Missional Living | Coaching Churches

Category Archive: Missional Living

Why It Doesn't Take A Non-Profit Career To Make A Difference

Posted by on November 24, 2015

This subject is clearly a passion of my leadership journey. I hate the segmentation that puts one category of people in the difference makers and everyone else into the profit makers. You can clearly make a profit and still make a difference. The secular and the sacred can work together. Lindsey McGregor hits the nail on this issue and its worth the read:

“For those of us who aren’t doctors or busy building apps that change how people live, it often feels like we can only leave our mark through charity or volunteering. The work we do on a daily basis might not seem to do much “good” or have a real purpose beyond the company’s own financial goals.”

God’s Passion For The Cities

Posted by on July 19, 2015

We know from reading scripture that God cares about every person on the planet and there is not a people group that is outside of His global plan of redemption. However, we cannot miss as we read the Bible that God has always had a heart for the cities where the masses are living.

God’s passion comes out for the large cities in the book of Jonah in an incredible way. He is moved by the multitudes that do not know Him and declares, “should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left.”

Even a nation like Babylon that was wicked in the sight of God to the degree that He promised to totally destroy its evil culture, God through Jeremiah tells His people who are living in captivity there, “And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.”

Throughout the book of Acts and the birth of the missions movement as we know it today we see God consistently sending his missionaries to the largest cities of that day to reach out to the greatest number of people possible with the message of the gospel. We read many stories of individuals coming to Christ but when God was reassuring Paul about pending persecution He reminded him, “for I am with you , and no one will attack you to hurt you; for I have many people in this city.”

The grand plan of worldwide redemption starts in a garden goes through a cross and ends in a city. Yes God cares about the one individual that lives in remote Montana or Malawi but He also knows that the largest number of people in 1^st or 21^st century will always be found in the cities of the world.

How can we too not have compassion and prioritize reaching the millions that live there who still to this day cannot discern between their right hand and their left.

Categories: Church Scattered Contextualization Missional Living Pastoral Leadership | Comments Off on God’s Passion For The Cities

How To Share Your Faith At Work

Posted by on June 11, 2014

One of the hardest things we do as Christians is share our faith. It becomes extremely challenging at times when we try to do it at work. For that reason alone and because of all our other fears we just by default don’t do it at all. The front lines of the gospel have moved from the churches we attend to the places where we work and this post by Greg Gilbert is incredibly helpful:

“God has entrusted to you the message of reconciliation, the good news that Jesus reconciles rebels to God. That’s as true from 9-5 Monday through Friday as it is for any other hour of your life.”

Everyday Serving In The Workplace

Posted by on December 30, 2013

I will never forget the day when I realized that my work was just as much a part of my worship as anything I did on Sunday morning. It was a platform that God wanted to use to help other people connect with Him. The goal was no longer to make a profit but to make a difference. This post by Eric Geiger helps understand this concept:

“A common misconception among Christians is that their work is not spiritual, that a regular 9-to-5 day cannot be sacred. If they’re going to do anything spiritual or ministry-oriented, it’ll have to happen around these occupied time slots. But this implies that everybody needs to be a full-time pastor of some kind if they’re going to be “spiritual” for the better part of the day and week. The misconception that normal work is not spiritual is both inaccurate and damaging.”

A Call For A "New" Faith And Work Movement

Posted by on December 23, 2013

Far too many Christians live segmented lives where their faith only impacts one part of their lives. We are called to represent Christ in every area of our lives especially at work. This may be the only opportunity that most people have to see the gospel lived out in the real world. This is a great video and organization that equips people to represent Christ in the marketplace:

David H. Kim presents the necessity of an integrated faith & work movement that takes seriously the sovereignty of Christ, remembers the renewing work of the Spirit and emphasizes the importance of a narrative comprehensive enough to drive forward the challenge of humanizing work.

Watch Video …

Categories: Church Scattered Contextualization Life Plan Missional Living Work Life Integration | Comments Off on A Call For A "New" Faith And Work Movement

Radical

Posted by on June 22, 2013

The subtitle of this great new book by David Platt is taking back your faith from the American Dream. This is by far one of the most challenging and rewarding books I have read in a long time.

When you become a follower of Christ you accept both the privileges and responsibilities of that relationship. Discipleship demands radical obedience to be on the mission of impacting the world with the gospel.

The mission is to be carried out as you are going about your life everyday at home, work, neighborhood, community and ultimately to the ends of earth. This means that we all need to see ourselves as missionaries and our task is to tell our story to as many people as possible.

The most challenging part of the book is how we as American Christians have bought into the lie of the world and committed the sin of materialism. He is not saying in my opinion sell everything you have and give it all to the poor.

He is saying that we have been blessed beyond measure compared with the rest of the world and every Christian should be living a lifestyle that reflects biblical priorities. We may not need to sell it all but we sure don’t need to buy it all either and we must be generous in helping others who are literally dying every day from preventable causes.

According to David, “today more than a billion people in the world live and die in desperate poverty.” This reality forces us to move beyond mere knowledge and even debate to sustainable action that seeks to do something to help.

How many starfish are you willing to throw back into the sea?

Categories: Church Scattered Missional Living Spiritual Growth | Comments Off on Radical

Great Commission Companies

Posted by on June 8, 2010

I would highly recommend this book for any Christian that is serious about fulfilling their calling by leveraging their career to impact the world for eternity. The authors are Steve Rundle and Tom Steffen who pack a lot of great information about the biblical justification for their approach and several actual examples that fit their definition of success.

The core conviction they have is that every Christian is already in full time ministry and the spreading of the gospel should not be delegated exclusively to a small team of ordained missionaries. They also believe that there should be no dichotomy between the sacred and the secular when it comes to using our career as a platform to accomplish ministry.

This is not some clandestine strategy to use business platforms as a way of getting into closed countries but rather a convictional approach to start legitimate businesses that make a profit and then help their local communities. It is also a very holistic approach to missions that avoids both extremes of a social gospel on one end of the spectrum and counting decisions on the other.

This approach avoids all the negative aspects of redemption and lift that eventually removes new believers from their immediate community where they can be the most effective in reaching new people. There is an acknowledgement that some companies may make profits to provide the necessary funding for other front line ministries.

They believe that “by establishing authentic businesses that employ local workers among the least-reached peoples of the world, they contribute to the economic health of the immediate community and also provide avenues for both physical and spiritual ministry.” This really is about making a profit so that you can really make a difference.

Categories: Career Development Church Scattered Contextualization Missional Living | Comments Off on Great Commission Companies

Christianity 24/7

Posted by on October 5, 2009

The days of build it and they will come are over for churches. We may not want to admit it but for most Christians when they talk about church in their minds it’s about what happens at the buildings and not out in the community.

We must as leaders move the conversation from what we do on Sunday to what we do every day of our lives. The Christian life is not just about coming to church but being the church everyday where we go to school, live in our neighborhoods and work in our careers.

I recently met with a very successful committed Christian who is a pediatrician who wanted to grow more spiritually and get more involved in ministry. It was obvious to me from the very start of the conversation this meant to him taking on more responsibility at the church.

I began to share with him the vision that he could do more through his practice to reach young couples for Christ than we could ever do at the building. They would not even come to the building to hear Billy Graham but they were several new couples sitting in his waiting room every week expecting their first child.

In this postmodern age, we must never minimize the importance of the church gathered for worship and ministry but we must prioritize the church scattered for evangelism and missions. We must find new ways to take the gospel to where people live, work and play.

By the end of the conversation the light had come on for my friend because he no longer had a career but he now had a calling. That’s what happens when you change the definition of success from increasing profits to impacting people.

Categories: Church Scattered Missional Living Personal Leadership Spiritual Growth | Comments Off on Christianity 24/7

Moving Beyond Significance

Posted by on July 14, 2009

We owe a great deal to several authors who have written excellent books on how to move from success as the primary goal in your life to real significance. Probably the book Half Time by Bob Buford has made the most life changing impact with people who have worked very hard to be professionally successful in the corporate world only to find their personal life lacked real purpose and meaning.

Significance moves way beyond profits as a definition of success to people and how is my life adding value to others. Success many times is simply about what do we get at the end of the day while significance is about what are we willing to give away to make a difference.

If you want to have an eternal impact on the people who are a part of your life you must move beyond significance to surrender. When you live a total life of surrender your definition of success is totally determined by the One you are following. This definition alone will give you true significance as He uses your life story to impact other people in ways that will permanently change them for their good.

This means that we must die to the world’s definitions of success as the accumulation of power, position and pleasure and conform our expectations to His perfect will for our lives. This may include the ability to make a lot of money and have great positions of leadership responsibility. It may also mean a life that is filled with suffering and difficulty that can be leveraged by God to even have a greater impact on other people as they see you daily walk in grace and peace.

A surrendered life is one that is lived in total partnership with God so that He can use us as He sees best to change the world one person at a time starting with us. There can be no greater definition of success and significance in this life.

Categories: Church Scattered Missional Living Personal Leadership Servant Leader Spiritual Growth | Comments Off on Moving Beyond Significance

Glocal

Posted by on March 21, 2009

During the last century there were very clear distinctions between the concept of evangelism and missions. In the simplest of terms evangelism was reaching people for the local church and missions was reaching people for the kingdom.

Within the context of missions there was a local, national and an international segmentation. This implied the potential for several different strategies to be effective in all of these areas. It was understood that to reach people in an international context that significant cultural barriers had to be addressed for the gospel to be effective.

Today the cultural distance between the people who are in the church in America and the people who are not is significant enough to require a cross cultural missiological approach to reach them. They hold an entirely different world view and they are simply not going to come to our buildings regardless of how cutting edge our marketing may be.

For churches to be effective today in reaching the unchurched in America we are going to have to become missionaries in our own local context. We will have to find ways to take the gospel to where the people live, work and play and do it in a culturally relevant way.

That is why we need to stop thinking in terms of the old models of segmentation. The world has literally moved to America and through the use of technology and the new global economy everything has changed.

The church must become glocal in its thinking, which means one missiological mindset that produces multiple strategies depending upon who we are trying to reach in our area.

Categories: Church Scattered Contextualization Missional Living Personal Leadership Spiritual Growth | Comments Off on Glocal