“Missional community life probably works great where you live, but you don’t understand my context. People are different here…” I’ve heard this a zillion times.
This week on the Lifeschool Podcast, we discuss whether or not it’s actually possible to start and sustain a missional community in any context: urban, suburban, rural… the moon!
Have you ever tried starting a missional community from scratch?
“Missional” is a label we give to the qualitative and descriptive aspect of how a church or group of people actually lives. My buddy Hugh Halter says it simply,
“It’s about how much like Jesus people become… how much they influence, woo, and transform the culture in which they are placed.”
A family, group of friends or church that lives like this… Sounds good!
Well, a few years ago my friends all thought so too. We were excited to be rebels who were starting a missional community.
Excited, that is, until things progressed to where we moved beyond our weekly meal and discussion about being missional. It was time to start heading out and building new relationships, serving those in need in our city… actually making disciples.
That’s when everyone recoiled a bit.
Now I’ve learned how to make discipleship and mission a reality–something simple that everyone can live out in everyday life.
What I didn’t know back in those earlier days of starting a missional community was that while most Christians want to make disciples and live on mission with God, they also feel way to busy!
Often, when moving toward a lifestyle of discipleship and mission, people become overwhelmed with what they perceive as the risk of their family time, “margins” and sanity!
The secret is moving from “additional” to “intentional” in our thinking.
Discipleship is not a set of activities we need to jam into our lives, or a series classes that we need to take. And a missional community is more than just a weekly meeting of our small group with a name change.
It’s a series of simple, rhythms or “moves” we can easily, and intentionally, engage in our everyday life. Step by step.
Discipleship becomes a way of life that includes your kids, close friends and neighbors.
That’s what my family and friends now experience.
If you want it… I’m here to get you started without all the headaches, stop/starts and frustration.
This process takes a little effort and intentionality. But it’s not complicated. And it’s one of the fastest ways I’ve discovered to get started with others making disciples and building community.
(You can do Steps 1 and 2 today!)
I want to give you access to this free Start-Up Guide (including ‘How To Start a Missional Community From Scratch’). Just click the button below and I’ll send it over.
People love to give their opinions about how you’re doing things… but sometimes the best way to care for others and yourself is to stop caring about what certain people think.
This week on the Lifeschool Podcast, we look at the types of people you’ll need to stop listening to in order to truly make disciples and live on mission. This will be refreshing!
It’s easy to listen to sermons and read books on theology and missional living… nod our heads in agreement… yet very little change happens in our lives. Jesus made some surprising (maybe unreasonable?) commands to his potential disciples.
This week on the Lifeschool Podcast, we continue our talk on Gospel Motivation and why what we truly believe will become evident by the work of our hands and the patterns of our lives.
What if, crazy as this may sound, Jesus told us to STOP going to church?!
“I have a whole bunch of people that have bought into this missional community thing and lifestyle–living like missionaries in our city–but HOW do you keep them motivated? They start out all fired up, but after a while, they seem to fizzle out.” Sound familiar?
This week on the Lifeschool Podcast, we talk about why you need Gospel Motivation to lead your church, small group, or family toward a life on mission with God… and what happens when you don’t.
