Many churches and leaders have been and are being (re)shaped by considering God’s missionary nature and intent for his people. Grappling with this (and related) theological issues can become, if we’re not careful, a fairly abstract and disembodied affair. Ironically, this phenomenon runs counter the nature of what is being considered – God’s movement toward, in, and among us! Said another way, when rightly considered, the “missional conversation” leaves no aspect of the the life and ministry of the church untouched.
In the workshop below, J.R. Briggs (pastor/elder at The Renew Community) and Sarah Case and Bob Hyatt (pastors/elders at The Evergreen Community) seek to explore the notion and practice of eldership from a missional perspective.
We can imagine this being an important resource for everyone from church planters who want to think through this issue for the sake of establishing healthy DNA early on to seasoned church leaders who are open to reconsidering what it might mean to practice eldership within a missional ecclesiological framework.
Workshop Description:
We’ve all heard it: “Everything rises or falls on leadership.” And while we might agree or disagree for various reasons with this statement, one thing we can say for sure is this: having an elder team that is united, Christ-focused and truly intent on hearing from God and responding appropriately makes all the difference in the world.
This session will be a practical, engaging discussion of eldership in the missional church facilitated by three practitioners speaking from their experiences—both positive and negative—with
leading teams of elders. Covering topics such as identifying, recruiting and training elders, decision-making in community and dealing with the difficult topics likely to be faced, this session will be perfect for those planting new churches or simply looking to make their elder team not only a more enjoyable experience for all involved but also a positive force for Kingdom expansion.
The audio download of this workshop is available HERE and is available for free all day today, 12/23/13 (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.
Unfortunately, because of the relational distance introduced by online communication, “thoughtful engagement” and “comment sections” seldom go hand in hand. At the same time, censorship of comments by those who disagree with points made by authors, whose anger or limited perspective taints their words, or who simply feel the need to express their own opinion on a topic without any meaningful engagement with the article or comment in question can mask an important window into the true state of Christian discourse. As such, Missio Alliance sets forth the following suggestions for those who wish to engage in conversation around our writing:
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