During a recent trip to Taiwan as part of the Upstream Collective, missiologist Ed Stetzer asked the question “Why are so many missional Christians uninvolved in God’s global mission?”

These are the 5 reasons he gives:

1. In rediscovering God's mission, many have only discovered its personal dimensions.
2. In responding to God's mission, many have wanted to be more mission-shaped and have therefore made everything "mission."
3. In relating God's mission, the message increasingly includes the hurting but less frequently includes the global lost.
4. In refocusing on God's mission, many are focusing on being good news rather than telling good news.
5. In reiterating God's mission, many lose the context of the church's global mission and needed global presence.

Read the whole post, including Stetzer’s proposed solutions, on his blog here:

• Five Reasons Missional Churches Don’t Go Global – and How to Fix It

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1. At age 59, it is high time for me actively to give myself away to younger men. A29 gives me the opportunity to love and serve the next generation. (“Fulfill your ministry,” not “Fulfill my ministry,” 2 Tim. 4:5)
2. I am inspired by the men in A29. They are doctrinally conscientious, risk-taking, hardworking, imaginative, manly, fun. If there are some rough edges, they'll get knocked off in time. (Prov. 28:1)
3. With A29, I can participate in a new movement of the Holy Spirit. All my adult life I have longed for revival. I want the final season of my life to be under all the blessing God will give. A29 is open to God. (Psalm 63:1)



4. I benefit from wise coaching. My A29 coach has been where I am. This monthly contact builds in regular accountability, goals and coherent progress. Not control or intrusiveness, but counsel and support. (Prov. 13:20)
5. I admire the selfless commitment to Christ and his Church embodied in the structures of A29. The system has been assembled in a generous way, everyone pitching in, helping out, each rejoicing in the progress of others. (John 3:30)
6. I have so much to learn about gospel ministry. I need wisdom to understand and adapt and contextualize with Stott’s “between two worlds” faithfulness. A29 specializes in missional wisdom. In my opinion, this is their greatest strength. (1 Cor. 9:19-23)

Learn more about Acts 29 at acts29network.org.

Rain City Hymnal

The first offering from Re:Sound is the Rain City Hymnal. Listen online and get the record from the Re:Sound website. Find out more.

In Light of the Ages Series: Click | View Series

"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." –John 1:14

Incarnation and Constancy in the Information Age

This new era can be unnerving, especially if you are a creature of habit. The constant stepping into a new palette, the continual discovery of fresh ground, the never-ending job of being a pioneer can take its toll on some. But there is something common to even the world moving at our speed today. It is a thing that anchors and gives basis and meaning in this fast-paced flow. It is the person and presence of God.

The Scriptures say before the mountains were made, God was, and that he is God from generation to generation. And that one generation comes and another goes, but God remains the same.

The formula of incarnation is not just being present. John 1:14 makes it clear that Jesus was present with a fullness of Truth and Grace. Those are unchanging attributes of God. They existed before the incarnation. It was God being present in human form that amazed the Galilean fishermen.

Temptations of the Ages

Presence alone leaves us imbalanced and with only the empty draw of the age. The Industrial Age could tempt people into pragmatism, to think that simply by creating an acceptable system, they could make something work without the presence of the Holy Spirit.

This world without artifacts—the world of constant change—can mesmerize many with dizzying daily revelation of the new. In the Information Age, the nightmare is that people, especially church leaders, could become so enamored with the novel that they could forget the Eternal and the Permanent. They could leave Christ out as they incarnate. They could move into time without Truth, excitedly entering an age without God, and bringing to flesh—incarnation—only themselves.

Sociology to Missiology

Without understanding our cultural environment, we could become self-marginalizing people, holding the truth in an odd isolated bunker, sadly outside of the cultural norm. And yet, if we become people who are obsessed with culture without the love of Christ—hip without being grounded in the Eternal, trendy without Truth—ironically we are made irrelevant by our idolatry of relevancy.

Sociology is only valuable to the church when it connects to eternal truth and becomes missiology.

To be continued.

Rain City Hymnal

The first offering from Re:Sound is the Rain City Hymnal. Listen online and get the record from the Re:Sound website. Find out more.

Listen to Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church in Dallas, talk about why the Village is part of Acts 29. From his talk at the 2009 San Diego Boot Camp. Listen here.

Re:Train

We are launching The Resurgence Training Center (Re:Train) to prepare leaders for ministry locally and around the world. Additional details and downloadable application form here.

In Light of the Ages Series: Click | View Series

"The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn."–Alvin Toffler

A Contrast of Two Times

History has had a few moments where one concept or process would change the direction and practice of a society. At one point words were enough. Then some ambitious person assigned letters or characters to represent words, immediately changing the world forever. When that print was mass-produced, ideas were more easily preserved and distributed. The printing press and pamphleteering (the 18th-century equivalent of blogging) are attributed as key factors in such revolutionary movements as the Reformation and the American colonial uprising against Great Britain.

In the earlier part of this series, the Industrial Revolution, which produced and moved goods with new speed and standardization, was presented as a powerful force for changing the world. It was responsible for the shape of schools, suburbs, and churches as we would eventually know them.

The Dawning of a New Era

Then came the new era, the Information Age. Man was no longer to merge with and mimic a machine; he was buzzing electrically like a central nervous system. The world was immediate, relentless, and perpetually in flux. In many ways, the Information Age is characterized by concepts that are precisely the opposite of the previous era.

Industrial Revolution vs. Information Age

Key Contrary Concepts of the Ages:

• Standardized vs. Customized
• Localized vs. Borderless
• Control vs. Influence
• Hard Product vs. Evolving Versions

In the second part of this series, I will be discussing changes that are necessary and part of the learning curve for those who wish to pastor in this new world. These will include:

• How to lead in a flatter structure and restore a biblical body theology
• Discipleship as a fluid journey versus solid circuitry
• Being part of a network, moving from the record store to a peer-to-peer community
• Being present everywhere: multi-sites and hotspots
• The tension of living in the culture of constant change and being counter to it

To be continued.

Advance 09 Media

Video, audio, and images from the Advance 09 conference in Raleigh-Durham, NC, June 2009. Find out more.

The gospel mission through the local church is often discussed in terms of planting new churches in under-churched areas or revitalizing churches in over-churched areas. But what about planting a new church in the over-churched south? Moreover, what about doing so in one's hometown? Such is the case with the WELL, the church I pastor.

Hometown Church Planting

With numerous stories of men moving across the globe to large cities to plant churches, I am somewhat in the minority. After traveling to various countries and pursuing a seminary education, I boldly proclaimed to God, "I am willing to go anywhere for you!" To which he replied, "Yes, but are you willing to stay where I've placed you?" In an ironic and somewhat comedic twist, it was clear that I was to plant a church in my hometown of Augusta, GA.

Does the South Need More Churches?

With the large number of already-existing churches in the South, I've often asked myself (as others have as well) "Does the over-churched South need another church?" Granted, several Christ-centered, gospel-preaching churches exist in our area, as well as unhealthy churches that are declining. While most people have some church experience, many are disenfranchised or disillusioned. Nominal Christianity is widespread, as is the converse rejection of it. In short--yes, there is plenty of need for Christ-centered, gospel-driven churches in the South. Planting and pastoring in the over-churched South is a unique calling.

An Undeniable Calling: People First, Location Later

Missional calling is first directed toward people. The location comes later. Rather than focus on a city or location, God clearly revealed the need for gospel ministry in the over-churched South. During seminary, and in preparation to plant the church, I was working at a local pizza restaurant in which the mission of the WELL began to take shape and vision became clear. Personalizing the mission involved putting names and faces to the general population I was called to. For me, it involved making a list of people I knew personally who to my knowledge did not know Christ nor were being pursued with the gospel.

As the list grew to the hundreds, I was affirmed in my calling, both in identity and mission. Acts 17:26 came to mind as I understood God had determined this time and place for me to live. Memories of my sixth-grade Sunday school teacher (who was a missionary in China) came to mind. She once said, "God called me first to the Chinese people. I ministered to them locally long before I ever went to Mainland China." These wise words resonated with my desire to bloom where God had planted me and to see a grassroots church flourish in my hometown.

Where Do We Go From Here?

It is a great joy to join with other pastors and churches that are faithfully serving in gospel ministry in the south. It is my hope and prayer that God will continue to raise up grassroots churches in over-churched, under-gospeled areas as well as send church planters to un-churched regions. It is true that God determines the times and places in which men live as well as the direction and opportunity for them to pursue his gospel mission.

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Watch Darrin Patrick, lead pastor of The Journey and vice president of Acts 29, interview leading missiologist and friend of the Resurgence Ed Stetzer in the video below:

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Vintage Church:

In this book, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears discuss the essentials of what it means to be a biblical church. Find out more.

Speaking at the recent Acts 29 Quarterly in St. Louis, leading missiologist and friend of the Resurgence Ed Stetzer shared collected data regarding the younger unchurched demographic, shedding light on the tension between their desire for spirituality and their resistance to formal involvement with the church. Based on his new book, Lost and Found: The Younger Unchurched and the Churches That Reach Them, he discussed how this data can be used to bridge the gap and bring the younger unchurched into the body.

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International Church Planting Series: Click | View Series

Planting Churches Fulfills the Great Commission

In Acts, God's means of changing the world is through the planting of churches. It is no coincidence that right after God gave his apostles the Great Commission in Acts 1:8, the first thing he did was to plant a church (Acts 2:42-47). The church was to be the operational means of fulfilling the Great Commission.

When a local church was placed in a community, the gospel would be preached from house to house and in the streets, and the generosity, joy, and worship of a local body of believers caused "great fear and awe" to be on everyone, favor to be had with the community, and God to "add to the number daily those that were being saved." Thus, everywhere the apostles went, they planted churches. They didn't simply do preaching, miracle crusades, or community ministry. They planted churches that would do preaching, perform miracles, and serve the community. As Tim Keller said, the apostles' strategy was very simple: go to the most strategic cities in the world and plant churches. The church is the one institution of the New Testament.

To the Ends of the Earth

What we sometimes overlook is that the scope of God's commission, from the beginning, was to "the ends of the earth." When God sent the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, the apostles spoke in tongues of every language, a clear sign that the gospel should go to every people of every nation on earth. This gospel was not to be centralized in one city or one culture. God would be glorified by his gospel taking root in every culture.

However in Acts 2-7, despite God's clear command and signs to go to all the nations, the apostles do not budge from Jerusalem. So in Acts 8:1, God sent persecution on the church, and believers scattered throughout the region. The parallel language of Acts 1:8 and 8:1 is not coincidental. If the apostles weren't going to obey God's commission to go to the world, God would make them. In a truly bizarre move, God even beams one of the apostles, Star Trek style, into a place where he can engage a foreigner with the gospel.

On one hand it is refreshing to me that the apostles were not too dissimilar to us, preferring to stay in their own city and culture, and to build a megachurch there. On the other hand, it is a little alarming that God is so determined for his people to plant churches internationally that he will bust them up if he has to and beam a few of them overseas if they won't obey. While the beaming sounds kind of cool, the busting up does not. So we have decided, from the beginning, to plant churches internationally.

To be continued

Pastor Mark:

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Most people living in the core of downtown Seattle have the mentality that they are only living there temporarily. Even if that’s the case, it’s important to invest in the area, get into community, and get on mission. Pastor Tim Gaydos is leading by example by raising his family in the urban core of the city. He wants to change the mindset of others and show that the core of downtown Seattle is a place worth settling down and investing in. Watch the embedded video below to hear from Pastor Tim about his vision.

Biblical Parenting Conference:

Everyone wants to be a great parent. Dr. Tripp's insightful lectures help you learn how to teach your children to love Jesus. Read More.