1) What did Jesus tell his disciples to do? Make disciples.
2) What is a disciple of Jesus? A disciple is someone learning to live life Jesus’ way.
3) What happens if a church starts a program to make disciples? You may or may not make disciples.
4) What happens when disciples start to make disciples? You get a church.
Wikipedia has written a nice article on missional communities, and it is clearly written from a 3dm perspective. It may be a good place to point people who are trying to get a sense of what is meant by “missional community.”
Enjoy.
Here’s an idea for missional living from missiologist Michael Frost. The acronym BELLS stands for Bless, Eat, Listen, Learn, and Sent. Give it a try. Even if you don’t think you could do this or wouldn’t be any good at it, you might be surprised how God uses us when we stumble in the right direction. As Mike Breen says, “anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” Absolutely.
Here are the instructions.
BLESS I will bless three people this week, at least one of whom is not a member of our church.
EAT I will eat with three people this week, at least one of whom is not a member of our church.
LISTEN I will spend at least one period of the week listening for the Spirit’s voice.
LEARN I will spend at least one period of the week learning Christ.
SENT I will journal throughout the week all the ways I alerted others to the universal reign of God through Christ.
For more information, look for the e-book by Michael Frost (0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00). The 5 Habits of Highly Missional People (Kindle Locations 195-200). Kindle Edition.
Our missional community is going to work over the next four months to support and raise awareness of the work of Young Life on the First Coast.
How did we get there? This week, leaders of our four month missional community experience gathered to report what we’ve been learning about the vision for mission for this missional community. Over the last few weeks, we have been praying and trying to pay attention to what God was saying to us. All we knew was that each of us had been blessed through partnering in mission with Vida Joven (Young Life) in Nicaragua. But the door for partnership there has been temporarily closed for each of us. Still we had a starting place. And from that, came a number of wonderful ideas. But we were narrowed by several things: 1) It had to be relational – something that would involve others outside of our missional community. 2) It had to be something we could do in four months. 3) It had to be Christ centered. It had to be about what God is doing. 4) It had to be connected to blessing to the First Coast. And as we began to think together, we found our direction, we came to a place of agreement, and we are ready to move forward.
Our missional community is going to work over the next four months to support and raise awareness of the work of Young Life on the First Coast.
Can’t wait to get started!
Worshiping at Gamble Rogers
Really appreciated Second Sunday Celebration this morning. God showed up. It was a beautiful day. We got to sing about God’s amazing Grace out in the midst of God’s amazing creation. In terms of the tournament, the timing worked out pretty wonderfully. Thanks to Barbara Brice for giving us a report on the work of First Ministries in downtown Jacksonville. It is always so encouraging to hear about how God is changing lives!
Thanks to all who made the trip down to Gamble-Rogers. We’ll find a spot closer to home next month.
Barbara Brice Reports What God Is Doing Through First Ministries
LoveFirst Coast 