Writing
Essays and working ideas from more than fifteen years of writing about faith, leadership, discipleship, the church, family, and life in Austin.
Start here
New here? These four pieces offer a way into the writing: what shapes the church, how we lead, and how faith takes form in community. Begin with the recent essays, then explore the earlier work that helped shape those questions.
The church and the Spirit · 2026
The Organizing Principle of the Church
Start with a recent reflection on how spiritual gifts shape the church, and why I’m revisiting an old conviction about mission.
Leadership in practice · 2026
Leadership and Administration
Why leading people and bringing order to the work are gifts to recognize and steward, and what gets lost when we treat them only as skills.
Community and mission · 2013
What is a Missional Community? – Definition
A short introduction to the definition we used at The Austin Stone, and why a community of Christians is essential to a faithful witness.
Leading through change · 2013
Transitioning Your Church to Missional Communities
The opening of a practical series on our transition at The Austin Stone, with lessons about patience, learning, and the time real change takes.
For sustained explorations of a topic, browse the Selected Series.
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Missional community · Leadership · Christianity · Church · Personal · Austin Stone · Discipleship · Theology
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All writing
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Kids, Missional Community and Demonstrating the Gospel
Perhaps the single most frequently asked question I receive with respect to missional communities is “what do we do with our children?”. For this next series, I’m going to focus on answering that question from multiple…
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Kids and Third Place
Perhaps the single most frequently asked question I receive with respect to missional communities is “what do we do with our children?”. For this next series, I’m going to focus on answering that question from multiple…
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Kids and Life Transformation Groups
Perhaps the single most frequently asked question I receive with respect to missional communities is “what do we do with our children?”. For this next series, I’m going to focus on answering that question from multiple…
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Kids and the Family Meal
Perhaps the single most frequently asked question I receive with respect to missional communities is “what do we do with our children?”. For this next series, I’m going to focus on answering that question from multiple…
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Missional Communities and Kids
Perhaps the single most frequently asked question I receive with respect to missional communities is “what do we do with our children?”. For this next series, I’m going to focus on answering that question from multiple…
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Jesus and Mission
I’ve spilt quite a bit of digital ink over the last few months working through the reasons why we pursue missional communities, the core practices of missional communities, leadership systems for missional communities, and a variety…
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Identifying a Mission
How Do We Identify a Mission? In a comment from the post on “How to Multiply a Missional Community“, I was asked: Would you consider a post on identifying the mission and the process of clarification,…
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How to Multiply a Missional Community
Multiplication is a critical piece of effectively making disciples, and foundational to a movement. This series of posts will explore different different questions about multiplying a missional community: Why multiply missional communities? When to multiply a…
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When Not to Multiply a Missional Community
Multiplication is a critical piece of effectively making disciples, and foundational to a movement. This series of posts will explore different different questions about multiplying a missional community: Why multiply missional communities? When to multiply a…
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Top 5 Posts for July
For the month of July, the Missional Communities Practices Series continued to be the most read posts. As for content posted in July: Questions to Answer in Transition A Theological Reason for Missional Community What Next…
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When to Multiply a Missional Community?
Multiplication is a critical piece of effectively making disciples, and foundational to a movement. This series of posts will explore different different questions about multiplying a missional community: Why multiply missional communities? When to multiply a…
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Multiplying Missional Communities
Multiplication is a critical piece of effectively making disciples, and foundational to a movement. This series of posts will explore different different questions about multiplying a missional community: Why multiply missional communities? When to multiply a…