Don’t Be Afraid To Pray In A New Missional Community

Our Church Plant just started our third missional community. We had a few neighbors join us as well as a woman who just joined our church plant from our parent church. Our MC evening included a meal, some wine, and the Story of God.  I’ve partied numerous times with these neighbors.  Since  they know I’m a pastor, I’ve tried to be very conscious of not doing anything that would make them feel uncomfortable with me.  So out of all the times we’ve hung out, we’ve only prayed once before a meal.

Yet here we were, the second night of our meeting, and I offered to pray before the meal.  I tried to use the least “Churchy” tone and language possible.  I just spoke as if God was in the room, nodding His head, listening to me. We ate, read and talked about The Story.  As we ended the evening, I remembered that God was Great so I didn’t have to be in control.  I remembered that he already brought these people to hear his Story.  He engaged them greatly in our dialogue, and it was time to ask God to work in their lives.  So as we were ending, I asked, “Before we go, is there anything you are going through that we can pray for?”  Everyone asked for something to be prayed for.

The next day one of our neighbors came over.  Her prayers, which dealt with conflict with a few different people, were all answered the very next day.  We rejoiced over God’s goodness with our friend and neighbor.  My wife and I rejoiced even more that evening as we saw her praise God on Facebook and speaking of how the amazing ways He was working in her life.  Her experience and her witness would never have been possible without prayer.

Picture found here

 

6 Ways to be Missional with the Super Bowl

Millions of people are getting ready to watch the Super Bowl this Sunday. Personally, I’m not a huge football fan. Usually the Super Bowl is the only game I watch all year, but even though I don’t love the game, I love hanging out with people. The commercials and the food are always good as well. Yet can one use the Super Bowl as a chance to witness?

Here are a few things to think about being Missional with the Super Bowl:

1. Don’t hijack the Super Bowl.  Don’t have a bible study during the half-time show or the commercial breaks.  People aren’t going to appreciate a bait and switch, especially if it means missing things something they really enjoy on Super Bowl Sunday.
2. Host a Superbowl party and invite some unchurched people to get to know them better.  Also invite at least  2 or 3 members of your Missional Community so that relationships are formed between both groups.  This will make it easier to invite them to join your MC for the Story later.
3. Make it better. If you’ve been invited to a Super Bowl party already, how can you “Bring the better wine” as Jeff Vanderstelf often says?  Bring the best food or drinks.  Be the biggest helper to the host.  How can you make things better for everyone so that people are glad that the Christians showed up at the party?
4. Listen to others. As you discuss sports, the commercials, and life, listen to the stories others are telling.  They will give you clues to where the Gospel can be spoken into their lives.
5. See this Sunday as an opportunity to serve.  Ask the host if they need you to show up early to help set up.  Be quick to pitch in as needs arise, and stay to help clean when the party is over.
6. Pray.   If you’re hosting, share a quick prayer of thanks for the food and all your friends.  Pray before, during, and after, that God might show his love thorough you and that relationships and trust might be built.

Any other suggestions?

You might also like:

4 Ways to be Missional this Easter

7 Ways to be Missional this Christmas

9 Ways to be Missional this Thanksgiving

13 Ways to be Missional this Halloween

Picture found here along with some great Super Bowl appetizers

Don’t Go It Alone. Witness With the Help of Others

In luke 10, Jesus sends out the Seventy Two into the villages of the surrounding countryside to prepare people to meet Jesus. Before they go, Jesus gives them some instructions on what they should do. Remember how he sent them out? What was his first instruction?  He sent them out, two-by-two.

It’s odd that Jesus sent out the Seventy Two in pairs to share the gospel, yet we usually see witnessing and evangelism as a solo experience.  We see sharing the faith as our duty or burden that is seems so difficult that we never actually do it, or are not very successful at it.  Maybe the reason we aren’t great in witnessing to Christ is that we try to go it alone.

Our Missional Communities are not just support groups for individual missionaries trying to accomplish their individual missions, but they are a group of people who are called to be on mission together.  In our MCs, our most successful witnesses are ones that don’t go it alone but invite other Christians on the mission. The sending of the Seventy two shows us that this was Christ’s intention.  Now we don’t necessarily need to split into groups of two in order to reach people successfully.  But we increase our chances as we reach out in groups.

Some of our members continually try to reach their friends and coworkers and eventually invite them to come to participate in the Story.  Yet, they end up not getting very far.  I often wonder if it is simply too intimidating to come to a get-together when you only know one or two people who will be there.  It gets even more intimidating when you add religion to the evening.

What if we introduced everybody we were trying to reach to other members of our MC and church?  Some of our members do this.  They invite the people their trying to reach, and another Christian couple from their MC, out to dinner a couple times.  Others throw parties regularly and invite their MC members and also the people they are trying to reach so everyone gets to know each other over a number of months.  Then when it comes time to invite them to the Story, they already know a number of people there and aren’t afraid of not knowing anyone.

Don’t go it alone.  Witness with the help of others.

Consider the following questions and challenges:

1. Who have you been trying to reach recently?
2. Have you introduced them to other member of your MC?
3. Who in your MC would connect well with the person/people you want to reach?
4. How can you introduce them?  What kind of event, party, dinner, hang out, or entertainment would both parties feel comfortable in?
5. Make plans to introduce these two groups in the  next 2 weeks?

 

Also see, Missional Training # 19: Sharing the Gospel….with a little help from your friends

Picture found here

In The Beginning Was The Word

I love the opening of John’s Gospel.  It is maybe the most poetic peice in the whole new Testament.  Here’s a good video I found on John 1:1-14 by Jeremy Poyner: