I am in Minneapolis today. It is odd to be back in the town after being here a few weeks ago at Bethlehem Baptist Church, then watching the bridge collapse on national television, and now returning a few weeks later.
Yesterday, Earl Creps spent all day with the Evangelical Free Church national leadership in their first ever "missional summit." We are meeting at Grace Church, a huge church in Eden Praire, MN.
More tomorrow... I have to go back to the meeting room, which, oddly enough is the choir practice room that seats 300... so, hopefully I won't just be "preaching to the choir," but we will be "provoking one another on to love and good deeds" (Hebrews 10:24).
This morning, we unpacked ideas of God's mission, the sending nature of God, biblical fidelity, the sending of the church, and the Kingdom. It is exciting to me that a whole denomination would bring its national and regional leaders together to ask the hard questions about how to be intentionally missional in their approach. There are about 200 leaders here wrestling through what it means to be a missional movement.
Tomorrow, I willl post my next "Meanings of Missional" post.
In the meantime, let me direct you to a few articles or posts that I think provide helpful context for the missional conversation.
As always, uberblogger Brother Maynard is typing away with his most recent helpful post. This one deals with "Missional as the Defragmentation of Missions."
Alan Roxburgh, of Allelon, was one of the original authors of The Missional Church, the most influential book in the missional conversation. Alan weighs in on what our missional focus should be.
I use Roxburgh's Missional Leader when I teach on missional church. Its a good read.
Bob Roberts dropped by the blog and commented a bit here, but then wrote a much more lengthy post on his own blog about the relationship to the Kingdom of God to the missional church. This is a big part of the discussion to come, but less prominent in the early history that I have been laying out... so stay tuned.
Bob also added another post about "Missional and the Sunday event."
Comments (4)
Ed, thanks for the uber-shout-out ;^)
I'm really appreciating your series and the work you're putting into it... but man, stringing us along! Monday morning and I'm looking for your next post, only to have to keep waiting until Thursday. In case you're wondering, too much of the extra traffic you're getting is me impatiently hitting "refresh"!
I guess I'll come back tomorrow... ;^)
Posted by Brother Maynard | September 12, 2007 7:02 PM
Posted on September 12, 2007 19:02
Maynard,
You are always gracious and quite an encouragment. It feels like we have been doing a tandem series... and I appreciate it.
I am giving up on Mondays... I am going to make this an occasional series!
Thanks,
Ed
Posted by Ed Stetzer | September 12, 2007 8:11 PM
Posted on September 12, 2007 20:11
Ed,
I am currently working through Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk suggests from the "The Missional Leader". I would like to network with some Pastors in pursuing the task of a Missional Leader in a "traditional" church. Also, I have found Roxburgh's earlier book "The Sky Is Falling: Leaders Lost in Transition" very helpful, too. I would like to see more from the SBC on addrerssing the "real issues" facing our churches.
Thanks for the post.
Charles Womack
Pastor
FBC, Bethany, OK
Posted by Charles Womack, Pastor - FBC Bethany, OK | September 14, 2007 12:00 PM
Posted on September 14, 2007 12:00
Ed -
Great to see you again and reconnect. You did a great job speaking to us at the EFCA Missional Summit in Minn.
Please email me with your current email address as I have some info to give you regarding the Exponetial (New Church Start) Conf.
Blessings,
Dave Page
EFCA West
Dir. of Church Planting
Posted by Dave Page | September 19, 2007 6:37 PM
Posted on September 19, 2007 18:37