Blogs and Articles

FSM Peru Team Demolition God By: Caden Nance Peru Trip Round Two! That’s what I called this trip since I had gone last year. Having some experience gave me confidence—I…

On November 7-11, a team of five folks from Fellowship Brentwood and Franklin piled into vans and drove over 12 hours to New Bern, North Carolina to help the community…

My trip to Guatemala with Fellowship Student Ministries was nothing short of everything I needed. The Lord led me on this trip through wanting to serve. I had a time…

The country of Croatia has a special place in my heart. The country is a desert desperate for water—the Living Water. The countryside is beautiful and the people there do…

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.

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 can only imagine what it’s like to go watch a movie as a family if you have boys. It probably involves action, adventure, swords and super heroes. But God has given me three lovely little ladies (pictured here), which means that when we go to the theater as a family, my experience is … well … different. It contains less action and more drama; fewer swords and more pixie dust. The “action” in the “live action” version of Cinderella that we watched last week simply meant that the movie contained real actors & actresses, rather than the original animation.

“I’ve begun to view the gospel as a verb, not just a noun (“gospeling” each other), and have become more fluent with it. It also helped me think through my own personal story and how it relates to God’s Greater story (Creation – Fall – Redemption – Re-Creation). The tangible experience of gathering to eat weekly and applying Gospel principles with each other was most compelling because I sometimes regard weekly bible studies or meetings as another thing to take me from ‘the stuff of life’. After going through the Gospel Primer with this group, I have the perspective that our family has to eat any way, so why don’t I invite others to join us?”

I have a love of woodworking and one of my recently developed hobbies is making rustic wooden clocks out of reclaimed pallet wood. I’ve discovered great satisfaction in taking something old, broken, stained and discarded and turning it into something beautiful, unique and useful. I have a love of woodworking and one of my recently developed hobbies is making rustic wooden clocks out of reclaimed pallet wood. I’ve discovered great satisfaction in taking something old, broken, stained and discarded and turning it into something beautiful, unique and useful. It wasn’t long ago when my twelve-year-old daughter asked me, “Daddy, can I help you make a clock?”

I’m convinced that disciples are made in the overlap of three essential elements: gospel, relationship and mission. These elements are what I like to call “discipleship DNA.” They are the building blocks of transformational spiritual growth. It’s helpful to picture these three elements (gospel, family and mission) as three legs of a stool. Take out one of these essential elements and any approach to discipleship is likely to be unbalanced.