Be sure to mark your calendars for Sentralized 2013, which will be September 26th – 28th.

Michael Frost Sentralized Conference 2012: “Jesus The Exile” from Lance Ford on Vimeo.

From time to time someone pushing back on the missional movement idea will write a blog post or web article. Criticism comes in forms and directions. With the proliferation of “missional” over the last decade or so the word has certainly become watered down in some ways and too broad in others. I don’t stress about this much because I am just thankful that the church is getting her eyes and feet turned outward. Where I do get a bit concerned is when missional becomes just a label or paint color that leaders use because they don’t want to be seen as missing out on the latest thing that seems to be hot and happening.

If I could only say one thing to leaders who use missional as a fresh term for outreach and evangelism it would be this— Missional doesn’t visit the neighborhood. It moves into the neighborhood. Missional doesn’t evangelize. It does the hard work of an evangelist. Missional churches are not primarily churches that do lots of outreach events. Those activities may come, and they should. But what makes a missional church is that it is made up of people that are on mission in their individual lives and in their communal activity as a faith collective.

“Serving events can be great primers and training camps for developing and sharpening the missional heart, but these alone will fail to develop full-fledged missional movements in our fellowships. Churches that organize themselves in a missional orientation view mission as something that happens right here and right now through all members of the church all of the time. There is a huge difference in a church organizing itself around church services, sermons, and great worship events over and against a church that takes up its position and mandate as a missionary for its culture. This has nothing to do with church size—mega, medium-size, or a smaller church.”[i]

So, to be missional is way more than just applying the tag line “missional” to what you have always done. Missional is not a twist on outreach and evangelism. It is a twist (a major one) on doing life.

Jason & Candy Fields
Urban Farming and Neighborhood Mission
Jason and Candy pastor a missional community that is interdependently connected to five other missional communities who have relocated their homes into one of the most blighted zip codes in the country—in the urban core of Kansas City.  This group of believers is asking itself “how do we radically reorient our lives around the gospel?”  In this session we will discuss some practical ways to develop a presence based missional approach to transforming a neighborhood.  We will also share the current testimony of Gods Goodness over Lykins Neighborhood which is now experiencing a 21% decrease in crime over the last 2 years.

Jon Shirley
Worship and the Missional Ethos
A big idea of the missional movement is to awaken a dynamic of God’s personality in the western Church that Jesus loves to leave the ninety-nine to go after the one. It’s true that Jesus ministered in the Temple—but not only in the Temple. Some really interesting stuff happened outside the Temple. In this breakout, we will bravely ask what keeps worship leaders tethered to the Temple and from carrying music and prayer to places in our cities where darkness rules. We will re-imagine what role our musical and creative intuition play in the entire effort it will take to see the Kingdom of God manifested in our cities.

Matt Miller & Chris Moix
Planting The “And” Church
Leading a “come here church” with a “go there” mindset. During this breakout the staff of New City Church in Kansas City will share stories of practical examples of how they planted a church with a posture that is both missional-incarnational into the local community and “attractive” to those who do not know Christ.

To give you a taste of what will be offered, the following descriptions are for their breakout sessions. Go here for a complete list of conference topics.

Scot McKnight
Rethinking Kingdom and Church
Kingdom has become a code word for too many designs and desires — social justice, personal salvation, heaven after we die, utopia — and this workshop wants to take us back to the 1st Century, into Galilee, and hear Jesus all over again … as if for the first time … and reconstruct what a Jew would have understood when Jesus said, “The kingdom of God has drawn near.” Does the word “church” come to mind?

David Fitch
Missional Church Planting?
“Church Planting” has received a bad name. Long associated with colonialist decontextualized ways of extending denominational franchises, we propose that we reject “church planting” and think in terms of “political organizing for the Kingdom.” This session will put forth new ways of thinking about being sent into a neighborhood to participate in what God is doing. In the last days of Christendom, we propose structures, practices, and rhythms as ways of cultivating the Kingdom, the end result of which is a “fresh expression” of church.

The chief element to grasp about the missio Dei is that the mission is God’s. We are not called to bring our mission into a local context; instead we are called to partner with God in his mission. We often wrongly assume that the primary activity of God is in the church, rather than recognizing that God’s primary activity is in the world, and the church is God’s instrument sent into the world to participate in his redemptive mission.

This leads to the second important topic, which is the theme of “sending” in Scripture. The reason it is important to recognize such language in Scripture is not only because it speaks to the missionary nature of the Triune God, but it also connects – particularly in the New Testament – God’s mission to ours. This is never truer than in the Gospel of John.

The primary focus of the Fourth Gospel is the mission of Jesus:

He is the one who comes into the world, accomplishes his work and returns to the Father; he is the one who descended from heaven and ascends again; he is the Sent One, who, in complete dependence and perfect obedienGce to his sender, fulfills the purpose for which the Father sent him.[i]

The entire Gospel is about sending and being sent. The term “sent” and its derivatives appear almost sixty times in the Gospel of John.

But of special importance in John is the linking of the mission of Jesus with that of his followers as the “sent ones.” The disciples’ mission is essentially the same as the mission of the Son and the Spirit – to bring glory to God and to bring to the world forgiveness of sins and spiritual life. In Raymond Brown’s commentary on the Gospel of John he explains the continuity of mission in this way:

The special Johannine contribution to the theology of mission is the Father’s sending of the Son which serves both as the model . . . and the ground . . . for the Son’s sending of the disciples. Their mission is to continue the Son’s mission; and this requires that the Son must be present to them during this mission, just as the Father had to be present to the Son during His mission.[ii]

After his conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus sends his disciples to reap the harvest (4:38). In the high priestly prayer Jesus prayers to the Father for the protection of disciples as Jesus sends them into the world (17:18). And shortly before Jesus ascends to the Father he commissions the disciples to evangelize the world. “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (20:21).

Here John repeats once again three main aspects of mission he has been developing throughout the gospel: (1) The Father has sent Jesus into the world, (2) Jesus sends his disciples into the world, (3) the Holy Spirit is sent to enable disciples in their mission. By themselves the disciples are inadequate to fulfill the mission, yet by receiving the Spirit they receive authority and so also become God’s “agents, or sent ones.” Referring to this verse, John Stott remarked that the church’s mission finds precise articulation in the Fourth Gospel:

The crucial form in which the Great Commission has been handed down to us (though it is the most neglected because it is the most costly) is the Johannine. Jesus had anticipated it in his prayer in the upper room, which he said to the Father: “As thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). Now, probably in the same upper room but after his death and resurrection, he turned his prayer-statement into a commission and said: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (John 20:21). In both of these sentences Jesus did more than draw a vague parallel between his mission and ours. Deliberately and precisely he made his mission the model of ours, saying, “as the Father sent me, so I send you.” Therefore our understanding of the church’s mission must be deduced from our understanding of the Son’s.[iii]

How might the church’s mission be different if it were truly “deduced” from our understanding of Jesus’ mission?

[i] Andreas J. Kostenberger and Peter T. O’Brien, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Mission (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2001), 203.

[ii] Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel According to John, vol. 2 (New York: Doubleday, 1970), 1036.

[iii] John R.W. Stott, Christian Mission in the Modern World (Downers Grove, IL: InterVaristy, 1975), 23.

This post originally appear on The House Studio site.

• Receive a publishing offer on your book from IVP
• Have a Foreword written by Alan Hirsch
• Present a workshop at Sentralized 2013

For more information about the process and to download the application go to the Sentralized Conference website and click on “The Great Forge Write Off.”

Based on ideas and concepts from UnLeader: Rethinking Leadership…and Why We Must, my book to be released by Beacon Hill Press this September, I have worked up a few thoughts on the flaws in the leadership-centric culture that dominate the contemporary church. I am convinced that we will never see a genuine missional movement, or a fully released priesthood of believers, until we lay down the staff and crowns of leadership and pick up the trowel and basin of servantship.

15. The Flaw of Management

Churches should be cultures of self-management. Self-management is not about creating a Wild West, renegade, free for all culture, where accountability is nonexistent. It is about the collective servantship community that affirms that particular gifts from Christ have been distributed to certain men and women. And those people are to be released and trusted to exercise their gifts for the sake of the overall body of believers. Yes, they are to give account for the results of their stewardship of responsibilities, finances, and the like—while maintaining a posture of mutual submission to the overall community. They are to give an account of how they are using the collective resources of the church or ministry body. But people should be trusted, not bossed nor managed. They are accountable to the entire community, not one or two people who occupy positions of hierarchy over the rest of the community of co-followers.

16. The Flaw of Unilateral Accountability

For some reason most senior pastors believe they are the only ones who have the
right to be trusted to self manage. But Unleaders—working from cultures of
servantship—operate from a stance of mutual submission. This neutralizes and
limits the hoarding and abuse of power. Kathy Escobar (in Down We Go) writes, “Hoarding power won’t work on the downward descent. We will have to learn to diffuse power, which sometimes looks like giving it away, but sometimes looks like stepping into the responsibility of it. Diffusing power means inviting others to share leadership, value and voice. Diffusing power means moving away from one leader and hero worship, to finding ways to include and make room for others, and continually fan into flame people’s gifts and passions.”

17. The Flaw of Leadership-centricism

Perhaps the biggest snafu concerning the current leadership obsession is that Jesus
himself directly contradicts much—if not most—of what is being imported into
the church under the leadership mantra. Better put, much of it is expressly
forbidden by Jesus. Can you imagine the Apostle Paul hosting a leadership
conference for the early church with a lineup of speakers such as Roman
Governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus;Revolutionary Leader Simon bar Giora; and
John Philip Maximus, owner of the Roman Traders’ Market (I made up this last guy)? Ridiculous, huh? Most disconcerting is the fact that Jesus himself is not our first choice when it comes to the one whom we model ourselves after as leaders.

18. The Flaw of Winking at Servantship

If we look to Jesus as our mentor and our model, we will reach no other conclusion than that to follow him means we will seek to be servants, not leaders. Then when we do lead it is born from the person of Jesus. Our desire and greater obsession
must be to develop Servantship cultures in our ministries and churches. When we
discover that serving is mentioned fifty times more in the New Testament than
leading, we should need no more evidence of what is most pressing on the heart of God. And what presses God’s heart must press ours as well.

19. The Flaw of Winking at Humility

Scott Bessenecker writes, “The hope for the world lies in meekness. Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth’ (Matthew 5:5). The reason that the meek will inherit the earth is that they are naturally disposed to use power in the way it was designed by God to be used—as a guard for the weak and to preserve the common good…”

20. The Flaw of Kingly Metaphors

Humanly held kingly power was never God’s intention or ideal best for his people. But the Israelites rejected God as King, demanded a man as King, and the church has done the same thing. In Deuteronomy 17 God says, you can have a human King, but warns of the king whose heart would be “lifted up above his brothers,” which is exactly what happens when one man is set above all others. He begins to believe he is smarter than, better than, and more important than his brothers.

21. The Flaw of Building on Leadership

Leadership cultures do not possess the cultural intelligence for genuine community. They will always fail to bring about genuine unity. They draw their cues from the system of this fallen world. Jesus called it the “way of the gentiles” (Matthew 20:25).

Based on ideas and concepts from UnLeader: Rethinking Leadership…and Why We Must, my book to be released by Beacon Hill Press this September, I have worked up a few thoughts on the flaws in the leadership-centric culture that dominate the contemporary church. I am convinced that we will never see a genuine missional movement, or a fully released priesthood of believers, until we lay down the staff and crowns of leadership and pick up the trowel and basin of servantship.

8. The Flaw of “The Big Mo”

Let us cease drawing from our own ways and means of hype and pseudo momentum. Dance to the pace the Holy Spirit sets for your church or ministry. Let the Lord provide the ups and downs. Our job is to be faithful to follow his lead and let him provide momentum when he sees fit.

9. The Flaw of Explosive Growth

We have been taught to focus on “leadership math” i.e. pour yourself into creating leaders, not followers. Our focus should be on being servants who then make more and better servants. Our following Jesus translates into servantship. Do we lead? Certainly…by serving.

10. The Flaw of “Employees”

Regardless of how rare your gifts are, you are to treat no one in the fellowship asyour servant. They don’t work for you. There is no biblical precedent for such thinking whatsoever. In contemporary terms an employee is a hireling, a person who performs a job for the money. To boot, the word “employee” is a business sector term. To call the servants in our churches, denominations, or any other ministries an “employee” is to admit, “Yes, we view ourselves and operate as a business.” Just pull out a Webster’s Dictionary and see for yourself: em•ploy•ee,a person hired by another, or by a business firm, etc., to work for wages or salary.

11. The Flaw of Church as Business

Mike Breen has said it wonderfully—“I am absolutely convinced 100 years from now, many books will be written on the phenomenon that is the late 20th Century-early 21st Century American church. And I am fairly certain that it will be with large degree of amazement and laughter that people, in reading about it, will say to each other, ‘You must be joking! Seriously? People actually thought it was a good idea to structure the Church as if it were a business? Honestly?’”

12. The Flaw of Dominance

Within the culture of many churches are leadership patterns of forcible command and control. These structures include protocols and unwritten rules of who can and cannot be questioned, consulted, or criticized. Overtones of fear are sprinkled throughout such ministries. Staff members learn quickly when and when not to speak, and to never speak up. To our shame, this is all too often the case in so many of our churches.

13. The Flaw of Entitlement

Certain perks and privileges are usually reserved for the king leader. He comes and
goes as he pleases, takes a day off here and there, and generally calls his own shots.
On a daily basis he answers or reports to no one in particular. There is absolutely
nothing wrong with this as long as he gets his job done. The troubling issue is that
(other than the Executive Pastor in some cases) the senior-pastor-king is the only
one who is allowed to operate this way. He is the only one deemed competent enough to self-manage. The remaining “ministers” are treated as employees. They are not special.

14. The Flaw of Submission

Trusting the servantship heart in others around us is an essential ingredient of a
humble church culture. To fail to trust and give release to our fellow servants is to
stand on the platform of pride, believing that without our own control of others
and the overall game plan for the church, success will escape our faith community
as a whole. This does not negate accountability. It actually enhances it.
Accountability becomes mutual, as does the concept of submission.

Based on ideas and concepts from UnLeader: Rethinking Leadership…and Why We Must, my book to be released by Beacon Hill Press this September, I have worked up a few thoughts on the flaws in the leadership-centric culture that dominate the contemporary church. I am convinced that we will never see a genuine missional movement, or a fully released priesthood of believers, until we lay down the staff and crowns of leadership and pick up the trowel and basin of servantship.

1. The Flaw of “Your” Lid

We’ve been taught that our ability to lead determines our level of effectiveness. Jesus came as a servant, not a leader. Your servantship lid is what is most important for effectiveness in the Kingdom of God. Everything rises or falls on servantship.

2. The Flaw of “Your” Influence

Let the influence of Jesus seep into and out of you. The degree you decrease will be the degree He will increase in your life. John Maxwell says, “As a leader, having a great vision and a worthy cause is not enough to get people to follow you. First you have to become a better leader; you must get your people to buy into you.” This concept gets it categorically wrong…dangerously and gravely wrong. We need to become better followers and servants of Jesus who point to Him. To focus on getting people to buy into us is beyond a slippery slope. It is a vertical drop.

3. The Flaw of Titles

Plain and simple—Jesus forbade them. Titles delineate fleshly stature and status. If you think you need a title for people to respect you, maybe, you don’t deserve to be respected. The body of Christ is a family. Titles always distinguish one person or group over the other and create boundaries, fences, and doors that need permission or privilege for entry. Titles create psychological and sociological dynamics of hierarchy. If you want to use titles, call each other brother and sister—nothing more.

4. The Flaw of Hierarchy

Jesus said it is the Gentiles (those who are tied to worldly systems) who set up systems of command and control. He then declared, “‘It will not be so among you’” (Matthew 20:25-28). I agree with my former seminary professor Eddie Gibbs, who says, “The controlling style of leadership that is so prevalent among the builder and boomer generations, and that typically determines the church’s corporate culture, must give way to this empowering, connective style if the church is to reinvent itself to meet the missional challenges and opportunities of a new day.”

5. The Flaw of the “Real Leader”

Stop looking for the top dog in the group…and stop striving to be that person. We fail to develop churches of maturity because we ignore the presence and voice of the Lord in the entire body of apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers among us (Ephesians 4:11-16). In the kingdom of God we must view Jesus as our leader—the one and only senior shepherd. Men and women can, and should, function in leadership but never be underscored with rank or identity as leaders.

6. The Flaw of Magnetism

We’ve been told that who we are is who we attract. Therefore, we need to be super duper so we will attract super duper people. Really? Who did Jesus attract? Did Jesus look for and attract the best and brightest? This mindset makes who I am the major concern and focus. The concept is that I need to develop a magnetic skill set to such a degree that people will follow me so that ultimately I develop a great church or ministry.

7. The Flaw of “Vision”

The leadership “vision” concept is nowhere to be found in the Gospels or in the rest of the New Testament. We already have a vision and a visionary. Jesus and his kingdom are all we have and all we need. The “vision” myth is just that—a man-made, mesmerizing concept that diverts our attention from the simplicity of living out the gospel of the kingdom of God, being utterly dependent upon his power, and making disciples along the way. That is our vision. This is not to say that individual faith communities and churches do not have unique calls in their particular contexts. They certainly do, and it is important for the members of those local churches to understand those particular God-given marching orders. My point is that the “vision” idea is way beyond overemphasized and grossly hyped, cheered, and idolized.

In their book, Untamed: Reactivating a Missional Form of Discipleship Alan and Deb Hirsch tell a story of how they “commissioned” the entire congregation of South Melbourne Restoration Community.

At South we took the “priesthood of all believers” (that every person is a minister and needs to be released as such) seriously. This didn’t mean that our community always lived this out, but it was a value we tried to live by (and at times used humor to reinforce). In order to drive this point home, one Sunday morning, as our community arrived for our gathering, we greeted each person at the door and handed them a two-inch-wide strip of white flexible card and a fastener. Many looked puzzled but decided to play along, wondering just what we were up to.

A short time after the service began, Al asked everybody to stand up and fasten the white strip around their necks. He then proceeded to lead the whole church through an ordination ceremony. It wasn’t quite what people were expecting, but that morning each and every person gathered at South was officially ordained into the ministry of Jesus. Once they were all ordained, they could dispose of the symbolic (and very unnecessary) dog collars and just live out their commission.

How else can we encourage people in the church to live out a “priesthood of all believers” understanding? What things have you done to “commission” people to mission?

Alan and Deb Hirsch will both be speakers at this year’s Sentralized gathering this September in Kansas City.