Some of the leaders from Gateway Church in Austin met up with Mike Breen and of his leaders from their days in the U.K.. From his bio: Mike was the Senior Rector at St. Thomas Sheffield, where they pioneered some very different ways of being the church and when they left they were the largest church in England. Today, he leads 3DM, the global home for an organic movement of biblical discipleship and missional church that is centered in the United States.” Mike is the author of the following books:

• Building a Discipling Culture: How to Launch a Missional Movement by Discipling People Like Jesus Did
• Launching Missional Communities: A Field Guide
• Covenant and Kingdom: The DNA of the Bible

Here are some of the insights he shared with us:

Two Questions for Disciples:

1. What is God saying to you?
2. What are you going to do about it?

A great Western fallacy is that someone can pass from information to innovation without first passing through imitation. Most Westerners have been more influenced by the Enlightenment than the Reformation.

As the message of Jesus moved beyond the Jewish context into the Gentile world, the relationships went from being described as “rabbi and disciple” to “parent and child.” (For example, see 1 Corinthians 4:14-17).

• Information – The guardian would teach the children reading, writing, and arithmetic (the pedagogical essentials).
• Imitation – The son spent time with his father to learn the family business. The daughter spent time with her mother to learn how to care for the oikos (family, neighbors, friends).
• Innovation -Once someone has the basics, they can go to a new town and contextualize their craft.

The Four Human Spaces:

• Intimate – 2 to 3 people
• Personal – 6 to 12 people
• Social -20-70 people
• Public – 70+

The social space is crucial because it is within the social space that the intimate and personal spaces take place. In the Western world we have lost our extended family and put all of our hopes into the nuclear family which has failed.

Small groups are small enough to care but aren’t big enough to dare.

There is no word for “nuclear family” in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. The word “family” always means extended family.

Jesus spend time with the Father on His own (up), spent time with His disciples (in), and spent time with the crowds (out). At the beginning, Mike encouraged his small groups to get out of the room where they were meeting and walk around the community where they meet and pray for the community (like caroling for mimes). A few people asked them what they were doing and they said: “praying for our community.” Some were impressed by that. The next time they went into the shops and to the homes and asked what they could be praying for. This follows what Jesus did with His disciples in Matthew 10. Once needs were discovered, the small group began to meet those needs in addition to praying for the community.

When asked to describe what he sensed God was calling the worship team to do, the worship pastor at St. Thomas in Sheffield said: “We want to be the welcomers of the unwelcome.”

The network leader needs to be the vision carrier for the mission.

…But Don’t Stay That Way | February 5, 201 from Gateway Church on Vimeo.

I spoke at Gateway’s McNeil campus and our new Central series on Feb. 5th. Here are some of the thoughts I shared:

“At Gateway, we use this phrase a lot: ‘Come as you are, but don’t stay that way.

In the Scriptures there is a story in the life of Israel where the world they knew was falling apart. Chaos and destruction had become the norm, but the prophet Ezekiel promised that there was a way out – a path of hope. Ezekiel challenged his people to align their behavior with God’s ways in order to experience restoration and healing.

Here are four insights from the story of Ezekiel that will help us live new lives.

First, we need to listen to the watchmen in your life.

If we are tired of where we are now, are we willing to make different choices? What sacrifices do you need to make to become who were meant to be?

Second, we need to care enough to be a watchman in the lives of others.

A loving community allows people to come as they are and cares enough to help people not stay that way.

Third, the way out of their current situation began with taking personal responsibility.

There comes a time in our lives (and it is sooner than we think), that we need to learn to feed ourselves.

Fourth, trust God. The great news is we are not alone in this. God is here for us.

God promises you a better future with Him than you’ve experienced without Him. The war over your future is not over. You may have lost some battles, but there is hope! You and I can take personal responsibility for our future, and we are not alone. God is here to help us.

Next Steps:

• Ask for help (www.gatewaychurch.com/restore).
• Invest in your spiritual growth. (www.gatewaychurch.com/deepen).
• Journey through the Character Matrix (www.ericbryant.org/CharacterMatrix)
• Invest in others (www.gatewaychurch.com/be-gateway/).”

For more notes from this message, go here.

As part of a training with several churches in Austin, Tim Hawks, the lead pastor at Hill Country Bible Church shared about moving from an informational model to an incarnational model.

Informational Model

The spiritual leader teaches the Bible to the church so the church tries to teach the Bible to the world. As a result, the church comes across as hypocritical and judgmental.

In this model, the Bible can become a barrier to connecting with people.

Incarnational Model

The spiritual leader studies the Scriptures and lives it out so that he or she can pass it along relationally. The message comes across as “if it wasn’t for Jesus, I would still be stuck.” The world sees the church as imperfect people trying to live a new life following the Scriptures.

The Scriptures are supposed to be living within us. This was God’s approach through Jesus.

If we needed to see Jesus in order to know and follow God, it makes sense that others would need to see Jesus in us.

Mike Howerton is lead pastor of Overlake Christian Church in Redmond, Washington, and served for six years as the college pastor at Saddleback Church. Mike is the author of Miles to Cross and Glorious Mess: Encountering God’s Relentless Grace for Imperfect People.

Listen to previous interviews here.

Congratulations to the winners of Glorious Mess!
Chip A. from CO, Jason M. from MA, Todd W. from CO, Jon O. from CA, Dan M. from IL, Mark P. from CA, Chris T. from MT, Jeff P. from OR, Mike C. from OR, Jeff S. from FL, Rich K. from CA, Joe L. from TX, Jaylynne F. from Canada, Janai B. from TX, Heidi R. from AZ, Scott N. from MI, Trey C. from CA, John H. from KS, Dave A. from CA, Steve T. from NV

Sign up for Eric Bryant’s email newsletter to hear about other interviews and book giveaways!

Mark Batterson is the author of several books including, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day, Wild Goose Chase, Primal, and his latest The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears. Mark serves as the Lead Pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC. and is on the creative team of the Origins Project.

Check out the interview here!

Congratulations to those who won The Circle Maker book giveaway!
Ryan G. from CA, Christopher B. from TX, Ryan B. from PA, Todd H. from NE, Tyler B. from OR, Candi W. from AZ, Stephen N. from MI, Richard M. from PA, Daniel L. from Southeast Asia, Ross B. from WA, Alberto M. from CA, Matthew S. from CA, David C. from CA, Cory H. from OH, Mike L. from MN, Josh D. from TX, Lisa R. from TX, Ken M. from CA, Howard S. from AZ, and Gretchin A. from IN

Listen to previous interviews here.

Sign up for Eric Bryant’s email newsletter to hear about other interviews and book giveaways!

The Geography Pastors at Gateway Church in Austin met with Craig Whitney of the Emerging Leaders Initiative met to discuss growing in our effectiveness in creating missional communities. ELI works with church planters, and as Geography Pastors we need to develop the same skills. (Some places would consider the geography pastors as campus pastors, but we have a geography pastor in place even if there isn’t a Sunday service happening in their geography) .

Here are some of our insights:

Our goal – Making disciples who make disciples out of the culture.

Just like our bodies have structure and processes, our church bodies need to have structures and processes.

The ingredients needed to train up others to become disciple-making disciples:

• Desire – The person needs to want to be a disciple or have the will to make progress towards becoming one. (heart)
• Know – They need to know who they are trying to become. (head)
• Training -They need to practice the processes that help them connect, serve, and grow. (hands)
• Equipment – They need to have the right kind of tools for training.

To go through the ELI free Assessment for possible church planters or to learn more on their online training opportunities, go to www.elichurchplanting.com.

Several Gateway Staff met up with Jeff Vanderstelt, the lead pastor of Soma Communities in Tacoma, WA. Here were some of his thoughts:

“‘Missional community’ has been used to describe a community on mission, a community that does service projects, and a community on mission together where ‘mission’ means reaching and discipling others. Jeff and Soma seeks to be the the third description.

The gatherings can be a powerful tool in reaching people and discipling people, but the Sunday gatherings should be informed by the missional communities. Otherwise those on the ground are always to try to catch up with those in the air.

Soma treated each small group as a potential core group for a church plant (even if they never become a church plant). At the beginning, rather than promoting their Sunday gatherings, they emphasized inviting friends to your home and parties but not to the Sunday services and didn’t send out flyers. Soma grew to the place where 500 held the DNA of being on mission before they started inviting others to their Sunday gatherings as part of their efforts to reach and serve the city. The missional community came first.

Discipleship means increasingly bringing all of our lives under the rule and life of Jesus Christ.

Our goal is to invite people into my life rather than inviting them to an event. Events are an excuse for building relationships.

Jesus sent out the 72 in part so they would come back wanting to be trained knowing they needed help; whereas before, they may not have felt they needed it. We need to do the same with our people.

Too often in the U.S. individuals reach individuals, but we need communities inviting people into a new community.

Missional Community for Soma measurements include:

• Is your missional community baptizing the people they reached? (This takes place in the missional community and at the gatherings).
• Is each person in your missional community taking a step towards growth? What is that step and how did they do?
• Is each missional community raising up another team to be sent out next year?

Soma Communities measurements include:

• How many people did we send away?
• How much money did we send to other churches?
• How many people are being raised up to lead our missional communities? (These are like their own local churches).
• How much money did we spend on equipping? (We want people to see the staff as equippers of the ministry not doers of the ministry).
• How many people came on Sundays? This is important so we can be more hospitable.

Here are notes from a micro-conference I attended with Jeff leading here a few weeks ago: Missional Leadership with Jeff Vanderstelt.