March 17, 2020
Making Space for Friendship
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I…
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March 10, 2020
Marked by One-ness
Have you ever tried making a sandwich with one hand? We often take for granted that most everyday tasks are a whole lot easier with two. Our body is an amazing picture of what it looks like to need…
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March 3, 2020
Creating a Culture of Leadership Development
What are the most strategic ways to use your time in ministry? Next to corporate and individual prayer, I would argue that leadership development is the highest leverage way to spend your time. When others can do more, we…
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February 27, 2020
Filling, Lengthening, and Multiplying our Tables
Check out part one to this blog post here. Our practice of Family Tables is certainly nothing new, but simply an expression of missional community for our context. Shared meals have been an important part of missional communities for…
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February 25, 2020
Meeting House to House
When my wife was in high school, her house was the place where her friends all wanted to hang out. There were snacks aplenty; they had a pool table and big screen in their basement; so lots of great…
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February 20, 2020
Engaging Lent Together
As Americans, we love innovation, planning, and strategy. We want to strip ourselves free of old traditions and boring practices that tie people down. Freedom is being able to work outside of the box. The missional community movement is the…
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February 18, 2020
God’s Grace Interrupts Our Rebellion
This blog post is an excerpt from a chapter of our newest resource, an Everyday Discipleship Study on the book of Jonah. Available now, you can download the first chapter for free! In our fifth year of marriage, God…
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February 13, 2020
Family Tables
The Backstory When we introduced missional communities to our church just over a year ago, the concept was new, not only to the members, but also to some of the leadership. People thought they had a basic idea of…
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February 11, 2020
The Good News About Who You Are
Words like son or daughter or even family bring up feelings that are personal to the stories in which we’ve experienced them. To some son or daughter is a positive descriptor, one that tells you that you belong, that…
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February 3, 2020
The No. 1 Threat to Pastors and Church Planters
One of the (innumerable) benefits of reading through the Bible every year is that God causes me to notice different things than in previous years. As most pastors acknowledge, there is no end to the depths to which we…
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January 8, 2020
Ministers and Messengers of Reconciliation
This blog post is an excerpt from a chapter of our newest resource, an Everyday Discipleship Study on the book of Jonah. Available TODAY, you can download the first chapter for free now! The gospel saves us from sin…
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December 27, 2019
What Is the Jonah Story About?
This blog post is an excerpt from the introduction of our newest resource, an Everyday Discipleship Study on the book of Jonah. This study launches Monday, Jan 6th but you can download the first chapter for free now! Jonah…
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December 23, 2019
The Presence of God
Do you want to have a life marked by a pursuit of holiness, a life of light and the presence of God the Father? Gather together with the church, pursuing intentional community and fellowship with other believers. The pursuit…
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December 19, 2019
Top 5 Podcasts of 2019
I’m given the incredible privilege of talking with disciples across the globe about what Jesus is doing in their neighborhoods, churches, and cities. The power of the gospel transcends strategies, brands, and egos! I’m always amazed how a conversation…
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December 17, 2019
How the Gospel Fights Against Our Busyness
Are You Busy? Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “busy” as “engaged in action” and for many church leaders and disciple-makers, there is a pride that comes from being engaged in the work of the kingdom for God’s glory. This isn’t a…
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November 21, 2019
Our Father Comforts
The Soma Family of Churches lost a leader, friend, brother, husband, and devoted father last week. Randy Sheets’ impact for Jesus’s kingdom will never be fully known until we are together again in the new heavens and new earth.…
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November 5, 2019
The Gospel Isn’t a Cul-De-Sac
The cul-de-sac was a phenomenal invention for the suburbs. It created a safe and peaceful place for families to raise children. No one passed through. In fact, the only time strangers can appear is after a wrong turn and…
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October 29, 2019
Jesus Came Out to the Lawn
“Dad, why do we have to do this? Why can’t we just sit inside the house?” My son was only eight years old at the time these words were uttered, and he didn’t want to meet new people on…
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October 24, 2019
Gospel Goodbyes
Saying, “goodbye” is a hard thing to do. Whether it’s dropping your children off at school, breaking the news to neighbors you have known for decades that you have accepted a job across the country and will be moving,…
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October 22, 2019
Seven Practices for Missional Hospitality
The practice of hospitality is a mandate of scripture. Romans 12:13, Hebrews 13:2, and 1 Peter 4:9 all encourage us to “practice,” “show,” and “offer” hospitality. Opening your home to host gatherings like your missional community or a DNA…
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October 15, 2019
Good Things and Good News
“As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! (Romans 10:15b)” How glorious a thought that God has invited us into His mission to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10) through the…
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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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October 1, 2019
The Vision of Every Church
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit…
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September 26, 2019
Mission Resistance
Someone once said nothing reveals sin in the heart like calling people to mission. Opportunities for a missional community to serve and bless others often come into conflict with our schedules, preferences, convenience, or comfort. How we respond to…
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September 23, 2019
Adopted Child of God
This post is an excerpt from a leader preparation article in Gospel Basics for Kids. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we…
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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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September 5, 2019
Loving God through Word and Prayer
What are Missional Communities supposed to do? They exist, primarily, to grow in love for God. Missional communities are groups of people learning to follow Jesus. Meaning, people are being renewed by the gospel through abiding in Christ. They…
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September 4, 2019
The Risk of Disciple-Making
If God can remove walls through a bunch of people marching to the beat, what else will He do when the Bride of Christ remains faithful to Him and His disciple-making mission? Recently, as my wife and I laid…
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August 27, 2019
Gospel Clarity
The story from Mark’s gospel goes like this, “And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they told…
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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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August 15, 2019
A Whole New People and a Whole New World
This blog post is an excerpt from the introduction of our newest resource, an Everyday Discipleship Study on the book of Ephesians. This study launches Monday, August 19th but you can download the first chapter for free now!…
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August 12, 2019
Grace is Hard to Grasp
JTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwd2lkdGglM0QlMjI1NjAlMjIlMjBoZWlnaHQlM0QlMjIzMTUlMjIlMjBzcmMlM0QlMjJodHRwcyUzQSUyRiUyRnd3dy55b3V0dWJlLW5vY29va2llLmNvbSUyRmVtYmVkJTJGeWhwd1Y0Y3dCNG8lMjIlMjBmcmFtZWJvcmRlciUzRCUyMjAlMjIlMjBhbGxvdyUzRCUyMmFjY2VsZXJvbWV0ZXIlM0IlMjBhdXRvcGxheSUzQiUyMGVuY3J5cHRlZC1tZWRpYSUzQiUyMGd5cm9zY29wZSUzQiUyMHBpY3R1cmUtaW4tcGljdHVyZSUyMiUyMGFsbG93ZnVsbHNjcmVlbiUzRSUzQyUyRmlmcmFtZSUzRQ== The Gospel of God is grace on fire. It’s love on full blast. It’s peace with power. However, it goes against everything we expect in relationships and even against everything we desire. We expect to have to earn belonging…
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July 30, 2019
Loneliness is Poverty
Early Death In 2010, Holt-Lunstad published a study on social relationships and mortality rates. The team’s research verified “that people with fewer social relationships die earlier on average than those with more social relationships.” They measured the influence of…
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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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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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June 24, 2019
Gospel Rooted | Day by Day
MONDAY Who is God? God is generous. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or…
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