Top five reasons we really don’t want to be missional
Missional. We’ve been hearing this word for 20 years. Our seminaries have been teaching it, our agencies have been producing books on it and our congregations have been using the word "missional" to justify programs, mission efforts and other worthwhile "regularly scheduled" activities the church has done for the last 20 years. But as I […]
Missional Church: The fad that just won’t go away
Recently I heard an observation following Ohio Conference’s Annual Conference Assembly in which we focused on becoming a mission-driven (a.k.a. "Missional") conference. The observation? It seems as though our younger leaders are the driving force behind the passion for this movement. And so the question becomes, "Why?" Why are younger leaders pushing for this change? […]
Go, Be a Disciple Maker
As I begin to visit and engage in conversations with Western District Conference congregations and their pastors, discipleship and missions are the two themes, among many others, that have been predominant our discussions. Both discipleship and mission are relevant to the life of the church today and they will continue to be in the future. […]
Mission and Migration
To talk about migration is to talk about identity, both individual identity and the collective identities of communities of faith. Forced migration characterized and shaped the early Anabaptist movement—a movement created, in part, to ensure religious freedom and the ability to practice faith as separate communities. This pattern of movement, originally meant to support a […]
Jesus models mission
In a post-Resurrection appearance, John reports that Jesus offered God’s peace to the group of terrified and fearful disciples locked behind closed doors (John 20:21). Jesus adds to his benediction an important elaboration: "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." Jesus makes it clear that God’s mission of restoration and reclaiming the […]
As you go
Some people may recall how visiting missionaries would click through images of ministry in far-off corners of the globe via the now-defunct slide projector. Afterward, over homemade pie, silent thoughts most likely swirled within the aroma of freshly brewed coffee: These missionaries have a special call from God, but who am I to think that […]
Mientras van
Algunos recordarán cuando los misioneros llegaban de visita desde lugares lejanos y pasaban imágenes de su ministerio en el ahora obsoleto proyector de diapositivas. A continuación, y al compartir un pastel horneado para la ocasión, pensamientos silenciosos posiblemente se entremezclaban con el aroma del café recién hecho: Estos misioneros tienen un llamado especial de Dios. […]
Webinar introduces the Sent Network process
Want to learn more on how to use your gifts to engage with your community? Check out the Sent Network. The Sent Network is a resourcing curriculum launched to recruit, equip and prepare church planters for their task.
God called me to plant a church. Now what?
If you feel that God is calling you to start a peace church, the Sent Network has the tools you need to begin your journey. The launch date is coming soon and there is still room for potential peace church planters. The resources in the Sent Network are designed to help church planters carry out […]
Post-colonial mission
The modern missionary movement’s greatest advance came during the period when colonial powers were engaged in a massive land-grab in the global south. To be sure, many missionaries were actively engaged in resisting some of the heinous, even brutal, excesses of colonial expansion and rapacious greed that dispossessed people of their lands, livelihood, and cultural […]
Alex Dye preaches about Sent conference and sharing the good news of Christ
Alex Dye, associate pastor at Oak Grove Mennonite Church in West Liberty, Ohio, attended this year’s Sent conference Apr. 26–28 at [the] Beloved Community Mennonite Church in Denver, Colorado. Struck by the message shared there from Romans 10, he returned to his home congregation and relayed the sermon to them on May 5. "How, then, can they […]
Sent conference emboldens church planters to heed and hold on to their holy calling
ENGLEWOOD, Colorado (Mennonite Mission Network) – When Gisselle Guity and several other women sensed a call to plant a church among marginalized women in West Palm Beach, Florida, in 2014, they quickly moved forward – and then stalled. They had tenderness of heart for abused women in poverty, but they lacked the tools for sustaining […]