Category: church
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A Primer on Church Discipline
Much of what I have written here in the past focuses on the formative work of discipline in the church – discipleship. Within Scripture, however, we also find another form of corrective discipline, commonly called “church discipline”. This series forms the basics for a primer I wrote for The Austin Stone to understand church discipline.…
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Why Membership Matters
Over the next two posts, I’m going to focus on church membership (which we call “partnership” at The Austin Stone) from a few different angles: The Biblical Basis for Church Membership Why Membership Matters For many in the missional church conversation, this particular topic tends to take a back seat, but there is a strong…
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The Biblical Basis for Partnership
Over the next two posts, I’m going to focus on church membership (which we call “Partnership” at The Austin Stone) from a few different angles: The Biblical Basis for Church Membership Why Membership Matters For many in the missional church conversation, this particular topic tends to take a back seat, but there is a strong…
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Where Are They Now?
Recently I had the honor of speaking at the Verge conference in Chicago and I though I would share it as a series on the blog here. Over the last 7 years, we have been in the process of transitioning to missional communities, and we’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way. The title of this…
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We Didn’t Love Consumers
Recently I had the honor of speaking at the Verge conference in Chicago and I though I would share it as a series on the blog here. Over the last 7 years, we have been in the process of transitioning to missional communities, and we’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way. The title of this…
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Casting Vision Without Practice
Recently I had the honor of speaking at the Verge conference in Chicago and I though I would share it as a series on the blog here. Over the last 7 years, we have been in the process of transitioning to missional communities, and we’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way. The title of this…
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Assuming the Gospel
Recently I had the honor of speaking at the Verge conference in Chicago and I though I would share it as a series on the blog here. Over the last 7 years, we have been in the process of transitioning to missional communities, and we’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way. The title of this…
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3 Ways to Kill a Missional Culture
Recently I had the honor of speaking at the Verge conference in Chicago and I though I would share it as a series on the blog here. Over the last 7 years, we have been in the process of transitioning to missional communities, and we’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way. The title of this…
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Mobilizing Your Community to Sunday Service Teams
Over the next few weeks, I’ve asked several members of our team at The Austin Stone to write on different aspects of missional community in different contexts and ministries. Today, Brendan Thompson is going to share some learning points from practicing missional community in conjunction with service teams, specifically in our Children’s Ministry. Brendan serves as our Children’s…
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Individualism is Dead…Or It Should Be
My friends over at ChurchLeaders.com recently ran an article I wrote. Below is an excerpt: I think, therefore I am. One simple phrase that Descartes penned helped define a worldview for a future generation. No longer would humanity be fettered with group-think, old wives’ tales and crude explanation. No, we would be released into the…
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Churches Planting Churches
This Sunday, The Austin Stone joined with many other Acts 29 Network churches to preach to our congregations about church planting and support the mission to make disciples and plant healthy churches. I continue to be grateful for the Lord’s grace in my life to participate in church planting. As we prayed for our entire…
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The Lobby – Day 2
Today has been another encouraging and challenging day of conversation, and has left me with some good thinking to do. Session 5: Mission and Community We began the day today talking through the idea of mission, and how it plays out in community. My friend Spence Shelton gave me the opportunity to share the story…