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Brent Thomas, lead pastor of Church of the Cross in Phoenix, has posted on some of his reflections on Verge, a conference that focused in on gospel-centered missional community.

Thomas says in his post, “Missional Communites Are Great And All, But Now What?! Transitioning to Missional”:

One of the take-aways for me from this conference was that there is a tremendous outpouring of frustration with the American church and its consumeristic mindset and business-like models. There is also a growing consensus that missional community rather than programs might be one of the answers to this growing frustration.

But Thomas knows that transitioning to missional will be extremely difficult for many pastors:

While much of this is refreshing and even exciting, it may in fact be frustrating for a good many pastors. I spoke with several pastors who attended the conference who actually left the conference quite frustrated because the churches to which they were returning were so far away from this model. The obvious, overwhelming and unclear question here for many pastors is how to get from here to there: how do you transition a traditional, American program-driven church to missional?

Thomas gives us 8 things to consider when transitioning to “missional”:

1. Go slow
2. Be theological/scriptural
3. Clearly define your terms
4. Lead by example
5. Don’t neglect community
6. Center each community around a tangible mission with the clear end-goal of making disciples
7. Celebrate successes/share stories
8. Focus on Jesus

Read Thomas’ entire post here to see how he fleshes out these points.


I wrote last week about an exciting conference that was held in Austin called Verge – a conference by all accounts was catalytic for many re: gospel-centered missional community.

In my best estimation, the format of the conference was built around the six chapters (or ingredients) in section two, “A Journey to the Heart of Apostolic Genius,” of Alan Hirsch’s must-read book for all missional practitioners, The Forgotten Ways: Reactivating the Missional Church. The chapter titles are:

1. Jesus is Lord
2. Disciple making
3. Missional-incarnational impulse
4. Apostolic environment
5. Organic systems
6. Communitas

Here is Alan talking about these ingredients for missional community DNA via D.J. Chaung at Verge:


All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
Matthew 28:18

============================================================

Andreas Kostenberger, professor of New Testament at SBTS and editor of The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, looks at how Jesus’ authority emboldens his followers to join in God’s mission without fear.

Kostenberger:

…it is only after the crucifixion that Jesus claims to have all authority in heaven and on earth. It is the risen Christ who, in the manner of a conquering, victorious general, ascends the mountain and commissions his followers to go and conquer the worlds, similar to Alexander the Great and other military leaders who set out to subdue the universe and subject it to their will. But Jesus’ will be a gentle conquest…

He continues:

…as his followers go into all the world in order to disciple the nations, Jesus himself, Isaiah’s Immanuel, which is translated “God with us” (Matt 1:23), will be with them: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” How, then, can the church’s mission possibly fail, if Jesus, the risen Christ, the conquering general, will himself be present with his people in the power of the Holy Spirit?

Read the entire post here.


Tim Chester:

Mission is not one thing we do among others. Mission is central to the Bible story and central to our identity. We are missionary people. We are communities on mission.

Creation: God made humanity with a mission: (1) to fill and govern the earth, and (2) to be his image in the world, reflecting his glory. We create, we explore, we investigate, we cook, we clean, we repair, we do science and culture and art – all to the glory of God.

Fall: After our rebellion our mission distorts and turns inwards. At Babel humanity (1) comes together instead of being scattered (2) to a name for themselves instead of glorifying God (Genesis 11:4).

Abraham: ‘All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’ (Genesis 12:3) God chooses Abraham for the nations. The Saviour will come from Abraham’s descendants. See Genesis 18:18-19. The nations will be blessed as God’s people walk in his ways and ‘do’ justice. People will look on and see it is good to know God.

Continue to read how Chester traces “mission” through the metanarrative of the Exodus, Israel, the Prophets, Jesus, the church, the new creation, and God’s coming kingdom here.


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.


Mark Roberts, Senior Director and Scholar-in-Residence for a phenomenal conference center called Laity Lodge in the Hill Country of Texas, is blogging through the classic book by John Stott, Christian Mission in the Modern World.

His recent installment deals with the implications of the Great Commission. Citing Stott, Roberts says:

The Great Commission neither explains, nor exhausts, nor supersedes the Great Commandment. What it does is to add to the requirement of neighbor-love and neighbor-service a new and urgent Christian dimension.

Further, he talks about how “mission” is both proclaiming and enacting the Gospel:

“Mission” describes rather everything the church is sent into the world to do. “Mission” embraces the church’s double vocation of service to be “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” For Christ sends his people into the earth to be its salt, and sends his people into the world to be its light (Matthew 5:13-16)

Read the entire post here.


Brad Brisco:

The reason it is important to recognize such language (“sending”) in Scripture is not only because it speaks to the missionary nature of the Triune God, but it also connects – particularly in the New Testament – God’s mission to ours. This is never more true than in the Gospel of John.

He goes on to say:

The primary focus of the Fourth Gospel is the mission of Jesus…therefore it is not surprising that John’s gospel is laden with the vocabulary of sending – the term and its derivatives appear almost sixty times.

Read the entire post here.


Dr. Ed Stetzer takes 30 seconds to explain what it is to be missional:

What Does It Mean to Be Missional? from The Resurgence on Vimeo.


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