Imaginatively Missional
Back in the late 1900s, Gailyn Van Rheenen published a regular missiology newsletter. In one edition, he recounted the experience of walking into a church in the Philippines only to be confronted with an unsettling reality: it looked just like his church at home. Nearly forty years later, we are still confronting that same unwelcome …
The Greek words oikos and oikia are often used interchangeably in modern discussions of the early church, yet they carried distinct meanings in the first-century context. Understanding their differences is crucial for accurately interpreting biblical texts and their implications for missions, community, and church structure for today. Oikia: The Physical House and Family The term …
Continue reading "Understanding the First-Century House Church in the Archaeological Record"
Over the past two decades, many monikers have emerged to help describe the task of fulfilling the Great Commission. Samuel Wilson’s informative contribution to the Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions outlines a brief history of trying to understand the groupings of people based on cultural and/or social contexts. In the early modern era of missions, Leslie Brierley’s “Remaining Unevangelized …
Continue reading "Defining Unreached and Unengaged People Groups"
I recently met with the Vice President of Church Planting Strategy from a well respected church planting organization in the United States to talk about new metrics for church planting. During the course of our conversation, he referenced the Great Opportunity study conducted by Pinetops Foundation in 2018. The study indicated the need to double or triple …
Ever since C. Peter Wagner declared church planting as the greatest strategy for the spread the gospel around the world (1990), church planters have taken up the banner of what is no doubt one of the most obvious results of making disciples in the book of Acts. Indeed, Tim Keller writes, “The continual planting of …
Continue reading "Reflections on the State of Church Planting in the US"
We drove to a remote village in South Asia where we were about to meet a new church leader. He’d recently come to Christ as a result of a church planting movement spreading across the area. Then, as is common with CPM/DMM methodologies, he shared the gospel with those in his oikos – that is, his network …
It is no secret that the American evangelical church finds herself in turmoil. As attendance and membership decline in spite of increased numbers of clergy and church buildings (whether constructed, rented, or meeting in houses), many wonder if we might be on the brink of another reformation. On this Reformation Day, I thought I would …
Continue reading "Lessons from Calvin: Is it Time for Another Reformation?"
As church planting movements (CPMs) have drawn the attention of missionary practitioners around the world, missiologists are looking closely at this phenomenon and asking challenging questions. In recent years, a few of those questions posed by Jackson Wu and a cadre of missiologists from the International Mission Board as well as professors from predominately Southern …
Continue reading "Becoming Conversant with CPMs in the New Testament"
I had coffee this morning with a friend who is a fellow co-laborer in ministry. As we bantered around various social issues confronting Christianity–gender identity, social justice, and the like–as well as the reality that COVID has led many to conclude they no longer have a need for the church, I was struck again by …
Don’t you like dealing in hypotheticals? Those sometimes frustrating “what if” questions? Recently, Mike Frost posed such a question, “If Jesus planted a church, what would it look like?” At first, I thought it was a brilliant question. However, the more I considered it, the more his question provoked a reaction. I began to ask, …
Two recent studies about the state of the church in the US have further demonstrated the tenuous situation of American Christianity. On May 25, 2021, Lifeway Research released its latest data that indicates a continuing downward trend for the negative net growth of churches in America. In 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the evangelical …
Continue reading "The Looming Crisis in American Christianity"
I am absolutely convinced that there has never been a genuine missional movement—the kind that has both exponential growth as well as transformational impact across a wide domain—that does not have APEST ministry. APEST, which stands for Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd and Teacher, comes from Ephesians 4, and I strongly believe movements need all five …
I am absolutely convinced that there has never been a genuine missional movement—the kind that has both exponential growth as well as transformational impact across a wide domain—that does not have APEST ministry. APEST, which stands for Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd and Teacher, comes from Ephesians 4, and I strongly believe movements need all five …
I am absolutely convinced that there has never been a genuine missional movement—the kind that has both exponential growth as well as transformational impact across a wide domain—that does not have APEST ministry. APEST, which stands for Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd and Teacher, comes from Ephesians 4, and I strongly believe movements need all five …
I am absolutely convinced that there has never been a genuine missional movement—the kind that has both exponential growth as well as transformational impact across a wide domain—that does not have APEST ministry. APEST, which stands for Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd and Teacher, comes from Ephesians 4, and I strongly believe movements need all five …
I am absolutely convinced that there has never been a genuine missional movement—the kind that has both exponential growth as well as transformational impact across a wide domain—that does not have APEST ministry. APEST, which stands for Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd and Teacher, comes from Ephesians 4, and I strongly believe movements need all five …
The July 8, 2020 release of the Barna Group’s latest study on the State of the Church has confirmed what some have suspected would occur as a result of COVID-19. The study revealed that 32 percent of practicing Christians stopped attending church, whether in person or online, since the outbreak of the virus. While the …
Continue reading "What would you do if you knew that one-third of your friends would leave church?"
Editor's Note: We are delighted to repost a blog written by our friend Alan Hirsch. In light of our recent interview, Leadership in Crisis, we invited him to explain APEST further. If interested in learning more about APEST, please visit 5Q Central. The habits of institution that we have inherited through the European formulas are …
As cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) begin to rise across the globe, governments are instituting travel restrictions, encouraging social distancing, canceling major community and social events, establishing quarantines, and in some cases imposing large-scale lockdowns. Such disruptive measures to daily life in the free world are naturally upsetting and worrisome. Anxiety is already high …
Many are wondering if a movement of churches is even possible in the United States. While the criticism of the movements we are seeing around the world has at times been sharp - accusations of theological shallowness, immature leaders, irresponsible evangelism - observers of the US evangelical landscape are beginning to recognize the same critique …
The reaction to Mark Galli’s editorial in Christianity Today reveals how polarized the current political climate is in the United States. Some question his motives and others wonder what has taken so long. There are as many loud evangelical voices of dissent as there are of support for Galli’s call for President Trump’s removal from office. The …
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