August 16, 2018
Everyday Endings
If we are are a sent people, (which we are!), and we have been united with Christ (which we have!), then we undoubtedly can live as His sent people to bring the good news to those around us. A…
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August 14, 2018
Leading a Missional Community
The Hard Part My wife and I started our first missional community nine years ago. In retrospect, starting it was the easy part. Co-leading a community toward health over the long haul was the hard part. See, there’s a…
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August 9, 2018
He is Well Pleased with Us
Read Part One of this series here. I was sitting across the table from a sister in Christ, processing how life was going and how she was doing. During the course of our conversation, she shared a number of areas…
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August 7, 2018
Starting a Missional Community
When he first came to be part of our church, I would have never guessed he would be attending our four-week training: “How to Start and Lead Missional Communities.” He was professional, career driven, traveled a bunch, and my…
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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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July 24, 2018
It Must Be Image Rich
If you haven’t read the prior articles in this series, it might be helpful to review to give you some context. This is a continuation flushing out the E.P.I.C. generation acronym. (Experiential, Participatory, Image-rich, Connected). The goal is to…
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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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July 12, 2018
Uniquely Positioned
“Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion… to his summons and service.” —Os Guinness, The Call In…
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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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July 5, 2018
God’s Calling, Man’s Driving
If you’re a leader reading this, be encouraged: your mission is to teach people to be content with waiting on the Lord. “For consider your calling, brothers; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many…
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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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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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June 15, 2018
The Pre-Flight Warning
This is a guest post from Brian Johnson. Brian Johnson is with the staff team of Westside Family Church in Lenexa, KS. Currently, Brian oversees and leads worship for one of Westside’s campuses. He’s also a part of a…
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June 12, 2018
Our Common Struggle
I was raised in a Catholic European city. My neighborhood was littered with cathedrals. They were statues of the past more than they were pillars of the present. Except for major holidays and the incredible buildings, it was hard…
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June 8, 2018
Saturate Summer Reading List
With Summer just around the corner our team wanted to share with you a few of our current favorite books when it comes to leadership, missional living, and everyday discipleship. If you're on the search for something to read…
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June 7, 2018
The Right Questions
This is a guest post by Brian Ottinger. Brian is a pastor and planter of a new missional community church in Charlotte, NC called Convergence Church. The Lord saved Brian in a radical way over seven years ago. God…
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June 1, 2018
It Must Be Participatory
If you haven’t read the first or second part of this series, it might be helpful to review to give you some context of this series. This is a continuation diving into the E.P.I.C. acronym. (Experiential, Participatory, Image-rich, Connected). …
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May 31, 2018
Transitioning in the Bible Belt
This is a guest post by Paul Whaley. Paul is the Lead Teaching Pastor of Summit Crossing Community Church. He has helped to lead out in transitioning Sc3 community groups from primarily being inward focused to becoming missional communities over…
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May 24, 2018
From Vision to Reality
My name is Marshall Benbow, and I am the discipleship pastor at Grace Community Church in Greensboro, NC. We are a church of about 500 in a Bible Belt city of about 250,000 people. Over the years through the…
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May 17, 2018
Four Roadblocks to Church Unity
Rather than quarreling over our secondary differences, let us unite our resistance against the dominion of darkness and advance the reign and rule of the rightful King. Let’s start with a parable Imagine a resistance army fighting against an…
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May 16, 2018
Episode 044: Leading Big Missional Communities
In this episode of the Saturate Podcast, Brad Watson talks with Justin Bindel of Ekklesia Salt Lake City about the challenges and opportunities of leading big missional communities and communities in different contexts.
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May 10, 2018
There is No Going Back
After experiencing the joy of life together on mission, there is no going back to an isolated life or a faith that only has an expression for a few hours on a Sunday. Eight years ago our church, Soma…
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April 12, 2018
Why Coaching is Essential to Movements
Getting the church to be what it was meant to be—a family on mission—doesn’t happen only through teaching and talking. People already have enough information; they need application. One of the first ministry opportunities I ever had was to lead…
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April 5, 2018
Moving From Sunday to Everyday
Transition - noun: a movement, development, or evolution from one form, stage, or style to another. That’s our hope for the upcoming Transitions Conference in August! That every leader and church attending would gain clarity on how to effectively equip…
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March 29, 2018
It Must Be Experiential
If you haven’t read the first part of this series, it might be helpful to check it out first to give you some context of where I’m going with the rest of this series. The next 4 articles will unpack…
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March 27, 2018
When You’re On a Larger Team
This is a guest post by Aaron Kampman. Aaron has been part of a Saturate coaching cohort for a little over a year. As a former NFL athlete, Aaron has a lot of experience with coaching and its benefits. From high school through…
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March 20, 2018
Coaching Like a Ninja
This is a guest post by Brian Mease. Brian is a husband and father of 3, has been in Pastoral Ministry for over 15 years. As a graduate of Liberty University and a seminary dropout, his truest ministry passion is…
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March 14, 2018
Episode 037: The Power of Missional Community Leader Coaching
In this episode of the Saturate Podcast, Brad Watson and David Achata talk about the the powerful tool of coaching for leaders and churches. Then, they dive into a real scenario as David coaches Brad as he would any leader.…
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March 13, 2018
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
This is a guest post by Johnathan Schroeder. Johnathan is husband to Jill and the father of Judah (7) and Jessah (2). In 1995 God began a work in Johnathan, God showed Johnathan his useless pursuit of acceptance and…
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March 6, 2018
Revealing a Better Teacher
This is a guest post by Nick Crawford. Nick serves as the Family & Groups Pastor at Fondren Church in Jackson, Mississippi, where he works to see disciples made, matured, and multiplied across all generations. Nick came to Jackson from…
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February 28, 2018
Episode 035: How to Share Leadership in a Missional Community
In this episode of the Saturate Podcast, Brad Watson talks with Jared Pickney about the vision behind sharing leadership and how to practically share roles and responsibilities in a missional community. Free Resource: Missional Community Teamwork. Also check out Brad's article…
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February 22, 2018
Where Are We Now?
Where Are We Now? So we killed missional culture by assuming the gospel, by casting vision without practices, and finally by not loving consumers. Here’s what you can conclude from this series – The Austin Stone is one messed up church. We’ve made…
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February 21, 2018
Episode 034: How to Intentionally Develop Leaders
In this episode of the Saturate Podcast, Brad Watson talks with Duke Revard, the director of the Soma Family of Churches, about the implications and importance of developing leaders at every level and why we struggle to do that in…
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February 20, 2018
The Call and the Commission
When Jesus's commissions are read together, we get a more accurate picture of a King who cares for the broken. If our strategies don’t include the care and healing of the whole man, we’ve missed the real commission. Discipleship is about more than beliefs and practices, it’s the process of…
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February 15, 2018
We Didn’t Love Consumers
So to this point, we’d committed two cardinal sins – we assumed the gospel, we cast vision without practices. But what about the final group of people we had, that 30% who stuck their heads in the sand when we cast…
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February 13, 2018
The Ministry of Showing Up
It’s not just a student thing though, it’s an everyone in the church thing. We all need mentors, we need to be discipled, we need role models, we need counselors, advisors, guides. Last night I sat in the living…
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