Blogs and Articles

In 2018, Fellowship Bible Church started a Thursday soccer outreach called “All Nations Soccer Club” at the Brentwood campus soccer fields, led by Fellowship member Paul Campanis. Every Thursday 6:00-8:00pm,…

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.

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.

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.

Avi Luskie taught me how to block. We played sandlot football in my neighborhood. Boys gathered at the “field” and we played tackle football on hard dirt. I was a tall, lanky, uncoordinated kid. I was often picked last. No matter. We were out to have fun. And fun we had. At the end of our street lived a 20something stud. “Avi” (short for Avner, I suspect) was a big strong athlete. As elementary age boys, we looked up to him, literally and metaphorically.

“God has initiated every part of His work throughout history. Instead of carrying out His mission on His own, God chooses to accomplish His mission in a very personal way.He chooses to involve His people with Him, working through them to accomplish His purposes. When He is about to take a further step to advance His mission, He comes to one or more of His servants… He lets them know what He is about to do. He invites them to join Him, asking them to adjust their lives to Him so He can accomplish every aspect of His mission through them.”

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.

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.