"Influence doesn’t happen by extracting ourselves from the world for the sake of our values, but by bringing our values into the culture." - Hugh Halter author of Tangible Kingdom
“We will never be faithful in the biblical sense if we never move from home base.” - Alan Hirsch author of the Forgotten Ways
It was words like these...and hundreds of others from the likes of Hugh Halter, Alan & Deb Hirsch, and Michael Frost that affirmed us in one of the most risky and dangerous God adventures my wife Sharon and I had ever made.
In 2014 after pastoring for 30 plus years in wonderful churches we took the plunge into the deep waters of missional. We made the “move from home base” and began seeing our neighborhood and community with new eyes, recognizing that most of our neighbors first step toward Jesus would not be through the doors of a church, but through friendship and sitting on the front lawn of our home.
And though it’s not all been a straight arrow up and to the right, four years later I am happy to report that it has been the most fruitful four year run of ministry ever!
We are grateful for the dozens of people who now follow Jesus, the discipling relationships we are in, the neighbors we now do life with, the churches we have helped on their missional journey, and the hundreds of volunteers who now serve our community via our non-profit Loving Community www.loving-community.net. And the list could go on!
The missional movement made up of spiritual entrepreneurs -- surely isn’t perfect! At times it zigs and zags. It has its ups and downs. The aforementioned leaders aren’t perfect (and neither our we)! But for us we feel it’s the closest we’ve come to authentically following Jesus throughout our Christian experience.
It’s for this reason that we continue to beat the drum of the missional movement and the Forge Dallas tribe as a conduit of helping the church that we love move from home base and training church “members” to become “missionaries” in the places they live, work, and play!
We’d love for you to be a part!
Hugh Halter has been referred to as the “heart” of the missional movement. He is coming to town one week from today on Thursday April 12th for an all day event (9 am- 3pm) at Irving Bible Church. This is the registration info for the event which is a deal for $39 for the day.
It’s called Purgatory Sessions - Church Caught Between Heaven and Hell. These are the six session topics:
*Look Into the Future. 7 FOR SURE’s that you must adjust ministry around
*Best Practices. Unearthing the best church stories I’ve seen to date
*Dead Bones. The Structure of mission. Family Tree vs. Old Boys Club
*The Art of Suffering…Leaders living above cynicism.
*The New Mammon: Money in a pure mission field
*The Discipleship Myth: Defining it & Doing it
Hit me up if you want more information and I hope you’ll join us for this day of missional conversation!
Live humbly and kind,
Jim
Forge Dallas - Hub Director