Missional Living

The women who have been involved in our bible study over the past year will identify with this article. But it covers an area we didn't spend a lot of time on and that is sacrifice involved in missional ministry. This article brings up a common barrier. We want to do ministry in our community, but we want it to be convenient. We often lack believers who are willing to take on the full measure and responsibility of building a ministry out of the church. This is often seen as something the paid staff should champion and then we'll sign up for our turn to work. And while the paid staff do have ministry responsibilities, it doesn't make sense that all believers wouldn't/couldn't/shouldn't be equally involved in nurturing and growing ministry. You can read the full article here: http://members.worshiptraining.com/inspirit/?p=129

While You're Waiting...

I still plan to post more on waiting soon...but you'll just have to wait :) I've had some new thoughts even in the last 24 hours that I want to share, but I ran across this today and thought I would share it. For our bible study group and those at church last Sunday for Tim's message, I think this ties together some things we've been discussing.

We've been talking about missional leadership in our bible study class based on a book by Ed Stetzer and Phillip Nation called Compelled by Love. It talks about taking the mission outside the church. And Tim made the comment last Sunday that just inviting people to church isn't enough. There is more to sharing the gospel. (shameless plug for his online sermons-click here )

A friend who pastors Trinity United Methodist Church in Paducah posted some info about what his church is doing to embrace missional ministry. He has some comments about their progress and a great video linked that explains a bit about missional living. Check it out here: http://ijoey.org/blog/?p=129 Good stuff.