Among North American evangelicalism (at least pockets of it), the concept and practice of “missional communities” has gained significant traction in the lest 5-10 years. While perhaps not universally true, it seems that this trend stems from and represents growing interest in the missionary nature of God and the Church. Missional communities, many are advocating, provide an organizational framework for the life and ministry of the local congregations that (re)introduces people to practices and rhythms that guide spiritual formation in line with the intrinsically “missional” nature of Christian life.
As pointed out in this post by Dave Fitch, and this more recent one by Mike Breen, missional communities are vitally linked to the idea of oikos.
In the workshop below, Jo Saxton (a 3DM Director and pastor) and Michael Rudzena (a pastor of Trinity Grace Church in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York City) explore the theology and practice of missional communities.
We hope the audio of this workshop will be a helpful resource to those of you who have an interest in missional communities, but more than that, we’d love to hear from you…
- Are you part of a missional community? What has your experience been?
- Are you incorporating missional communities in the life of your church community? Why? How?
- What resources have you found to be most valuable in terms of understanding and developing missional communities in your context?
Workshop Description:
The cultural landscape of North America continues to change at a rapid pace. The maps guiding our steps in mission and evangelism are rapidly becoming antiquated and irrelevant. We are in need of new and effective ways to bear witness to the gospel of Jesus.
Could missional communities be an attempt to recapture an ancient path of living out the gospel in every channel of culture – or is it the church’s latest silver bullet promising radical change?
In this workshop we will not only explore a theological backdrop & working definition of missional community – we will also share and discuss real stories of everyday people; men and women led by the Spirit of God to incarnate the gospel in their context.
The audio download of this workshop is available HERE and is available for free all day today, 9/16/13 (discount automatically applied when you add the workshop to your cart).
**If you find resources like this helpful, there are many more available here. You might even want to grab a bundle all at the same time.**
Missio Alliance Comment Policy
The Missio Alliance Writing Collectives exist as a ministry of writing to resource theological practitioners for mission. From our Leading Voices to our regular Writing Team and those invited to publish with us as Community Voices, we are creating a space for thoughtful engagement of critical issues and questions facing the North American Church in God’s mission. This sort of thoughtful engagement is something that we seek to engender not only in our publishing, but in conversations that unfold as a result in the comment section of our articles.
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