• Archive of "missional learning commons" Category

    Here Comes the Missional Learning Commons

    October 28, 2010 // 1 Comment »

    The Missional Learning Commons gets underway tomorrow evening.  There are a ton of people on the guest list that I am unfamiliar with so I am looking forward to making some new connections and hearing stories of what God is doing in peoples various contexts.

    If you haven’t registered yet or are on the fence about it, let me offer one final encouragement.  This is always a fun gathering filled with memorable discussions, great insights, and tons of encouragement.  We’ll be discussing relationships related to discipleship, family, and leadership within a missional vision of the Kingdom of God.

    This event has never been about big-name speakers or anything like that, but the people who have agreed to come and kick-start our discussions have excellent perspective and experience to speak from.

    Check out all the details here and feel free to leave a comment w/ any questions.  Hope to see you this weekend!

    Posted in chicago, missional learning commons

    Missional Learning Commons – Conversations on Missional Leadership

    October 20, 2010 // 1 Comment »

    We tend to think of leadership as an activity and not a relationship.  But in terms of creating a culture of discipleship, equipping each other for ministry, and mobilizing people and groups for mission, the relational aspect of leadership is of enormous significance.

    Having already engaged in conversations around the themes of missional discipleship and missional family, the Missional Learning Commons will round off with a discussions about missional leadership.  Speakers, topics, and bios are below.  More information and registration here.



    David Fitch: The Hazards of Being Paid to Pastor: Overcoming the Bad Dynamics of Money

    Summary:

    When a pastor gets paid a set of negative dynamics are set into motion. Power relationships develop within a community. There are expectations from people who “give.” Ministry can turn inward and into politics. All of this works against moving a community into mission. I offer a couple observations and simple moves to subvert these dynamics.

    Bio:

    David Fitch is a co-pastor at Life on the Vine in northwest Chicagoland and a church planter/coach. He is also Lindner professor of evangelical theology at Northern Seminary’s programs in missional church studies teaching on matters having to do with gospel and culture. He is an author with his next book – The End of Evangelicalism? Discerning a New Faithfulness for Mission coming out in January 2011. Dave is married to Rae Ann and dad to their son Max.

    Fitch, Take 2: Leadership is Submission: The Counter-Cultural Way of the Cross in Leadership

    Summary:

    Leadership that leads into the new territories of mission will always produce conflict. This is the inevitable prospect of a community pushing into Mission. The Missional leader is not one who manages this conflict from top down. Instead, through the posture of humility, service and trust in the Spirit, out of Scripture and mutual discernment in prayer, he or she leads the community through inviting it to seek what God is doing, hear and respond. In this way of non-coercion and submission, the “revolutionary” community is birthed, brought together in Christ “on the way” of Mission.

    Amy Rozko: Global Perspectives on Missional Leadership:  Reflections and Observations from Cape Town 2010 (The 3rd Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization)

    Summary:

    Local churches bear the responsibility not only of equipping leaders for ministry in an increasingly globalized world at home, but also of mobilizing them for participation in God’s Kingdom work across the globe.  Doing so necessitates that we have a meaningful sense of what God is saying and how God is working in other parts of the world.  In this session, Amy will offer reflections on the state of the church around the world from a recent gathering of 4000 global church leaders and invite us to discuss the implications for churches in terms of leadership development.

    Bio:

    Amy is excited to have just participated as a delegate to the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Cape Town, South Africa.  She and her husband of just over a year, JR, live in Elgin, IL where she also works for International Teams US as the Director of Mobilization.  They are an active part of Life on the Vine in the Chicagoland suburbs.

    Posted in chicago, conference, leadership, missional, missional learning commons

    Missional Learning Commons – Conversations on Missional Family

    October 18, 2010 // 5 Comments »

    Of all the errant and damaging understandings of “missional” out there, the one that essentially equates to, “add more things to your calendar through the week in order to reach people,” is one of the most disastrous.  Missional, when understood this way, destroys families rather than transforming and mobilizing them for Kingdom mission.

    After our opening session focused on missional discipleship (speakers & topics here), the second set of speakers at the upcoming Missional Learning Commons will spark some discussion about what missional family relationships are all about.

    For more information to to register here or the image below.  See below for discussion themes and speaker bios.

    Helen Lee: The Kingdom Belongs to Such as These: Missional Living In and Through Our Children

    Summary:

    Jesus affirmed the value and the worth of children, expressing the reality that a child often has the capacity and the desire to embrace missional values and living, sometimes well before the parents. What are ways in our churches and families that we can encourage missional living and thinking, particularly amongst our kids? What are the benefits to doing so–and the dangers when we do not? We often think about the ways we can teach our kids, but in the area of missional living, our children may be the ones to teach us.

    Bio:

    Helen Lee is the author of The Missional Mom (Moody Publishers, January 2011) and has been writing for Christian periodicals such as Leadership Journal and Christianity Today for more than 15 years. She is married to classical pianist Brian Lee; they have three little boys 8 years old and under, whom Helen attempts to homeschool when she is not writing, blogging, or (now) tweeting.

    Jason Lantz: If anyone doesn’t know how to manage his own family how can he take care of God’s church?

    Summary:

    “I’m not going to sacrifice our kids on the alter of some church experiment you want to do.”  That’s what my wife Suzi said when I came home and told her that I thought the Lord was calling us to live as missionaries in Canton.  A couple of years later, and still in the baby stages of leading a new church plant, we have learned many lessons about the power of imitation in discipleship, the mess that we actually have learned to like with children and mission, and the incredible Love of our Heavenly Father.

    Bio:

    Jason and Suzi Lantz live as missionaries sent to the people of Canton, Ohio.  They are leaders in LoveCanton, a network of churches sent to love different networks and neighborhoods in Canton.  They have two children Caris and JJ.  As a family they are doing their best to join others who want to build a culture of disciples of Jesus Christ in every part of Canton.

    Ben Sternke: Sorry, We Can’t Come Because We Have Little League That Night.

    Summary:

    It’s easy for “missional living” to become just another extra-curricular activity for families to add to an already busy schedule. But really living missionally as a family demands that we think more deeply about the formational power of the seemingly benign activities so many American families get sucked into, and act more intentionally to engage as families in counter-formational practices that will truly shape us as missional people.

    Bio:

    Ben is in the midst of planting Christ Church: a fledgling network of missional communities seeking to join God in the renewal of the neighborhoods and relational networks of Fort Wayne, where he lives with his wife (Deb) and four children (Ethan, Raina, Ella, and Sydney). Ben also blogs (bensternke.com) and dabbles in web design.

    Posted in conference, missional, missional learning commons

    Missional Learning Commons – Conversations on Missional Discipleship

    October 15, 2010 // 4 Comments »

    The Missional Learning Commons (click link to register) here in Chicago is right around the corner, Friday Oct. 29 – Sat. Oct. 30.

    If you haven’t already, you need to check out what Geoff Holscalw has to say about the whole idea of a non-conference.

    Friday night Jon Berbaum and I will be facilitating a discussion around the book Desiring the Kingdom, the book from which this year’s theme of Kingdom Relationships comes.

    On Saturday morning, in the 1st of our 3 discussion sessions, three different people will speak for 12 minutes each and invite us into some guided reflection and conversation with regard to missional discipleship.  Here’s a bit of a glimpse into who is catalyzing those conversations and their topics.


    Cyd Holsclaw: Discipleship in Disguise

    Summary: In our missional lives, many of us don’t have a standard or recognizable role as leaders or teachers or mentors.  Some of us might shy away from embracing a discipleship role in the lives of those we meet, yet there are people around us every day who are hungry for mentoring and discipleship. With a few frames through which to view our relationships, we can move past just ‘hanging out’ with people into sharing a journey toward the cross and into new life.

    Bio: Cyd is part of the leadership team at Life on the Vine in northwest Chicagoland.  She and her husband, Geoff, also homeschool their two sons, Soren and Tennyson.

    Michael Novelli: The intersection of Biblical Narrative, Dialogue and Spiritual Formation

    Summary:

    Michael will share about his experiences with Bible storying, a dialogical approach rooted in the Hebrew tradition. Through years of experimentation, Michael has found approaches like storying stretch across generations, helping guide faith communities to be rooted and formed by the biblical narrative.  In this process, the community is birthed “on the way” in Mission.

    Bio: Michael Novelli is a writer and workshop facilitator helping church leaders to explore learner-center approaches to teaching. Michael, his wife Michele, and children Angelo and Abrielle live in Elgin, Illinois.

    Mark Van Steenwyk: Missional Discipleship in the Shadow of Empire

    Summary: Discipleship as commonly practiced in the North American church has become a disembodied, abstracted “thing.” Missional discipleship–embodying a way of life that is “Jesus shaped” in our local contexts–requires an experimental approach to new practices. How can we cultivate deep Gospel practices that counter an imperial way of life?

    Bio:

    Mark Van Steenwyk is a co-founder of Missio Dei–a Mennonite intentional community in Minneapolis. He works part time (with the support of the Central Plains Mennonite Conference) to network and nurture fledgling radical communities around the country. Mark is an adunct instructor at Bethel Seminary and experiments in grassroots radical education and organizing. He is a contributing editor at JesusRadicals.com and a regular co-host of the Iconocast. Mark lives with his wife (Amy) and son (Jonas) in Missio Dei’s, Sattler House.

    Posted in conference, discipleship, missional learning commons

    Midwest Missional Learning Commons

    September 21, 2010 // 4 Comments »

    My first experience with the missional community in the midwest was through a somewhat random collection of pastors and leaders that met at Life on the Vine over 2 days in January of 2008.  That was what has become known as the Missional Learning Commons…

    A collaborative day for missional churches to exchange ideas, support, and encouragement on how to incarnate the gospel in their contexts.

    We gathered for the 3rd time in January of this year and loved the time so much that we just had to bump the next gathering up to this fall – Friday, Oct. 29 – Saturday, Oct. 30!

    (click image for PDF)

    I’ve said before, there is a lot of power in regional gatherings.  So, if you are a pastor or leader who lives in driving distance of Chicago and is at all interested in the learning/participating in the missional conversation in real life, rubber-meets-the-road, kinds of ways, you should definitely join us.

    This event has always been free in the past, but in an effort to make sure that we have all kinds of voices at the table, we are charging $10 to help cover the cost of childcare during the event.

    Lots more info and banners/posters courtesy of one Mr. Benjamin Sternke can be had over at missionalcommons.org.

    Northern Seminary has offered to host the event for us and Ecclesia is helping to sponsor it.  Spread the word!

    Posted in chicago, conference, culture, discipleship, leadership, LOV, midwest, missional learning commons, networking

    Discipleship in a Missional Context

    September 3, 2010 // 4 Comments »

    I’m excited to be gathering tonight and tomorrow with some pastors and leaders from around the Chicagoland area and a bit beyond to talk about discipleship in a missional context.  We’re gathering in Hyde Park where some friends from Life on the Vine are in the process of moving into and exploring how the Kingdom might take shape.

    I think this is a topic that a great number of us have at the front of our minds, but aren’t always able to speak to as directly as we’d like so I am looking forward to the conversation and stuff the Spirit surfaces.

    So, since everyone has been so gracious in offering input on my doctoral considerations,

    I’m wondering what you might want to say or ask related to this issue of discipleship in a missional context – ie. how do we think of and go about discipling people to participate in God’s mission in the world.

    I’ll chance in periodically and add your comments and questions to our discussion.

    We’ll also be trying to pound out some of the details for the next Missional Learning Commons.  Stay tuned for more details on that.

    Posted in chicago, church, conference, culture, discipleship, LOV, missional, missional learning commons, post-christendom

    Next Entries »