Advent invites us to live in between the two, with one hand holding on to the reality that Jesus has come and the other hand holding on to the promise that he will one day come again.
My friends, we need a new, more biblical vision of leadership. We need to replace the image of the visionary leader, head high, leading the charge for their followers with the image of a humble, dependent, connected servant. Someone who leads from in the midst.
Dave Farris is a rural pastor who has been led on a unique path in ministry. He leads a missional, micro church network in what many might consider an unlikely place: rural Virginia.
I’m not anti-vision or anti-strategy. There’s a place for both. But if we rely solely upon our apostolic imagination to carry us into the mission field, we will be impotent and ineffective.
The older I get and the longer I serve in ministry, the more convinced I am that while charisma can be a gift, it can also be both a liability and a limitation to those who seek to walk and lead in the way of Jesus.
How is it possible that one of the wealthiest and most competitive nations in the world, a nation that prides itself on international sporting success and one who has invested billions in bringing its soccer proficiency up to par over the past few decades, has struggled so mightily in the world’s most popular sport? And what, if anything, does this have to do with the church?
Almost every ministry leader we speak with longs to do more than simply grow their ministry bigger. Yet far more often than not as we dig into the nuts and bolts of how the ministry operates in the day-to-day, we discover that many leaders are unintentionally blocking multiplication.
As much as I believe in missional church, I’m tired of vilifying and scoffing and rolling my eyes at people who don’t.
96% of adults keep their cell phone within arm's reach every single day.
So why aren't we leveraging that to reach people with the gospel?