Creating Connections Beyond Sunday Morning
Relationships are critical for leaders. Our culture is crying out for authenticity, community and transparency. As...
Resources for Missional Engagement
10 Practical Tips for Living on Mission in Your Community
Living missionally in your community requires intentionality, a willing heart and dependency on the Holy Spirit....
Ordinary People — Cleveland, Ohio
https://vimeo.com/247847348 Gabby, Katie and Allison are ordinary, everyday believers, but they are stepping out in faith...
https://vimeo.com/247517692 Kempton Turner met Jesus in the most unexpected way in the most unexpected place. ,...
At Home in Minneapolis, At Home in Africa
https://vimeo.com/247816656 Khamis is a Christian from South Sudan. He lost everything in Sudan’s civil war. Now...
Everybody thinks they hate evangelism, but what if that was because they didn’t understand how evangelism...
Spiritual journal discipleship
Church planters get pulled in many directions at once. The task of discipling men can get...
Top 10 Posts of 2017: #2 Six Ways to Practice Hospitality
1. Reserve a night for “Neighbor Night” Years ago, when my wife and I started talking...
Top 10 Posts of 2017: #7 Co-vocational Church Planting: Rethinking Vocation
The idea of rethinking vocation must start with considering the sacred/secular divide, or what some people...
Engaging lostness: Lessons learned in San Francisco
Ministry in San Francisco has been better and harder than I expected. Better because it’s not...
Diagnosing lostness: 4 Potential causes
This article first appeared in Annie Armstrong Easter Offering material, “Lostness in North America: A Guide...
Living on mission in the Bible Belt
It is interesting how the enemy can use ministry to keep Christians away from our mission,...
What it means to engage lostness
Today, we will launch a short but much-needed conversation. It is a conversation about the need...
There are many reasons you’d want to attend an established church—some good reasons and some, well,...
Co-vocational church planting: Rethinking vocation
The idea of rethinking vocation must start with considering the sacred/secular divide, or what some people...
If Christian women talked about race
I’m going to be brutally honest here. Christian women don’t talk about race as often as...
The practice of hospitality: Your home on mission
To develop healthy disciple-making practices, we must recapture the art of hospitality. Our castle or His...
When white supremacists come to town
I live in Charlottesville, Virginia. You may have heard of it. You may have seen my...
Why celebration is a tool for multiplication
You’ve heard it said that you are what you celebrate and there is nowhere that is truer than...
Why membership is a tool for multiplication
Recently, my wife and I were driving back home, and decided to check out the country...
How to send mission teams well
Mission teams can be a tremendous help to a church planter, but often they become a...
I am a huge fan of great mission team experiences. Over the past 13 years of...
Reflecting Christ in a tense political climate
My heart has been incredibly heavy over the state of our nation. I have friends and...
Why conversion growth is crucial in church planting
Healthy things grow. If you’ve been in ministry for long at all, you’ve probably heard that...
How to get a church to engage in a community
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” This quote, most often attributed to Peter Drucker, has been used...
Let’s be willing to care for the refugee
“I wasn’t God’s first choice for what I’ve done for China. I don’t know who it...
Is your calling based on identity?
Every Christian is called to be a missionary, and this calling extends wherever we are. Every...
Building relationships with those different than me
It’s hard to imagine there existed a time before walls. Today, we can barely imagine how...
Gravity is not something we can see or feel. However, it’s constantly at work. Gravity works...
5 ways to protect the vision from God
All people protect things that matter to them. Be it a wedding ring, a picture drawn...
Most popular of 2016: #1 Five ways to engage: The City
The North American Mission Board is blessed by a wide array of voices that speak to...
Most popular of 2016: #7 Five ways to engage: The campus
The North American Mission Board is blessed by a wide array of voices that speak to...
Most popular in 2016: #8 Redefining success: Gospel conversations
The North American Mission Board is blessed by a wide array of voices that speak to...
Bivocational church planting: ReThinking It
By Brad Brisco Over the past several years there has been an increasing interest in church...
Why Christians should care about politics
During the course of a presidential campaign, it is common to hear evangelicals, especially younger ones,...
What is an arepa and what does it have to do with starting churches? Fabian Perea,...
Stop assuming your neighbors are hostile to your faith
Some of the headlines are ominous. The value of religious liberty is on the decline. Many...
The most frequently asked questions regarding race
The following post from Trillia Newbell’s blog gives great insight and wisdom as we continually learn to better...
Stories from the frontlines: Dustin Nimmo
This week we interviewed three practitioners serving on the field as church planters. These are their...
Entering the conversation about the racial divide
I grew up in a town stamped and molded by racial issues that were never discussed....
Stories from the front lines: Whitney Clayton
This week we interviewed three practitioners serving on the field as church planters. These are their...
Why church planters need long-term vision
I’m always stunned by the mess kids can make. Give them 30 minutes alone in a...
Kingdom focused church planting
Have you ever missed something in conversation? You know, times when you’ve assumed something a person...
Brotherhood: God’s prayer for relationships
My phone usually pings around 7 a.m. on Sunday morning. The most recent one read: “Praying for...
Five ways to engage: the campus
1. Reach students with depth. As we engaged the campus a generation or two ago, we...
Five ways to engage: the suburbs
In recent years, increased attention has been given to the city centers of our world. This...
1. Learn the city.Find the best sources for learning about your city. There are likely newspapers,...
In Tuesday’s post, we discussed identifying the needs of your community. Recognizing opportunities to show mercy...
Needs are all around us. Some are obvious and overwhelmingly urgent, such as a crisis situation....
A growing trend in evangelical circles is the emphasis on being socially conscious, which includes caring...
The city needs christians to dwell in its midst
Living in the city is hard. There are more inconveniences and risks. It’s a fact. (Why...
Redefining Success: City Transformation
Insignificance. Most of our nightmares revolve around this. We all want to know we are making...
How to have successful gospel conversations
We’ve all been there. Or even if you haven’t, people in your church have. You start...
Ready, Set, Go—Equipping Sending Churches pt. 3
Some years ago, the movie “Chariots of Fire” introduced the world to an Olympic champion and...
Ready, Set, Go—Equipping Sending Churches pt. 2
Running has never been really fun for me unless it was an actual race. Although I...
Ready, Set, Go—Equipping Sending Churches
I have been running marathons for almost 15 years now. It’s amazing how the sport of...
Yesterday I was talking to a good friend about his next ministry assignment and what is...
In the last post I shared that the first theological distinction deals with the missionary nature...
In part one I explained that when I am asked to define the word “missional” I...
For nine years I taught a course on evangelism at a small Christian college. There was...
Five cross-cultural lessons for families in public school
My 11-year-old daughter, Alli, looked anxious. It was sixth-grade summer orientation — her first year of...
Generosity: Building a Generous Church
Encouraging generosity in the church is a matter I believe I can speak to because it...
John Bunyan once said, “You have not lived today until you have done something for someone...
Turn Your ESL Ministry into a Church Planting Machine
In the past, I have shared about the importance of shifting from a “come and see”...
Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies. — Hebrews 13:3...
Culture in 5 easy-to-understand categories
Let me start by saying this is an oversimplification. Culture and worldview are complicated topics. Are...
Engaging people groups: cultural expertise vs. cultural acquisition
So you feel unequipped to connect with diverse cultures? Keelan Cook writes such an encouraging, informative...
With U.S. global migration rates rapidly rising, we no longer have to book a flight to...
Learning to love foreigners well
People gathering together is a universal activity that translates into every culture. And there’s nothing quite...
What Does the Bible Say about Loving the Foreigner?
“Who is my neighbor?” — Lawyer in Luke 10:29 According to USA Today, currently 14.9% of the residential...
Kingdom First: Leading God’s People
The Apostle Paul, gave this charge to the Ephesian church leadership: “Pay careful attention to yourselves...
Why I Stopped Entertaining People In My Home
We’re re-posting some of our favorite blog posts from 2015. Kathy’s post from October 5, 2015 is...
“I wanted to change the world, but I couldn’t find a babysitter,” said a mother. Motherhood...
Missional Community Connections: Part 2
Environments Conducive to Missional Communities Connections at The Austin Stone is not simply giving information that...
What are Missional Community Connections
Connections at The Austin Stone is not simply giving information that propels individuals towards involvement but...
How to Multiply A Missional Community
What steps should we take to multiply? First, assess the health of your group. Make sure...
Todd Engstrom Interview: Missional Communities
Send Network: Tell us a little about the culture of your church. Todd Engstrom: At Austin...
Send Network: What is the vision of Midtown Fellowship? Allen Tipping:Our vision statement is, “A Jesus-centered...
Community and Mission: A Divine Meeting
My wife and I have a rugged wooden farm table. It’s not impressive—there are scratches, stains...
Is your church an evangelizing church? NAMB
During this blog post series, I am trying to help you assess your church by providing...