Rethink Mission is a community project.
The heart of this website are the Missional Q&A Interviews, updated weekly, where church leaders like you talk about the issues they face on a daily basis.
Rethink Mission is first & foremost about church leaders talking to church leaders.
In our short two weeks up, we’ve talked about planting in the ‘burbs, preaching in a way that connects with culture, and next week we start a round-table discussion with executive pastors from three young yet influential churches.
So the question is this: who would you like to see interviewed? What topics would you like to see addressed?
How can we help you do your job and fulfill your calling in a more missional way?
And listen to me. I just got a note from a friend and he said, “But, I’m just an associate pastor.”
There are no just associate pastors here. Church leaders of every kind – designers, song writers, administrators, counselors, teachers, media personnel – all need to be released and empowered to do ministry in our ever changing culture.
So, from the lone church planter whose church is just a dream in his heart, to the volunteer children’s minister, to the production designer who manages teams of hundreds – who would you love to hear from & what issues need to be addressed from a missional angle? Hit me back.
Tags: leadership
You should do something exploring the Prophet, Priest, King stuff. A lot of our guys are familiar with this language, but many outside our circles are not yet. I would also be interested in someone who is much smarter than me exploring how things change when you are a prophet-priest vs a priest-prophet, or a king-prophet vs a prophet-king … and maybe how these things change when you are entp vs isfj … they seem to manifest differently in different personality types.
What Steve says sound pretty interesting.
Also, I think some issues that need to be addressed to the Church should concern culture and how Christians should relate to it. Help Christians learn to think Christianly about poverty, war, same-sex marriage, science, patriotism, music, movies, &c.
I think some good interviewees would include a good spectrum of Christian leaders from various Christian movements (Reformed, Pentecostal, Catholic, Baptist, Joel Osteen).
Have you read “The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind” by Mark Noll?
1) Get rid of the t-shirts, you lost some street cred with me on that (I was like, “What’s next, action figures?”). 2)Make them video interviews rather than transcripts.
I’d like to see some interviews on church planters and how they went about missionaly engaging the lost in the early or beginning phase of their church plant. Thanks for what your doing here.
I would like to hear some guys on what they are doing for gender or age specific ministry (men’s women’s children’s.)
Perhaps how these areas are being missional or providing open doors into their church community.
Good feedback. Thanks.
Steve – I agree that the prophet/priest/king dynamic in church leadership needs more press.
Jacob – Noll’s book is good. How to think “Christianly” about many things is a challenge.
John – on the contrary, we ran out of t-shirts & have to print more. And bobbleheads!
Julio & Rik – more on practical missional engagement is on the way.
i’m always interested in what folks are reading. there’s an overwhelming number of books out there, and so many would be good, but i don’t have the personal bandwidth to spend time on something mediocre.
also, what about some words from/for the other people in a pastor type’s life? wives, kids. (especially kids – that’s not something i’ve seen many places.)
Andy Crouch’s new book, Culture Making, claims that in order to transform culture, we must CREATE culture. How does the church move from merely engaging/analyzing/critiquing culture (which are all good things) and actually CREATE culture intentionally? This clearly cannot include the arts alone, but all cultures (and Crouch would then ask, “which culture(s)?”)
I think his book is really raising important questions on the practical level that every pastor needs to wrestle with.
JMac, most helpful to me would be interviews with a wide variety (ethnic, church size, urban, suburban, rural, etc) of church planters and leaders that focused on:
1. Their heart for their context
2. Their biggest challenges
3. How they are learning the gospel in those challenges
4. Very practical, nitty gritty ways they are attacking their problems (which would help the rest of us in the brainstorming process)
This is great stuff, keep it up!
Would love to see you cover what & how churches are multiplying themselves in cultures outside America.
idolatry of ministerial “success”. how it shreds families. what it means to crush it.
Would like to see systems info from other churches . How do they set-up for being missional and Gospel-centered. (.pdf’s of theology papers, forms, manuals, philosophy of ministry.) How churches work this out specifically would be gold!
Brad E. – Culture Making is on my reading stack. As soon as I’m done, I’m going to see if Andy will do an interview.
Jacob, Aaron, Brad H. – I hear you asking for a wide range of diversity involving race, background, and nationality of who we interview.
All – I hear you saying the more specific the better, specifically on systems.
Thanks.
Oh snap… I’ve heard he is very accessible, so it’s likely he’d be very excited to. He’s also coming to Covenant Seminary in October for a 2-day seminar. Read his book while wearing a seatbelt. If I know you at all, you will absolutely love his stuff, he has a real knack for communicating beauty.
Brad, hit us up with the deets on the Andy Crouch conference.
I agree with some of whats already been posted. It would be great to see you focus on missional success with specific interviews with those involved including in depth looks at how their systems/orgs are set up, what works what doesn’t, etc. Keep up the good work nonetheless.
In addition to seconding Adair’s request about the introvert/extrovert thing…
It’d be helpful to hear some talk on transitioning from a strictly traditional attractional mindset to a more incarnational way of thinking (which of course doesn’t fully exclude attractional stuff, of course). What are practical steps to get your people thinking that way?
Is there always a tipping point where ministries go from being member led to staff driven? How do you keep a sense of engagement and ownership for the members/volunteers when a church becomes a victim of its own success and has to staff up? What is the current thinking on staff/volunteer dynamics?
What can people who aren’t in leadership do to support the leadership more? As a leader, what did/do you want out of the church members that you never got.
What are the best practical ways to stay out or, or break out of, the “Christian bubble” and carry out a missional life?
A Joel Osteen video interview would be EPIC. If you ever did that, you’d have to rock a suit and tie.
What about interviewing some worship leaders. What is their context of worship? What transformation have they seen throughout the life of their church plant in or through worship? What is their concept of worship, or where do they go mentally, emotionally, theologically during worship?
Once again – good thoughts.
Orion – stuff on worship leaders is on the way.
Terry – Joel Osteen wouldn’t return my calls.
Craig – your questions are interesting. I agree that a discussion on that dynamic would be helpful.