As I mentioned and shared details on Saturday, I'm doing a conference tomorrow in Chicago. Whenever I come to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, I do a one-day seminar for pastors as part of my class.

In this case, I will be focusing on "missional leadership." I recently taught on the subject in Oklahoma. Here is the video:

Missional Leadership from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

You can get more information about this training at the One Day web page.

Here is the outline that I used in the video and I will be using tomorrow:

Missional Leadership

1) Reconsideration of Leadership

a) From superman to everyone
b) From church to kingdom
c) From me to we
d) From personal power to people empowerment

2) Rejection of Clergification

a) From three tiers to one mission
b) From "called to the ministry" to "called to ministry"
c) From "called to missions" to "sent on mission"
d) From exceptional to ordinary
e) From "priests" to a "priesthood of believers"

3) Renewed focus on mission

a) From "full service" to "simple mission"
b) From "pay, pray, and get out of the way" to "join God on His mission"
c) From decisionism to disciple making
d) From "mission statement" to "Jesus mission"
Luke 4
Luke 19:10

4) Realignment of priorities

a) God is a missionary God
b) I personally join Him on mission - modeling
c) I lead others to join Him on mission - leadership
d) I equip others - multiplication

I hope that is helpful. Be sure to watch the video to get the context.

I am writing this post from Taiwan. As I have been working with both local leaders and American pastors, I have been struck by a few things and thought I would share them with you.

First, I have traveled to Taiwan as a part of the Upstream Collective. The reason is to accompany American pastors with a desire to be missional on a cross-cultural, international encounter. (You can scroll down the last few posts to learn what we are doing in Taiwan.)

Each person on the trip has the missional impulse as part of their DNA, and they are here to consider how they might join God on his mission globally. While I admire the faithfulness of these men, I must admit my surprise to see that there is not a bigger interest in such global concerns among American pastors in general. My fellow travelers seem to be rare of a breed in ministry.

Second, when I blogged about this on Sunday, two readers contacted my hosts-- one working with the Presbyterian Church in America and one from the Oversee Missionary Fellowship (OMF). Why? Well, according to one email, the author explained, "I'm particularly interested in attracting young missional church planters here."

Third, I was recently told by a pastor who called himself "missional" that his church needed to pull back on their global mission support to help their people "be missionaries right here."

All this provokes me to ask, "Why are so many missional Christians uninvolved in God's global mission?" As the missional conversation continues and deepens, what has occurred that has led to our blindness to the lost world around us?

There are five reasons I think this has happened:

1) In rediscovering God's mission, many have only discovered its personal dimensions.

I don't mean they have somehow localized mission into their interior, "private" life-- that would make little sense. Rather, the encouragement for each person to be on mission (to be "missional") has trended toward a personal obligation to personal settings, rather than toward a global obligation to advance God's kingdom among all the nations.

"Missional" has merged with privatized Christianity to serve as the reason for personal projects carried out in personal spheres. This is not bad, necessarily. But when the missional impulse is not expanded to include God's global mission, it results in believers moved only to minister in their own Jerusalems with no mind toward their Judeas, Samarias, and uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8).

2) In responding to God's mission, many have wanted to be more mission-shaped and have therefore made everything "mission."

Missions historian Stephen Neil, responding to a similar surge in mission interest (the missio dei movement of the 1950s and following), explained it this way: "If everything is mission then nothing is mission." Neil's fear was that the focus would shift from global evangelization (often called "missions") to societal transformation (often called "mission"). He was right.

Recently John Piper echoed these same concerns, differentiating between evangelism and missions. He reminded us that when "Every Christian is a missionary" equals "missional," then we have diluted the need for and specialness of missionaries to foreign lands. (Although I would want to nuance John's language a bit, I agree with his point.)

One American church's website recently identified their ministry as missional, which they proceeded to define as "reaching out to the community to invite them to come" see what is happening in the church. Another's young adult community service project consisted of landscaping the church grounds. Inviting people to church and cleaning up the church are noble endeavors, but passing them for "missional" and "service" is ministerial naïveté at best. It demonstrates the fuzziness that creeps in when labels become catch-alls. And as the outer edges of the missional label gets fuzzy so does mission to the outer edges of the world.

3) In relating God's mission, the message increasingly includes the hurting but less frequently includes the global lost.

One only needs to watch the videos to see the emphases: global orphan projects, eradicating AIDS, Christmas shoeboxes, etc. All of these causes now have advocacy groups, and rightly so, as they are important. However, their vocabulary and frames of reference do not frequently make room for evangelizing the very people they touch. The message of world evangelism, actually, seems more common in legacy/traditional churches than in missional churches. Missional churches seem to speak more of unserved peoples rather than unreached peoples. As we engage to deliver justice, we must also deliver the gospel regardless of anyone's status in a culture.

4) In refocusing on God's mission, many are focusing on being good news rather than telling good news.

St. Francis allegedly said,"Preach the gospel at all times; when necessary, use words." Interestingly enough, Francis never actually said this, nor would he have done so due to his membership in a preaching order. But it is a pithy quote tossed into mission statements and vision sermons in missional churches all around my country. Why? It seems that many in the missional conversation place a higher value on serving the global hurting rather than evangelizing the global lost. Or perhaps it is just easier.

I am not urging a dichotomy here, only noting that one already exists. It is ironic, though, that as many missional Christians have sought to "embody" the gospel, they have chosen to forsake one member of Christ's body; the mouth.

5) In reiterating God's mission, many lose the context of the church's global mission and needed global presence.

For whatever reason-- the admirable one of commitment to the local church or the ignoble one of commitment to personalized consumeristic Christianity-- we have lost the grand scope of the entire family of God. While Christ calls people from all tongues, tribes, and nations, we have become content with our own tongue, tribe, and nation. Many churches are wonderfully embracing the missional imperative, but as they seek to "own" the mission by adapting their church into a missional movement in their local community, some inadvertently localize God's mission itself and lose the vital connection all believers share together. A hyper-focus on our own community results in a, have lost vision for the communion of the saints.

So how do we fully embrace missional without losing the mission? The Mission Exchange (formerly the Evangelical Foreign Mission Society) asked me to talk to their global leaders on the topic "How to Put 'Missions' Back into Missional." In my talk, I proposed four principles we needed to consider:

First, recognize it is God's mission, and we need to be passionate about the mission as He describes it. We don't own mission and it is not ours to define. A church vision statement is fine, but God's mission is better and bigger. Our first task is to submit to God's mission.

Secondly, evangelicals have understated the call to serve the poor and the hurting and need a stronger engagement in social justice. This sounds counterintuitive if we are seeking to remedy the loss of concern for articulated evangelism. But social engagement entails relational engagement, and relational engagement entails opportunities to share the gospel. The successes and experiences in our communities should awaken hearts and minds to global needs. We just need to maintain the reason for social justice: the glory of God in the worship of Jesus.

Third, share God's deep concern about His mission to the nations-- that His name be praised from the lips of men and women from every corner of the globe. Feel the Great Commission in your bones. Ask God to turn your heart to those you cannot see. As Paul did, develop ways to "struggle personally" (Colossians 2:1) for those far away.

Fourthly, churches that are serious about joining God on his mission will obey his commands to disciple the nations. The end product of missional endeavors should be a thriving Christian ready to produce more thriving Christians.

It appears to me that many missional churches are missing the Great Commission in the name of being missional. That makes zero sense. It is a huge (but historically common) mistake.

If we are truly interested in being missional-- in joining God on His mission-- our efforts should actually reflect His stated mission. We are bound to the Great Commandment as the fullest human expression of God's love. But the Commandment is not hermetically sealed off from the Great Commission. Rather, the Great Commission provides the what of mission, while the Great Commandment provides part of the how. Answering the age-old question of "Who is my neighbor?" should result in the desire to "make disciples of all nations."

Yesterday, I posted the video from my training in Oklahoma. I neglected to add the outline and notes, so I am posting them here. You can see the video here and the notes are below.

At the One Day web page, you can find those outlines, with "blanks" if you want to use them as training notes. Bob Mayfield tells me that 16 of the 273 churches have done their "One Day," but they have already trained over 2000 leaders. I am encouraged!

Missional Leadership

1) Reconsideration of Leadership

a) From superman to everyone
b) From church to kingdom
c) From me to we
d) From personal power to people empowerment

2) Rejection of Clergification

a) From three tiers to one mission
b) From "called to the ministry" to "called to ministry"
c) From "called to missions" to "sent on mission"
d) From exceptional to ordinary
e) From "priests" to a "priesthood of believers" codependence

3) Renewed focus on mission

a) From "full service" to "simple mission"
b) From "pay, pray, and get out of the way" to "join God on His mission"
c) From decisionism to disciple making
d) From "mission statement" to "Jesus mission"
Luke 4
Luke 19:10

4) Realignment of priorities

a) God is a missionary god
b) I personally join Him on mission - modeling
c) I lead others to join Him on mission - leadership
d) I equip others - multiplication

I hope that is helpful. Be sure to watch the video to get the context.

In May, I put together three videos with my friends from the Oklahoma convention on the topic of missional communities. The convention is using these videos as part of a training strategy for small group leaders. It's called the "One Day Initiative." For most churches, the health of small groups determines the health of the church as a whole.

Here is the video the churches are using for this initiative:

Missional Small Communities from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

So far 273 churches in Oklahoma signed on. Bob Mayfield developed Oklahoma's plan to de-centralize the training process for small group leaders and put missional leadership materials directly into the hands of the local church. They believe that a church can equip more of its members locally than by taking them to big events that are long distances away. Bob sent me some comments they are already receiving, even though the initiative is less than a week old. Here's one example:

The general session began with hearing Ed Stetzer on video sharing about Missional Leadership. It really fired-up our people in attendance and for some I believe it was a life-changing message... Ed brought a fresh perspective about what a class could be and our folks loved it. The support materials that you (Bob) and your team put together are great, and we needed the breakout times after the video to digest what we heard and explore the materials. Scott Badgett, Associate Pastor at Chisholm Heights Church in Mustang, OK

Badgett also noted that they typically take about 6 people to an annual regional training event, but had 93 attend the One Day seminar in their church. Check here for some blogs that have been made about One Day.

That BGCO has made all three of the One Day videos available at their cost on a two disc DVD set (which also includes 3 music videos and 4 promo videos) for only $10.00. You can order them at www.bgco.org/oneday.

I am always calling the church to think of herself and live out her calling as God's missionary people. And while there is much being written on all things "missional" these days, a lot of it is theoretical and theological. We need that, but we also need practical resources, advice and tools to share with others that will encourage missional living.

One is Alan Hirsch's The Forgotten Ways handbook. Another is The Tangible Kingdom Primer. Compelled By Love and Sent: Living the Missional Nature of the Church are also practical starting points.

People are also sharing their ideas and experiences online. Jared Wilson, pastor and co-founder of Element in Nashville and author of Your Jesus is Too Safe, offers Five Missional Practices You Can Do Now. Steve McCoy, pastor of Doxa Fellowship in Woodstock, IL and uberblogger at Reformissionary offered two posts giving good practical advice for living as the sent people of God this summer. Be sure to check out Summerbia and Summerbia: Connection Tools.

* Piper, Driscoll, Greear, and Stetzer - Q&A Session

As I mentioned on Twitter last week, I received an email from Barb Winter that the great American missiologist Ralph D. Winter passed away Wednesday night May 20th. Ralph had been battling the resurgence of the multiple myeloma that has plagued his body since 2002 and the lymphoma diagnosed in early February of this year. Several mini strokes plus drop foot in both feet following his surgery in March complicated his recovery. Ralph was 84.

His influence in the church and the world for missions is unrivaled. Time Magazine tagged Winters as one of America's 25 most influential evangelicals. His book, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, is an essential read, proving formative and motivational for thousands of believers who begin to see God's heart for world evangelization.

I had the chance to know Ralph when he contributed an essay to a forthcoming book I am editing with David Hesselgrave. His keen insights are, as always, challenging.

He will be missed.

Today, while I'm off traveling in Germany, I want to point you toward a new article written by my friend and co-author Philip Nation. He's a great friend and a pastor/preacher I trust. Our book Compelled by Love was listed by Leadership Journal as one of the three most significant books for making missional disciples.

Here's the diagram of their "missional tree."

Much of what I write here at the blog and do in my ministry is geared toward pastors, planters, and denominational leaders. It's a great life of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. But my hope is that at the end of the day, I will have given my life for Christ and the people of His church. And, Philip talks about that at length.  So, let me encourage you to read Philip's new article "A Summer that Counts" at LifeWay.com under the Adult Ministry section.

Having served in multiple places in ministry from being pastor of a rural congregation to education minister at a suburban megachurch, he's got a pretty good grasp of what it takes to help normal Christians make ministry count. This time around, he's giving a few tips for you to pass along to your church members about how to make it a missional summer. Let me encourage you to read it and pass the link along to a few friends. I think Philip's insights can be a a benefit to all of us.

Bill Craig, Director of Lifeway Leadership and Adults, talks about Philip's article in his adult ministry newsletter:

Ahhh, Spring! When the weather starts getting nice outside I start thinking about those long, hot, sunny, Summer days just around the corner. How can I avoid the lawnmower and get to the lake, the golf course, or the seashore as often as possible? If you’re like a lot of other people, you may already be wondering about how to get the most out of your summer. Take a vacation. Spend time with family. Read some good books.

How about making this summer your Summer of Love? Well, not a Summer of Love like the hippies back in 1967, but a Season of opportunity to share God’s love with those who desperately need it. This week’s Adult Ministry article includes 8 tips from Philip Nation that will help you make your summer count by focusing on practical ways you can live with missional purpose, sharing God’s love by expressing real love to your family, friends, and neighbors who need it so much.

I was introduced to this idea of missional living through Compelled by Love. Philip Nation and Ed Stetzer wrote this book to help believers start living and thinking like missionaries—recognizing that even if they never leave their neighborhoods, they can reach people every day for Jesus Christ. At LifeWay we thought that message was important enough to create a seven-week, video-based Bible study that would help you explore what it means to live missionally, and discover how you can start living that way today.

Read Philip’s article and consider making this your Summer of Love. Days filled with the warmth of God’s love, spread to the people you meet wherever you are—at the lake, at the golf course, even at the quick stop, buying gas for your lawnmower. Then imagine the impact your church might have if it were full of missionary-minded believers Compelled by Love!

Tomorrow and Tuesday I'll be speaking at the Missional Church Planting Conference at Sojourn Community Church at an event sponsored by the Kentucky Baptist Convention and Campbellsville University. It includes a host of other great speakers and lasts for four days, so be sure to check out the full info here.

I have to say that I am genuinely excited about the gospel-centered, missional approach to church planting that we're seeing in more and more parts of my own tribe. i wish such a "missional church planting" focus would be welcome in more places, but, for now, I will celebrate it when it is welcomed. So, thanks Sojourn Church, Campbellsville University, and the KBC for making this event possible.

If you're near Louisville you should check out the Missional Church Planting Conference running Monday through Thursday (May 11-14).

Details below from their web page:

Where? Sojourn Community Church 930 Mary Street Louisville, KY 40204

When?
Monday-Tuesday: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Monday Dinner/Q & A with Ed Stetzer: 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday-Thursday: 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.

What?
Is God calling you to plant a church? Are you already involved in a church plant? Are you interested in church growth processes and principles? Join us for a four-day conference that will challenge, encourage and prepare you for this great calling.

On Monday and Tuesday, we'll learn from Dr. Ed Stetzer as he covers a variety of key topics, such as planting models, teams, systems and much more. All participants will also have some Q&A time with Stetzer at a special Monday evening dinner.

On Wednesday and Thursday, you'll gain in-depth insights from four church planting experts, along with breakout sessions and personal testimonies from High Impact church planters in Kentucky. Add in some worship and fellowship, and you've got what we believe will be a highlight in your journey to explore or dig deeper into church planting.

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary is now offering a new Ph.D. in Applied Theology concentrating in Missions with a track in North American Missiology. This degree is available to church planters, pastors, and others working in the field of North American Missiology with at least three years of field experience. The successful candidate will also meet all the admission requirements for Southeastern's Ph.D. studies. Sound good? Of course it does! SEBTS is an excellent seminary that continues to grow a reputation among serious students of the word and practitioners of ministry.

Here is some of the information now available for this new degree (and note that it does not require relocation to Wake Forest).

The newest issue of Biola Magazine is about "The Church in the Missional Age." I was interviewed for this issue and thought I'd share some of that conversation here. Be sure to read the whole thing at the Biola Magazine website, then come back here to discuss.

BM: Ed, would you say that the average Christian has an understanding of the term "missional"? Or is it still an "insider term" among church leaders and theologians?

ES: I would say the term has started to gain wide acceptance since the turn of the millennium among Christian leaders, however I don't think it has gotten down to the rank-and-file level. I've written a book, Compelled by Love, which is trying to be a lay-level explanation of missional, and other authors are trying to do the same. But yeah, primarily it's still a pastor's or theologian's word.

BM: My sense is that there is widespread confusion about the word, even among the pastors and theologians. Is the word useful? Is it too confusing for its own good?

ES: Well, it certainly has become the descriptor du jour. I think the problem is that people tend to see in missional what they want to see. If they want to see the church do more social justice, that's "missional." If they want to be more evangelistic, that's "missional." But I still think there's a power in a new or modified word that enables us to say, "We do need something different." I think missional has become a descriptor -- an imperfect one -- of the shift we might need in evangelicalism.

...

BM: Why is the missional movement happening now? What brought it on?

ES: Recently the New York Times quoted me referring to the "modern evangelical machine." And I think there's some discomfort with the modern evangelical machine that has produced a catered, franchise, packaged Christianity that is pretty neat and freeze-dried. I think people are looking for something that is more transformational, more organic, and missional has become that which people rally to. There are other people using other words -- like "externally focused" -- which are describing similar ideas. So the question is: Does the word "missional" have enough redefining influence to help us think more biblically about the church, or will the word become a distraction? As of yet, I don't think it has become more problematic than it is helpful. I think it's still helpful.

...

BM: So the core purpose and idea of mission is good, but there have been some unintended consequences?

ES: I think every movement has unintended consequences. The unintended consequence of the church-growth movement was that we taught churches how to meet consumers' needs, and perhaps an unintended consequence of the missional movement will be that we will deemphasize some things we need to emphasize, like sharing Christ and biblical orthodoxy and things like that. And I want to learn from both.

BM: What would you say are the good, positive contributions that you've already seen coming out of this missional movement?

ES: I think a move away from preference, from church being defined by the preferences of its attendees to church being more focused on how we can be a sign and instrument of the kingdom of God in this community. So I think it's a little less self-focused, which is positive. I think its forced people to think about what is the source of our mission, and that mission is an attribute of God himself. It's helped people to see their lives as part of redemptive history, on the move, as sent ones and sent churches. I think the rediscovery that the Jesus of Luke 19:10 -- who said "I come to seek and save the lost" -- is the same Jesus as in Luke 4 -- who came to pronounce freedom for the captives, sight for the blind, and caring for the poor -- is also a positive contribution.

...

BM: Is "missional" necessarily anti-megachurch? Can you be a megachurch and also be missional?

ES: Depends on who you ask! I think it's harder to be missional if you're a megachurch, because the machine has to be serviced. I preach every week to a church with 9,000 members, so obviously I'm not anti-megachurch. But I like to think that the church functions like a yo-yo. There are two functions at work: sending itself out, like the centrifugal force, but also the force pulling us in, which is the organization that needs to be maintained. When you spin a yo-yo, the centripetal force pulling it in and the centrifugal force pushing it out are in equal balance. But I think the more your church has, the more you have to service it, the thicker the tether. I think many megachurches spend all their time servicing the tether and not sending it out on mission. If you have 10 people in your living room, all you have to worry about is the centrifugal, but if you have a megachurch you have to worry about the centripetal as well. So I think its harder as a megachurch.

BM: One of the criticisms about missional that Dan Kimball, among others, has pointed out recently is that there have not been new converts in the missional church. Do you think this is a concern?

ES: I do think that a church should not defend their lack of converts, but rather repent of it and resolve to change. I think that some missional churches want to defend it. I do think that conversion takes longer these days. People don't really know what "getting saved" means anymore. In a secular society, missional engagement and conversion are going to take longer, but at the end of the day, if all we have is reform but no one getting born again, then I don't think that's a better situation than what we have right now.

BM: I think another criticism that has been raised is just this balance that missional tries to strike between social justice and "living out" the gospel on one hand and the proclaiming or preaching of the gospel on the other. And you even talked about this at your talk at the American Society for Church Growth conference here at Biola. How do we balance these things?

ES: I think, ultimately, if I push on two fronts -- A and B -- and I only get resistance on B, then I've got to push harder on B. Now, from my perspective I might think they are equally important, but we have to remember this: When you speak of justice, people will praise you, but when you speak of Jesus, they'll condemn you. But we can't speak of Jesus without speaking of justice and we can't biblically speak of justice without understanding Jesus, so ultimately we will have to overcompensate in the area of evangelism because that's where there is resistance.

...

BM: Do you think the missional movement might bridge the gap and divisions between, for example, the "emerging" people and the neo-Reformed crowd?

ES: Well, I don't know if it will be the great unifier, but I think we can all agree on missional -- that we need to be focused on the mission of God, not on us. I speak to a lot of pastors about missional, from Assemblies of God to Reformed, and I think that all of them more or less get it, and get why it is important.

Go and check out the whole interview (there's quite a bit more), and come back to talk about these issues. What are your thoughts?

Since I did not want to post "on top" of this "Convergent Church" interview, I posted a clarification below from Rick Warren's people below. Click here to read that and only comment on that issue in the Rick Warren post.

What prompted the writing of the book?

Alvin: Mark and I had talked for some time about writing a book together that would bring together ethics (Mark's field) and evangelism (Alvin's) in a way that is rarely seen. As we witnessed the rise of the Emerging/Emergent movement and as we observed the waning influence of the evangelical church, we began to talk about writing a book that was even more, a book that looked at faith and culture in our time in a manner that would not only discuss relevant issues, but also offer suggestions for change.

Mark: While this book interacts with the emergent church, I think for both of us it is much bigger than that one issue. We are concerned that as culture on the whole embraces the ideas of post-modernity (or what David Wells call "hyper-modernity") the Church must be careful to do three things:

1) Know where we are and how we got here,

2) Re-invigorate our commitment to foundational faith and doctrinal certainty,

3) Layout sound strategies to live in culture as missional worshippers

This book is our attempt to serve the Church by writing on these very things.

What do you mean by convergence?

Mark: It is so important for us evangelicals to not be afraid to listen to our critics. We do so many things well... but not everything. Like it or not, there are areas that conventional Christians have failed methodologically and where we are also failing to listen and learn. Thus, when we say "convergence" we are hoping to give an honest listen to folks in the emerging church movement who seem to be very aware of some very important ways the "conventional" church has failed to recognize we are living in a new era of thought and cultural norms. At the same time, while listening we also want to be careful not to simply capitulate to new ideas without first testing them by the standard of God's word and historical orthodoxy. Thus, convergence means an attempt to take the best critiques of the emergent movement while rigorously seeking to stay true to the doctrinal purity that the conventional evangelical church fought so hard to maintain.

Alvin: Simply put we mean bringing together the best of two things that may not be exactly alike for the greater good. Mark and I had such a convergence in writing the book. I grew up in the south and have pretty much always been a Southern Baptist. Mark grew up a self-proclaimed "theological mutt," and only recently has become committed to the SBC. I am not a Calvinist and Mark is; I teach evangelism, Mark ethics; and in all these things we have attained a personal convergence that we think can happen in the evangelical world and in our tradition.

What do you mean by "conventional" and "emerging?"

Alvin: I will let Mark answer this one.

Mark: While it would be wrong to categorize the Emerging Church Movement (ECM) as one large, monolithic entity, in our book we lay out what we believe to be six aspects or traits that serve as core values of the ECM. These include a commitment to being missional in methodology, wholistic in ministry emphasis (practice not just doctrine), culturally and contextually relevant. Crucially, this group will describe themselves as post-evangelical in the sense of "outgrowing" evangelical ideas of the past. This does not not necessarily abandoning them, but being willing to move beyond.

In light of these core elements we also identify (following Ed Stetzer's lead) four different "streams" or divisions appearing within the emerging church movement: relevants are those who are doctrinally conservative but methodologically innovative; reconstructionists who are seeking ecclesiological change; revisionists who are willing to surrender key elements of historic orthodoxy in order to achieve relevance; and a group we call roamers because while they are disenchanted with the conventional way of doing things, they are uncertain of where to go forward and often merely drop out of local churches and attempt to go it alone.

Is this even possible? Can we attain a convergence today?

Alvin: We believe it not only possible but essential. You can see this in the SBC today. There is a growing tension between holding on to our conventions, our heritage, and at the same time a growing number who argue that if we do not see a genuine, deep, biblical, great commission resurgence our convention will slide more and more into decline. While we did not write the book with that in mind, we think it can add much to discussions in our own tradition.

Mark: I can only wholeheartedly agree with Alvin. Too often we evangelicals find ourselves years behind the cultural shifts and thus we miss out on great opportunities to be in the midst of the messiness of life where only the name of Jesus can bring healing and hope. Emergents seem to have the vision of where culture is going, conventionals have the hope of truth and biblical fidelity. Lets figure out how to take the best of both so that we can be about the mission of God for the glory of God in the most effective manner possible!

How does this relate to converging evangelism with social ministry?

Mark: There seems to be a rather unhealthy fear among evangelical leaders that as soon as someone wants to engage social justice issues they will also surrender historical orthodoxy to do so. No question there is historical precedence for such a fear in light of the "social gospel movement" of the early 20th century. But the greater and richer history of the people of God is that throughout the previous 2000 years it has consistently been the people of God wh were not afraid to stand up for social justice issues that have also been some of the most effective witnesses to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One need only think of Annie Armstrong or William Wilberforce to understand this. In our chapter on this issue, however, we expressly emphasize that it is via a intentional direct VERBAL proclamation of the gospel message that social justice ministries reach their most effective level. It is a both/and strategy and methodology.

How does this translate into effective church ministry?

Alvin: our attitude is one can add without subtracting. We do not argue for abolishing current methods of evangelism, but reshaping our perspective and changing the culture of our churches to be less institutional and more missional. We offer eight points of convergent evangelism:

Mark: Likewise, discipleship and mentoring moves out of the classroom and into the lives of men and women who we must seek to train up into mature and ministering worshippers of God. This is not to say Sunday school and curriculum based training is a thing of the past - far from it. When combined with life on life accountability, interfacing with lost people in real life settings and commitment to authentic community we see significant change in the quality of life, discipleship and ministry of the people of God.

Mark and/or Alvin will be on the blog today to answer your questions, so jump in the comments and let's talk. Also, I wrote the book's foreword and will post that later this week.

You're probably reading this first sentence with some skepticism. "Missional" is the highly abused buzzword that gets attached to too many things already. You may be thinking, "What in the world is a 'missional wedding,' and why would I care?" However, some pastors see helping couples outside of the church through the marriage process is a great way to connect the unchurched to the gospel.

Bill Yaccino has served in pastoral ministries for 18 years, and is now the Executive Director of Catalyst, a network of congregations in Lake County, IL that collaborate towards greater Kingdom impact. (www.Catalystweb.org) His Web site, WeddingPastorsUSA.org, connects pastors with couples who are looking for ministers to perform their wedding ceremonies, and he's hoping to see more pastors take advantage of this great spiritual and cultural need. He sent me some information and I asked for permission to put it here on the blog for you to discuss. Bill calls these "missional weddings."

Bill was recently telling me that he sees this as an "in the trenches" opportunity to serve our communities. And in this situation couples come to the pastors! He said, "In Chicago, I performed over 50 weddings in 2008 and gave away over 100 to local pastors in the area!"

Bill recently pointed out that in most large U.S. cities, 35 to 45 percent of all weddings occur outside the church. "In fact," he writes, "according to a survey by Condé Nast Bridal Media, there was a nine percent decrease in the last year of couples married in a church or synagogue. And while an increasing number of ceremonies are held in parks, banquet halls, museums, hotels, and private homes, the vast majority of those couples say they still want it to be "spiritual" in nature. Most don't know what that means, yet they equate spirituality (not religion) with significance and authenticity."

So Bill's dream is for missional pastors to engage the communities God has sent them to by serving couples in need of someone to guide them through the process of covenanting together in marriage. Many pastors find themselves too busy, or too uncomfortable, to marry people outside of the church. Bill was one of those guys. But he found that this ministry helps him to connect with outsiders in real and important ways that give him the opportunity to share Christ in word and deed. He wants other pastors to get in on it too.

Bill also has a site to get other pastors involved. Download and read his article, Pastor, Will You Help Us?, in Rev! Magazine here, and then check out WeddingPastorsUSA.org for more information.

So, here is my question. What do you think? What approach do you take when you are approached by people outside of your church? What about outside of the faith?

Bill will be dropping by to answer any questions you might have.

I really enjoy teaching at seminaries, and value the interaction with students over a longer term.  I consider it a privilege to teach at schools passionate about the gospel.

I get that I am a bit of a motivational speaker (who lives in a van down by the river). Every week, I go somewhere and talk to pastors and church leaders about gospel, church and mission. When I come and speak, people want me to bring a  "dynamic message." Fair enough. But I am skeptical that a 30 minute message with Bible, humor, and illustrations can really produce the change I hope to see. (Even in those settings, I try to direct people to the blog, books, etc.)

Over the course of time these crowds have become larger, and though I know I am supposed to be glad about that, sometimes the "big program" works against the relational connection that I put a lot of value in. By teaching at a seminary, I get to connect with people bit longer and work through some deeper issues that simply require time.

Now, this is not to say that all theological education is well done. I have been in settings where professors and students hold firm positions, debate them aggressively, criticize constantly, and tell other students "how it must be," even though their theoretical ideas won't work outside the hollowed walls of the academy.

On the other hand, I have seen healthy environments. In these environments, students and faculty are on a journey of learning together-- with a common mission and purpose. 

I have thought much about seminaries having taught at more than a dozen different schools. I greatly appreciate those with a strong focus on God's global mission.  As a missiologist, I am particularly interested in and enthused about schools with a passion for mission.

I think of Columbia International University as a great example of a good learning environment driven by God's global mission. I have taught a few classes there and almost joined the faculty at Columbia Biblical Seminary.  (This was before Thom Rainer, Brad Waggoner, and LifeWay called and changed our direction.) Our draw there was because of their mission-shaped curriculum and their high view of scripture.

CIU is  serious about making God's global mission central to their ethos. The schools mission statement says "Equipping Great Commission Christians to minister in multicultural communities." And, it is obvious that mission is their passion and their passion and their ethos.  They require every course to be taught through the lens of mission.

I think such a mission-shaped ethos is both essential and (unfortunately) missing at many schools.

One school that is still thinking through how best to do this is Biblical Seminary in Hatfield, PA (near Philadelphia). Biblical is in the midst of a transition. Like most periods of change, it has not been without fits and starts. But, I appreciate their passion to create a "missional" focus. I had a great time there a few weeks ago teaching, "Entering the Missional Conversation."

I have loved teaching at schools like the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary, Indiana Wesleyan University, Reformed Theological Seminary, and some of my own denominational seminaries, but I have decided I need to focus so I can have longer interaction with students and faculty colleagues.  I am doing so be putting my focus on two schools with a high view of scripture and a focus on mission: Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

A few months back, I talked about my role at Trinity.  I taught at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School a few weeks ago (the pic above is from that time) and I will be doing so at least twice a year. Here is the info about my most recent class and I will be teaching there again this fall, October 26-30th. Trinity is a remarkable school and I encourage you to check it out. I am honored they would invite me to teach there.

Here on the blog I also mentioned that I was joining the faculty of Southeastern. Southeastern is a great seminary with a growing influence inside, and well beyond, the SBC. If you're considering a seminary education, you should give SEBTS some serious thought. In June, I'm teaching a D. Min. course at SEBTS titled, Practical and Strategic Issues in Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth. 

So, my two schools are Trinity and Southeastern, two schools focused on God's global mission with a high view of scripture. I hope to see you there!

Here is the syllabus for my upcoming class at Southeastern:

I was interviewed by Brian Proffit for Rev! Magazine concerning the "80/20" rule in most churches - where 20 percent of the people do 80 percent of the work. It's a good conversation to have and I wanted to share ours with all of you here on the blog.

I talked about the most common sin in many churches. I am guessing there are many, but I think one of the most common is a lack of obedience.

My observation is that we often preach against sins that are not a problem in our church (sins more prevalent in the world) while not preaching against sins that are a common problem in the church (like lack of ministry involvement in this case).

Here is the interview:

Rick Meiggs is the Blind Beggar at Missional Tribe. He and Brother Maynard both encouraged me to begin my "Meanings of Missional" series you can find on the right side of the blog. And, special announcement... Meaning of Missional will kick back up within 2 weeks to become a 10 part series. More on that soon.

In the meantime, check out the interview below. Rick asked me a number of questions and I shared some thoughts on the missional nature of the church, cooperation, and the need for less armchair missiologists, and more real-life practitioners. Check it out below and be sure to stop by Missional Tribe.

Editors from Leadership Journal have constructed something like a Missional Family Tree that traces the influence from "The Missional Church" edited by Darrel Guder. The chart accompanies an article by Alan Hirsch on "Defining Missional." It's an interesting visual. Share your thoughts in the comments.

The January/February issue of Preaching Magazine is out bearing the theme of "Missional Preaching." This issue includes an article which is adapted from the book Breaking the Missional Code by David Putnam and myself. Throughout the history of the church the best preaching has been contextual, and the best preachers were experts at contextualizing. Of course we think of Jesus and the Apostles who not only preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, but utilized the language, common knowledge and metaphors of their culture to make the gospel as comprehensible as possible. And following that example are men like Chrysostom, Augustine, Wycliffe, Luther, the Puritans, Wesley and Whitefield, Spurgeon and everyone else who believes that solid preaching is guided by a missional conviction and missiological perspective.

Contextual Preaching

At the heart of effective preaching is a solid missiological perspective. Are you communicating in such a way that your words actually convey biblical truth to your audience? Or does your preaching float right past your hearers because it's not delivered "on a frequency" that they listen to? In this respect, we can probably learn as much about good preaching from Hudson Taylor as we can from Haddon Robinson.

Continue reading Contextual Preaching.

I just wrote an article for Catalyst on the dangerous trend of gaining converts to our causes without gaining converts to Christ. Here are a few paragraphs.

I continue to see movements gaining traction among Christians that do not seem to have many converts. In other words, they have recruits to their cause, but few converts to Christ. And, I am concerned. I am concerned that in the name of "fixing the Church" we are not proclaiming the Church's gospel.

...

So, my Reformed friends, let's not only read 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John (that is, John Calvin, John MacArthur, and John Piper), let's go plant some more churches. My emerging church friends, let's take a pause from the theological rethink and head into the neighborhood and to tell someone about Jesus. My missional friends, let's speak of justice, but always tell others how God can be both "just and justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus." My house church friends, let's have community, but let's be sure it is one focused on redemption. My Baptist friends, let's focus more on convincing pagans than Presbyterians. And, my charismatic friends, let's focus less on getting existing believers to speak in tongues and more on using our tongue to tell others about Jesus

...

If you want to convince me (and the body of Christ) to your cause, you must show me it is a better way. You must tell and show something different. You must not just protest what is, but you must show me what should be.

You need to go an read the whole article to see these excerpts in context at Catalystspace.com, but come back here and let's talk about it. Agree, diasgree? Share your thoughts in the comments.