Blogs and Articles

Last Halloween was cold — REALLY cold. The little pack of kids from our cul-de-sac started out with vigor on their candy-hunting quest, but soon found themselves shivering uncontrollably in their coat-less costumes. Only two blocks into our neighborhood, it was time to retreat! So without any intentional planning, my wife and I stumbled into a prime opportunity to build relational bridges with our neighbors. We invited the pack of kids inside our home and the warm spot in front of our fireplace quickly became the neighborhood candy counting and trading station.

“Probably 30 minutes went by before they started to stir… And you could tell just the incredible power of that moment for them… And the looks on their faces were… that they had experienced something extremely powerful in the presence of Jesus Christ, in a moment that had been extremely traumatic for them for years and years…”
– Scott McPherson

I’m rarely entrusted with kitchen duties, but when the recipe is simple enough, my lovely wife will occasionally hand over the apron. Pancakes are my specialty. Bisquick mix, milk, and eggs. Boom. Pancakes. My Saturday morning triple-ingredient culinary masterpiece! When it gets more complicated than that, my wife wisely and mercifully takes the apron back.

Less under our tree means more for the world…

Exponentially.

When we consider the incredible impact Fellowship is able to have around the world, Global Christmas is truly the time when our mission goes exponential. You’ve heard often that we exist to “proclaim Christ, mature in the faith and give our lives away.” And as we come alongside our global partners both in relationship and through our generosity, we are helping them lead their people – in their own unique ministry context – to proclaim Christ, mature in the faith and give THEIR lives away as well! So, in very real and tangible ways, every dollar invested in our partnerships through Global Christmas helps our mission go exponential.

I felt a tug at my pant leg and the familiar voice of one of my sons asking me a question. Since I didn’t actually hear the whole question, I had to ask him to repeat it. That’s when my wife, Heidi, calmly chimed in with “Honey, he’s been trying to get your attention for 2 minutes.” Ouch. Guilty.

I’d been looking at my phone doing something I’m sure I thought was important at the time – and totally missed my son. Actually, I was missing my whole family – as I was either reading a news article, responding to an email or posting something on Twitter. All my son saw was that I thought my phone was more important than him.

Joining Jesus on His mission doesn’t have to be complicated – it really just means living intentionally, with the heart of a missionary – and with the Gospel at the center of all that we do. A common fear and misconception is that missional means “additional”… Additional activities, appointments, responsibilities, serving opportunities… Filling up the calendar with more stuff. That perspective can easily start to feel like a heavy burden of duty that induces guilt, rather than a Gospel-centered lifestyle that results in purpose and joy.

I just returned from a week in Postdam, Germany spending time with our global partner, Steffen Weil, and his mittendrin team. (mittendrin means “in the center of it” in German, and is the name of their 4-yr old church plant located right in the center of the city). What a great week of listening, learning and gaining perspective on their vision to reach into their city with Gospel-influence over many sectors of culture – arts, medicine, education, athletics, small business, government, and beyond.

My wife Janet and I have a pretty incredible story (if I do say so myself!) of how we met, dated, courted and eventually got married. I’m still amazed at how God, in His providence, brought us together in a unique way where we both saw His good hand guiding our paths and circumstances to the place where we found ourselves committing to each other for a lifetime. In some ways, the story of how Janet and I originally connected back in college is a great illustration of the process each of us go through in our connection journey to just about anything of value. But more on that later…

Earlier this year I started what I called “Connection Conversations” with various leaders at Fellowship to introduce some new concepts to make it easier to connect at Fellowship. Some of these concepts are foundational biblical concepts and some are cultural concepts. Below is an introduction to one of the cultural concepts that we think will make Fellowship an easier place to connect. I’d like to extend this conversation to you. So, after reading this let me know what you think about this concept.

I get mixed responses when I mention that I oversee “missional living” at Fellowship. They usually fall into three categories. Sometimes I can read the response immediately in someone’s expression of confused curiosity that seems to say “What on earth is missional living?” Understandable since missional has been defined in so many ways. Or a smile that communicates resonance with the idea of living ‘on mission’ – and I’m guessing they might have read some recent blog posts or books or listened to a podcast that’s defined it in a palatable way.