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Ed Stetzer continues to introduce the individuals who will be serving as framers for The Missional Manifesto, as well as speakers for missionSHIFT (the conference that I have the privilege to be working with him on) which takes place July 12-15 in Ridgecrest, NC.

Are you registered for the missionSHIFT conference? You don’t want to miss it. Register here.

Here are Ed’s recent introductions and the best soundbites from his interviews with each of them:

Dan Kimball

Dan Kimball is on staff at Vintage Faith Church, planted in 2004 in Santa Cruz, CA. He is the author of several books including They Like Jesus But Not The Church. He is a columnist for Leadership Journal and Outreach Magazine. He is adjunct faculty at several universities including Wheaton College, George Fox University and Western Seminary where he teaches on church and mission. Dan is part of the leadership core for Origins, a new network focused on evangelism and the mission of Jesus to new generations. He blogs at dankimball.com.

(Dan will serve as a “framer” for “The Missional Manifesto,” as well as speak on what evangelism looks like in the postmodern mileu)

Kimball:

“I have so much excitement and joy for the church at large right now. Just the fact that we are now becoming so much more engaged in dialogue about what being on mission means is a source of encouragement for me. I really sense that there is a wonderful stirring happening amongst so many people and leaders about this. So the one thing I think we are doing better at engaging in God’s mission is that we are really talking about it now, both theologically and in praxis and living it out. It feels like a tide is changing right now about all this in a very hopeful way. What incredible impact could be made as we unite and rally around God’s mission all the more.”

Hugh Halter

Hugh Halter is the national director of Missio, a ministry team committed to training, developing, and apprenticing Incarnational leaders for the church. Within Missio, Hugh co-directs the MCAP, an online collaborative training environment for Incarnational leaders, pastors, and church planters. Hugh is also lead architect of Adullum, a local movement of incarnational communities in Denver, CO. As co-author of The Tangible Kingdom, and the accompanying Tangible Kingdom Primer, Hugh is an advocate for disoriented God seekers and loves to inspire and re-orient leaders around the mission of God. I was happy to write the foreword for his next book, AND…the Gathered & Scattered Church coming out through Zondervan/Leadership Network/Exponential in April.

Halter:

“The biggest hope is in the conversations that are going on. It used to be a fight to ask people to consider moving away from purely attractional forms of church, but a much greater percentage want to move forward. What’s most exciting is how the existing church is not only in the conversation, but is asking for help and now innovating some really cool movements of incarnational community.”

Bob Roberts

Bob Roberts has earned degrees from Baylor Univeristy, Southwestern Seminary, and Fuller Seminary. He planted Northwood Church in 1985 that has since planted 140 churches in the United States. He has written for various periodicals and journals both faith based and secular international relations journals. He works with the United Nations and various State Departments of various governments around the world doing humanitarian engagement projects. He frequently travels to seriously challenged nations to help with development, engagement, and reconciliation. Their focus is to engage the society with the Gospel through the use of ordinary disciples vocations. Bob has written 4 books: Transformation, Glocalization, The Multiplying Church, and recently Realtime Connections: Linking Your Job with God’s Global Work. Bob speaks around the world on globalization, faith, church planting, engagement, and a variety of global affairs issues. He is married to his wife of 30 years Nikki, they have 2 children, Ben and Jill, a daughter-in-law Ashley, and an exchange student they consider their own – Ti.

Roberts:

“The motivation to be missional is good. The context of narrowing it just to the US, or traditional “missions” is dying. A new conversation is emerging that’s global, but I don’t think we get that in the US. My hope is that we learn to speak and live globally in the global era and missional is global incarnation…”


Over the weeks to come, Ed Stetzer will be introducing the people who will be serving as framers for The Missional Manifesto, as well as speakers for missionSHIFT (the conference that I have the privilege to be working with him on) which takes place July 12-15 in Ridgecrest, NC. I will be re-posting Ed’s introductions in their entirety here on transformission each week.

Here is Ed’s next introduction:

I am very pleased that my friend Alan Hirsch will be joining us in the conversation leading up to missionSHIFT this summer (July 12-15 at Ridgecrest). Alan has been one of the leading voices in calling the church to live missionally and he will play a significant role in guiding the discussion regarding the Missional Manifesto.

I asked Alan if he could stop by the blog and answer a few questions about all things missional and what is happening in his life and ministry right now.

Ed: What do you see in the church that is giving you hope that we are doing better at engaging in God’s mission?

Alan: Certainly I see a newfound, system-wide, willingness to really rethink and even question some of what up to now we have considered sacrosanct. I have been an activist for missional-incarnational church for a long time now, and I have never before experienced such radical openness and real engagement with the ideas. Even more exciting is that many are willing to really try them out…to experiment and perhaps innovate new forms of church. Another thing that excites is is the talk about exponential. Why I get excited about this because when you really begin to take this seriously, it serves as a catalyst to think missionally about the forms of church, mission, and discipleship. It effectively forces us to take issues of how we are currently doing church seriously and sends us on a journey of discovery to find out new ways of being more effective–this is very much part of the missional journey.

Ed: Your website, The Forgotten Ways, uses the tagline “Developing Apostolic Imagination and Practice in Western Contexts.” Describe what that means. Especially “apostolic imagination.”

Alan: Yes, I believe that in this terminology of the Bible lies one of the keys to missional thinking and acting. I in no way wish to replace the role of the original twelve, so lets get that straight right up front. What I seek to do however seek to do is to revitalize and recover the very ethos and genius that is caught up in authentically apostolic ministry. I advocate for the recovery of apostolic ministry–I believe this very distinctive way of thinking and acting is crucial in our day. For instance, many of unaware that the word apostolic has the same roots as the word missional–the one is Greek (apostello) and the other Latin (missio) and they both mean sent. So if I said it another way, if we want missional (sent) church then we have to have missional ministry…and that must at least include the apostolic ministry. If Einstein is right in saying that if we can’t imagine it we can’t do it (and I think he is), then we certainly we need to learn to think apostolically again. This is what I mean by apostolic imagination.

Ed: Obviously, the word “missional” is spoken of, used by, and claimed by many groups. Instead of giving another definition for the word, can you tell the readers an example of where you and your wife are seeking to live missionally?

Alan: Currently we live and serve at edgy, somewhat experimental, church called The Tribe of LA. While Debs has a the formal role with the community, I am involved and very keen. I travel to much to be really useful. :) But Tribe is made of what we fondly think of as spiritual artists and vagabonds…These people are witnesses to Jesus in some of the craziest places of LA. One of the places they pop up at is called Burning Man, a radical annual arts festival of 40,000 people in the middle of the desert near Reno. It is a tribe that few Christians ever venture to engage but is really wide open for mission and evangelism. Tribe is the church in that crazy place and I love them for it.

Ed: In terms of missionSHIFT and the Missional Manifesto, what would be a great end-game in your mind for this event and process?

Alan: I think so much is bound up in understanding and appropriating the nest of paradigms bound up with the word ‘missional’. At the moment is is becoming the word of the month…and as I have noted above, while I am very excited about this newfound openness, my feeling (and experience) says that most people don”t really understand what it entails: that it involves a radical reconceptualization of just about every aspect of how we do church and mission. And so my hope is that the conference and manifesto serve to give needed definition and clarity to this very important idea.

Ed: Tell us a little about your upcoming projects (writings, books, travels)? What are you up to these days?

Well my latest book (written with my beloved wife Debra) is called Untamed and really is an attempt to articulate what it means to be a radically missional disciple of Jesus. It tries to identify (and remove) many obstacles in what it means to follow Jesus the way he intended, I feel very excited about it as I believe discipleship is a very strategic (and very missional) issue in the church of our day–if we fail here we will fail everywhere else.

I have also delivered a draft on a book with Lance Ford called Right Here, Right Now, which is a missionality-for-dummies kind of book. For so many people missional ideas seem very complex and the conversation way too academic. Right Here, Right Now brings it all home to the people of God–right where it belongs (out early 2011).

I have also just finished a manuscript with Mike Frost than can best be described a Theology/Missiology of Risk and Adventure (we haven’t got a name pinned down yet–out middle 2011).

I am finishing up a very serious, hefty, and I hope definitive, work into the nature and function of apostolic ministry in our day with a very bright church planter theologian called Tim Catchim.

And I am also starting a new book with Dave Ferguson called On the Verge. This is a unique look at what ten really adventurous megachurches are doing to integrate Missional-Incarnational approaches into the equation of the church. It therefore tracks closely with a process we are calling Future Travelers. On the Verge will also be the theme book/concept for Exponential 2011.

We are also launching Forge America, a training network aimed at developing incarnational mission.

So, you seem I have my work cut out for me!! Actually having written it out like this, I feel somewhat overwhelmed and in need your (and the readers) prayers….please pray with/for me.


Over the weeks to come, Ed Stetzer will be introducing the people who will be serving as framers for The Missional Manifesto, as well as speakers for missionSHIFT (the conference that I am working with him on) which takes place July 12-15 in Ridgecrest, NC. I will be re-posting Ed’s introductions in their entirety here on transformission each Monday.

Here is Ed’s next introduction:

Today I want to introduce you to Linda Bergquist. She will be speaking at the missionSHIFT conference this summer. We are also excited to have her voice as a part of framing the Missional Manifesto.

Linda and her husband Eric live in San Francisco, California. She is a New Church Starting Strategist and the co-author of Church Turned Inside Out: A Guide for Designers, Refiners, and Re-Aligners from Leadership Network (2009).

I have known Linda (Dr. Bergquist ) for many years. When I was a professor (oh so long ago) she took several of us on a tour of the marginalized communities where God was at work in the Bay area. She has a passion for people on the edge of society and the change that the gospel brings. You can find out more about her work in San Francisco at her site Plant Churches with Us.

To introduce her to you, I asked Linda to answer a few questions about herself:

You work as a new church starting strategist in San Francisco. Tell us briefly how you came to do that work in that place.

Linda: I’ve been involved in missional activity since the week I became a follower of Christ, and in church planting since a few months after that. Five years and four churches later, with a seminary degree in hand, my home church invited me to join their staff and help them start churches. Ten years later, the senior pastor left for the Bay Area [and I took] the church planting strategist job in San Francisco. That was fourteen years ago.

What do I see that gives you hope for the church in America?

Linda: I see Dave and Brook Maturo who moved from a 4 bedroom house they owned in Florida to a small rented space in San Francisco, with no guarantee of jobs, to assist our church planting team become more effective. I see a church of poor Mongolian refugees, all new Christians, who sent the school supplies we gave them back to Mongolia where children are glad for even one pencil. I see business entrepreneur Ken McCord intentionally translating kingdom values into the workplace; notifying the utility company that his bill was too low, extending medical benefits to employees at the expense of his own salary, and caring enough to utilize more costly earth friendly processes. I see Marian Engelland planting churches, mentoring other women and running a nonprofit that serves the poor, even with twin baby girls and two other preschoolers. I see Jason Williams helping local churches collaborate with Afghan business owners to raise money to repair windows in a girl’s school in Afghnistan. I see really good DNA that’s worth reproducing.

You recently published Church Turned Inside Out. Tell us about the book.

Linda: Church Turned Inside Out is a design book for churches. My friend, Allan Karr and I wrote it because we wanted to introduce Christian leaders to the world of design thinking. Over the decades, church became algorithmic. We discovered a formula, and a set of rules that helped us find ways to get from here to there more efficiently and more effectively. But the present algorithm is not as reliable as it once was. New information has come into the equation, and it requires a more experimental posture. Some people experiment in ways that improve the results of the present algorithm (refiners and re-aligners), and others step into the mystery and discover new ways of thinking and being in the world. Awareness of both is needed for a good design process, and both are necessary concepts to carry the church into the future.

Obviously, the word “missional” is spoken of, used by, and claimed by many groups. Instead of giving another definition for the word, can you tell the readers an example of where you and your family are seeking to live missionally?

Linda: Sometimes I tell people that in the suburbs it’s easier to be nice, but in cities it’s easier to be good. So many things rub against us in a dense city– crazy driving, difficult parking, close proximity to every kind of noise and smell. It’s a different pace of life. Serenity, patience, and “nice people attitudes” seem distant and even extravagant. But in cities, the decision for goodness is ever-present. Will we waste the food from our large portion meal, or cut some off before we eat, and wrap it to give to that hungry person we will surely encounter on the way home? Do we follow the trail of blood that leads down the street and into a park to see who may need help or do we ignore it? Do we acknowledge the beggar on the sidewalk who is asking for money, or do we look away because seeing is too costly? Do we treat the Russian pizza delivery driver with respect and kindness? In Russia, he was a classical musician, but here, his limited English prevents him from being well employed. Every time I treat him more like a delivery driver than a classical musician, I rob him of his identity.

In terms of missionSHIFT and the Missional Manifesto, what would be a great end-game in your mind for this event and process?

Linda: There have been times and places in history that mobilize great movements. For example, I love the story of the Harlem Renaissance. African American poets and preachers, artists and educators showed up in Harlem at the same time in the 1920s and 30s. Together they imagined what it might be like to be black in America some day. Communication was more difficult then, but what happened in Harlem sparked the Civil Rights Movement. Today I imagine a new, decentralized, and wonderfully diverse movement of God’s people who respond to the urgent call of a missional manifesto and walk together in a revitalized kingdom direction.

Are you registered for the missionSHIFT conference? Head over to the website and sign up.


Over the weeks to come, Ed Stetzer will be introducing the people who will be serving as framers for the Missional Manifesto that will be discussed as a part of missionSHIFT (the conference that I mentioned on the blog yesterday that I have had the privilege to work with him on) which takes place July 12-15 in Ridgecrest, NC.

Here is Ed’s first introduction:

First up is Eric Mason… better known as “Mase” to his friends.

He lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with his wife Yvette and two sons Immanuel and Nehemiah. He is also an adjunct professor at Biblical Theological Seminary. Dr. Mason received his Master of Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary (ThM 2000) and a Doctorate degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (DMin, May 2007).

Eric is the lead pastor and co-founder of Epiphany Fellowship in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the church website, the mission of Epiphany Fellowship is simple: “We want to develop disciples.”

It goes on to explain:

We want to develop disciples that are able to minister in the culture and help new disciples to grow in God’s word in every area of their lives and shining the truth of the person of Jesus Christ to the glory of the Triune God. We cannot stress enough the realization that this Church will not be a “Hip Hop Church,” but a CHURCH.

Albeit we will be sensitive to the unique needs of those heavily influenced by that culture. The target group will be those from ages 18-44 who are unsaved or without a community of disciples of which to bond in a Theo-centric community.

We would like to see The Name of Jesus Christ Magnified by the credibility of the Church being reestablished in the world through Robust & Relevant Worship, Rich & Relevant Word, and Real & Relevant Witnesses (Eph. 2:20-21). We want to have inward depth, and be outwardly missional.

Here’s a little more about Eric. You can find a series of messages Eric did about the missional church in April of 2007 and February of 2009.

Back in 2008, he spoke at “Missional Christianity… Church Beyond Boundaries: A conference addressing theological and practical challenges for the future of the missional church” at Biblical Seminary on the subject of “Missional Church Planting in an Urban Setting.”

I first heard Eric speak at the Dwell Urban Church Planting Conference in New York City on the subject of “Dwelling Incarnationally.” You can hear the audio here. And, Eric is speaking this week at the Desiring God conference in Minneapolis.

Eric Mason is passionate about the mission of God in world, and specifically in the urban context. He is godly and humble. I am proud to serve with him as we move in conversation toward a better articulating what it means to be a missional church– and then encouraging one another to live mission-shaped lives.


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