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Tim Chester, co-author of the must-read, Total Church (with Steve Timmis), writes regularly on missional issues on his blog. Chester is a leader in The Crowded House – an international family of church planting networks – and within TCH, he leads The Edge Network in Sheffield, UK. He is also the director of the Northern Training Institute and co-director of The Porterbrook Network.

Recently, Chester wrote about what it looks like for a Christ-follower to have missional identity. Read his thoughts:

Mission as identity

For many people mission has become an event. We have guest services. Evangelistic courses. Street preaching. Youth programmes. There’s nothing wrong with these things. But mission is more than a slot into our schedules. It is an identity and a lifestyle. Mission is about living all of life, ordinary life, with gospel intentionality.

Missional communities

We are called to be missional communities – not lone evangelists. The life of the covenant community is to be a light to the nations. ‘By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ (John 13:35) Our love for one another reveals our gospel identity. The world will know that Jesus is the Son of God sent by God to be Saviour of the world through the community life of believers (John 17:20-23). This does not primarily mean inviting people to meetings. It is about shared life into which other people are welcomed.

Scattered communities of light

Imagine a globe in darkness with one point of light. That was Israel in the Old Testament, one point of light in a dark world, drawing the nations to God. And New Testament believers are still be communities of light, drawing people to God. We still draw people in towards the centre. But the centre is no longer one geographic location in Palestine, but a hundred, thousand communities of light scattered across the globe. We are not be like a lighthouse, occasionally sending a beam of light across the city. We are to be communities of light and hope and love in a dark and broken world at street level, on the street corner.

Here is Chester speaking on this same topic at the recent Lead09 conference:

Tim Chester Session 1 | Lead 09 from Atmosphere Church on Vimeo.

I think it is interesting to note that Chester places missional identity in the context of community. I would go so far as to say that mission divorced from community really isn’t mission in its fullest sense.

When God said to Abraham in Genesis 12, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing…and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you,” I believe He was saying that mission flows from within community. Oh, that we would be “communities of light” bringing people into the marvelous light of God’s grace.


I’ve been slow to get this up here on transformission but last week, my friend Ed Stetzer shared an exciting announcement that I’ve been talking about via Twitter for some time now in his post, “Missing the Missional Mark.” (In fact, that is why there has been little to no blogging for the last few months…)

In his entry, Ed said:

A few of us have talked and we are going to try to forge something of a definition (of missional) — at least for how we use the term. As part of that, later this year, July 12-14, I’m partnering with a few others to launch a new conference called missionSHIFT that I believe will help us with the discussion.

As a part of this conference, we are prayerful that a helpful statement can be forged on what it means to be missional. Several leaders in the missional church conversation (Keller, Hirsch, and others to be announced), who write about all-things missional, have already agreed to be framers for the statement and some of the framers will be at the conference for discussion and dialogue.

The intention of “The Missional Manifesto” is to allow the Scriptures to guide our understanding and involvement in the mission of God as it applies to the whole of life and doctrine. The document will strive to show how “missional” intersects with truths about the gospel, the local church, evangelism, missions, social justice, and contextualization, among other things.

The intent would be to say, “This is what we mean when we talk about being missional.” It is not our intent (or within our ability) to say this is what everyone should think or say about the term. Words mean different things (for example, “grace,” “justice,” and “gospel” all have different meanings to different groups). However, it is our hope that it will help us be clearer and more mission-shaped in our own thinking and practice.

I have had the privilege of working closely with Ed on this for the past few months so I’m excited to see this come to fruition. More about my role to come…

As Ed stated at the end of his entry, he is “resurrecting” his Monday is for Missiology” posts in which he will blog about all things missional. If you are interested in this conversation, this will be a great place to engage in discussion. This will also be the forum where we release additional names of those who are framing “The Missional Manifesto” and those who will leading our missional “labs.” Stay tuned…

Another way to get involved in the conversation is via Twitter. First, follow @missionSHIFT to stay up to date on announcements re: missionSHIFT. Second, if you have a comment about what missional is to you, make sure and use the hashtag: #missionSHIFT. Finally, follow the discussion on the tweet “wall” at the bottom of all the pages on the missionSHIFT website.

If you believe it is time for the church to engage in the mission of God, missionSHIFT will inspire and prepare you to cultivate a missional movement in your church and community. I want to encourage you to come to this conference.

If you are interested in coming, you can register here.


This was too good not to repost for you missional conspirators out there. From Nate Navarro of Austin City Life:

You are cool because you are “missional”. It’s true. Face it.

Forget the “mega”churches, the “seeker-sensitive” people, and those darn “prosperity” guys. They are all wrong.

First of all, they are not at all “organic” and cannot hang with our beards, pipes, and brews. They obviously didn’t read “Total Church” or “Tangible Kingdom”, know nothing of church plants or gospel rhythms, and they most certainly are not “in the city for the city”. Nope. We are.

In celebration of our collective coolness I propose we play a game called “Put your hand in the air, and if any of the statements below are true of you, put it down”.

Let’s do this !

1 You have used the word “missional” and you have no idea what it means, none whatsoever. Hand down.

2 You have a “heart for the nations” but have never left your homestate for anything other than a trip to Disneyland. Hand down.

3 You are really into that scripture that says “love your neighbor as yourself” (you bought the “precious moments” plaque, own the refrigerator magnet, and got the fake tattoo at the last Newsboys concert) but you have never had your neighbor over for dinner. Hand down.

4 You love “community” and believe the church is a “family” but if anybody in your small group talks too much or God forbid some unruly kid (with horrible parents) kicks your precious little angel in the shins YOU’RE OUT, no more “community” for you. Hand down.

5 You feel called to “serve the homeless” but akwardly ignore panhandlers on your way to Urban Outfittters. Hand down.

6 You believe in “acountability” but only confess sins that make you look good. While that miserable loser of a Christian sitting across the table from you is crying in his coffee over his addiction to pornography, you’re confessing that you aren’t memorizing enough scripture and that 30 minutes a day of prayer just isn’t cutting it anymore. Hand down.

7 You feel “called to adopt” but you avoid the Childrens Director at all costs because there is no way you are missing out on worship this week to watch those little brats in the Kids Ministry. Hand down.

There is a good chance that nobody reading this still has their hands in the air (mine are down…way down) and there lies the problem. Most of us are strong on ideas and weak on follow through, and it would be good to get honest about that as soon as possible so we can figure out where to go from here. I will suggest a couple ideas, and would like to hear yours.

1 We all need THE GOSPEL and it would be in the best interest of our churches, our families, and our souls if we committed to understanding and applying it. Nothing is more important.

2 COMMUNITY is not an option.

3 MISSION is what we do (not what we talk about).


One of my favorite authors, Marva Dawn, on sabbath. By way of The Work of the People:


If you are a pastor, this is a must see.

Darrin Patrick, lead pastor of The Journey (my home church and where I intern) interviews my friend Ed Stetzer, President of Lifeway Research and Lifeway’s Missiologist in Residence, on what he sees as the pressing issues within evangelicalism today.

I believe this is Ed at his best, bringing prophetic insight to a wide variety of topics that should be of interest to those who love the church and the Gospel. Enjoy:


I found this quote this morning as I was going through my RSS reader and thought this captured the sentiment of my recent post on “The Counterculture of Confrontation.” It’s powerful – check it:

“Instead of our being free to love and to plead, to warn and to rebuke, we are hung up with our own inner problems. We are inhibited. We are ourselves guilt-ridden. (“What will she think of me if I say that?”) We are not prepared to lay cards on tables or to call spades spades. . . . We beat around the bush, not because we’re tactful but because we’re cowards.”

– John White: Eros Defiled: The Christian and Sexual Sin

[HT: Ray Ortlund + Jared Wilson]



Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Ephesians 4:14-16 (NIV)

Those infamous words: truth in love. Isn’t it just like God to put together two things so diametrically opposed to one another and tell us this is how we should talk to one another. Man…

Here’s the problem. We don’t do a very good job with this. At all. Particularly in the area of confronting someone in love to bring moral clarity to a situation for them. My observation is that, in many ways, confrontation within the Christian subculture is actually countercultural within it. And it shouldn’t be. In other words, the very place where confrontation should be done and done well is within the Christian community and we are failing miserably.

Here’s my take. We have developed a Christian culture where it is not o.k. to be not o.k. We have locked into this individualistic idea that our sin only affects us, therefore minimizing sin as a whole. We have lowered the bar on our responsibility as friends, pastors, faith communities by saying that tough love is not support because “who are we to cast the first stones?”

Confronting someone by speaking truth in love is Kingdom work. When we call people to wholeness and commit to walking alongside them – no matter how tough those steps are to walk through – we are joining the King in his mission to restore and redeem all of creation. What a privilege.

When we stick our heads in the sand at the very moment when that person needs our voice in their life, we are actively rebelling against our King and saying to that person that as an image bearer of Christ, they are not worthy of our involvement in their life. What a shame.

The irony in this all this is that healthy confrontation in the context of the Christian community could be an amazing witness to the surrounding culture if done Biblically, but we can’t even figure out how to do this within our own Christian community. It has no potential for counterculture in the greater society when it’s countercultural within its own culture. Did you get that?

How do we expect the watching world to give a flip about our talk of personal and communal holiness when we don’t have the guts to confront each other in Christian community and spur one another to good works?

That’s just it. They are watching and they are growing increasingly apathetic. It’s time we give them something worthy of watching.
___________________

For more on this, read David Powlinson’s excellent book, Speaking the Truth in Love: Counsel in Community


I had the awesome privilege to baptize my daughter Margo this past Sunday @ Versailles Christian Church in Versailles, MO – the church my wife grew up in. Praise God!

Here are some pics from the baptism:

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And as a part of this beautiful sacrament, we all prayed this together to thank God for his work in our lives…

Prayer of Thanksgiving

In the beginning, O God, your Spirit moved over the water, and you created all that is, seen and unseen.
We give you thanks for the gift of water that sustains all life.

In the time of Noah, you destroyed evil in the water of the flood; and by your saving ark, you gave a new beginning.
We give you thanks for new beginnings.

You led Israel through the sea, out of slavery into the freedom of the promised land.
We give you thanks for the gift of freedom and the gift of the land.

In the water of the Jordan our Lord was baptized by John and anointed by your Spirit; by the baptism of his death and resurrection, Christ set us free from sin and death and opened the way to eternal life.
We give you thanks for our own baptism and the gift of eternal life.

The Lamb has come to lead us to springs of living water.
We give you thanks for the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.


margo-xmas

Parents often forget that their most important mission field is the home. Living missionally as parents means that God’s goodness should infect our homes as we humbly live out the power of the Gospel in our own lives. And as this happens, we pray God will woo our children to his saving grace.

I am so excited to share that last night, I had the privilege to lead my daughter Margo in a prayer of faith and trust in God’s grace for her salvation. What an unbelievable opportunity! Since Cooper trusted in Christ back in January 2008, Margo has been asking a lot of questions. There have been many moments over the last year of her life where I thought I saw the “lightbulb” come on for her, only to be convinced that she needed some more time.

Last night, we were reading the story of Jesus and the children from Matthew 19 from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones (an amazing Gospel-centered children’s Bible) and I could tell that something clicked in Margo’s spirit. She got it. The part of the story that she resonated with said this:

…no matter how clever you are, or how good you are, or how rich you are, or how nice you are, or how important you are – none of it makes any difference. Because God’s love is a gift and, as anyone will tell you, the whole thing about a gift is, it’s free. All you have to do is reach out your hand and take it.

…You see, children loved Jesus, and they knew they didn’t need to do anything special for Jesus to love them. All they needed to do was to run into his arms…

After I read this, Cooper said, “That’s what I did, Dad,” and Margo said, “That’s all I have to do, Dad?” I told her yes. It knew it was time. It had all been leading to this moment. We went upstairs and we talked for a bit and prayed together. Wow…

What is beautiful about this is that Cooper was drawn to the saving knowledge of Christ through the Word by the same Bible almost a year and a half ago. God’s word is alive!

She is so excited to get baptized, especially to show her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins about her decision, but she is almost more excited to take communion as a family. At The Journey, we come forward to take communion and Holly, Cooper, and I have been doing this together for the past year and a half. Margo has been joining us as we go forward but not partaking. She has been asking more questions lately about what the elements represent.

I think this has been another big part of her journey to Christ. It reflects what can happen when, as an ordinary family, as Tim Chester and Steve Timmis say, you do ordinary things with Gospel intentionality. Just having Margo around the sacraments made an impact on her. It drew her into wanting to be a part of God’s family.

I thank the Lord for the professions of faith of Cooper and Margo and continue to pray for my two youngest, Sloan and Everett. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord…

For further reading, the following post was written in January 2008 and captures my heart on bringing the Gospel to your children, highlighting what is most important and exposing some misconceptions. I would encourage you to read: Bringing the Gospel to your Children: What I’ve Learned So Far


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