We at Mission Alive hope you are enjoying the coming Spring.  We are excited to share some good news with you.  Keep reading!

A Pivotal Moment

It is with great excitement that we announce that four new church plants have received funding from Mission Alive's Harvest Fund.  Church plants receiving funds are located in: 

• Escondido, CA - Melvin and Cathy Thomas began their church planting ministry in San Diego county California in the latter half of 2009 after more than 20 years of full time ministry.  They are partnered with the Ranchland Christian Church in Escondido, CA and have gathered around them a number of Christians who will work with them to establish small groups throughout northern San Diego county.

• Mesquite, TX - Wesley and Virginia Esquivel have lived in Mesquite for over five years where Wesley has been on staff with a local church.  In that time, God has put on Wesley and Virginia's hearts the need for a church in this east Dallas suburb that could be responsive to the multi-ethnicity prevalent in their area.  The Esquivels are partnering with the Richland Hills Church of Christ and have gathered around them two other couples as their team.

• Nashville, TN - Rob and Judy McRay have been in full time ministry in Wisconsin, Texas and Tennessee for the past 25 years.  Most recently Rob has preached for the Donelson Church of Christ in Nashville.  While preaching there God has been working on Rob and Judy's hearts to call them to start a church in the heart of the city.  They are partnering with Mission Alive and Stadia, a church planting organization associated with the Independent Christian Churches along with Churches of Christ and Christian Churches to start new churches in several inner city neighborhoods.

• New Orleans, LA - Fred and Carol Every moved to New Orleans in early January 2010.  Fred grew up there and anticipates how God will use them in his home city.  The Everys have been involved in a number of ministries over the years.  They are partnered with the Richland Hills Church of Christ and the White's Ferry Road Church of Christ, both of which were heavily involved in disaster relief work after hurricane Katrina.  Since arriving at the beginning of the year they have been reconnecting with family and friends as well as making new contacts in their immediate neighborhood.

Chris Chappotin is a missional equipper within the Christ Journey community in Burleson, Texas. He shares with us his thoughts on I Once was Lost by Don Everts and Doug Schaupp.

I Once was Lost investigates and proposes a threshold-oriented perspective of faith development among postmodern skeptics. The book is significant, because of the five thresholds it presents as the authors seek to reorient our viewpoints concerning the faith journeys of postmoderns. In this review, I will overview the five thresholds proposal, and suggest ways it might be helpful for North American church planters.

After wrestling with mysterious and organic descriptions of postmodern faith development, the authors dive into their five thresholds proposal. The first threshold involves a movement from distrust to trust. Poignantly, the authors reveal the challenging context for today’s church, “In another day and age, God, religion, and church enjoyed the general respect of the culture. Not today. Religion is suspect, church is weird, and Christians are hypocrites. Distrust has become the norm. People are tired of the ‘sales tactics’ often employed by Christians and are offended by our bait-and-switch attempts at introducing them to Jesus. In the past, the occupation of evangelist was viewed as a respectable profession, even by secular society. Today, evangelist has fallen to the very bottom of the pit, among the most distrusted occupations.” (31) Furthermore, in an interesting twist to conventional evangelical thinking, the authors muse, “When trust has not yet been established, lostness feels like wise skepticism and right thinking. If Christians are fanatical and narrow-minded, keeping one’s distance seems like the smartest posture to take toward us...Until this framework of distrust is shifted, growth is nearly impossible.” (32) However, with encouragement, Everett and Schaupp suggest, “We need to learn to be unfazed by distrust. We are in an age of distrust, so instead of being surprised and reactionary when our coworkers or neighbors don’t trust us, we need to learn how to respond kindly and quickly begin the normal, basic and foundational investment of trust-building.” (37) How are you seeing and experiencing the climate of distrust referred to in I Once was Lost? In what ways are you seeking to build trust with a non-Christian friend?

In I Once was Lost, the second threshold of postmodern faith development involves moving from complacency to curiosity. The authors describe such a shift in the following manner: “To go from being complacent about spiritual things to being intrigued is a natural process. Our souls and our minds are built by God to be curious, to ask questions until we have landed upon satisfying answers. So this move from complacent to curious isn’t easy, but it taps into a desire and need that is wired into all people.” (51-52) Everett and Schaupp summarize this movement in three distinct stages: 1) Awareness: “Awareness of more options, more paths in life, is often the first baby step out of complacency. As people hear about Jesus, their old answers and old pictures of God slowly become antiquated and inadequate,” 2) Engagement: “Engaging with a real Christian, becoming friends with a Christian and taking time to read through the life of Jesus were concrete actions that caused [the author’s friend’s] curiosity to grow stronger over time,” and 3) Exchange: “This is an intense form of curiosity that means being so curious that you want to exchange ideas, ask questions and offer your own opinions.” (52-53) After describing the movement from complacency to curiosity, the authors provide three ideas for provoking curiosity among non-Christian friends: 1) encourage questions, 2) use parables, and 3) live curiously. (54-58) What responses have you received from your non-Christian friends when you have encouraged questions, shared stories, or lived in curious ways? How are you living curiously? What additional suggestions for provoking curiosity would you make?

The third threshold presented in I Once was Lost involves an openness to change. At this point in their journey, the postmodern skeptic seriously considers the changes necessary to embrace life with Christ. Everett and Schaupp state, “Out of all five thresholds, becoming genuinely open to change is often the most difficult to overcome. Change is beautiful and horrific, after all. (Even for postmodern folks who proudly wave a banner of ‘openness,’ being open to real change is a tough thing.)” (69) At this point, the call to followers of Jesus includes: patience, enduring prayer, and a reminder of the mysterious and organic frameworks of postmodern journeys toward faith. The authors reiterate, “In the end it is only God’s Spirit that is able to overcome the human hesitancy, fear of pain and spiritual enemies that are against someone at threshold three. But when God does this, when he uses our patience and our prayers and our faithfulness to bring someone to a place of being open to change, it is a wonder.” (82) Are you sharing a journey of faith development with someone who has recently crossed into this threshold? Describe your shared journey at this point.

After an openness to change takes shape, Everett and Schaupp propose that postmoderns truly become seekers. They describe the journey across this threshold in the following vignette: “Those who have recently traveled the path to faith tell us that after trusting a Christian, becoming curious about Jesus and finally being open to change in their life, they still weren’t necessarily wanting to come to conclusions. For each of them there was another shift, a fourth threshold, to come: they needed to lean into the journey they were on and decide to purposefully seek final answers, a resolution. They needed to become seekers.” (85-86) Building upon this description, the authors suggest three major trends among seekers: 1) Seekers seek Jesus, not just God, 2) Seekers count the costs, and 3) Seekers spend time with Christians. (87) However, once someone shifts from an openness to change to a full quest after Christ, how are we to help? Everett and Schaupp share “three tangible ways [we] could starting living the kingdom in front of a friend who may need help becoming a seeker rather than a meanderer: 1) Show them how to build their lives on Jesus’ words, 2) Open up your prayer life to them, and 3) Provide satisfying answers to their initial questions.” (89-90) The authors conclude their description of this threshold by saying, “If the Spirit of God works in the concrete circumstances of someone’s life and in the profound depths of their soul, they can cross threshold four: moving from meandering toward Jesus to seeking some final conclusions. And once someone is seeking, only God knows where it might lead.” (101) What would you challenge about this threshold? What “tangible ways [of] living the kingdom in front of a friend” would you add?

Finally, Everett and Schaupp share a strong call to their postmodern friends to enter the Kingdom of God, and this marks the final threshold in their proposal. Initially, the authors remark, “While a truly open-ended, pressure-free process is most needed around thresholds two and three, it isn’t as helpful here at threshold five. Letting people just slide casually and vaguely across the line sounds very postmodern-sensitive, but with such a laissez-faire approach we keep people from knowing there is even a line to cross. And we don’t help them move from being lost to being redeemed.” (107) Then, after building a case for such urgency in Luke 15, the authors challenge, “Our friends stuck at threshold five need a concise summary of what Jesus and his kingdom are all about. They deserve to know, in a nutshell, what Jesus calls people to and what it means to become one of his.” (111) How would you challenge this urgent approach? How are you calling people into the Kingdom of God? I Once was Lost seems weak on involving not-yet and new followers of Jesus in mission, and promotes an event-driven, programmatic evangelistic methodology. For the sake of time and space, I have chosen to leave out in-depth critiques of these two characteristics of the book. However, as we continue prayerfully engaging and living life with non-Christians, Christ Journey participants have found the five threshold framework significant in helping start relationships, discern relationships, and invite friends into the Kingdom. Although the ideas in the book do not originate from missional contexts, the work can provide benefit to anyone seeking to rub shoulders with those who will one day proclaim: “I once was lost.”

Everts, Don & Doug Schaupp. I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taught Us About Their Path to Jesus. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Press, 2008. 

Mission Alive Update

We hope your New Year if off to a great start. Mission Alive has had a busy January.

Strategy Lab

The second week of January gathered church planters and church leaders in Irving, Texas for one of Mission Alive's two annual Strategy Labs. We had participants from 3 different countries and 5 different states or provinces. We had a wonderful blend of church planters and leaders from existing churches which brought a great creative synergy to the lab.

An Important Role for Church Planters

Among the most exciting developments in the Mission Alive Strategy Lab is the inclusion of more Mission Alive church planters. As more churches are planted and mature and as more unchurched and searching people are brought to Christ, Mission Alive church planters are increasingly becoming our presenters. They are the ones (not to overstate it) who, like the apostle Paul, are meeting people for whom Christianity is a foreign idea. They are the ones who have to think deeply about how to communicate the biblical and historical core of our faith in ways contemporary society can understand. Their daily experiences and developing knowledge are helping to keep Mission Alive's Strategy Lab fresh and immediately applicable.

In this lab Hobby Chapin joined us for the week. Hobby and his wife Jeri are leading a church planting in Brighton, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. Hobby made several presentation throughout the week. In addition to his presentations, Hobby provided valuable insight during other presentations.

Ryan Porche and Charles Kiser joined us for a couple of days during the lab. Ryan, Charles and their wives are leading the church planting in Uptown Dallas. They shared insights about missional equipping, developing incarnational connections with others and missional worship. Also joining us was Heidi Chappotin. Heidi and her husband Chris lead the Christ Journey church plant in Burleson, Texas. Heidi and Becky Van Rheenen shared wonderful insights about how missional ministry is a holistic effort of the family. We are so proud of the church planters God has brought to Mission Alive and the work they are doing.

ReVision

In 2009 Mission Alive realized how limiting it is to focus on church planting without working with existing churches to revision their own role in their community. Resulting from this realization, Mission Alive launched our ReVision ministry; a branch of Mission Alive dedicated to working with existing churches that have a vision to be more missionally responsive to their community, to embody Christ more fully and to better communicate the timeless gospel in forms our contemporary society can hear.

We have been so pleased as the number of church leaders interested in ReVision has grown throughout the past year. In 2009 we had church leaders (preachers, ministers, elders, etc) from eight congregations participate in our Theology and Strategy Labs. Most recently, leaders from the Northwest church in Regina, SK, Canada; Georgetown, TX; Bossier City, LA; and Sonora, Mexico joined us for our Strategy Lab. Their participation was invaluable. They finished the lab with well though-out ideas about how their congregations could embody God's Mission in their community. It is very exciting to see God transforming existing congregations as well as starting new ones.

Anticipation

We anticipate walking with these church planters and church leaders as at least 3 new church plants and 2 new ReVision projects get started this year. In addition to these initiatives, God has presented Mission Alive with several other church planting and ReVision opportunities and we don't know yet what additional possibilities God will reveal during the year. Please pray for Mission Alive as we try to keep up with all the opportunities God is presenting. Also, please pray about investing in Kingdom growth by becoming a monthly contributor. Celebrate with us all what God is doing and will do through Mission Alive in 2010!

Sincerely,

Tod Vogt
Mission Alive 

We hope 2010 will be a great year in the Lord for you. God is working in remarkable ways in Mission Alive. Join us as we celebrate what God is up to through the ministry of Mission Alive.

New Beginnings in New Orleans
Fred and Carol Every

After 25 years in Dallas, Fred and Carol Every are moving back to Louisiana to Fred's home area in New Orleans called Marrero. They are supported by the Richland Hills church in Fort Worth and the White's Ferry Road church in West Monroe, Louisiana. Fred and Carol met at Louisiana State University as students, were married at the WFR church, and attended Southwestern Christian College in Terrell, Texas. They have been involved in various forms of ministry all their adult lives. In October 2008, through a networking of relationships, God called them to return to New Orleans to start a church planting movement.

This effort was started three years ago through FreshWater, a combined effort of Mission Alive, Kingdom Builders, and the Richland Hills, White's Ferry Road, and Carrollton Avenue Churches, whom God was calling to participate in the rebuilding of New Orleans through church planting.

We are excited about what God will do through the ministry of Fred and Carol. Please pray for them, in particular their 17-year-old son who is changing schools in the middle of the school year.

New Beginnings in Nashville
Rob and Judy McRay

Rob and Judy McRay are moving from preaching to missionary ministry. Rob has been the preaching minister of the North Town church in Milwaukee, the Bering Drive church in Houston, and until recently the Donelson church in Nashville. They are being supported by both local Churches of Christ and Christian churches in partnership with both Stadia East and MIssion Alive. After many successful years of ministry in established churches, Rob and Judy have a strong calling from God to minister to unbelievers in the central city of Nashville. They imagine God bringing together both the advantaged and disadvantaged into a community of the Kingdom.

New Beginnings in Mesquite
Wesley and Virginia Esquivel

Wesley and Virginia Esquivel were raised in the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas. Wesley, a third-generation minister, is a graduate from the Center for Christian Education, Dallas Christian College, and is currently enrolled in graduate studies at Harding University. He has served for the past five years in various ministry capacities in the Meadow View Church of Christ in Mesquite, Texas. The Richland Hills church in Forth Worth will partner with them in their new ministry. Their vision is to initiate multiple church plantings that reflect the cultural diversity of the Mesquite community. Wesley is deeply committed to equipping a new generation of Christian leaders.

New Beginnings in Chicago
Nate and Jessica Turner

Nathan and Jessica Turner, after finishing graduate degrees at Oklahoma Christian, spent two years teaching English in China, and while there, modeled the way of God in Jesus Christ. They have a passion for Chicago, where they are serving as Church Planters in Residence with Mark Willis and other co-workers. They are in a learning-training period. Nathan is enrolled in graduate ministry study at Abilene Christian and Jessica is also doing graduate studies in English Literature as well as teaching English as a second language to new immigrants.

The Outcome

The ultimate result of these new beginnings is that many searchers will become new followers of Jesus Christ and be reborn into the Kingdom of God. They will enter the "new heaven" and the "new earth" where Jesus is seated on the throne, saying, "I am making all things new!" (Rev 22:5), where "there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away" (Rev 22:4).

A Final Word

We are disappointed that it has become necessary to postpone the Genesis conference because of low registration. We felt the nature of the conference and resource people invited would lead the conference to fill up quickly but that has not been the case. We inadvertently scheduled the Genesis Conference between two other major events -- the Verge Conference in February and the Exponential: National New Church Conference in April. Verge is sponsored by the Austin Stone Community Church and several mission organizations and churches with a desire for missional renewal and, therefore, was able to have a similar conference with a lower registration fee than Mission Alive. Hugh Halter and Alan Hirsch will also be at this conference. We suggest that you consider Verge in lieu of Genesis. Becky and I would love to meet you there if you are able to attend.

Gailyn Van Rheenen
Facilitator of Church Planting

Mission Alive has been richly blessed during 2009.   We have experienced the planting of six new churches, including the first sent from a Mission Alive plant.  A total of 17 families have come through Discovery Labs.  Some of these are church planting in Houston, apprenticing in Chicago, and preparing to church plant in New Orleans, Nashville, and DFW.  We rejoice to see church planters mature, leaders within churches come to maturity, and churches learn to connect with people where they live and work.   

In this report I will share some of these highlights. 

Theology Lab

Last week we concluded a Theology Lab graciously hosted by the High Pointe church in McKinney.  Six church planting families/individuals and leaders from four churches attended.  As always, I was touched by the transformative power of Scripture to both spiritually nurture our lives and practically shape the identities of the churches we plant and renew.  Some high points include Randy Harris’ description of “a theology of fellowship” and the ensuring discussion, Jarrod Robinson’s overview of God’s kingdom from creation to consummation, Tod’s Vogt’s theology of equipping, and the narrative threads interwoven through the biblical testimony (like kingdom and incarnation) that give living expression to the nature of God and his mission. 

Theology is like the rudder of a ship giving direction to the practice of missional church planting and renewal.  Without the rudder of theology, we will likely be guided by human impulses that are shaped by culture.  Participants learned more fully what it means to move from Theology to Practice to Structure in church planting and church renewal.  Our next Theology Lab will be April 7-11, 2010. 

ReVISION

Some participants in the Theology Lab were church leaders participating in the reVISION ministry.  Minister Kirk Hinnergardt and long-term missionary Blair Roberts represented the Northwest Church in Regina, Saskatchewan.  They came to the Theology Lab (and will come to the Strategy Lab in January, 2010) to equip themselves to take the understandings of the labs back to their congregation.  Mission Alive will then work with these leaders as they pray, think, and plan for leading their churches into God’s mission within their communities.   

We have learned that many churches undergoing missional renewal are also led to plant missional churches.   

Church Planter Forums

Each month most Mission Alive church planters meet in face-to-face forums or in tele-forums for discussions about church planting.  On Tuesday Tod Vogt and I were with seven church planters and a Mission Alive intern first at a coffee house and then over lunch at an area restaurant.  During the Planter Forum, incoming Mission Alive church planters Micah Lewis and Wesley Esquivel described what had learned during the recent Theology Lab.  Then Fred Every, another planter-in-training going in January to New Orleans under the oversight of the Richland Hills church, asked the more experienced church planters, “What do I need to do during the first month on the field?  What questions do I need to ask during the first six months?”  The question “Where do we place our emphasis and energy?” became the topic of discussion.  These forums illustrate how Mission Alive is a network of collaborative learners.

The Place of Grace

Last week Sixto Rivera of Genesis Alliance, Ron Carlson of the Duncanville Church of Christ, and I participated in a Partnering Team meeting with church planter Juan Carlos Bautista.  A Partnering Team is composed of the planter, his coach and spiritual director, and member(s) from the partnering churches.  The team gives encouragement, guidance, and oversight to the new church planting during its first three years. 

It was a joy to hear of Juan Carlos’ growth in the Lord and his developing understanding of ministry.  Since January, the Bautistas have adapted to their new home in Grand Prairie, TX, have begun six house churches, and last week launched their Sunday gathering with 65 people.  Juan Carlos testifies that in the past he would have been the evangelist with others helping him.  Now he is equipping leaders to be God’s messengers in their own small groups.  He is learning to train others and delegate responsibility.  They call their church Iglesia de Cristo -  El Lugar de la Gracia (“The Place of Grace”).

God is blessing many new church plantings. 

Churches Planting Churches

We praise God that our church plantings are beginning to birth other church plantings.  Higher Point Christ Fellowship (www.higherpoint.org), a three-year old church in Denver, prayerfully sent out Hobby and Jeri Chapin and their team to plant another missional movement called Clay Neighborhood (www.missionalive.org/pages/clay-neighborhood).  Churches cultivate community and then release their emerging leaders to cultivate other communities.

Genesis:  ReCreating Missional Life

Just a short reminder about the Genesis conference.  Mission Alive is organizing a community dialogue about missional living.  The conference, called Genesis: ReCreating Missional Life, will be held March 18-20, 2010, at the Richland Hills Church of Christ. The plenary speakers are Alan Hirsch of Forge and author of The Forgotten Ways, Hugh Halter of Missio and co-author of The Tangible Kingdom and The Tangible Kingdom Primer, Randy Harris of Abilene Christian University and author of GodWork, and George Hunsberger of the Gospel and Our Culture Network and author of Bearing the Witness of the Spirit.  Register at www.thegenesisconference.org. 

We ask for your prayers for . . . .

• Church planter Rigoberto Arguera in Houston, who is undergoing chemo-therapy for Lymphoma and also needs to have his gallbladder removed between chemo-therapy treatments.
• Partners who will invest in God's kingdom through the work of Mission Alive. 

As a ministry to our church planters and those of you who have a heart for church planting and missional living, Mission Alive will be featuring a book each month, reviewed by one of our church planters. Our goal is to eventually have a reading list for church planting/missional living/spiritual formation here for your easy reference.

Hobby Chapin is a church planter in Denver, CO at Clay Neighborhood. He shares with us his take on The Tangible Kingdom, by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay.

Hugh Halter and Matt Smay are practitioners in missional-incarnational church planting. The Tangible Kingdom is a platform for Hugh and Matt to share their stories in church planting and to extract the missional-incarnational principles from their experience.

The authors speak from the heart in addressing the tension that is present for those transitioning from traditional church paradigms toward missional-incarnational ones. Their goal is to show that the Kingdom becomes real in people’s lives when they have the right elements interacting. These elements are communion, mission, and community.

• Missional-Incarnational communities must have a deep sense of communion with God. Both on an individual and a communal level, there must be disciplines that are aimed at spiritual formation and “being” in God’s presence. 
• Missional-Incarnational communities must have a deep sense of participation within God’s mission. The term “missional” indicates being sent; the term “incarnational” indicates how we are sent out into the world to live among people for the purpose of engagement. Therefore, there must be disciplines of engagement with the world.
• Missional-Incarnational communities must have a deep sense of life together—that is, community. These communities practice disciplines of togetherness as they live out a shared story in God’s life. God’s calling and sending draws them together and forms deep bonds.

Without these three elements, Christian community remains deficient and the Kingdom of God distant. The transition toward practicing missional-incarnational principles can be messy and confusing. Hugh and Matt are pioneers plowing ahead and coaching others along the journey. For those who have read many books on missional theology or missional church planting, The Tangible Kingdom provides many similar bits of information and insights. What separates The Tangible Kingdom from many others is the candid story-telling of the authors and their insight as practitioners. For those of you who have taken the plunge into this journey of practice, there will be many relatable moments with sharpening nuance.

One of the greatest strengths of this book is that it will pose a challenge that will confront tendencies to sit and talk about these principles or to abandon them along the journey for “what works.” Missional-Incarnational practitioners are defined by their “being” in the presence of God and their willingness to “do” as God sends them to participate with Him in the world. That takes leaders out into the world rubbing shoulder to shoulder with those sojourners who are willing to journey with them. This requires consistency and intentionality. I appreciate Hugh and Matt for their candid leadership and for their sharp challenge to get on and stay the course.

Halter, Hugh and Matt Smay. The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community; The Posture and Practices of Ancient Church Now. Jossey-Bass: San Francisco, 2008.

On August 6-8, the staff of Mission Alive along with several families from our network of church planters traveled to the Prothro Retreat Center on Lake Texoma for our annual Church Planters Retreat. As always, it was good to renew friendships, as well as build and strengthen new relationships.

Our theme for the weekend was Conversations: In Community, For Community. The intent was for this to be a weekend of rest and renewal for everyone involved.

The scenery that greeted us from the lovely shore of Lake Texoma certainly assisted in our goal of relaxation. It was absolutely beautiful, and many of our church planters enjoyed alone time with God while listening to the waves lap the shore and watching birds soar on the wind. There is nothing like time spent with our Lord in the midst of His glorious creation.

Our scripture for the weekend was John 20:19-22. "On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you!' After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, 'Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.' And with that he breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" While this scripture is certainly beautiful and powerful on its own, Tod and Gailyn led us in gleaning even more from the words of Christ as we meditated deeply and intentionally in this passage several times.

Grounded in these words of Christ we invited and recieved peace, mourned and healed from past wounds, celebrated recent joys, contemplated our calling, and basked in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It was amazing how four little verses could evoke such tears and laughter and peace and frustration and confidence. And to share it all in community -- well, certainly this is part of what Christ intended for his bride, the church.

Then in typical Mission Alive fashion, we ended our time together with prayer and annointing.

But I can't end without mentioning our kids. There were eight of them there with us, and they provided so much joy and laughter and innocence during the weekend. They helped us remember that we too should play, and were wonderful reminders that "the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." (Luke 18:16)

We are so thankful for opportunities such as these, and we already look forward to next year!

Charles Kiser, Mission Alive church planter of the Storyline church in Uptown Dallas, provides an incisive description of the strengths and limitations of a seminar hosted by Mission Resource Network on Church Planting Movements.  Respond to this article on Charles' blog at http://inthestoryline.com.  

1. Group process over individual process
2. Prayer
3. Scripture, by way of an inductive Bible study process called "Discovery Bible Study"
4. Households, or existing social units, rather than individuals
5. Making disciples of Jesus not converts to a religion
6. Obedience to commands of Jesus rather than doctrinal distinctives
7. Access ministry - i.e., developing relationships with non-believers
8. Ministry - meeting people's needs leads to evangelism
9. Timing - knowing when people are ready
10. Intentionality and planning
11. Person of peace - i.e., a receptive, influential person who is the gateway for a social unit coming to Christ
12. Appropriate evangelism - i.e., communicating the good news in ways that make sense to people in their particular cultural context
13. Starting churches, Watson's definition of which is: "groups of baptized believers in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that gather to worship, fellowship and nurture one another, and, outside of gatherings, endeavor to obey all the commands of Christ in order to transform families and communities."
14. Reproduction at every level - disciples, leaders, and churches
15. Indigenous leaders - i.e., cultural insiders are the best church planters
16. The work of the Holy Spirit and the authority of Scripture
17. Persecution
18. Mentoring, which is the work of developing the whole person  
19. Self-support - in almost every case there are no paid ministers, no buildings to maintain
20. Redeeming the culture
21. Awareness of spiritual warfare

• Prayer: David Watson mentioned that the common denominator among their most fruitful church planters was prayer. Some of them spend 3-4 concentrated hours/day in prayer. Remember, all of them have jobs outside of church planting and they still make time for this kind of prayer. I am not praying enough. I will, therefore, make a plan to pray more. And then pray more.
• Church planting as lifestyle: Watson says it's not a job; it's a lifestyle. People must be around you enough to see consistency between your private and public life. I find it easy to compartmentalize my role as a church planter, rather than to see it an extension of my lifestyle. Yet none of this is to say boundaries with family and solitude are not important - they are part of the lifestyle, too. I will, therefore, invite my friends into all parts of my life.  
• People of peace: I've been tuned into the concept of people of peace but have not pursued it with the fervor that Watson and company have. I have yet to see a person of peace open a door in our context for an entire social group to encounter God. Watson had fantastic ideas about developing "peace statements" to ignite conversations with potential people of peace. I will, therefore, commit to pray, look for and draw out such people of peace God might be raising up in our midst.
• Obedience-oriented conversation about Scripture: This was a point of affirmation for me. The heart of Watson's endeavor seems to be inductive study of Scripture that ends at discerning how one will be obedient to the word they are hearing from God. In other conversations I've mentioned how we value the movement from observation to interpretation to application in our Scripture conversations. I will, therefore, continue to facilitate these kinds of conversations and make the moves toward obedience even more explicit.
• Reproduction: Reproduction is a value of ours, but Watson pushed this value to the max, particularly with his comments about the nature of mentoring. His four step process for mentoring is: 1) model; 2) equip; 3) watch; 4) leave. Watson contends that this process can take as little as 3-4 months in a new church setting. Mentors model only once or twice before allowing others to take over. I will, therefore, model more briefly, equip and watch more quickly, and leave as soon as possible.

• View of Scripture: I was uncomfortable with Watson's view of Scripture. He had an extended conversation about distinguishing between what is biblical and what is cultural without ever admitting that Scripture is itself a culturally conditioned document. Another session concerned separating "doctrine" from what the Bible teaches, yet Watson failed to mention the degree to which every individual brings lenses to the reading of Scripture (whether they like it or not) and necessarily picks and chooses what they should obey or not. For instance, are we disobedient to God for not having a ritual of washing feet (e.g., John 13)? It takes an interpretive approach to Scripture (i.e., a hermeneutic) to make such decisions. I would rather be aware of my lenses than unaware. Watson seems to think that everyone who reads the Scriptures will arrive at the same conclusion/hermeneutic by the power of the Holy Spirit. This approach didn't seem to work in early church history (when the most notable heretics used the Bible to support their claims) or in Stone-Campbell history (when everyone read Scripture and came to decidedly different conclusions). Watson also seems to discount the role that church history/tradition/orthodoxy plays as a source of theology and knowledge of God.
• View of church: I was uncomfortable with Watson's view of the church only to the extent he expressed that churches in his network are closed to unbelievers. If unbelievers want to be part of a church, they should join a Bible study and start a new one. They are discouraged from participating with an existing one. This decision seems to discount the way the church is the embodiment of the gospel as a community (as with the Mennonite tradition). It also seems to reverse the current trend in our context of allowing people to belong before they're expected to believe. Watson seems adamant that people must believe before belonging to a church. Paul seems to assume in 1 Corinthians 14 that unbelievers participated in the life of the church and even encountered God as a result.
• View of teaching: Watson has a very low view of teaching, at least in the traditional sense. Churches that are dependent upon teachers with rich education and knowledge are not likely to reproduce rapidly or perhaps even at all. Watson also critiques the traditional paradigm of teaching because it often has little to do with obedience to God and life change. I'm with him all the way on this. Yet the teaching role is very apparent in Scripture, both in contexts with non-believers and believers. Paul mentions in Colossians 1:7-8, for instance, how the Colossian church was taught the gospel by Epaphras (not led through an inductive Bible study). Rather than reframe the role of teaching in a more dialogical, conversational light (as I think is consistent with Jesus' teaching in Scripture), Watson stretches the Scriptures to argue that teaching is reserved for believers / church in Scripture, not unbelievers. It seems better (and more biblical) to think of ways the teaching role could be made more obedience and reproduction-oriented rather than discount it totally for unbelievers.
• People of peace: I think the people of peace concept is a brilliant missionary concept but have wondered if it is a culturally-specific method rather than a universal principle. My own context leads me to think this way: urban Dallas, where social groups are fragmented and disconnected. There is no overarching, preexisting sense of community here. There are no extended family units. The dominant demographic is single professional. I asked Watson about this and he suggested looking for affinity groups that exist in the community (e.g. a fitness gym). Yet existing social groups I've been part of in our context (e.g., sports teams, civic groups) do not seem cohesive enough for a person of peace to open a door for an entire group to encounter God and the gospel. Perhaps we should hold alongside the person of peace approach a geographical approach, common in missional church plantings, that treats a neighborhood as a social unit. Maybe it's both/and and not either/or.
• Rapid reproduction as the end goal: The undercurrent I sensed from missionaries at the workshop was, "Our mission efforts are slow and frustrating. We should listen to this guy because his churches are reproducing rapidly and reaching a lot of people." In fact, when Watson was challenged by a workshop participant, he retorted by saying, "That's fine if you disagree with me, but we've planted 200,000 churches doing it this way." Granted, we should desire for people to connect to God, but growth as an end goal and justification seems misguided. Cancer grows and reproduces at a rapid rate, but that is not a good thing (as I've reflected on before). Rapid growth is not the end goal; the goal is rather faithful embodiment of the gospel. God is the one who grows the church, not a particular process. At times, Watson and company seem to stretch biblical texts concerning the church and missionary method (i.e., people of peace) to serve this end goal of rapid reproduction.

WHAT IS COACHING?
No whistles. No clipboards. No barking orders across a court or field. No Bobby Knight or Nick Saban. Coaching is a discipline of equipping. In the tradition of ancient rabbis, the desert abbas and ammas and even more contemporary forms of peer training groups, Christian coaches walk alongside rather than impose from a position of authority.

 

Mission Alive’s coach training equips church planters and church leaders alike to lead with a different perspective. Coaching reorients leadership from power to empowerment, from telling to listening and from organizational to spiritual. Coach training helps church leaders develop leadership orientation and skills to raise up others, walk alongside them and help them fulfill God’s calling in their life.

 

On March 18-21, five church planting families and eleven church leaders gathered at the Singing Oaks Church of Christ building for our bi-yearly Theology Lab. 
 
The Theology Lab is the fulcrum of Mission Alive, the place where our missional identity is shaped and formed.  Our goal is to incarnate churches in our cultures that reflect the purposes and mission of God as described in the narratives of scripture. 
 
The biblical story line presented in this lab becomes like the rudder of a ship guiding the stories and practices of church planters. During the first hours of the lab, the stories of the kingdom of God, missio dei, and incarnation-like the rudder-shape stories and practices of church planters and leaders. Randy Harris, who has the unique ability to help Christian leaders apply theology to practice, facilitates the second half of the lab. He begins with "humanity" and takes church leaders through the major tenets of the Christian faith, concluding with a theology of "church" and the nature of spiritual formation. These activities equip leaders to form a theology for both missional renewal and church planting. 
 
For the first time there were two tracks in the lab.  Church planting families were preparing themselves for missional church planting.  Leaders of existing churches were equipping themselves for missional renewal. 
 
As described in an earlier Mission Alive Update, church planting and church renewal are very similar in process.  Both apply biblical theologies to ministry, incarnationally connect with searchers and skeptics and guide them to "to open their eyes and turn . . . from darkness to light...," and focus on personal and communal spiritual formation.  (See www.missionalive.org/blog/2009/01/23/an-invitation-to-missional-equipping for fuller description of similarities.)
 
Church planter Melvin Thomas described how church planters have to learn entire new ways of thinking and being Christians when confronted by kingdom realities.  He says, "There is just no way to rush to this missional model and I am being providentially forced to wait and trust and grow.  I have stepped out of the boat but it is so hard not to notice the gale force winds blowing in my life. . . .   I don't know enough to go boldly where I have never gone before. However, there is desperation of wanting to please our King.  He has spoken to me about leading a revolution in righteousness . . . a rebellion of the righteous against spiritual mediocrity, and a resurrection-led insurrection."  These feelings of uncertainty are common when the Word of God begins to reform traditional patterns of entrenched modernity and mediocrity in our lives. 
 
Church leaders attended from the Duncanville Church of Christ in the Dallas area, Boerne Church of Christ in the San Antonio area, Lexington Church of Christ in South Carolina, and the Mill Creek Fellowship in Canton, Texas.
 
These church leaders are participating in a Mission Alive ministry called ReVision - Initiative for Missional Transformation."  The purposes of this ministry are to help existing churches ...

• re-imagine what God is doing in the world,
• nurture passion and develop pathways for congregational spiritual formation, and 
• equip God's people to embody the fullness of the mission of God in ministry to the world. 

In December 2007 leaders of the Connecticut Valley church in Windsor, CT, sponsored a retreat on missional renewal and church planting.  I was privileged to work with five churches during that conference.  Since that time we have been not only praying for this area but also working with Sam Garner of the Connecticut Valley church and Paul Leonard of the Ward Street church in Wallingford to seek church planting candidates who are conversant with the culture and churches who will faithfully partner in God's mission.  During the first conference a church leader said that even in this area of spiritual barrenness, there is spiritual hunger.  He said, "When we break through the sarcasm of the culture and connect with the heart, we hear their hunger. They miss God; they want God!"
 
I was honored to again work with churches in New England on March 13-16.  A meeting on Friday evening brought together a group of Christians, including a possible church planting family, for a time of discussion.  On Saturday, I taught two classes on "Grassroots Church Planting" at the New England Church Growth Conference.  This conference had an attendance of about 100 from twenty churches.  About thirty attended the Mission Alive luncheon for a time of dialogue and discussion.  I was privileged to preach at two area churches on Sunday and to discuss Next Steps with leaders from three churches on Monday morning.  I hope that these will become a partnering church network working for church planting in this area.
 
Missional church planting is very appropriate for unchurched areas of the country.   Missional church planting is less expensive, more in the trenches, and focused on unbelievers.  It focuses on moving from biblical theology to practice so that the kingdom of God sets our agenda, opening eyes to perceive God's rule so that the shackles of sin and Satan are broken (Acts 26:17-18), spiritually transforming searchers into the image as God as they look upon His glory (2 Cor. 3:18), and equipping God's people for works of service so that the body might be built up (Eph. 4:12).  
 
I praise God for the developing urgency and momentum toward church planting in this and other areas of the country.
 
Church planting begins with courageous, visionary, mission-focused leaders who connect with other leaders who have similar passions.  Together they discover resources that enable them to effectively represent God in his world.
 
Please pray with Mission Alive about the missional renewal and planting of churches in New England.
 
Gailyn Van Rheenen

The Storyline church was planted a year ago as a community of house churches in Uptown Dallas. Today the church is organized around three house churches, a monthly worship gathering, and multiple spiritual formation, service, and hospitality events.

Sunday, February 8, was both a celebration of what God is doing in the Storyline church (www.storylinecommunity.com) and a public introduction of Storyline to the community.

Church planter Charles Kiser described Storyline as a community of House Churches or "spiritual families." Monthly Worship Gatherings are like "large family reunions." The purpose of Storyline is to connect with the disconnected and to serve the city. Dependence on God, mission, life change, and genuine relationships are core values.

Charles and Julie Kiser entered Mission Alive in 2006 and apprenticed for a year at Christ Journey in Burleson and Sunrise Church of Christ in Grand Prairie. Spiritual formation minister Ryan Porche and his wife Claudia joined the Kisers in July 2007 and apprenticed as a worship minister at the Farmer's Branch church in Dallas. They are supported by the South MacArthur and Richland Hills Churches of Christ.

I was drawn closer to God with the singing of "You are God Alone" and "God of the City" and a powerful sermon connecting Jesus as the resurrection and the life in John 11 with the spiritual resurrection of Sergio, a new follower of Jesus at Storyline.

Please read more about this Worship Gathering at Storyline at www.inthestoryline.com.

Gailyn Van Rheenen
Facilitator of Church Planting
Mission Alive
www.missionalive.org

Tomorrow we begin a small Strategy Lab for two Latino church planting families at the Highland Oaks church in Dallas. As I make preparations for my portions of this lab, I reflect back over our journey of equipping Latino church planters.

I first met Sixto Rivera in 2005.  We began to talk about his experiences of planting Latino churches in such places as McKinney and Garland, Texas, and the role of Mission Alive in equipping church planters through labs, coaching, spiritual direction, and mutual discernment through being part of a community of learning.  In September, 2005, Sixto went through our Discovery Lab and through the Theology and Strategy Labs in 2006.

Genesis Alliance (www.genalliance.org), under the oversight of the Highland Oaks church, was birthed out of these and other relationships.  We began to ask, "How do we psychologically assess, theologically form, and strategically equip Latino leaders as missionaries for North American church planting?"  I began to search the missions community for a qualified Latino psychologist who could work with us in assessment and developed the first Genesis Alliance/Mission Alive Discovery Lab.  Carlos Lopez, Carlos Acosta, and Albert Acosta also went through our English-language Discovery, Theology and Strategy Labs and began to work with Sixto in developing Spanish-speaking, Latino-led equipping labs.  Sixto is currently working with Tod Vogt, Mission Alive's Director of Planter Equipping, to complete CoachNet training as a certified coach.  We have begun the journey of developing missional understandings for Latino church planting.

We have been honored to work with a number of Latino church plantings.  We have worked closely with Sixto Rivera in the development of Genesis Alliance as well as in planting the Latino church at Highland Oaks (Dallas).  This congregation has a Sunday morning attendance of 140, with 170 meeting in eleven small groups.  Their goal is to double the number of small groups within a year.  Carlos and Glenda Lopez, supported by the High Pointe church in McKinney, have been equipped to plant the Latino church at Highland Oaks (Plano), a 50-member church with five small groups.  Jose and Estella Echeverria, trained by Genesis Alliance and Nexus, have planted Iglesia de Cristo El Camino, currently with a Sunday morning attendance of about 45 and 60-65 in small groups.

In January, 2009, Juan Carlos and Hortensia Bautista began church planting with us in Grand Prairie (in the mid-cities area of Dallas-Fort Worth).  Juan Carlos has planted five churches in Juarez, Mexico, and two in the United States.  Juan Carlos and Hortensia came through a Discovery Lab in February, 2008, and a Theology Lab in July, 2008.  Sixto is serving as their coach and I as their Spiritual Director (or spiritual mentor).  They join us tomorrow as participants in the Strategy Lab.  The Duncanville Church of Christ serves as their overseeing church.  Partnering churches and agencies include Highland Oaks Church of Christ, Golf Course Road Church of Christ, Garden Oaks Church of Christ, Central Pointe Church of Christ, Mountain View Church of Christ, Nexus Church Planting and Leader Care, and the Bell Trust.  The Strategy Lab brings together the coaching and influences of Genesis Alliance, Mission Alive, and Nexus, maximizing strengths for the sake of the Gospel.  Ron Carlson, Preaching Minister of the Duncanville Church of Christ, led in bringing together multiple resources for the planting of this church and casting vision for Latino church planting in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Frank and Deanna Saldivar came through a November Discovery Lab and are now being equipped to develop a church planting movement in South Texas in the Rio Grande Valley.  Frank is a passionate and effective minister and evangelist uniquely equipped to work with what has been called the most receptive group of Latino living in the U.S., the 64 percent who are 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-generation immigrants and who typically are bi-lingual and multi-cultural.  Currently Mission Alive is searching for a Partnering Church to work with this very talented family.  They will come through the March Theology Lab and the June Strategy Lab.

Mission Alive continues on its now three-year journey to develop pathways for equipping Latino church planters.  We praise God that we work within a developing community of Latino leaders to intentionally plant churches that plant churches that plant still other churches.

Gailyn

by Gailyn Van Rheenen

I am honored to serve God in two roles within the Christian community. I am a learner of the way of Jesus within the Riverside Church of Christ in Coppell, Texas. Riverside is a community seeking missional renewal to better reflect the kingdom and mission of God and to incarnationally connect with the community in which we live. I also facilitate Mission Alive, a ministry being used by God to work with churches to equip missional church planters. My experiences in these two roles have demonstrated the similarity and interconnectedness of missional renewal and church planting.

• move from theology to practice by applying biblical theologies of the kingdom and mission of God to ministry in a specific context.
• incarnationally connect with searchers and skeptics in their immediate community through service, hospitality, and telling the story of God’s salvation.
• focus on personal and communal spiritual formation, that is, looking to God’s glory and thereby “being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory.”
• preach good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, and release for the oppressed (Luke 4:18).
• guide searchers "to open their eyes and turn . . . from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me" (Acts 26:17-18).
• intentionally equip God’s people for works of service (Eph. 4:12).

In various ways and on different levels both ask questions like . . .

• How is God's eternal gospel lived out within ever-changing cultures?
• How is God, full of compassion and radiant in holiness, leading us to serve others within within our communities of faith and communities of service?

There is one significant difference: Missional church plantings are impossible to begin or maintain unless their practices incisively engage the culture, help searchers journey to Jesus, guide new Christians to spiritual maturity, and enable these maturing disciples to become Christian leaders. Existing churches, on the other hand, can theorize about missionality without incisively employing missional practices. 

The Theology Lab stimulates church leaders to think in missional categories and to intentionally move from theology to practice. Church leaders are guided to to think and interpret the Bible narratively. The narrative story of the Bible is likened to the rudder of a ship guiding our own stories and practices of church planting and renewal.  The story line illuminates the interrelated biblical themes of the kingdom of God, mission Dei (the mission of God), andincarnation and provides direction and focus for church renewal and planting.  Randy Harris, who has a unique ability to guide while allowing you freedom in applying theology to practice, facilitates the last half of the lab.  He begins with “humanity” and takes us through the major tenets of the Christian faith, concluding with a theology of “church” and the nature of spiritual formation.  The lab leads us to develop a theology of mission, formed by scripture, shaped by divine impulses, and placed in our hearts, which will guide us in the development of practices (or strategies) of ministry.

• Basic Beliefs:  What basic beliefs form the identity of the church?
• Beliefs Shaping Ministry: What missional practices are inferred from these basic beliefs?  How do these basic beliefs shape ministry?
• Understanding of “Church”:  Based upon these beliefs, describe the identity and focus of the church?
• Place in God's Story: Which biblical story best describes your identity and that of the church?
• Core Values: Based upon these theologies, what core values shape your identity?

The joy of this lab is that biblical theologies, rather than popular culture, begin to shape the identity of our ministries and churches. The result is . . .

• churches more fully reflecting the kingdom of God,
• churches focused on spiritually forming people to walk with God,
• churches living for the sake of the world,
• churches responding to the brokenness of their communities and walking with searchers as they journey to Jesus.

The next Theology Lab will be March 18-21, 2009, at the Singing Oaks Church of Christ, 101 Cardinal Drive, Denton, TX 76209.  The lab will begin at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 18, and conclude at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 21.   

The Strategy Lab guides church leaders to incarnate the basic beliefs and core values developed during the Theology Lab in concrete practices and contextual ministries. The lab is constructed around six primary ministry tasks of church renewal and planting

• Discovering and equipping a ministry team:  How do ministers and church planters discover and equip co-workers to partner in missional renewal and church planting? (A ministry team leading a church to missional renewal and a church planting team look very different. Missional renewal, however, seldom takes place within a local church without a recognized, accepted renewal team committed to the mission of God.   Roxburgh and Romanuk’s The Missional Leader: Equipping Your Church to Reach a Changing World will serve as one guideline for missional renewal.)
  
• Learning the culture: How do Christians discern the working of both God and Satan within human culture so that they understand impediments and readiness of people to hear and participant in kingdom activities?  Six cultural learning tools are provided.
• Missionally connecting with community:  How do people of God incarnationally live in a community reflecting the nature and mission of God? How do they discover "people of peace" (Luke 10:1-6), sponsors of good will who experience God's transformation and call other searchers to hear and learn God's Good News?
  
• Guiding searchers to come to the Lord: How do people of God help searchers journey to Jesus and become participants in the kingdom of God?
• Helping new believers grow up in their salvation (1 Peter 2:1-2): How do new Christians mature as disciples of Jesus so that they grow inwardly, outwardly, and upwardly?
• Equipping God’s people for works of ministry (Eph. 4:12): How are leaders trained to help others journey to Jesus, grow up in their salvation, and become leaders themselves? How are specific types of ministers (home fellowship leaders, children and youth ministers, and shepherds) nurtured and equipped?

Participants will use ideas gleaned from presentations to develop a practical process of ministry for their chosen context. These will be presented to the entire group on the last day.

The next Strategy Lab will be June 15-19, 2009. The lab begins at 8:30 a.m. on Monday, June 15, and concludes on Friday afternoon, June 19, at 4:00 p.m.  

The Theology and Strategy Labs must be taken in sequence to consciously reflect movement from theology to practice. Please contact Tod Vogt (tod@missionalive.org; 972-596-4263) or me (gailyn@missionalive.org; 972-939-4337) about participation in and cost of this missional equipping. We are also available to work with your churches both before and after the labs.

We invite leaders of existing churches who want to assist their churches in becoming externally-focused and missional, ministering for the sake of the world to attend Mission Alive’s Theology Lab and Strategy Lab.

God is faithful even when we are fearful. We left ACU and life in Abilene with no guaranteed salary. We felt that God had called us to equip church planters in North America who would engage searchers, help them come to Christ, grow to spiritual maturity, and become leaders. Would God provide? Since then we have experienced fourteen new church plantings and seen many come to Christ. God has provided in ways that we could not have imagined. New kingdom initiatives!  Transformative journeys! God’s faithfulness despite our doubtings! God, help our unbelief!

As the Mission Alive grew, we began to ask: “How can one family equip, sustain, and encourage so many maturing church planters?” Again God was faithful. He provided three co-workers to minister with us. Tod Vogt has been invaluable by becoming a certified coach and coach trainer and then equipping coaches to walk alongside all our church planters. Candace Vogt, a lawyer by training, supports our church planters by helping them discover God’s resources, develop children’s ministries, and understand legal issues. Dr. John Cooke works part-time to assess, counsel, and encourage church planters and guide them in team formation. God has brought together an exceptional team. Beyond all expectations! An increase in staff, however, has also brought an increase in financial need.

Mission Alive exists for the sake of Tawnya Sumpter. Tawnya has lived a life focused on “gratifying the cravings of [her] sinful nature” (Eph. 2:3). She was dead in sin! On October 5, she was baptized wearing the clothes that signified her old way of life. She testified, "These jeans have seen a lot of bars and danced on a lot of tables and I am just ready to be done with that life."  After her baptism those old clothes (and her old life) were thrown into a trash can and her new life in Christ began. Tawnya is one of fifteen this year who have moved from darkness to light in the VineLife church.

Mission Alive exists for the sake of Mike and JoEtta Deaton. Mike and JoEtta are church planting in the university context of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Mike is a respected professor of Statistics at the university and until recently an elder at the Waynesboro Church of Christ. Mike and JoEtta have a vision of campus churches throughout their area. Mission Alive has walked with them through their training and will continue to journey beside them with coaching, spiritual direction, and encouragement as they engage in this new kingdom initiative.

God’s faithfulness; our fearfulness. Once again we wonder if God will respond. How can Mission Alive survive in the current economic climate?   Do we downsize a growing ministry? Will God provide in spite of the economic downturn? A Swahili proverb says, “Haba na haba hujaza kibaba” (“A little here and a little there fills up the measure”). Would you help Mission Alive “fill our measure” with either a monthly commitment for 2009 or a one-time gift?  Your gifts to Mission Alive are tax-deductible. You can also donate on line at http://www.missionalive.org/pages/give-online.  Despite the hardships of the time, would you make a commitment to support Mission Alive?

Gailyn and Becky Van Rheenen
Facilitators of Church Planting
Mission Alive

Jesus, reading from the scroll of Isaiah, said, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed . . . .” (Luke 4:17-18).

These words carry special meaning to our church planters.  Almost all of our church plantings are working in one way or another among the poor.

Storyline Among the Poor

Charles and Julie Kiser and Ryan and Claudia Porche work with the Storyline Church in Uptown Dallas.  Young professionals are their major target audience in this area of changing demographics, but they also have the value of justice-befriending the poor; helping the helpless; caring for the earth.  This new community thus ministers to the homeless and the poor who also live in their area.  The dilemma arises when the homeless and poor begin to come to the same house churches as the young professionals.  No longer are the meetings neat, orderly, clean.  What approach should be used?  Should homogeneous house churches be formed for each respective group or should people who are seeking to know God come together in the same place at the same time?  The answer ideally seems obvious but the practical application difficult.  Charles, after consulting with many, heard the words of Larry James of Dallas Central Ministries.  Larry said, "Read the book of James and listen to what is said about the practical relationship between the rich and the poor within the community of God."

Bluegrass Among the Poor

Bryan and Robyn Barrett are church planting among the urban poor in Lexington, Kentucky.  Bryan says that their three-year old planting, Bluegrass Christian Community, is overtly missional and practices church as family.  They are missional "by taking the gospel to people in our area who are the most lonely, broken and lost."  Bryan serves as a volunteer chaplain at the Fayette County Detention Center; works with Lighthouse Ministry, which feeds about 100 homeless people each day and provides transitional housing for men trying to start life over with God; leads a Bible study each Friday morning at a Chick-Fil-A, where the mission-minded owner provides breakfast for everyone who comes.  Bluegrass has several new people in their church who have come from these outreaches into the community.
 
The poor, imprisoned, and outcast need a nurturing family rather than an institution.  Bryan says that Bluegrass was planted to be such a family.  The Bluegrass community is composed of four house churches working within a network.  They operate with flexibility and compassion, listening to the brokenhearted, touching the untouchable, and speaking a message of kingdom transformation.

The Crossing Among the Poor

The Crossing in San Antonio has planted a neighborhood church among the homeless in their city.  The church has been touched by Christ's teaching, "When you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you" (Luke 14:13-14).  The Crossing hosted a banquet at Bob and Patti Grigg's house for their homeless friends.  Patti commented, "THIS would be the place Jesus would choose to be." 
 
These servants have said, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor."

Old Clothes; New Clothes

The VineLife Church north of DFW has a custom of having believers wear old clothes that symbolize their old way of life as they are baptized and re-cloth themselves with new attire to represent the new way of life in Jesus Christ (Gal. 3:26). Before her baptism on October 5, Tawnya Sumpter testified that "these jeans have seen a lot of bars and danced on a lot of tables and I am just ready to be done with that life." After baptism she threw those old clothes (and her old life) in a trash can. On October 5, 2008, six were baptized into a new life and on October 19, two more, making a total of 15 so far this year

A video of the October 5 baptisms can be seen here:

Churches Planting Churches

The maturity of a movement is demonstrated when the first churches begin to plant other churches. Becky and I have witnessed this in Africa. Churches planted churches which in turn planted other churches, reaching into adjoining villages and cities so that a church planting movement of 350 churches was birthed. The same phenomenon is beginning to occur in North America.

A team is forming within Higher Point Christ Fellowship in Denver (www.higherpoint.org) to plant a networking of house churches in an adjacent area beginning in August, 2009. The team is led by Hobby and Jeri Chapin. Paxton and Kim Edwards moved from Memphis to Denver to participate in this church planting. Isaac Cortez, who was converted by Hobby, and his wife Lesley are also part of this developing team

Christ Journey in Burleson (www.christjourney.net) is planting nodes of house churches that come together in weekly worship gatherings for collaboration and encouragement. When the number of house churches reaches a critical number another worship gathering will be formed. It will be led by one of the church planters growing up within the church and equipped and coached by Mission Alive. Bret and Rachel Wells have just come to Christ Journey to participate in this church planting movement. Christ Journey is also in the process of developing a second worship gathering at J.J. Mocha's Coffeehouse in Old Town Burleson, where house church participants gather to worship as a community on Sunday mornings.

Churches spread like strawberry plants, sending out runners that develop new root systems as they produce fruit.

Coaching Lab

Coaches help our church planters become focused, faithful, and fruitful in ministry.

A church planter, for instance, was disoriented. There was too much to do! He felt compelled to participate in community activities, plan a block party with his wife, work with a couple of gifted families to launch new house churches, develop the church web site, work on the church budget for a meeting with his partnering church, and make plans for a core team meeting. How was he able to also be a good husband and father? His attention was fragmented. How would be able to get it all done?

It was also the morning for his bi-monthly phone conversation with his Mission Alive coach. The topic of the conversation, suggested by the church planter, was life and ministry priorities. By the end of their conversation the church planter had determined, with the help of focusing questions from his coach, what was priority, what he could delegate, and what could wait until later. The church planter felt relieved. Ministry no longer felt overwhelming.

Coaches walk alongside our church planters helping them determine next steps

On Oct. 10-11 Mission Alive held our first coaching lab. Tod Vogt, Director of Church Planter Equipping, facilitated the training of eighteen church leaders from as far away as Illinois, Colorado, and Washington. Those in the Mission Alive certification track are coaching church planters and church leaders as they are coached by Tod. Tod's training and expertise was evident in the lab. He is a member of the International Coach Federation and is certified as a coach and coach mentor by CoachNet International Ministries. The follow-up training lab will be held on May 1-2, 2009.

Another coach training cycle will begin in April 2009.

Come before Winter

The ministry of Come before Winter (www.comebeforewinter.org) is "to renew, equip, honor, and unite women in His service around the world." Hundreds of women around the world have been blessed by participating in a Come before Winter renewal. This month five Mission Alive church planting women, as well as Becky and Candace, experienced times of worship, teaching, learning, solitude, prayer and wonderful fellowship with other women in ministry during the first U.S. Come before Winter. All returned home renewed in spirit and refreshed for continued ministry.

Gailyn Van Rheenen
Facilitator of Church Planting
Mission Alive
www.missionalive.org