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I believe we have seen a profound movement, over the past decade or two, of people metamorphosing out of religious mindsets and structured church settings into a greater freedom in Christ. However, I sense that many who have become butterflies do not fully know how to use their wings. There could be a host of…

Brooks does a wonderful job of describing the changed lives of women in Burundi.  These stories are the direct result of the church moving outside of the walls of church life and meeting people in the hard places of real struggles. We are still traveling in Africa and this is from our travel blog: I…

Guy Muse has an excellent article on "What does Scripture actually say about the church, the Bride of Christ?" He writes: One of the most common questions I am asked in church planting training is: at what point do we start taking the new believers to church? This question always frustrates me, but I understand…

As I am currently traveling in Africa, I am relying on other bloggers and writers to share their insights with you. My friend at Life Beyond the Walls has written an excellent post that suggests legacy churches (institutional churches) are like a life-support machine: they are sometimes helpful but not if you stay plugged in…

Several years ago, at a Verge conference, Alan Hirsch said: "Every believer is a church planter; and every church is a church planting church." Now, let me say, that this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever… unless you have a Biblical understanding of the organic nature of church. As long as we think of church as…

Although most of us understand that we, as God’s people, are the church, we consistently misuse that term and many others.  I remain guilty of this myself.  But, the result is that we use language that continuously waters down the true wonder of who we are in Christ and our purpose in Him. When we…

Steve Smith has written an excellent article in Frontier Missions that sketches out a the path to a church planting movement using a diagram that can fit on a napkin. Steve's challenge is to set our sails, by surrendering to God's ways, so that we are able to catch whatever movement God is initiating.  This…

My friends at GreenChurch have put together a site called EverywhereChurch that is worth a look.  I like their outline of "How to Begin:" Micro-clusters of friends (and their network of relationships) can become a life changing “where-they-live” Body-of-Christ! Ask God to arrange encounters between you and the friends/acquaintances/strangers in whom He has been stirring…

Peter Wagner has had a large influence on the church over the past several decades from his focus on church growth to prayer movements.  While we might argue the merits of how some of his thoughts have shaped the contemporary church, he is, nevertheless, a senior voice at 82 years of age. I would like…

At the heart of spiritual community lie true friendships.  Jesus said “I have called you friends.” My observation is that, whether in traditional church settings or more organic ones, this dynamic is often sorely missing.  We do activities together: meetings, services, bible studies, house church gatherings.  But too often we are not developing the kind…