at the center of our mission: Jesus
- Filed under: Christianity, Gospel, Jesus, church, community, history, mission, missional, missional living, theology
- Date: Feb 6,2010
In Austin, Texas this week, over 2000 folks are attending Verge, learning from a diverse group of leading thinkers and practitioners of gospel-centered missional community such as Alan Hirsch, Francis Chan, Neil Cole, and Dave Gibbons.
In the opening talk on Thursday night, Matt Carter, lead pastor of Austin Stone Community Church, spoke on what Hirsch calls the heart of missional community, the theologically dense worldview: Jesus is Lord.
Carter told the Verge attendees this:
Missional community has the potential to be the thing that this generation will be remembered by – that will define this generation historically.
…I believe that missional community is the long awaited structure that the American church has desperately needed to unleash everyday believers into the mission of their everyday lives. For far too long, for too many churches – their story has been “come to us and we will feed you spiritually – we will provide you programs – we will make you comfortable with the idea of church.
…Missional community could awaken the sleeping giant of the American church. It is long past time for the American church to awaken from its materialistic, narcissistic slumber.
But Carter shared a warning:
If missional community is the only defining marker for our generation, then we have failed.
The temptation – the danger for us – is that we will love our mission more than our Savior. If we love our mission more than we love our Savior, then our Savior will have no part of our mission.
Read more of Carter’s comments via my buddy Jonathan McIntosh’s post here.
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