Great Prelaunch Vision Video on Local Predicament
Uncovering your Kingdom Concept is practice along the Vision Pathway to answer the question, “What can your church do better than 10,000 others.” In defining this reality for each church we look closely at Place (Local Predicament), People (Collective Potential) and Passion (Apostolic Esprit).
Jack Thomas is a church planter launching in urban Pittsburgh in May of 2010. I not only love his cultural exegesis, but the succinct and quality way he is communicating his Local Predicament via video.
Missional Renaissance Notes from #Leadnet
Here are Reggie McNeal's highlights from the Leadership Network today. (twitter hashtag is #Leadnet) The Missional Renaissance Leadership Communities (LC) is a 2 year process where 10-12 teams from across the country gather for hard core collaboration, strategy development and accountability. I am here with Gloria Dei Lutheran church who is currently walking through Auxano's Vision Pathway.
- Until we see the church as a who and not a what, we will be stuck and will not become missional.
- Missional definition: "The people of God partnering with God in his redemptive mission in the world"
- The church in the NT is never smaller than a city.
- The church doesn't have a mission, the mission of God has a church.
- A great question to engage people- "How can I ask God to bless you today?"
- God created us to cut us in on the deal of world redemption.
- We are tired of the thinking, "If we fix the church we will be able to impact the world."
- In discussing the joy, surprise and new openness of someone who goes on a short-term mission trip, Reggie asks, "What if we saw our whole life as a mission trip."
Reggie on Apostolic Leadership (AD 30 Leadership)
- Reggie prays, "Lord help us to know what you have put in our backpack, so we know what road to be on." (I love that quote BTW with regard to Church Unique.)
- Reggie prays, "Lord, help us to be captured by what captures you."
- "Imitate me" is not hubris, it is the height of accountability. Apostolic leaders go first and ask others to follow."
- Apostolic leaders have the stink of Jesus on them.
- Apostolic leaders have five qualities: Visionary, Listeners, Risk-takers, Developers, Glad when others win (Kingdom-minded)
- Five actions to become more apostolic: 1) Face your fears, 2) Lose control, 3) Retool, 4) Reallocate your resources, 5) Go first!
Gospel Clarity in 10 Words or Less
As a clarity evangelist, I can't think of anything more important to be clear on than the gospel. In the book Church Unique, I play with the idea of "10 words or less" when articulating the most important stuff of church life and church vision. The best leaders can and must communicate their biggest ideas in short, simple ways.
I was excited therefore, that Demian Farnworth, who blogs at Fallen and Flawed, asked 12 fellow bloggers to articulate the gospel in 10 words or less. The biggest ideas possible, and the grandest story ever told, put to as few strokes on the keyboard as possible. He asks us to consider this "micro-theology, petite-worship, and nano-sermons." Here are the results:
“Jesus’ death and resurrection completes God’s plan to redeem mankind.” Don Dudley, You See Dry Bones
“Christ’s blood seals God’s promise to reconcile us with Him.” Eric Ruhnow [Who Tends the Fire]
“Jesus’ blood calls, converts, cleanses, cures, carries the once condemned.”Abigail [abigail's leftovers]
“Blood-bought covenantal intimacy with God for sinners through Jesus.” Daniel Wilson [Desire for Spiritual Growth]
“Repent of your sins / trust in Christ alone for salvation.” Devotee of Francis Turretin [Thoughts of Francis Turretin]
“Christ’s death: rescued from self-made destruction, adopted as God’s child.”Emily Schankweiler [A Sacrifice of Praise]
“Restoring all things by the life and death of Jesus.” Nathan Bliss [bliss]
“Whole world sorted, put right, made friends again through Christ.” Andrew Jones [Tall Skinny Kiwi]
“Christ died for our sins, was raised and is Lord.” Trevin Wax [Kingdom People] quoting Martin Luther.
“Man must repent and believe in the Lord Jesus.” Michael Patton [Parchment and Pen]
“Be sick. Be loved.” Jon Acuff [Stuff Christians Like]
“Adoption through propitiation.” Kevin DeYoung [DeYoung, Restless, Reformed] quoting J. I. Packer
Craig Groeschel: How Much Do You Believe the Gospel?
Craig challenged over 3000 church planters at Exponential by considering three levels of belief in the gospel:
1) I believe the gospel enough to benefit from it.
2) I believe the gospel enough to contribute comfortably.
3) I believe the gospel enough to give my life to it.
Then he brought the hammer. The clarity is not the identification of these three levels, but the realization that success in level 3 can lead you to cross back into level 2. Craig admitted his own struggle with this dynamic and challenged young leaders to be prepared for the temptation.
Innovation3 Highlights #i3
I had a great day of assessment today with Marty Nicholas and the team at Sugar Land First United Methodist. One of the things that Marty mentioned is that he was bummed to have missed the i3 conference by Leadership Network last month. Well many thanks to the folks at Leadership Network for their knowledge capture of the conference. Check out these one page links:
|
Risk & Failure Turning Your Biggest Idol into Your Biggest Benefit (Tim Keller) How to Zig When Others Zag (Stacy Spencer) Righteous Risk & Repentence (Mark Driscoll) Try. Fail. Learn. Adjust. (Craig Groeschel) What is Failure? (Pete Briscoe)
Shaping the Culture Monkey and the Fish: An Alternative and Contrarian Way (Dave Gibbons) Courage to Change (John Jenkins) Engaging Culture and Deeping Your Church (Matt Chandler) |
Provocative Leaders for a Dangerous Church (Nancy Ortberg)
20/20 Vision (John Bishop)
The Church on the Other Side: What Does the Dangerous Church Look Like? (Ed Stetzer)
Catching Up With the Rest of the World (Bob Roberts)
Missional Community
Lovin' Every Minute Of It (Dino Rizzo)
Challenging People to a Missional Lifestyle (Matt Carter)
The Foundations of Missional Community (Reggie McNeal)
What is the Church? (Neil Cole)
