The next Sentralized gathering will be in Kansas City this September 27th – 29th. You may ask, “Do we really need another conference?” Well we would answer with a resounding, “Yes” for three reasons.

First, we believe there is a need to continue to bring clarity to the missional conversation. Unfortunately, the use of missional language has become confusing in many circles. Some view “missional” as the latest church growth strategy, or a better way of doing church evangelism. Others see missional as a means to mobilize church members to do missions more effectively. While still others believe missional is simply the latest Christian buzz word that will soon pass when the next trendy topic comes along.

However, we would argue that those who believe missional is merely an add-on to current church activities, or perhaps even a passing fad prevalent only among church leaders, have simply not fully grasped the magnitude of the missional conversation. While it may sound like hyperbole; the move towards missional involves no less than a complete and thorough recalibration of the form and function of the church of Jesus. Perhaps even more importantly, it involves a paradigm shift in our understanding of God and His mission. By bringing together some of today’s best missional thinkers; we desire to assist God’s people in thinking deeply about God’s mission in the world.

Second, we want to ensure the missional conversation moves beyond theory. We want to inspire and propel the church to engage in God’s mission in life changing ways. That is why a significant feature of the conference will focus on practical engagement; through the stories and personal examples of some of the best missional practitioners around.

Third, the concept of “place” is a very important piece of the missional conversation. A theology of place speaks to the realization that God has placed us in a particular location for a reason. This is especially important when considering where we live—or our neighborhoods.

But the topic of place is also important because of the emphasis it puts on relationships. As more people are less interested in the programs and activities of the church, we must engage and create space where people have opportunities for meaningful conversations and deepening relationships. There are two significant places this can happen today. First is within places of neutrality, or common ground, call Third Places. The other is within our own homes as we facilitate biblical hospitality by opening up our lives by welcoming others into our homes.

All of this has influenced the way we envision the Sentralized gathering. We desire your time at the conference to be a wellspring of relationships, networking and collaboration. We want you to experience a place to sit and listen to one another.

At Sentralized there are no “green rooms” for VIPs to hang out. In fact, there are  no VIPs. Our speakers are only speakers when they are doing speaking. Otherwise, they are one of “us”. When speakers are not presenting a session  they will be hanging out with the attendees to visit, answer questions, and be a part of the overall Sentralized community.

To help facilitate this we have created “living room” spaces around sponsors’ displays and throughout the commons area. There will be numerous opportunities for you to cultivate relationships and exchange ideas, not only with other conference participants, but also with each conference presenter. We want you to have real opportunities to interact personally with each of the speakers. To have the chance to get to know the presenters and to ask questions that are applicable to your ministry setting. Here are a few comments about the “Living Rooms” from participants of last year’s gathering:

The Living Rooms spaces were one of the many aspects that made Sentralized the most helpful and encouraging conference I have ever attended. ~ Matt

One of my favorite parts of the conference was the opportunity to have conversations with several of the presenters. It provided a vibe throughout the three days that was very unique. ~ Bill

Can’t tell you how special it was to actually have time to ask questions of the speakers throughout the conference. It meant a lot to me to be able to literally hang-out with folks. ~ Michelle

If you desire to gain a clearer, deeper understanding of the missional conversation, but would also benefit from knowing how to engage your local context, then join us this September in Kansas City. You can learn much more about the conference here and you can check out the registration page here. Hope to see you in September!

What are the images that come to mind when you think of church? What images do people envision when they think of the nature or essence of the church? What images do you hear people use to describe and define the church in America? Complete the phrase: “Church as…”

I recently asked that question on my Facebook page and I received a variety of thought provoking responses:

Church as hospital
Church as civic group
Church as social club
Church as fortress
Church as election headquarters
Church as moral compass
Church as singles’ pickup joint
Church as daycare

Michael Goheen, in his book A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story, offers a few images of his own that illustrate how we often think of the church from a consumerist perspective.

Church as shopping mall
Church as food court
Church as motivational seminar
Church as classroom
Church as theater

The point of this discussion is that we must offer alternative images and stories to capture the missional imagination of people. Otherwise, we continue to allow non-biblical, consumerist ideas to rule the day. How can we better present a picture of the church as the sent, missionary people of God? What alternative images can we offer to create a more accurate vision of the essence of the church?

One possible alternative comes from Reggie McNeal when likens the Church to an airport terminal, which is meant to connect travelers to their destination, but it is not the destination. Using another flight analogy, McNeal has compared the Church’s mission to an aircraft carrier. It’s not how many planes are stacked up on the flight deck, he said; it’s the kind of missions that are being flown.

The past few months I have been doing research on the topic of “biblical hospitality” for a workbook that my friend Lance Ford and I are doing with The House Studio. I use the adjective “biblical” to help differentiate it from what usually comes to mind when people hear the word hospitality. Most people today picture entertaining around meals or inviting family and friends into their homes for a night of fun and games. Some may think of the “hospitality industry” that includes hotels, restaurants, or cruise ships that work judiciously to create an atmosphere of friendliness and welcome. However, neither of these examples speaks to the richness of biblical hospitality, which focuses on the love of strangers by the opening of our homes and our hearts. When we understand the depth of hospitality, it is hard to deny that over time the Christian community has lost touch with the transformative realities of true biblical hospitality.

After a wonderful historical survey of the complex tradition of hospitality, including the words and activities from Jesus, to the Apostle Paul, to John Chrysostom, Martin Luther, and John Calvin, Christine Pohl, in the excellent book, Making Room, writes:

Even a superficial review of the first seventeen centuries of church history reveals the importance of hospitality to the spread and credibility of the gospel, to transcending national and ethic distinctions in the church, and to Christian care for the sick, strangers, and pilgrims. Granting that the practice was rarely as good as the rhetoric, still, we pause to wonder, if hospitality to strangers was such an important part of Christian faith and life, how did it virtually disappear?

Here is my question for you. When did we lose the capacity to give and receive hospitality? Why has it virtually disappeared from the life of the church and from those who make up the church? I will share in future posts some of the reasons I believe we have moved away from hospitality, but for now I would like to hear what you think. What keeps you from opening your home (and life) to others?

This post was first published on The House Studio blog.

Following is a challenging excerpt from the introduction of the new book by Alan Hirsch and Tim Catchim titled "The Permanent Revolution."

The church is equipped by Spirit and gospel to fulfill whatever tasks the Lord has set for us to do: evangelism, discipleship, church planting, servicing the poor, worship, healing, and much more. We are designed to be the world-transforming agents of the kingdom. We are meant to be a permanent revolution, not one that came and went, leaving a codified religion in its wake. That we only seldom realize this truth can be attributed to a bad case of recurring theological amnesia, one that has some seriously detrimental consequences on our capacities to get our mission done. . . .

Part of the amnesia comes for the way we conceive of, and subsequently configure, the church and its ministry. We create a paradigm — a way of perceiving our world, of filtering out what is considered real and unreal, of creating mental models of how things should be. Once established, paradigms in many ways do our thinking for us; that is their purpose. They in turn comprise clusters of what creative thinking expert Roger Martin calls algorithms. An algorithm is a predetermined formula that will produce reliable outcomes when it is consistently applied. Although paradigms help us make sense of our world by giving us ways to interpret it, they also create what is called paradigm blindness: an incapacity to see things from outside that particular perspective or paradigm. And this can account for how people fail to see certain important things that might be glaringly obvious to others. It can also account for many of the problems we in the church now face. But there is another serious downside to algorithms, as Martin so effectively articulates: "What organizations dedicated to running reliable algorithms often fail to realize is that while they reduce the risk of small variations, . . . they increase the risk of being overpowered by the various cataclysmic events that occur, situations when the future no longer resembles the past and whatever algorithm one has used is no longer relevant or useful.

If the missional conversation is over, it occurs to me that it probably hasn’t really ever been had. That’s because “missional” is not a style or a fad. It’s not an add-on, the latest church accessory, the newest cool idea for church leaders. The fact that some are suggesting the conversation is over leads me to think that they weren’t listening in the first place. My call — and the call of may other missional thinkers and practitioners — was not for a new approach to doing church or a new technique for church growth. I thought I was calling the church to revolution, to a whole new way of thinking about the seeing and being the followers of Jesus today. I now find myself in a place where I fear those robust and excited calls for a radical transformation of our ecclesiology have fallen on deaf ears.

I think Frost hits on a key point here, namely, those who think “missional” is a passing fad — whose time has already “come and gone” — simply have not fully grasp the enormity or breath of the conversation. It involves no less than a complete reorientation, or recalibration, of the way we understand the nature of God, church, mission, and the gospel.

On the other hand, this approach helps us deal with some serious problems in our particular Western context. We see in both our mission history and our current evangelistic practices so much that is contrary to the incarnational character of the gospel. We see a gospel of peace proclaimed in divisive, judgmental ways. We see a Gospel of love conveyed manipulatively, insensitively, condescendingly. We see a gospel of healing obscured by distortions that hurt people and evoke resentment.

Thus we arrive at the concept of incarnational witness as one way of expounding the character of our missionary vocation. In the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God revealed himself as the One who is with and for his creation.

Now, as the Risen Lord sends his Spirit to empower the church, we are called to become God’s people present in the world, with and for the world, like St. John pointing always to Christ. The most incarnational dimension of our witness is defined by the cross itself, as we experience with Jesus that bearing his cross transforms our suffering into witness.

Incarnational witness is, therefore, a way of describing Christian vocation in terms of Jesus Christ as the messenger, the message, and the model for all who follow after him. To speak of the incarnation missionally is to link who Jesus was, what Jesus did, and how he did it, in one great event that defines all that it means to be Christian.

- Darrell Guder in The Incarnation and The Church’s Witness

There is less than four two weeks 2 days until the kick off of the Sentralized conference on September 29th. It will begin with a book release party on Thursday night featuring both Michael Frost’s new book, “The Road to Missional” and Hugh Halter’s “Sacrilege.” You can now take a look at the rest of the conference schedule, as well as specific titles for each talk here.

I believe this conference is going to play a significant role in the ongoing missional conversation in the United States. There are essentially three reasons we have taken the time and effort to put Sentralized together.

First, we believe there is a continual need to bring clarity to missional language and concepts. Unfortunately, the use of missional terminology has become confusing in many circles. Some view “missional” as the latest church growth strategy, or a better way of doing evangelism. Others see missional as a means to mobilize church members to domissions more effectively. Still others believe missional is simply the latest Christian buzz word that will soon pass when the next trendy topic comes along.

However, we would argue that those who believe missional is merely an add-on to current church activities, or perhaps a passing fad prevalent only among church leaders, have simply not fully grasped the magnitude of the missional conversation. While it may sound like hyperbole; the move towards missional involves no less than a complete and thorough recalibration of our understanding of God’s mission, as well as the form and function of His church. By bringing together many of today’s best missional thinkers, we want to challenge God’s people to critically consider the significance of missional concepts and principles.

Second, we want to ensure the missional conversation moves beyond theory. We want to inspire and propel the people of God to engage His mission in life changing ways. That is why a considerable portion of the conference will focus on practical engagement; through the stories and personal examples of some of the best missional practitioners from around the country.

Third, we desire Sentralized to be a wellspring of relationships, networking and collaboration. To help this take place we have created “living room” spaces around sponsors’ displays and throughout the commons area. There will be numerous opportunities for you to cultivate relationships and exchange ideas, not only with other conference participants, but with each conference presenter. We want you to have real opportunities to interact personally with each of the speakers. To have the chance to get to know the presenters and to ask questions that are applicable to your ministry setting.

Hope to see you later this month.

I don’t know how to say this in a gentle way, but we should not assume that those people who are attracted to our church have been captivated by the message of Christ and his alternative vision of life. In truth, most North American Christians are not riding courageously on warrior steeds with swords waving wildly in the air, crying out, “Let’s change the world for Christ.” Rather, they come in the air-conditioned comfort of their SUV or minivan with their Visa card held high in the air, crying out, “Let’s go to the mall!”

We should be more truthful with each other here. They come because their high-school kid likes the youth program, or because their children don’t get bored, or because they like the music, or because the pastor preaches the Bible the way they believe it should be preached, or because they happened to be greeted by a smiling face one day, or because the worship leaders looks like Brad Pitt.

This is the hard, raw reality of life in the North American church. The people who come to our churches have been formed into spiritual consumers. This is who we are. It is our most instinctive response to life. And you can hardly blame us. Almost everything in our culture shapes us in this direction. But we must become deeply convinced that this is contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ, the one who invited us to deny ourselves and lose our lives in order to find them. If we do nothing to confront this in our churches, we are merely putting a religious veneer over consumerism and nothing is changed. We offer no real, viable, attractive, alternative way of living. And what is worse, our churches become part of the problem. By harnessing the power of consumerism to grow our churches, we are more firmly forming our people into consumers. Pastors end up being as helpful as bartenders at an Alcoholics Anonymous convention. We do not offer what people really need.

From Renovation of the Church: What Happens When a Seeker Church Discovers Spiritual Formation by Kent Carlson & Mike Lueken

For our present theme the revitalization of the office of the believer is crucial, for two reasons: first, the church’s witness will be much more credible if it comes from those who do not belong to the guild of pastors; and second, only in this way will we begin to bring together what our culture has divided, the private and public, for the lay members of the church clearly belong to the public and secular world, whereas the pastors belong to the separate, “religious” world.

David J. Bosch in Believing in the Future: Toward a Missiology of Western Culture