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You are cool because you are “missional”. It’s true. Face it. Forget the “mega”churches, the “seeker-sensitive” people, and those darn “prosperity” guys. They are all wrong.First of all, they are not at all “organic” and cannot hang with our beards, pipes, and brews. They obviously didn’t read “Total Church” or “Tangible Kingdom”, know nothing of church plants or gospel rhythms, and they most certainly are not “in the city for the city“. Nope. We are.
In celebration of our collective coolness I propose we play a game called: “Put your hand in the air, and if any of the statements below are true of you, put it down.
- You have used the word “missional” and you have no idea what it means, none whatsoever. Hand down.
- You have a“heart for the nations” but have never left your homestate for anything other than a trip to Disneyland. Hand down.
I guess this is VERGE day. A few points of interest…
- Missional Community Training: I will be doing some training for the Midtown Team on missional community during Verge. If you’re interested in having me do this for your team, drop me a comment or a line. We are working on getting some of our Missional Community training out in the form of more in-person trainings and a booklet on Gospel-centered Missional Communities.
- Fight Clubs at Verge: I’ve had a number of requests for Fight Clubs books to be available during Verge. I will have 150 copies available for discounted price of $5 at the Acts 29 display/table.
- Coming to Verge? Drop a comment if you’re coming. Hopefully we can meet up.
In case you haven’t heard, there is a big Missional Community conference happening here in Austin Feb 4-6—VERGE. Sold out at 2000 attendees, with 30 organizations, and 70+ on the waiting list, this just might be the hottest conference of the year. Of course, Austin Stone, the conference organizers, have no interest in being “hot”, but they do want to be missional.
What is VERGE for?
My old friend Michael Stewart, Pastor of Missional Community at Austin Stone, is the VERGE conference architect. Stew’s strategic gifting is through the roof. VERGE will be proof. I recently asked Stew to clarify just what VERGE is (in 160 characters or less)! He replied:
To equip & unleash ordinary people to pursue Jesus, be gospel-centered missionaries, recover a movement ethos, & multiply MC.
As you can imagine, planning a conference this big requires a lot of energy and time. Much of the Austin Stone staff has been devoting time to VERGE. Curious how this workload is affecting Stew, I asked him it has shaped his view of mission and Jesus. He replied:
A deeper affection for the person and work of Jesus on our behalf as the propulsion in any gospel movement. Jesus is not just an example, he is our source, our strength, our refuge, our good news, our hope, our wisdom, our joy…he is everything to everything and renewer of all things, even me, us, our neighborhoods, our communities, and our cities.
That’s the kind of architect you want behind a conference. This God-sized, Jesus-centered goal is inspiring! Wouldn’t it be wonderful if God granted Stew’s hope and aim?
What Will Happen at Verge?
The unlikely line-up of VERGE speakers around a topic like Missional Community is intriguing. Mega and Micro churches are represented, theoreticians and practitioners, and despite differences in philosophy of ministry, all these speakers agree on one thing—the centrality of Jesus in the Mission of the Church. This united but diverse focus will prove helpful and interesting as the missional church dialog continues at VERGE.
What will happen at Verge? It largely depends on you. Will you come to engage, repent, adjust, encourage, affirm, critique, dialog, and strategize? If you do, great things could happen. Let’s pray they would, starting now. Let’s come, not just to consume, but to give and strengthen one another in the great task of gospel leadership and the mission of the church.
Missional Lunch Break-outs
Some news on VERGE offerings. Several new break-outs are now being offered. Register here.
“For the City: Theology, Principles & Practices of Mercy Ministries” (pre-conference)
World Vision Gospel Quest Dinner
Friday, February 5, 5-7PM
Limited Seating
BBQ Dinner by Rudy’s
Cost: $10
International Justice Mission Brunch
Saturday, February 6, 10:45-12PM
Limited Seating
Brunch
Cost: $10
Hope to see you at VERGE!
I just came across a Top Ten list that our Director of Missional OCmmunity put together for one of our monthly City Gruop meetings. There are some really helpful things in here:
1 KNOW GOD
- cultivate a steady devotional/prayer life
- participate in a fight club
- serve with the strength God supplies
2 KNOW YOUR PEOPLE
- pastor your city group
- notice when somebody disapears
3 KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD
- know the culture
- know your neighbors
4 DON’T GO ALONE
-share leadership, i.e. host, meals, prayer, mission
- participate in monthly meetings
- participate in monthly coaching
5 SAY WHO YOU ARE (AND WHO YOU AREN’T) EVERY WEEK
- Deconstruct small group/biblestudy/social group
- Reaffirm our Practices SHARE/PRAY/ENGAGE/LOVE (SPEL)
6 GET OUT OF THE LIVING ROOM
- on mission
- in celebration
7 LIVE THE 8 WAYS TO EASILY BE MISSIONAL
- Out loud, let gospel talk be ordinary talk. Don’t hide your faith.
8 EAT ,LAUGH, PRAY, and SERVE TOGETHER
- a healthy group will do all 4
9 TELL YOUR STORIES
- In the living room
- On the blog
- Use twitter/FB to facilitate community(not replace it)
10 COME TO SERVE (NOT JUST GET) ON SUNDAYS
Lamar Stockton is a great musician and worship leader, serving formerly at Riverbend Church. I had lunch with Lamar this week and was impressed by his desire to find a church he loves before he finds a church he serves. If you’re looking for a worship leader, Lamar is an outstanding option.
Read why we dropped Fight Clubs: Gospel-Centered Discipleship $1.50 and how you can get it even cheaper in bulk!
How we introduce the church to people has a lot to do with how they interpret church. We introduce the church poorly to people when we leave “church” out of our weekday conversations. We introduce the church poorly when we just tell people “how to get there” on a website. How we introduce people to the church, especially on Sundays, is important if we want to re-arrange their expectations around a gospel view of the church.
Here are a few ways we’ve done it. I’m not being dogmatic, just suggestive. I think this is important, but I also think you should introduce people both theologically and contextually. In other words, rearrange their view of the church around the gospel, but do it in language that is true to your vision and your context.
Introducing Church on Sundays
Over the past couple of years we’ve changed the way we introduce people to the church on a Sunday morning, but all in all we’ve had minor variations. We used to say stuff like:
“If you’re visiting today, we’re so glad you came. We hope this is the last time you come to church, because this building isn’t the church. These people are.“
Early on this certainly weeded out the consumer, but probably also ran off a few potential disciples. With time we softened our introduction to tell people that:
“The best way you can get to know the church is to visit a City Group, where the church is the church to one another and the city.”
This was more welcoming and still community affirming. It mixed more grace into the welcome. However, as we continued to reflect on this introduction, we still felt like it was, at times, intimidating for front door visitors. Why? Because we pushed City Groups so hard. You’re bound to feel out of place if you aren’t in one, especially since the majority of our church is. We wanted to relieve the person who unreligously visited out Sunday gatherings once every 4-5 weeks, while remaining true to our vision of the church.
So we went this this, roughly. People laugh every time they hear it (the bold part), but I can tell they love it. They tell me so.
Welcome to Austin City Life. My name is ____, and I am one of the Partners with our church. If you’re visiting, we’re really glad you found us. We would love to meet you, so hang around afterwards over coffee, join us for lunch, or fill out a visitor form on a lap top.
You should know up front that we are a very imperfect church. We will disappoint you, but we’ll do our best to point you to a perfect Savior. That’s the Gospel, and we believe it converts us to Christ, to Church and to Mission. It’s why we’re here, to be the church to one another and to the city. To be in the city and for the city, redemptively engaging peoples and cultures.
The best place to figure this all out is in our City Groups, gospel communities that serve one another and our city. You can check them out right here by hanging around afterward and chatting in the back, by our sign, or learn more online at austincitylife.org.
Introducing Church on Websites
Your introduction to the Church on Sundays should resonate with what you say on your website and, most importantly, your small group/missional community experience. We’ve changed our web wording to reflect our actual gathering, keeping the non-Christian in mind.
Sundays Gatherings are an important part of being the church at Austin City Life. Although we want to avoid the mistake of seeing Sunday as “the Church”, we believe it is important to gather every Sunday for worship, preaching, communion, and community.
On Sundays you’ll find an interesting juxtaposition of theological depth and cultural expression. We are in line with historic, orthodox Christianity, but express that Christian faith progressively, in a venue on Austin’s renown 6th Street.
What is Sunday Like?
We gather every Sunday at The Parish, one of the best music venues on 6th, where you’ll hear our musicians play rich, stirring, God-focused music, not as a performance but as an act of worship. You’ll also hear substantive gospel messages that regularly engage cultural issues. Best of all, you’ll get to meet a community gathered around Jesus that loves our city.These people are like you in many ways. They are citizens, creatives, moms, dads, young marrieds, professionals, college students, and singles. They are Christian and not Christian. We are all imperfect people looking to a perfect Christ.
This certainly isn’t the last “word”, and introducing people to the church is so much more than what you say. But what you say also affects how you live.
Here are few new books I am reading:
- When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor and Yourself (Corbett & Fikkert)
- Ministries of Mercy (Tim Keller)
- NPRs Guide to Classical Music
- Hard Times (Charles Dickens)
- Scribbling in the Sand (Michael Card)
- Trellis & the Vine (Payne & Marshall)
- Shepherds after My own Heart (Tim Laniak)
Music for the City is hosting a HOPE for HAITI Benefit Concert on Monday night @ The Parish. This immediate response is for the tremendous need for relief among Haitians. Plan on coming and supporting. Let’s show Haiti they are loved!
Proceeds will go to REAL HOPE for HAITI, a non-profit organization providing medical relief and care for severely malnourished children in Haiti.
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