Church as “Place” or “Service”

This article was passed on to us as top notch from GBNAM missionary Clive Craigen:

Church as “Place” or “Service” By Gailyn Van Rheenen

Increasingly Christians in North America are thinking about “church planting.” This phrase “church planting,” however, carries its own baggage.

I have found that many church leaders assume that the first step in church planting is purchasing a piece of property and constructing a church building. A church defined as “a place where things happen”... (more here)

The Missional Church by Tim Keller

I ran across this short article by Tim Keller. It is a solid, short explanation of the "Missional" Church. Here's a little teaser for you:

In the West for nearly 1,000 years, the relationship of (Anglo-European) Christian churches to the broader culture was a relationship known as "Christendom." The institutions of society "Christianized" people, and stigmatized non-Christian belief and behavior. Though people were "Christianized" by the culture, they were not regenerated or converted with the Gospel. The church's job was then to challenge persons into a vital, living relation with Christ... (more here)

Reflecting on the Gospel

"I have been reading poems, romances, vision literature, legends and myths all my life. I know what they are like. And I know none of them are like this. There are only two possible views of these gospel texts. Either this is reportage pretty close to the facts, nearly as close as Boswell. Or else, some unknown writer in the second century without known predecessors or any successors suddenly anticipated the whole technique of modern novelistic, realistic narrative. The reader who doesn't see this has simply not learned how to read." – C.S. Lewis

"Mary (Magdalene) was on the outside of everything. And this is the gospel. The gospel is that God's salvation does not come on the basis of merit, it does not come on the basis of pedigree, and it does not come on the basis of race, class, gender, or any other pecking order. What is the gospel? The gospel is not that the good are in and the bad are out. The gospel is that the humble are in and the proud are out. The gospel is not that you give God a perfect record but that he gives you a perfect record. The gospel is that it is not your past that is the determining factor in your relationship with God but it is Christ's past and his record that is the determining factor. He chooses the Mary's of this world so that us non-Mary's will get it. And so will the other Mary's." – Timothy Keller

A Church Planting Resource Website by Ed Stetzer

At GBNAM, we highly recommend Ed Stetzer's book Planting New Churches in a Postmodern Age. In addition to that book, Ed has a webpage with helpful articles, links and more. You can check it out at www.newchurches.com