Posts Tagged with "Missional Community"

It’s when your inner publicist consults with your inner defense lawyer to concoct and justify a false reality meant to get people off the scent....

Thinking about the battle we wage against the spiritual forces of darkness and evil in the heavenly places, we need to talk about no condemnation. We need to talk about the payment being made in Christ’s blood. But we also need to talk about freedom from sin’s dominion and the ability in Christ to walk in newness of life....

On Saturday, April 23rd, many of our current and future MC Leaders gathered together for specific training related to how we help and encourage those among us in need of care.  This post is a brief recap of what was discussed and how it will impact our body going forward....

We want our kids to have front-row seats to the spiritual growth of the community of believers as we are raising them to be Christ-centered missionaries in our world. Parents have a unique role to discipline and instruct them toward this life of following Christ. So many of you are bringing your children into the body of Christ. You are showing them your desire to know ...

Could we radically redefine “normal” for our kids? As I have seen over and over in my own life, I default to “normal.” My wife will tell you that my normal is not the same as her normal but I go back to my normal all the time. Normal is a distracted mind. Normal is forgetting responsibility. Normal is waiting until someone is upset before addressing the issue....

As our children are in the family of God developing their identity as missionaries of God, we want to equip them to live in a broken and fallen world. This includes exposing them to the reality of sin in the context where they will see it appropriately....

Throughout the bible, there are a lot of children born (or there was a lot of ‘begat’ing for the KJV fans). Their life begins and their life ends but most of the stories we know well are people in their teenage or adult years. So, where were do children show up? If you read with this question in mind, you might see that they are not where you would expect based on m...

Merry Christmas! As we left last night's service, I thought to myself as I often do, "I love this church." I'm very grateful today and everyday for all those whom the Lord has brought into the body of Christ at River City. Prayerful for your Christmas celebrations, wherever you may be! As my family watchesA Christmas Storyon TBS, I'm taking a few minutes to finish up our...

There was a time when during our announcements on a Sunday morning, we would essentially communicate that going to a Missional Community was more important than showing up on Sunday mornings. Our hope in that was to show how important the life of the church outside of Sunday mornings was incredibly important, more so than our churched culture here in Fargo usually believes...

What an amazing privilege, to take part in the work of God in our community. The Lord's design since before the dawn of time, before the foundation of the world, was to build for himself a Church. A Body. A group of people who exist by the grace of God to show off the grace of God, to show the richness of his mercy, the greatness of his love, the immeasurable riches of his...

We're jumping right in this week to Section III entitled "Uncovering the Sources of Missionary Power," looking at chapters five and six ofOutgrowing the Ingrown Churchby C. John Miller. You can check out my recaps of the previous four chapters here and here. Hoping this has been a helpful look at what I've found to be a helpful book! Section III: Uncovering the Sources o...

Welcome to installation #2 of our time together inOutgrowing the Ingrown Church by C. John Miller. Last week, we discussed chapters one two, this time around we'll get into three four which will start the second section of the book entitled "Getting Our Missionary Identity Straight." Going through these pages has once more encouraged me in the work of the Lord and at the...

Every Thursday I'll recap the general points of a chapter or two from a book I've enjoyed and found applicable to what God's doing in and through us as a church....

MC Discussion questions for week 10 of our series in Proverbs....

Introductory Question When it comes to the nature of temptation, what's your prevailing attitude: ignorant/hopeless/deflecting/arrogant? Discussion/Application Questions Read Proverbs 5:1-23... How does the father's description of temptation play itself out in other areas of Scripture? Where do we see this actually happening? Is anyone willing to share how tempt...

Each week, I'll be doing my best to post the general questions given to each MC leader to frame out their discussion. My hope is to expose participants to the questions prior to discussion to come ready to confess and repent amongst their brothers and sisters in Christ. ...

In June, we will be focusing on how as MC Leaders we live as ambassadors for Christ as we are united to him by faith. We'll look at this on an individual level as men, but also how to foster an understanding of the role everyone plays within a group as it pertains to proclamation. To begin, I'll be synthesizing chapter five from Mack Stiles' book Evangelism: How the Whole ...

A healthy leader is one who believes the truth of the gospel, living as a disciple of Christ, as part of the family of God, and as a bold missionary. They live in light of their identity in Christ and the overarching mission of God in our city. As they lead their Missional Community, they foster an environment of deep discipleship, tangible care amongst the group members, ...

So very grateful for the men and messages given at the 2014 Desiring God Pastor's ConferenceentitledThe Pastor, the Vine, and the Branches: The Remarkable Reality of Union with Christ. Here are my favorite messages, and it's worth the time to work through them all...enjoy! ...

Note: this is part three of a series on being disciples, part of a family, and missionaries. God's design in creation was good, very good in factas God reflected on what he had made there was a complete satisfaction with what came about. This is obvious, but the creation he made and the intent behind it was perfect and his design in Adam's role was therefore perfect. He p...

Note: this is the first post in a series looking at being a disciple, part of a family, and missionaries to our city. The goal is to clarify and give depth to each aspect of our identity in Christ by looking at the theological basis, the example of Christ, and the empowerment of the Spirit. I attended Concordia South (Luther College, Decorah, IA). Imagine our beloved pr...

Note: this post is second in a series focusing on the disciple, family, and missionary aspects of our identity in Christ. This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you. But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for so many years to come to you, I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and ...

Last night, we launched our 16th Missional Community! It's located in the Robert Asp neighborhood of North Moorhead, which is the 14th neighborhood in which we have a presence. This group is led by Richard Traci Anderson, hosted by Michael Allison Vetter. Their mission is to make disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus where God has placed them. This is truly ge...

"Jesus is clear that our job as Christians is to make disciples (Matt. 28:19-10). Any church that doesn't have this aspiration as a focal point of their mission simply disobeys Jesus. But mission drift happens even in organizations with clear goals and objectives."...

HT: Zach Nielsen...

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to youunless you believed in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:1-2) As Paul tells the Corinthian church what's up, he points them back to the gospel. He uses the word 8 times in the book, either in...

Drawing from Acts 4, David Platt and Francis Chan discuss specific prayer for boldness and courage in our disciple-making. ...

Many in our church and in our city are struggling with this or that, with unbelief in the promises of the gospel. Asaph struggled with the same thing, and shared how he worked through it in Psalm 73....

"Small groups. Growth groups. Mini-churches. Community groups. Cell groups. Accountability groups. Home groups. Missional communities. Mini-flocks. No matter what you call them, most churches of any size highlight the importance of meeting together in smaller communities within the local church. How do I cultivate meaningful relationships in my small group?"...

Missional Community leaders need to set the pace, showing that "money and possessions and sex and sports and success are not worthy of their worship." Jesus is, and we seek to see his worship increase. How can we stand by as our family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, etc. worship things other than Jesus which will only lead to death and destruction?...

In searching the City of Fargo's website for regulations on slow-moving vehicles (that's another story altogether), I found that there are 7 neighborhoods in town that have formed an assocation....

"When it comes to the Great Commission, there are basically three responses a church can have. A church can do nothing, something, or one thing."...

Who you are influences what you do. What you believe influences how you live. In our fallenness, we are great at getting this wrong and placing more emphasis on what you're to do rather than living out of who you are. Therefore, we must highlight our "gospel identities" as the basis for and the motivation of shared mission. ...

A few years ago, I found myself leaning on Akon's Lamborghini....

The most valuable resource for the missional journey is real-life examples and real-time conversations. ...

My prayer is that as we develop our concise mission statements group-by-group, we can look at our MC's and see them "standing firm in one spirit, striving side-by-side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything" by those hostile toward the faith (Phil. 1:27-28)....