Reggie McNeal

May 20, 2008 | Filed Under kingdom of God, leadership, missional | 3 Comments

Here are two excellent presentations from Reggie McNeal recorded at the Reformed Church in America’s One Thing Conference last February.

While McNeal’s presentations are always laced with an abundance of humor, he never fails to present a great challenge to the church to struggle deeply with why and how the church functions. These two sessions are certainly no exception. I especially appreciate McNeal’s emphasis on the Kingdom in the first presentation. His thoughts on developing a “blessing strategy” are also very refreshing and applicable.

You can also download the audio of both sessions here.

Shapevine: A Community of Collaborators

January 4, 2008 | Filed Under leadership, missional | No Comments

If you are not already familiar with the resources available at Shapevine be sure to check out this site. Shapevine is a multi-dimensional website created to provide a forum for discussion with a wide variety of authors and leaders.

The dialogue is made available via video cafes, podcasts and live Webinars. Some of those participating include Alan Hirsch, Reggie McNeal, Michael Frost, Neil Cole, Leonard Sweet and others. Shapevine looks to have the potential to be an excellent learning community for missional leaders and church planters.

Advent and Waiting For God

December 22, 2007 | Filed Under georges boujakly, leadership | No Comments

My friend Georges Boujakly shared the following newsletter article from Margaret Benefiel, author of Soul At Work and Founder of Executive Soul. Benefiel writes that Advent ought to be a season for waiting and looking for what God is doing. She writes:

Advent is about waiting for God, looking for the new thing that God is doing. Advent holds a lesson for all of us in this busy world, especially organizational leaders.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like waiting, thank you very much. Like most of the people around me, I tend to rush from one thing to another in my busy life. When the bank puts me on hold during a phone call, or when I find myself stuck in a long line at the post office, I get impatient.

This season leading up to Christmas is Advent, a season of waiting for Christians around the world. What’s the point of a season of waiting? More>>

Hit the Bullseye

September 7, 2007 | Filed Under books, church, leadership | 1 Comment

I spent the majority of this week with a group of denominational leaders discussing various issues dealing with congregational health and the need for rethinking denominations and judicatories to be better equipped to coach and resource churches. The bulk of our discussion centered around the book “Hit the Bullseye: How Denominations Can Aim the Congregation at the Mission Field” by Paul Borden.

While my expectations of the book were not very high initially, the more I read the more I appreciated Borden’s candor in regards to the ineffectiveness of much of what takes place in denominational life. Here are a couple of samples of what I mean:

The problem with denominations is that they want to shape the mission around their polity, rather than shape the polity around the mission. The latter view is the spirit of all the founding fathers and mothers of every denomination, while the former is the sorry state of every denomination today. The lack of mission urgency in North America means that denominational leaders think they still have time to develop modest, incremental strategic plans to tinker with polity, and time afterwards to then go about mission. The truth is just the opposite. The eternal destinies of individuals do not allow such laxness.

And:

Our current polity systems usually enfranchise those people who are the least able to lead while tying the hands of the most creative and able leaders. This statement assumes that the most able leaders are still around after any brief exposure to how religious bodies function. Our polities allow the managers, administrators, and politicians who understand complex bureaucratic systems to become the leaders in congregational, judicatory, and denominational life. In the meantime these systems weed out those with entrepreneurial and leadership skills. These people for the most part leave and create their own ministries or shadow organizations that go around the bureaucracies created by our polities.

Borden argues that there is far more time and effort spent on keeping the institution going than on focusing resources on the local congregation as the major unit of mission. Deep, paradigmatic change is needed if there is to be hope, and such change must be systemic not incremental.

However I am afraid that the vast majority of those in denominational life have been fitted with one of these: (HT: geez)

Missional Leadership

August 17, 2007 | Filed Under alan hirsch, books, dmin project, leadership, missional | No Comments

“In addition to holding a clear vision, missional leadership involves facilitating the emergence of novelty by building and nurturing networks of communications; creating a learning culture in which questioning is encouraged and innovation is rewarded; creating a climate of trust and mutual support; and recognizing viable novelty when it emerges, while allowing the freedom to make mistakes.

It is for this reason that Roxburgh and Romanuk can say that the role of leadership within the church is to cultivate environments wherein the Spirit of God might call forth and unleash the missional imagination of the people of God.”

- Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways

Nurturing a Third Way for Congregations

August 1, 2007 | Filed Under church, leadership | No Comments

Here is an excellent article from The Alban Institute titled “Changing the Conversation: Nurturing a Third Way for Congregations.” The article, written by Anthony Robinson, first appeared in Congregations magazine and last week was included in Scot McKnight’s weekly meanderings over at Jesus Creed. For a flavor of where Robinson is going in the article here is the opening paragraph:

For congregations—particularly congregations of the mainline Protestant tradition—the way forward has everything to do with changing the conversation. Is a third way possible—a way beyond the polarized alternatives of either liberal or conservative, left or right, red or blue, traditional or contemporary, praise or classical? If it is possible, is a third way merely a compromise between extremes, a muddle in the middle, or is it a vital center and a new framing of the conversation?

Missional X Conference

July 12, 2007 | Filed Under leadership, missional, networks | 4 Comments

I want to make you aware of the Missional X conference coming up September 20-22 in Tucson. The conference will feature Jim Henderson, author of Evangelism Without Additives and Jim and Casper Go to Church and Darrin Patrick, pastor of The Journey in St. Louis and Vice-President of Acts 29. For more information, including workshop topics be sure to check out the site.

Missional Meanderings

May 22, 2007 | Filed Under church, ecclesiology, leadership, meanderings, missional | No Comments

Here is an excellent article on the importance of teaching theology from a missional perspective by Dr. John Franke, Professor of Theology at Biblical Seminary. The article focuses on the implications of understanding Christian theology as a discipline that should assist the church in it’s missional vocation.

Drew Goodmanson presents a couple of outstanding posts on developing a “triperspectival ecclesiology.” The first post is here. Second post is here. A follow up post on missional leadership is here. Be sure to examine the diagrams with each post. How do you see these diagrams assisting the formation of your community? How do they help you communicate?

I found the possibilities of this event very interesting in light of several conversations we have been having about the need for some sort of missional order.

Does individualism pervert the gospel? Getting the Gospel right by Scot McKnight.

In small group ministry as well as house/organic expressions of church people inevitably ask “what to do with the kids?”

Finally, here is a nice resource of seminary courses from Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis. There are nearly a thousand free resources available for download in mp3 or pdf files.

The “System” is Flawed - Continued

April 18, 2007 | Filed Under leadership, missional, spiritual formation | 1 Comment

In an earlier post I shared with you that the pastor of the church where my family and I attend resigned this past Sunday after confessing an adulterous relationship with a fellow staff member. Dan Southerland, author of “Transitioning,” founder of “Church Transitions” and frequent guest teaching pastor at this church brought the message this past weekend. Southerland’s message focused on how to understand and deal with crisis in our lives. He then transitioned into discussing the period of crisis that this local congregation was about to enter, in light of the moral failure of the senior pastor. I thought he did a very fine job. He spoke frankly about the moral failure of the pastor, but he did so with grace and an eye towards redemption. He spoke to the variety of feelings that people would experience and the proper way each ought to respond.

One of the major themes of Southerland’s message was the importance of not confusing the message with the messenger. A statement that was emphasized along this thought was: “Do not let the mess of the messenger negate the message.” While I thought this was an appropriate response and was surely helpful to many who were struggling to make sense of the circumstances, I later found myself reflecting on the delimma this statement creates. More>>

The “System” is Flawed

April 16, 2007 | Filed Under ecclesiology, leadership | 9 Comments

This morning (Sunday) the pastor of a large church where my family and I attend two or three times a month resigned after confessing an adulterous relationship with a fellow staff member. It was an enormous blow to everyone. If there was one pastor among the group of churches where I work (as a Church Planting Strategist) that I thought “had it all together” it was this pastor. In every area of ministry he seemed to always do the right thing. Over the past 17 years he led the church from a group of 75 to a church with an attendance of over 5,000. The church is a full blown PDC model with six services including one on-site video venue and two regional campuses. More>>

The Forgotten Ways - Chapter 6

April 9, 2007 | Filed Under alan hirsch, books, leadership, missional | 1 Comment

In chapter 6 of “The Forgotten Ways” Alan Hirsch focuses on the issue of leadership in the missional church. He begins by reflecting back on the introduction of the book where he discussed the phenomenal Jesus movements of history, namely the early church up until 300 AD and the Chinese church during the reign of Mao Tse-tung. The question that begs to be answered with each of these movements is “How did they do it?” Or more specifically for the focus of chapter 6, “What kind of leadership?” More>>

What Do Missional Leaders Look Like? #7

March 16, 2007 | Filed Under leadership, missional | 5 Comments

The last in our series on key characteristics of missional leaders is:

They believe the Kingdom of God is bigger than the church.

Missional leaders understand that the activities of God can and do take place outside the realm of the church. Therefore, they move out in ministry expecting that God is already at work in the lives of people. Morgan states “when the community of faith reaches out into their community, they find people prepared by him [the Holy Spirit] to believe. They find opportunities for service and witness. They find a door of ministry opened by him.” More>>

What Do Missional Leaders Look Like? #6

March 15, 2007 | Filed Under leadership, missional | 3 Comments

The sixth characteristic in our series on what missional leaders look like from notes of Dr. Dan Morgan, Nehemiah Church Planting Professor at Southwestern seminary is:

They disciple with a view to deployment on mission, not servicing the organization.

Morgan stated that as the institutional church ages an increasing percentage of its workers and leaders are deployed to service existing members and maintain the organization. However, a missional leader is committed to raising up leaders primarily for kingdom involvement, not maintenance. More>>

What Do Missional Leaders Look Like? #5

March 6, 2007 | Filed Under leadership, missional | No Comments

The fifth characteristic in our list of what missional leaders look like is:

They foster relational structures rather than institutional structures.

At this point Morgan shared some great insights on relational networks. He stated that in comparison to institutional structures there is no doubt that highly relational structures appear to be more chaotic. In fact, one of the reasons organization/structure emerges is to reduce and control the chaos of relational networks. Morgan’s point however is that while missional leaders still use organization and structures in this way, they allow the growing edge of the church to remain purely relational and learn to live with the chaos that exists.

What Do Missional Leaders Look Like? #4

March 5, 2007 | Filed Under leadership, missional | No Comments

The fourth of the seven distinctives of missional leaders as observed by Dr. Morgan is:

Their focus is on the Kingdom, not preservation of an institution.

With this characteristic Dr. Morgan’s primary focus was on the missional leader’s caution toward the entanglements of buildings and formal organizations. They recognize that owning a building and developing a large organization is problematic in light of the contexts in which they work. More>>

What Do Missional Leaders Look Like? #3

March 2, 2007 | Filed Under leadership, missional | No Comments

The third of the seven characteristics or distinctives of missional leaders as observed by Dr. Morgan is:

They work opportunistically rather than routinely.

In other words, misisonal leaders focus their efforts in places where they see God working. They understand that God is already active in the world therefore the missional emphasis is on entering into His activities rather than creating activities that we hope are used or blessed by Him. As I heard Dr. Henry Blackaby say this week in a meeting in Atlanta, “God is already on mission, we just need to ask Him where He wants us to join in.”

What Do Missional Leaders Looks Like? #2

March 1, 2007 | Filed Under leadership, missional | No Comments

The second of the seven characteristics or distinctives of missional leaders as observed by Dr. Dan Morgan, Church Planting Professor at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth is:

They don’t assume a friendly environment in which to carry out church life.

The misisonal leader has come to grips with the end of Christendom. They understand clearly that Christendom is no longer the dominant seat of culture. Thereforethey do not assume or expect a friendly environment in which to carry out church life. As a result they recognize the need for a misisonal/incarnational approach to ministry whereby they enter into the lives of people as a servant and invite others into their lives by showing biblical hospitality.

What Do Missional Leaders Look Like? #1

February 27, 2007 | Filed Under leadership, missional | 1 Comment

Last week I shared seven characteristics or distinctives of missional leaders as observed by Dr. Dan Morgan, Church Planting Professor at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, TX. In coming weeks we are going to examine each of the characteristics in more detail. The first of these distinctives is:

They grasp the importance of leading like Jesus.

Morgan articulates three different aspects of leading like Jesus. First, when we examine the teachings of Jesus there is a clear emphasis between obedience and the marks of a true disciple. A missional leader will show a strong commitment to obey the Lord as He reveals His will. In other words, for a missional leader “Jesus is Lord” of every area of life. Morgan states that this quality of obedient living implies a corollary commitment to the authority of the Word as the primary guide to God’s will.

Second, Jesus’ teaching on servant leadership is at the core of how a missional leader connects, serves and influences in a relational dominated context. Missional leaders ask “how can I serve you?” This question is asked of both believers and non-believers.

Third, leading like Jesus means that missional leaders are willing to take “faith-based risks.” Jesus was not afraid to enter into contexts that were threatening when He was sure the Father was leading. Likewise, missional leaders are willing to step into relational contexts that may initially be uncomfortable or even threatening for the sake of Christ-like influence.

What Do Missional Leaders Look Like?

February 19, 2007 | Filed Under leadership, missional | 2 Comments

A few weeks ago I participated in a church planting meeting where the focus of the time together was on raising up and sending out missional minded planters. One of the sessions was led by Dr. Dan Morgan, Church Planting Professor at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth. Dr. Morgan shared his heart regarding the need for planting missional minded churches and where to find planters that exhibited missional qualities. At one point he shared seven characteristics or distinctives that he observed in missional leaders.

They grasp the importance of leading like Jesus.
They don’t assume a friendly environment in which to carry out church life.
They work opportunistically rather than routinely.
Their focus is on the Kingdom, not preservation of an institution.
They foster relational structures rather than institutional structures.
They disciple with a view towards deployment on mission, not servicing the organization.
They believe the Kingdom is bigger than the church.

In the coming days I plan to elaborate on Morgan’s seven distinctives and consider what other aspects of missional leadership is important.