The Fall season and its holidays, Halloween and Thanksgiving, offer us many opportunities to live as a "beautiful resistance" in our city. The following are suggestions for engaging the Fall season with both communal and missional intentionality. We recognize that…
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have…
It’s been a little over a year since we lost our beloved daughter Erin to cancer. My wife and I will never get over it nor do we want to get over it. For some reason, this decision seems to…
Early in the pandemic, it was said, “We are all in the same storm, but different boats.” This has proven to be true over the past year and a half, especially when it comes to missional communities or community groups.…
“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your…
How many times have I thought, “Lord, why did you call me to this?” A little over a year ago my family moved into the overlooked neighborhood our missional community had been serving for four years—the same neighborhood where…
The world is a mess, you may have noticed. It’s been broken and aching for restoration since Genesis chapter 3. We see the brokenness everywhere, but the means for restoration often seems nowhere to be found—usually a result of…
In three of the gospel accounts, Jesus, prior to beginning His ministry, was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. For 40 days He went without food and the comforts of life, yet He…
(Post four in an eleven-part series from Alan Hirsch. Read post three here) Every Christian is a missionary, and we are called to live out our commitment to Jesus’ lordship in every sphere and domain of life. The first…
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…
“Hey, I listened to your podcast.” My fictional podcast had been released for weeks, and I could count on my fingers how many local friends had listened to it. This had been a sensitive source of tears, anger, and…
Our longing should be for vulnerable kids to encounter the love of the Father through our community, for parents and kids who have been separated to get a picture of the reconciliation that comes through Jesus, and for those…
A City-Wide Missional Focus As I’ve shared briefly in some previous articles, a small but growing number of pastors in our community have joined forces to tackle the issue of foster care and to unite around the mission of…
It's Labor Day, which means summer officially comes to a close, and we all gear up for the "normal" life that fall brings. The summer has been really busy for us, too, and we want to highlight a few of…
Leaders, please set aside your objective plans for a moment. Helping people address their inner lives is probably the most important thing you’ll ever do. Many years ago I took my first trip to West Africa. On one of…
We live in a fast-paced and distracted world. Often we're distracted from the ways God has designed us to live and distracted from the daily priorities He wants us to pursue. As a follower of Jesus for almost forty years and…
How was a family like ours supposed to live out the practice of discipleship? The instruction in Matthew 28:19 seemed impossible for us. Roughly six years ago, a miserable “stomach flu” turned into cause for celebration; I was pregnant…
What if? What if the worst-case scenario happens? The single mom steals some silverware, the foster child hits you with a toy, the homeless person steals your wallet? What then? We live in a risky world. The American church seems…
(You can read the next part in the How Do We Do It series here.) How does your community move from sitting quietly and neatly in a comfortable living room to engaging the people of your city with the…
As your Facebook feed fills your heart with a zeal that borders anger, you will likely wonder: What can I do? The refugee crisis cannot be ignored. It’s found in every newspaper in every corner of the world. Politicians win…
Filled with the excitement of making a covenant, they meet with their pastor who is also “coaching” them through this process. Their first question is, “What do we do now?” Imagine a newly launched missional community lead by a…
Start with this; What do you love, like, enjoy? Go do it, and redeem the time by inviting others into what you love to do. Just as Paul made his walk through the Shrines and Altars of Athens, we…
Cultural celebrations are not man-made institutions. Like much of God’s creation, holidays can be—and have been—distorted for all sorts of less-than-holy purposes. But what if “Santa” really isn’t an anagram for “Satan”? What if we can we redeem this…
(This post is part of 2-part series about all-of-life discipleship. Part 1 here.) All-of-life discipleship—learning to follow, trust, and obey Jesus in the everyday stuff of life and training others to do the same—requires submitting to and obeying God’s…
Guest post by Jayne Vanderstelt. Keep in mind, when we think about children and our missional community, we ask: How can our children join us in the overall mission? How do we disciple them all week long? How do…
We need people who have access to our lives, ask us hard questions, probe our motivations, and remind us of the freedom we’ve been given in Jesus. In a post I wrote a few years ago, I discussed how the…
Getting believers to obey God together in the midst of non-Christians is one of the most powerful witnesses to the gospel we have. I recently sat down with Brian Daniel from LifeWay's Groups Ministry blog to talk about helping churches and…
Listen. Bless. Serve. Enjoy. July in Washington means the wet clouds have been chased away by longer sunny days, the Northwest hibernators are coming out of their caves. Summer in the Pacific Northwest is the best time to meet…
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