More by Jeff Vanderstelt

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DiscipleshipGospelIdentityMission

October 9, 2019

A Life of Discipleship

  Part of our own discipleship is “paying it forward”: seeing God not only work in us, for our own discipleship, but also seeing him work through us, for others’ discipleship The person and work of Jesus cannot remain as…

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BaptismChurchDiscipleshipFamilyIdentityMissional CommunityMissionaryServant

September 10, 2019

Are Missional Communities Just a Passing Fad?

  I remember when one of the leaders in the Soma Family of Churches asked me if I thought missional communities would be a passing trend. He wasn’t questioning the validity of them, but he did wonder if this was…

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ApologeticsBible & TheologyDiscipleshipFoundationsGospelSpiritual Growth

August 21, 2019

Listen To Your Heart

  Part of our job in growing in gospel fluency is paying attention to the overflow of our hearts. What comes out in the form of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors finds its origin inside of us. Too often, we focus…

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Bible & TheologyChurchCoachingDiscipleshipGospelLeadershipPastoringSpiritual Growth

July 25, 2019

5 Ways To Equip Disciples as Gospel Ministers

  Church leader? Your job is not to do the ministry for the church, but to equip the church to be gospel ministers. Habakkuk 2:14 speaks of a day when “The knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the…

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DiscipleshipGospelHoly SpiritSpiritual Growth

July 4, 2019

Making Space for Your Heart

  We’re not outside-in people but inside-out people. When we feel that something is wrong with us, most of try to fix the problem by doing. We change our schedule. We tell ourselves we’ll eat better, exercise more, or spend…

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ChurchDiscipleshipEveryday RhythmsFoundationsGospel

June 13, 2019

Declaring the Gospel

  I’ve found that when we live our lives intentionally as display people, we get plenty of opportunities to talk about why we do it. Lives full of grace and love; schedules rearranged to make space to listen and serve;…

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DiscipleshipFoundationsGospel

May 2, 2019

We Talk About What We Love

What Do You Love? I’m often asked why it’s so hard for many people to talk to others about Jesus... I have come to believe that the main reason people don’t talk about Jesus isn’t that they lack training. I am…

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DiscipleshipFoundationsGospelIdentityMissionMissional Community

April 16, 2019

Gospel Advance in Russia

  It's super encouraging to read about how Christians are persevering in Russia under oppression - their boldness for the gospel and in prioritizing training for their missional communities in the face of violence and arrest. K.G. came to Soma…

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CoachingDiscipleshipFoundationsGospelLeadershipMissionarySpiritual Growth

March 19, 2019

Power for Salvation

  When people say they are saved, what do they mean? Think of this blog post as a vocabulary lesson. To become fluent in any language, you must develop your vocabulary. So let’s delve into the aspects of the gospel…

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DiscipleshipEveryday RhythmsFoundationsGospelMissional Community

March 12, 2019

Eating to Remember

Growing in Gospel Fluency If you and others around you are going to grow in gospel fluency, you need consistent immersion in a gospel-speaking community. This needs to be much more than a weekly gathering of the church where the…

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ChurchFoundationsGospelLeadershipPastoringTransitioning

February 21, 2019

What Surprised You in Your Transition

  This is an excerpt from a live Question + Response session in our newly launched Missional Church Transition Starter. Coming from Soma Tacoma to Doxa, you had a lot of experience as a leader in a missional community. What was…

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ChurchDiscipleshipGospelMissional CommunityPastoringTransitioning

January 14, 2019

Why Missional Community Pilot Groups?

  This is an excerpt from our newly released, Pilot Group Guide.  This resource is available through the Missional Church Transition Starter.     If you are a church of missional communities that is growing numerically through Sunday attendance or…

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DiscipleshipFoundationsGospelGospel ShepherdingPastoring

November 16, 2018

Give Them Jesus

  The apostle Paul, in his letter to the church in Ephesus, states: “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body…

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DiscipleshipEveryday RhythmsGospelMissionMissional CommunityMissionary

October 30, 2018

Be With and Become

  Eugene Peterson paraphrased John 1:14 – The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood. Jesus fully related to everything we experience by fully becoming human and dwelling in our space.  I’ve been learning how to do…

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CommunityEveryday RhythmsGospelMissionMissional CommunityMissionary

October 16, 2018

On Mission this Halloween

  October 31st offers a great opportunity for many to engage in new relationships with those around us or to revisit some old relationships with new missional intentionality. Regardless of what you think of the holiday and it's roots, the…

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DiscipleshipFoundationsGospelIdentityKids

September 27, 2018

Gospel Parenting

Train up a Child Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.  PROVERBS 22:6 This verse could be literally translated as “Train a child according to his…

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DiscipleshipFoundationsGospelIdentityMissionMissional Community

September 11, 2018

Exposed by the Mission

Yes, we can pretend to have it all together while sitting in a pew on Sunday or while impressing one another with our knowledge of Scripture. But mission exposes our inadequacies and need for grace. If you are in a small Bible…

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DiscipleshipFoundationsGospelMissional CommunitySpiritual Growth

September 4, 2018

Listening Well

  I recently observed a conversation a few Christians were having with a man who has yet to come to faith in Jesus. It was amazing to me, and saddening, to watch the Christians missing the point of this man’s…

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ChurchDiscipleshipGospelLeadershipMissionPastoring

July 26, 2018

It Starts with the Life of the Preacher

This post is part of a teaching series on Catalyzing Mission through Preaching. Read part one, part two, part three, part four and part five. You Must Be on Mission The only way to preach missionally is to have relationships with friends and neighbors who do not…

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ChurchDiscipleshipLeadershipMissionMissionaryPastoringTransitioning

July 17, 2018

Changing Your Preparation

This post is part of a teaching series on Catalyzing Mission through Preaching. Read part one, part two, part three, and part four. Preaching to catalyze mission requires the preaching to be thinking about the mission of God, the particular nature of mission in their church,…

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ChurchGospelLeadershipMissionMissionaryPastoringTransitioning

July 10, 2018

Preaching to Equip People for the Mission

This post is part of a teaching series on Catalyzing Mission through Preaching. Read part one, part two and part three.   When you preach to catalyze your congregation toward missional effectiveness, you are modeling what it looks like to speak the gospel to neighbors, coworkers, and…

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ChurchGospelLeadershipMissionMissional CommunityPastoringTransitioning

July 3, 2018

Preaching for Unbelief

  This post is part of a teaching series on Catalyzing Mission through Preaching. Read part one and part two. Your church will never be more missional than its leaders. Your preaching will not be fruitful in leading people into mission if you’ve…

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DiscipleshipMissionMissional CommunityPastoringTransitioning

June 26, 2018

Preaching Matters

  This post is part of a teaching series on Catalyzing Mission through Preaching. Read part one here.   I believe the goal of preaching must be mission; the mission of making disciples who make disciples. When you preach you have to…

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ChurchDiscipleshipGospelLeadershipMissionMultiplicationPastoringTransitioning

June 19, 2018

Sundays Matter

This post is part of a teaching series on Catalyzing Mission through Preaching. We Need Each Other Corporate worship gatherings matter for mission. We’re called to not give up meeting together, but to encourage one another and spur each other toward love…

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DiscipleshipEveryday RhythmsFamilyGospelMission

June 14, 2018

Making Space for Strangers

Who are Strangers? Hospitality is making space for people to be with us and to become within community—to be who they are and to become more like Christ. In Scripture, strangers are people who live in a society other than…

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DiscipleshipFoundationsGospelKids

March 8, 2018

Training Our Children to Pray

  Recently, as I was leading our family devotional time at the dinner table, I decided to use the four questions I often train on: Who is God? What has He Done? Who are we? What do we do? As…

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DiscipleshipEveryday RhythmsGospelLife IssuesMissional Community

February 1, 2018

Making Space

  Do you know what’s most important in life? Do you feel too busy to make time for those things? This study gleans wisdom from the Book of Proverbs and from the example of Jesus to show you how to…

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FoundationsLeadershipMissional Community

December 19, 2017

God’s Grace to Us in 2017

In the early 2000's, my family and a small team of disciples planted a church of missional communities in Tacoma, WA—a venture which seemed to many to be just another church plant. Except, word got out about this church that…

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Bible & TheologyGospelPrayerSpiritual Growth

September 26, 2017

This is How We Go to War

  The Apostle Paul directs the church in Rome to not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of their minds (Romans 12:2). Then, while instructing the church in Corinth on how to engage in the…

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ChurchLeadershipUncategorized

September 12, 2017

There are No Silver Bullets

  We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Daniel Im regarding his newly released book, No Silver Bullets. There may not be a silver bullet when it comes to discipleship, but this book is a must-read bullet to…

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ChurchGospelPastoringSpiritual Growth

August 10, 2017

Weaving Gospel Fluency into Every Sunday Message

The gospel has to be good news to me if I am going to preach it as good news for others. The apostle Paul instructed the church in Ephesus that the means by which we help each other grow up…

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by Jeff Vanderstelt 1

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ChurchChurch PlantingCoachingDiscipleshipGospelHoly SpiritLeadershipMissional CommunityPastoringPrayerResourcesTransitioning

April 27, 2017

How Do We Transition from “Sunday” to “Everyday”

  Part 6 in the 6 Questions We Answer Again and Again series. If you fail to pray, you will have missed the most important element of transitioning from Sunday to everyday.  When we first began training leaders to start and…

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ApologeticsArts & CultureCommunityDiscipleshipFaith and WorkGospelLeadershipSocial JusticeSpiritual Growth

April 4, 2017

Speaking the Truths of Jesus

  Have you ever tried to learn a new language? You know how hard and frustrating it can be translating every single word when you first start. But after awhile, something happens. Suddenly, you start not only to speak, but…

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by Jeff Vanderstelt 0

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ApologeticsBible & TheologyFoundationsGospelSpiritual Growth

March 23, 2017

Bringing the Gospel To Our Lips

  If you and others around you are going to grow in gospel fluency, you need consistent immersion in a gospel-speaking community. This needs to be much more than a weekly gathering of the church where the gospel is preached…

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ApologeticsBible & TheologyDiscipleshipFoundationsGospelSpiritual Growth

March 7, 2017

Distinguishing Truth From Lies

  We are at war! Bullets are flying. Bombs are dropping. The enemy is closing in. Destruction is all around. There are casualties everywhere. But in our war, you can’t see any of this. Well, you can see the effects…

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by Jeff Vanderstelt 0

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ApologeticsBible & TheologyDiscipleshipEthicsFoundationsGospelSpiritual Growth

March 1, 2017

We All Live by Faith in Someone or Something

  We all live by faith in someone or something. Everything that we are and do is a result of what we believe. Our behaviors are the tangible expression of our beliefs. It is by grace you have been saved…

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