Category: church
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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…
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The Lobby – Day 1
It’s been a great day gathering with so many thoughtful and humble leaders here in Atlanta. Today was centered around four different discussions: Session 1: Disciple Making Our first discussion centered around the idea of making disciples, and Rick Howerton provoked some good healthy discussion and serious reflections on whether or not our systems were…
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Individualism and Community
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 glorious future of rationalistic reasoning and society would soar to new heights. Centuries have passed,…