The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches in Columbus, OH

Tomorrow, I am flying to Columbus, Ohio to speak there on Monday. I'll be speaking at the national meeting of The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches. The meeting is called "Equip 09." My focus will be what it takes to see Church Planting Movements in North America.

The Grace Brethren are spiritual decedents of the Schwarzenau Brethren. Their history is here.

Wikipedia explains:

The Schwarzenau (German Baptist) Brethren, originated in Germany, the outcome of the Radical Pietist ferment of the late 17th and early 18th century. Hopeful of the imminent return of Christ, the founding Brethren abandoned the established Reformed and Lutheran churches, forming a new church in 1708 when their apocalyptic hopes were still unfulfilled. They thereby attempted to translate "the Philadelphian idea of love into concrete congregational ordinances obligatory for all the members." Unlike the Philadelphians, Brethren rejected Leade's embrace of direct revelation and emphasized early ("Apostolic" or "primitive") Christianity as the binding standard for congregational practices. The founding Brethren were also in conversation with Mennonites and influenced by Anabaptist writings.

In Germany the Brethren became known as Neue Täufer (New Baptists), in distinction from the older Anabaptist groups. In the United States they became popularly known as Dunkers, Dunkards or Tunkers, corruptions of the German verb tunken, to dip. Other religious groups related historically to the same Radical Pietist ferment as the Brethren are the Community of True Inspiration and the Moravians.

NAMB in Atlanta

On Tuesday, I will be speaking at the North American Mission Board State Summer Leadership Meeting in Atlanta, GA. I will be present the preliminary report on the spiritual receptivity of first generational immigrant groups. On Wednesday, I will be meeting with and co-facilitation NAMB's task force focus on how we might advance the work of the Great Commission.

Together for Adoption in Nashville

Later this fall I'll be speaking at the Together for Adoption Conference October 2-3.

I'm looking forward to speaking at the upcoming on "The Gospel, Social Justice and the Missional Church." Check out the conference details here, register here, and I hope to see you there!