The other day I shared the conference audio from Calvin Theological Seminary’s conference: A Missional Reading of Scripture. The video here seems to be an extra that N.T. Wright did in the evening at Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI. If you don’t have the time or interest to listen to the Conference Audio, you should still check out this talk.
Disclaimer: I think what Wright has to say is great concerning the Mission of God and is spot on. However, I do not agree with what Wright says about The Fall and who Adam and Eve in the Q & A at the end of this talk. A literal Adam and Eve and a Fall into is essential to understanding the Gospel.
Questions:
So we recently did a series at our new church in Jackson, Mo, The Exchange Community called Identity. Here are the messages from that series.
Identity: Father
Identity: Son
Identity: Spirit
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I’ve learned a whole heck of a lot from Soma Communities, on Church Planting, Sharing the Gospel, and missional communities that we are implementing in the creation of The Exchange Community in Jackson, Mo. Recently Soma did a fast track training for their missional community leaders. This is some great material to go through if you’re leading a missional community or are interested in starting a missional community
Here’s the links to Soma’s Fast Track Training Audio/Video and their notes:
1. The Story of God // Caesar Kalinowski
The Story of God Training Videos One & Two
2. Vision for Missional Communities // Jeff Vanderstelt
3. Gospel, Power & Purpose // Jeff Vanderstelt
4. Gospel DNA // Jeff Vanderstelt & Abe Meysenburg
5. Gospel in Everyday Rhythms // Jeff Vanderstelt
6. Gospel Fluency // Jeff Vanderstelt
7. Creating a Disciple-Making Enviroment // Jeff Vanderstelt
8. Gospel Shepherding // Abe Meysenburg
DNA Guide // Your Story, God’s Story
9. Missional Community Covenant // Jeff Vanderstelt
10. Spirit Led Life // Jeff Vanderstelt
11. Spiritual Warfare // Jeff Vanderstelt
Here’s a link to all of their materials
Picture found here along with the post: Ten Reasons Missional Communities Fail
The Scriptures are often full of calls to humble oneself, take up your cross, deny yourself, decrease in importance so Christ can increase, to lose your life in order to find it in Christ, to become less of a focus so more of Christ can be seen through you. We often don’t find fulfillment in Christ or success in mission because we desperately are afraid of dying. Watch this short video from Jeff Vandertelt:
We’ve got nothing to really lose, and, surprisingly, nothing to gain either, in living life on mission. We have everything already! In Jesus we already have the eternal love, favor, and kingdom of our Heavenly Father! We have his unconditional acceptance no matter how we perform, no matter what we accomplish, no matter how we fail. The only thing we DO have to gain in dying to ourselves and living for God’s purposes is the precious life of someone lost who can be found through YOU. And what’s funny, is when we lay down our lives, desires, and preferences for the good of God’s kingdom and the benefit of others, we actually find life that if abundant, full, and meaningful! Our doubts, anxieties, and problems fade away because our eyes are off ourselves and are placed where they were created to be, on our Savior and on others. We’re then filled with the greatest joy of being on the grandest adventure of all as we join in Christ’s mission.
Questions:
Purchase the full talk from the Verge Network here for $2.99.
We walk by faith and not by sight. Jesus said being a disciple would be an exciting thing (Life to the full) yet also dangerous (Take up your cross and follow me). As we walk further in planting The Exchange Community with starting a weekly service the Enemy fights back. Yet I remember that God is faithful, we can trust in him. God is faithful, we can follow him. Why is that? We can trust him because all of his promises are fulfilled in Jesus. His victory is assured!
Check out this song that’s really speaking to me based off of Romans 8:
The Exchange Community had its second monthly gathering. The first service we talked about the Gospel. In this gathering we talked about True Community.
Our third and final monthly gathering will be August 28th at the Creative Edge. Then we’ll start weekly gatherings starting the 8th of September. Please pray that God would continue to grow his church and lead us in discipling those we reach.
Here’s a great short video from David Platt and Multiply on how pride sneaks into our disciple making.
Questions:
There is a lot of talk about faith in the bible. Both Jesus and the disciples call people to look to and believe the Gospel (The good news of God’s love and forgiveness through Jesus). Yet when Jesus commissions his followers, he doesn’t call them to make believers of the world, but disciples. Yet what is a disciple?
Watch this short video from the poet and artist, Propaganda:
A disciple is someone who learns from another. They learn to think like their teacher thinks. They learn to live like their teacher lives. When we come to believe and love Jesus, we want to then live for him. Yet how do we begin? Yes, we do want to read God’s Story in the Bible. But, learning to apply it is hard. Learning to walk in Jesus’ ways in the 21st century is difficult to understand without seeing someone else do it. That’s why it’s important to be in relationship with other people who’ve been, not only learning about Jesus and his word, but learning how to walk like Jesus did.
Missional Communities are a great way to learn God’s Story. Yet they are also great places to learn (with the help of other Jesus followers) how to walk as Jesus did. Life is hard, in-and-of-itself. Change is hard. Living a life of Loving God and Loving others is hard. Learn with the help of others. Find a family in a Missional Community at The Exchange Community.
Picture found here
This is a pretty good video about the problem of Church being inward focus instead of being outward focused. How should we live as Christians? What should be the focus of our churches? It’s worth a watch.
Video Found here
This is a great (and short) video from Caesar Kalinowski on two ways of viewing mission: Proactive vs. Reactive Mission.
What is your Missional Community’s Proactive Mission?
What reactive Mission opportunities is God revealing to you as well?
Go to the GCM Collective’s website and check out the great illustration that Seth McBee made to illustrate the difference between proactive and reactive mission.
Crossing my mind. Mind on the cross.
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