The Relational Mission

Does the American Dream hinder small group life? Does it stymie the experience of community and mission? Alexis de Tocqueville was a French philosopher who traveled America in the 1800s to observe our culture in its early stages of development. He wrote, "[Americans] are extremely eager in the pursuit of immediate material pleasures and are always discontented with the position that they occupy. ... They think about nothing but ways of changing their lot and bettering it. ... One usually finds that the love of money is either the chief or a secondary motive at the bottom of everything that Americans do." Translated into today's lingo, the American Dream is about having more money so that we can get more stuff. If our natural reaction to this statement is something like "What's wrong with that?" then we need to look inside our hearts and see what's going on. Over the years, I've seen how Christian culture actually promotes this mindset. The acti...

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. —Eph 3:17-19  The summer after I graduated from Texas A & M, I was helping my dad on a construction job. He was purchasing a piece of machinery that would dig holes in solid rock. The salesman spent some time with us as we tested out the machine. During our conversation, he asked what I did. After I told him that I had just graduated from college, he responded, “Oh, no experience. There is nothing like experience.” Luckily, I’m not the type that is easily offended by direct words. And I knew that I was green. I knew that I needed experience, but I was not afraid of being young either. I just did not realize that graduating with honors and all of the knowledge floating around in my ...

Missional refers to being "sent." It relates to the apostolic nature of the church. The Greek word apostolos means a delegate, envoy, messenger. In other words, "one who is sent." We tend to think of the word "apostle" as a term we have inherited directly from the New Testament, and therefore we think of it terms of a group of early church leaders who were conveyors of Christ's message. "The church is build upon the foundation laid by the apostles and prophets." (Eph 2:20) We also see it as a function of leadership in the church (Eph 4:8). But the term apostle in the first century was a everyday word, used by everyday people. Documents outside the New Testament use the term to refer to things like "the sending out of troops" or the " sending out of a ship." ( BAGD ) This can help remove the religious connotations from the reference that the church as "apostolic." We are simply saying that the chu...

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. —Philippians 2:3-4 When Shawna and I were engaged to be married. I was reading every marriage book that I could find. I wanted to be the best husband that I could be. So I read, I prayed about what I read, and I reread parts that stood out. And I read all of the right books, if you know what I mean. One night I was sat confused about what I had just read from one of the most noted marriage authors. What he had said contradicted the advice of the book I had finished earlier in the week by another reputed Christian marriage counselor. I was getting stressed as I looked for the right methods of being a good husband. These books were laying out the rules for loving my wife-to-be, but the rules were different. I wanted to throw the books across the room. Then I had a thought that changed everythin...

Over the last 25 years as a writer, editor, trainer and consultant about all things small groups, and I’ve come across many different motivations for doing small groups. Some of the primary reasons provided for doing small groups include: Church Growth. Small group ministry is a key ingredient to growing a church. All of the largest churches in the world have some form of small group structure.   Closing the "Back Door" of the Church. Small groups are used as a way to connect people who attend on Sundays. This seems to be the prominent goal of most small group resources that are on the market. Evangelism. Statistics have proven over and over again that most people are led to the Lord through relationships with either a friend or a family member. Small group evangelism is dependent upon friendship connections with the lost. Church Health. Research on church health factors has revealed that small groups have the most impact on church quality. In fact, all of the healthiest ...

Richard Rohr often states that we learn a lot more from our failures than we do from our successes, a claim that he applies to our personal journey in life and with Jesus. But it also has bearing upon leading the church on mission. Christian leaders often enter into ministry with a theological worldview that is shaped by a theology of triumph. The common assumption is that the goal of the missional leader is to lead people from one triumph to the next. As a result, leaders pursue success, action and control. They set vision, analyze current realities, and then establish strategies. This is a model of leadership shaped by the Enlightenment paradigm of scientific predictability. In this paradigm, there is no room for suffering, no room for failure, only triumph. Mission can be, and is often led from a theology of triumph. Leaders know the mission of God. Leaders strategize the mission. Then leaders implement the mission. And as a result, mission is done as if God does not exist. Again ...