One of my blog posts that garnered the most ever comments was one questioning whether the incarnation is a right model for mission as expressed in the oft repeated phrase, ‘incarnational mission’. So I was interested to see two people independently questioning it along similar...
As church leaders it can be difficult to read the books we need to read. We are often overwhelmed with emergency reading—reading in areas of the church where we are deficient (e.g. children’s ministry, church discipline, missional church, counseling, best practices). We scour blogs...
Recognising our missional context means we can no longer assume the church understands the culture. We need to get to know our neighbourhood, its people, their stories, values, worldview and culture. We also need to recognize that, while many communities are still defined by geography, they may...
Tim Keller identifies the following characteristics of a missional church (in ‘The Missional Church’, June 2001). I’ve found them very helpful in encouraging groups to recognise what it means to engage with their neighbourhoods in a missional way. Keller says: A...
Jesus said: ‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ (John 13:34-35) We need to be communities of love and we need to be seen to be communities of...
We have found it helpful to make a distinction between proactive and reactive intentionality. As a team we may have agreed a specific missional focus. But this does not mean we should not take other gospel opportunities as they arise. Our lives (work, neighbours, school and so on) will bring us...