already doing?” Are we existing as a sent people? It is meant to be descriptive and rather general. The way that I have used this phrase in the past 20 years is a bit more specific and more as a proper noun. Just like the phrase ‘Worship Service’ denotes something quite specific, so the phrase ‘Missional Community’ originated as a very specific thing, identifying a type of missional vehicle that was created in the late 1980’s in the UK.