By Ed Stetzer Go where people are, make disciples, plant churches. I’m in a series covering the topic of missional effectiveness. In the previous two posts, I have explained the marks of God’s mission. What I have sought to do is stress the major foci of each mark in an effort to build a visual... Continue Reading →
Towards Missional Effectiveness: The Mark of Sentness – Part 5 of 7
By Ed Stetzer God’s mission involves sending. But what does God send His people to do? I’m in a blog series covering the topic missional effectiveness. In the previous post, I started to explain the marks of God’s mission, beginning with the missional mark of community. Today, I’ll cover the missional mark of sentness. The... Continue Reading →
Towards Missional Effectiveness: The Mark of Missional Community – Part 4 of 7
By Ed Stetzer Community is the vehicle of God's mission. In this blog series, we are looking at the topic missional effectiveness. Once again, missional effectiveness is embracing the totality of the missio Dei—including its message, movement, and marks—and enacting it in the life of a local church. So far, I have covered the message... Continue Reading →
Towards Missional Effectiveness: The Message of God’s Mission – Part 2 of 7
By Ed Stetzer God is on mission to glorify Himself. In the first post I explained that missional effectiveness is embracing the totality of the missio Dei—including its message, movement, and marks—and enacting it in the life of a local church. I don’t know about you, but I have been on many honey-do runs in the... Continue Reading →
Towards Missional Effectiveness: An Introduction – Part 1 of 7
By Ed Stetzer What is mission? What is missions? What is missional? Like most people, I want what I buy to work and be effective at what it was created to do. For instance, I have a smartphone that keeps track of my life. I call, text, surf the web, tweet, Facebook, use Maps to... Continue Reading →
3 Steps To Develop A Culture of Service – Part 2 of 2
This is part two of the article published in the previous post. Repeat it The pulpit (or table, in my case) will always be a key place to shape the values and culture of a church. When the pastor repeatedly inserts the idea of serving others into messages, writings, and conversations, it has an impact on... Continue Reading →
3 Steps To Develop A Culture of Service – Part 1 of 2
By Ed Stetzer Having a missional culture established through instilling it, repeating it, and celebrating it will provoke members to love and good deeds. Why is it that churches often get stuck and turn inward, and what can be done to reverse this inwardly-focused approach? Often times, as a church grows larger (or even just... Continue Reading →
Are We More Invested In Bringing People to Church? Or to Jesus?
By Karl Vaters Church attendance should be a tool to help people draw closer to Jesus. Not the other way around. I have a confession to make. As a pastor, I have too much invested in getting people to attend church. My salary depends on it. My reputation depends on it. My sense of self-worth... Continue Reading →
5 Mistakes More Likely To Be Made By Small Churches Than Big Churches
By Karl Vaters Different sizes of churches serve different functions. And they face different challenges. Small churches are not just smaller versions of big churches. Every size has value, but different sizes serve different functions in the body of Christ. They also have different challenges and they tend to make different kinds of mistakes. Here... Continue Reading →
Belong, Believe, Become: A New Process of Evangelism
By Eddie Cole The American evangelical process is shifting. “Churches aren’t growing because of conversions. Churches are just swapping sheep.” Have you ever heard someone make this claim or something like it? I have—way too many times, from pastors and church members alike. What do we make of this kind of comment, and how do... Continue Reading →