Lessons from a year of missional community, part 3

Picking back up the series on what I’ve learned in a year of trying to build missional community (see previous posts here and here).  The third learning point is:

3. Discern the vision groupings

Lessons from a year of missional community, part 2

Continuing the series on what I’ve learned in a year of trying to build missional community.  The first lesson was about focusing on developing missional lifestyles.  The second lesson is…

2. Live the Life, Tell Stories

Lessons from a year of missional community, part 1

Trying to live as an extended family on mission together is a new experience with a steep learning curve! Having recounted the broad sweep of our first year, I thought I would draw out the main lessons that I have learned over this period over the next few posts. Hopefully they may be of use to others on the same journey.  So here we go, a little mini-series starting with…

1. Focus First On Developing Missional Lifestyles

The first year of missional community

It’s been a year and a bit since we started experimenting with missional community here in France.  It has been slow going, feeling like a step back for every step forward, but we have been learning and building some momentum.   Here’s the story so far…

Our first six months was characterised by a strong outward focus – lots of parties and inclusive events -but we over-corrected in the outwards direction and lost the sense of community and discipleship.  We had a complicated calendar that tried to cover all the

A few days with the Crowded House church in Sheffield

Last month my wife and I spent four days in Sheffield, UK with The Crowded House church on what was described as the “TCH House Party”.  Steve Timmis and Tim Chester’s writings had helped me think through what mission-minded discipleship could look like here in Western Europe, and this was a chance to hang out with people already doing this stuff for several years and get insight into their principles, their successes and their

Everyday Church by Tim Chester & Steve Timmis

Tim Chester and Steve Timmis have played an important part in our journey from being a home-group towards being a mission-centred gospel community.  Their Gospel-Centred Church study guide in particular resulted in us making that change.  Plus Steve put me in touch with one of his team who has provided great counsel and encouragement over the last year.

Everyday Church is a follow up to their earlier Total Church book, and its subtitle “mission by being good neighbours” resonates strongly with our desire as a gospel community. The book is written out of experience in the UK which is great as somebody working in Europe (a similar missional context than the USA) but the book is also relevant for US readers as the US church finds itself slipping out of the centre (er, center!) of American culture too.

Chester and Timmis go to considerable lengths to

Tools For Mission From ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’

Here are three simple ways we can increase our ‘relational connectivity’ and subsequent evangelistic effectiveness.  Think of them as the 3 jokers from the quiz show ’Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?’

• 50/50:  invite at

Steps towards Jesus

Last night we discussed another helpful concept that Andrew Baughen introduces in Therefore Go. Just as the blind man in Mark 8 goes through four stages in his restoration (meeting Jesus – being led by the hand – regaining partial sight – regaining full sight), Andrew proposes four stages that people tend to pass through before receiving God’s grace – and four steps that we can engage in to help people along the way:

Building relationships and making contact with people disconnected from God.  Avoiding the trap of the ‘holy huddle’ where Christians spend all their time with each other.  This is really about intentionally investing in relationships and

Quite FRANKly my dear, I’m going on mission!

I wish I had read the excellent little book Therefore Go by Andrew Baughen before our group reflected on our individual missional visions. In the book Andrew uses the word FRANK as a way to think through people with whom you have existing relationships.

• F – Friends (existing, lapsed and potential)
• R – Relatives (family members who

Your personal missional vision

As the Father sent Jesus, so Jesus sends us (John 17:18), to be a bearer of the good news in word and deed.

In one sense, our current life defines to whom we are sent.  The people we meet in our daily lives – our family, colleagues, friends, acquaintances and passing contacts – can all be and should be people we serve and reach out to.

However, there is also a question of calling. Is there a particular people group that God is calling us to serve particularly? Who should we reorganise our time, resources and energies around?

An understanding of our missional vision will bring