About a month ago, I started preaching at First Baptist Church of Hendersonville, TN. I have written before about their pastor and his death. The folks at First Baptist asked me to fill their pulpit and I agreed to do so until the end of the year.

I am going to invite the church to visit here at the blog each week in a new feature I call "Toward Sunday."

In "Toward Sunday," I will tell a bit about what I am preaching, perhaps post what I preached the week before, and tell any other information that might be helpful. Since I know that the vast majority of my readers do not go to church at FBC, I will work to make it applicable to all.

First, a little about the church. It is a "First Baptist," which means it has been around a long time and tends to be well known in the community. And it is. I can no longer go anywhere in town without being greeted by people from the church. Since it has about 8000 members, and Hendersonville (also where I live) has 40,000 people, basically 1/5 people I cut off in traffic recognize me as the guy who is preaching on Sunday. Sigh.

As a "First Baptist," it is primarily a blended/traditional church (with something of an "emerging" service, called Living Room, that meets in the chapel). I wear a suit and tie every week and, for those of you who know me, this is the first time I have regularly "suited up" for church. The service has a choir, an invitation, and a beautiful sanctuary.

Second, the former pastor recently began to preach about an externally-focused vision. Glenn Weakly had delivered a series called "Living the Legacy" that challenged the church to not be complacent, but to focus on community through both evangelism and service. Although we had not met, Glenn was a part of the decision to invite me to start preaching at First Baptist. (The original plan was that I would preach for two months while he recovered.) So, in a sense, I feel that I am just continuing the message he shared a few months ago.

I have been preaching a series called "The Church Inside Out: Joining God on Mission." Some of you will recognize the title of the series is the same as Johannes Hoekendijk's book from part 5 of my Meanings of Missional Series.

I have been pretty critical of Hoekendijk, so I guess this is my subliminal way of saying that he had the right idea, but lost the church and much of its mission in his application. My approach will, I hope, keep the focus on the mission and the kingdom, while recognizing that "God has chosen the church to make known his manifold wisdom in the world" (Ephesians 3:10).

I am encouraged that they asked me specficially to do a series on the missional church. This Sunday I am preaching on how, "The Church: Representing Jesus and His Kingdom." Last week, I compared two approaches to church: the Constantinian Model and the Biblical Model.

More on that soon...