By Jon Hietbrink

As APE leaders operating on the fringes of traditional Christianity, we’re keenly aware of a couple things.

• First, we’re desperate for authentic spiritual vitality in our lives. We know that to see the Kingdom come in power in unreached places requires far more than giftedness or charisma, it takes the presence of the living God. We yearn for genuine spiritual authority that flows out of who we are; we long to embody the message we proclaim.
• Second, because we’re operating in the margins, the path we tread is far less worn. Whereas many of us were surrounded by plentiful mentors and models when we were younger, now there are fewer folks we can depend on for the spiritual development we need; it can be lonely on the frontier.

As movement leaders, we must obey Paul’s command to “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” (Rom. 12.11)–we must fuel our own fire.

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By Sarah Carter

It’s a beach-worthy Saturday morning as they often are here in San Diego, even in the winter.  But instead of soaking up some rays, I’m with a friend at church learning how to catch feral cats.  We put out metal traps, line them with tuna, hide them in the tall brush and watch from a distance. Part of me has that rush of adrenaline when hunting something, and the other part of me is wondering…”What the heck am I doing?” (This thought becomes especially acute when I catch the cats, and then have to keep them overnight, lug them to a vet, and stand in a line to get them fixed. Lest there are some worried cat-lovers out there, we are partnering with a very humane organization.)

The reason I’m spending my Saturdays catching cats is because our church property has become a breeding ground for wild cats, with litters of kittens in the bushes, pooping all over the property.  It might not be that big of a deal, if you can stand stepping in cat poo every now and again, and avoid the cats criss-crossing the church grounds.

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Mike Breen’s new book Leading Kingdom Movements comes out tomorrow! I want to buy it and you should too. Here is a taste and follow my link to see more from this book and even download a few chapters if you like!

There seem to be seasons where the world doesn’t just need change, but is actually begging for it. It’s aching for it, desperate for it. That’s how the world was in Jesus’ time. And I believe we find ourselves in that world today. This book is about learning to lead Kingdom movements that just might be able to produce that kind of change.

Check out the book here + Free Downloads!

You may be wondering, “What is the history of the missional church? How did all this start?” Well here is a great place to read more about it. Brad Brisco does a great job laying out the foundation on his blog. Here is an excerpt here.

The Influence of Lesslie Newbigin

Upon returning home to England in 1974 from missionary service in India for nearly 40 years, “Newbigin took up the challenge of trying to envision what a fresh encounter of the gospel with late-modern Western culture might look like.”[4] In the book Foolishness to the Greeks, he posed the question: “What would be involved in a missionary encounter between the gospel and this whole way of perceiving, thinking, and living that we call ‘modern Western Culture?”[5]

Read the Whole Article Here

I often have people ask me what the word “missional” means. My short answer is that the word missional is simply the adjective form of the noun missionary. It is an adjective to describe the church as a sent, missionary entity. God is a missionary God who sends a missionary church. However, this is only half the story. Alan Hirsch speaks of the “missional-incarnational impulse,” where the word missional expresses the sending nature of the church, while “incarnational” represents the “embedding” of the gospel into a local context. In other words, “missional” speaks to our direction – we are sent; while being “incarnational” is more about how we go, and what we do as we go.

The Incarnation

The word “incarnation” comes from a Latin word that literally means “in the flesh.” It refers to the act of love and humility whereby God took it upon himself to enter into the depths of our world so that the reconciliation between God and humanity may be brought about. The Incarnation is God’s ultimate missional participation in creation (John 3:16-17). When God entered into our world in and through the Person of Jesus, he came to live among us. “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood” (John 1:14a, MSG).

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Here is a great article from Neil Cole’s Blog contrasting leadership styles and vision. This is a response to Neil from a CEO…

In this piece, he contrasts movement-based leadership — a growing trend in the church — with organization-based leadership — the current model in most churches. As a business person and a self-styled visionary leader, I felt like arguing with Neil on a few of his recommendations. He wants leaders to empower their followers to develop many, individual visions, whereas I prefer leaders to develop and promote a single vision for an organization. He wants to move away from strategic (controlling) leadership whose goal is to direct the organization toward a predetermined outcome, and replace it with process (order-imposing) leadership that leaves the outcome undefined. I prefer the strategic view for both business and personal reasons (according to the MBTI system, I’m type ENTJ, the “field marshal”).

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Here is a great post by Steve Addision, the author of a great new book “What Jesus Started”. Check out his blog, It is awesome!

Finding “persons of peace” is an important element in most disciple making movements. This practice is grounded in Jesus’ instructions to his disciples when he sent them out on mission. Jesus also led by example as this comparison table shows.

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