Book: Luther's Small Catechism: Missional Edition

The Small Catechism: Missional Edition is a thoughtfully crafted tool that revisits Martin Luther's original Catechism with a focus on equipping the modern Church for mission.

Tailored for individuals, families, and emerging church communities, this edition merges timeless Lutheran teachings with practical applications for daily Christian life and global evangelism. 

Through its six main parts—The Ten Commandments, The Apostles’ Creed, The Lord’s Prayer, The Sacraments, The Keys and Confession, and Daily Christian Living—it provides an accessible yet profound guide to the essentials of faith, worship, and witness.

Enhanced with reflections on Lutheran confessional theology and insights for applying these truths in diverse cultural contexts, this book serves as a resource for discipleship, teaching, and living the Gospel in today’s world.

Purchase The Small Catechism: Missional Edition today

Book: Future Church - 7 laws of real church growth

Church growth models have often been long on promises and short on disciple-making. We continue to watch consistent church attendance shrink, and our desire to reach the lost is infected with a need for self-validation by growing our numbers at any cost. If we believe that God wants his church to grow, where do we go from here? What is the future of the church?

Drawing from his 20 years and 15,000 hours of consulting, author Will Mancini shares with pastors and ministry leaders the single most important insight he has learned about church growth. With plenty of salient stories and based solidly on the disciple-making methods found in Scripture, Future Church exposes the church's greatest challenge today, and offers 7 transforming laws of real church growth so that we can faithfully and joyfully fulfill Jesus's Great Commission.

Chapters

1. Real church growth starts with a culture of mission, not worship. 
2. Real church growth is powered by the gospel, not relevance. 
3. Real church growth is validated by unity, not numbers.
4. Real church growth is local, not imported. 
5. Real church growth is about growing people, not managing programs. 
6. Real church growth is led by calling, not celebrity. Call every believer to engage their parish and serve God through their vocation.
7. Real church growth is energized by shared imagination, not shared preference. 

Mission edged Tracts from Lutheran Tract Mission

Lutheran Tract Mission has recently produced some tracts for situations which people in mission are encountering now.

'A Mission-Edge Tract' produced for those 

questioning God's care for the world and the environment.

'A Mission-Edge Tract' produced for those 

struggling with their faith and their relationship with Jesus.

'A Mission-Edge Tract' produce for those 

questioning their identity and their beliefs and where they fit in society and God's family

A Mission-Edge Tract' produced for those struggling with where God is in their life 

'A Mission-Edge Tract' for those struggling with who Jesus is 

and why do we celebrate a baby's birth at Christmas

For these and many other tracts visit Lutheran Tract Mission

Book/Study: Joining Jesus on His mission

Joining Jesus on His Mission - being an everyday missionary will alter the way you see your life as a follower of Jesus and take you beyond living your life for Jesus to living life with Jesus. 
Simple, powerful and applicable insights show you how to be on mission and recognize where Jesus is already at work in your neighborhoods, workplaces and schools. You will feel both relief and hope. You may even hear yourself say, “I can do this!” as you start responding to the everyday opportunities Jesus is placing in your path.

Contents
What's Jesus up to?
Joining Jesus
The River moved
Are you stalling?
Could it be this simple?
An inefficiently effective strategy
Seeking what's already happening.
The kingdom of God
What does the Kingdom of God look like?
The Mission of God
Getting into position every day
Seeking the Kingdom
Hearing from Jesus
Talking with people
Doing good
Ministering through prayer
The missional party
What will your story be?
With a little help from my friends.

Further resources relating to this book are available at https://dwelling114.org/book/ 

About the author
Rev. Greg Finke is LCMS pastor,  the founder and Executive Director of Dwelling 1:14, a non-profit ministry which seeks to help Jesus-followers connect in their neighborhoods, workplaces and schools for discipling and missional living (www.dwelling114.org). 

Before founding Dwelling 1:14, Greg had been the senior pastor of Messiah Lutheran in Midland, Michigan for 18 years and Gloria Dei Lutheran in Houston, Texas for three years. Greg and his wife, Susan, have three daughters and enjoy life as neighborhood missionaries in League City, Texas.  

Article: Missional or Attractional. The value of embracing a both/and mentality

Article:  Missional or Attractional? The Value of Embracing a Both/And Mentality
Every Christian should be missional and every church should be attractional. 
by EDDIE COLE
Much has been said and written to help today’s churches become more missional. Organizations, parachurch communities, and conferences abound in trying to move the Church in this direction. This emphasis is certainly justified in light of how many Evangelical churches are not missional and are either in a state of plateau or decline.
Unfortunately, many churches are not trying in any measurable way to reach the people in their community who are unchurched. Too often, churches satisfy themselves with biblical teaching, music, fellowship groups, or any number of good things. They are intoxicated with a sense of church busy-ness and therefore have a sense that they are on mission. The problem is, these things too often become subtle substitutes for the mission of God. We have to be reminded that our mission is to advance His kingdom on a daily basis, being and making disciples who worship and follow Jesus.
My predecessor as Eastern District Superintendent for the EFCA, Dr. Steve Musser, did a great job speaking to the Eastern District churches about transitioning from being teaching centers to missional outposts. He led us to adopt the motto, “Churches without walls.” Some of our churches really benefited from his efforts, but all of our leaders were challenged to keep the mission in front of our churches. I inherited this value and intend to keep it as long as I’m in this role.
If you want to dive into some good reading about what it means for a church to be missional, you can go here and see some well-thought writing from credible evangelical writers and practitioners.
But in saying that we should be missional, does that mean we should completely discard the idea and value of anything attractional?
Before I address that, let me very succinctly address what it means for a church to be attractional. While much more could and should be said, the larger, more effective attractional churches strategically rely heavily upon using their ability to attract large numbers of people to their gatherings in order to accomplish mission. They focus a lot of energy on the worship services and programs and then they work outward from this standpoint. As a model, this approach is still working in many places.
In spite of the growing number of critics, the continued growth of megachurches in America at the very least suggests that the attractional model of ministry has merits worth studying. Here is a good report for further reading.
In 2011, Billy Hornsby, co-founder and president of the Association of Related Churches (ARC), wrote a book entitled The Attractional Church. In it, he revealed that ARC has a 90 percent rate of effectiveness in their church plants, compared to 68 percent rate among other Evangelical groups. As you could guess from the title of the book, ARC trains leaders for church planting using attractional methodology. But it’s certainly not a pure approach.
In the first chapter Hornsby asked the question, “Is the attractional church missional?” He explained that their church planters are trained with these three convictions:

1. Individual members are ‘missional’ (they accept responsibility to share the gospel)
2. Individual members are ‘incarnational’ (they accept responsibility to live like Christ outside church)
3. Churches are ‘attractional’ (they accept responsibility to bring people into a kingdom mindset in their gatherings)

In other words, while ARC’s approach is distinct and different from some leading missional thinkers, there is the shared understanding that the Church is here on mission to make disciples and advance God’s kingdom.
On the surface, it may seem like missional churches are against doing anything representative of the attractional model and attractional churches are too busy focusing on drawing crowds to spend any time or energy on training members for missional living. In truth, this does happen sometimes. But neither actually should be the case.
If missional churches are going to gather at all, shouldn’t they leverage the gathering for all its worth? If attractional churches are going to make disciples, don’t they need to teach them to be disciples who live on mission with Jesus?
Every Christian should be missional and every church should be attractional.
Therefore, every pastor should strive to lead with a both/and mentality.

Dr. Eddie Cole is District Superintendent of the Eastern District of the EFCA.

This article appeared http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2017/august/missional-or-attractional-value-of-embracing-bothand-mental.html 

Workshop/Discussion: Rethinking Sunday morning

Rethinking Sunday Morning: Better Questions, Bolder Experiments

For many, it's already happening. Whether Sunday morning finds them seated at work or at a coffee shop, in the bleachers or on a pew, they're already rethinking churchgoing. And perhaps you are, too.

But what is God up to in all of this? And to what more faithful future are Christian communities now being called? What are the practices of discipleship for a post-churchgoing world?

Join the conversation and discover the courage to ask some fresh questions and engage them more boldly.

For more information visit here

Conference: Thriving in change

Thriving in Change Conference

19^th – 20^th August: Our Saviour Lutheran Church, 745 Rochedale Rd, Rochedale, Brisbane, Qld.

26^th – 27^th August: Immanuel Lutheran Church, 32 Morphett Rd, Novar Gardens South Australia.

Session Leaders

Steen Olsen:       WE DWELL IN THE WORD

Brett Kennett:     WE DWELL IN THE WORD

Patrick Keifert:   THE CONGREGATION IN A NEW MISSIONAL ERA

                             SIX DISRUPTIVE MISSIONAL HABITS 

                             CORPORATE SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT 

                             THRIVING IN CHANGE

Dean Eaton:        MISSIONAL LEADERSHIP

   

Patrick Keifert is a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Professor and Olin S. and Amanda Fjelstad Reigstad Chair of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary St Paul, Minnesota, USA (where missiology is part of the systematics department rather than the pastoral theology department). He is also President and Director of Research of Church Innovations Institute, a church-related not-for-profit group, seeking to "innovate your church's capacities to be missional."

Dean Eaton is the LCA Board for Local Mission’s Church Planting Mentor and Mission Facilitator.

Steen Olsen is the LCA SA/NT District Director for Mission and a member of BLMiss.

Brett Kennett is the LCA Vic/Tas District Pastor for Congregational Support and a member of BLMiss.

For more information contact:

Dean Eaton

Book: The Missional Church in perspective - mapping trends and shaping the conversation

The Missional Church in perspective by Craig Van Gelder  and Dwight J Zscheile

CONTENTSPart 1 - The history and development of missional conversation
Concepts influencing the missional conversation
Revisiting the seminal work missional church
Mapping the missional conversation

Part 2 - Perspectives that extend the missional conversation
Expanding and enriching the theological frameworks
Missional engagement with culture in a globalized world
Missional practices of church life and leadership

What others are saying about the book:
"The term 'missional' has been adopted by a wide variety of traditions and attached to many add-on programs. This book brings much-needed clarity to a confused picture. It is no rehash of familiar material but rather breaks new ground and leaves the reader with an appetite for more!"--Eddie Gibbs, Fuller Theological Seminary

"This book is the most precise, informed, and uncompromising parsing to date of the history of the concept of 'missional' both as a sensibility and as a form of praxis. Like all good historical analyses, it provides not only a basis for understanding where we have been but also a well-honed tool for considering where we may need and want to go next."--Phyllis Tickle, author, The Great Emergence

"Concertgoers are familiar with the cacophonous roar that precedes great orchestral performances as musicians tune their instruments. When the conductor takes the stand, however, these same instruments--now focused on a musical score--produce music. The Missional Church in Perspective provides sheet music for all those who want to participate in the missional symphony. The book's scholarship and synthesis qualify it to be a common score for us all."--Reggie McNeal, Leadership Network

"This book is a veritable morphology of the term 'missional.' As such it provides both conceptual tools with which to assess the impact of missional ideas on the Western church and a map that helps us chart possible future trajectories of what is clearly one of the most important movements in our times."--Alan Hirsch, Forge Mission Training Network

"A helpful and well-researched work that traces and evaluates streams within the missional church conversation, showing a wide awareness from evangelical, mainline, and historical sources. I have found a new required textbook for my missional church class."--Ed Stetzer, LifeWay Research; missiologist

"It is a rare book that can clearly and cogently describe a highly complex field while also setting a bold course for the future. The Missional Church in Perspective does precisely this. I have little doubt that it will serve as a centerpiece for the missional conversation for the next decade and beyond."--Jack Reese, Abilene Christian University

Sermon and Bible Study series: Where love comes to life

SERMON AND BIBLE STUDY TITLEWhere Love Comes To Life

BIG IDEAS FOR THE SERIESMission life flows out of who God is and who we are becoming.

EXPLANATION OF THE BIG IDEAA missional life participates in the shared life of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As a consequence, we are transformed to be a community where God's love comes to life. The same love that transforms us is drawing our families, neighbours and friends into new life in Christ; thus we are compelled to include and invite all people to belong to God's family.

PURPOSE OF THE SERIESTo help people grow in their understanding and participation in the mission of God in the world.

SERIES OUTLINE 

Over five weeks, discover why a missional life is where love comes to life.

• WHERE LOVE COMES TO LIFE - introduction to the series
• WHERE LOVE
• WHERE LOVE COMES
• WHERE LOVE COMES TO LIFE
• LOVE. LIFE COMMUNITIES
• 
  
• To download the package and for further information visit 
http://www.lca.org.au/renew.html

Book: The Mission Table: Renewing Congregation and Community

In a time of declining mainline Protestant church attendance, Bouman reminds us that the Holy Spirit is still very much at work. It is the mission of our churches to aid God's reconciling and restoring action in the world. This conversation on mission must involve everyone including laypeople, pastors, seminarians, and emerging congregational leaders. Each chapter contains scripture, questions, and activities, allowing for group study, reflection, and action. The goal is ultimately to help every member of the church to live as signs of the God who made the world and who will make all things new.

Contents
The Table of creation
From kitchen table to the alter table
Seeking hospitality at New Table
The congregation:  a table for mission
Mission Table leadership
Setting mission tables
Restoring the broken table

Book: Introducing Christian Mission Today

Introducing Christian Mission Today - Scripture, History and Issues by Michael Goheen brings the vibrant history, motivation and challenges of Christian mission to the fore.

Through the centuries Christian mission has always been recalibrating, retooling and reevangelizing. It has repeatedly taken surprising turns as it is carried along by the Spirit of God.  Goheen's introduction to mission's biblical, theological and historical dimensions engages the present and anticipates the future. As he unfolds the major issues of the global and urban, the pluralistic and wholistic contexts of mission today, he lays the ground for engaging in God’s great kingdom enterprise. This full-scale text incorporates the keen missional insights of Lesslie Newbigin, David Bosch and other formative thinkers. It will be a valued resource not only for those in crosscultural contexts but also for those engaged in reevangelizing the West.

Contents
Preface
Introduction: A Paradigm Shift in Mission Studies Today
PART I: BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION ON MISSION
1. Scripture as a Narrative Record of God’s Mission
2. Theology of Mission and Missional Theology
PART II: HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY REFLECTION ON MISSION
3. Historical Paradigms of Mission
4. An Emerging Ecumenical Paradigm of Mission
5. A Survey of the Global Church
PART III: CURRENT ISSUES IN MISSION TODAY
6. Holistic Mission: Witness in Life, Word and Deed
7. Faithful Contextualization: Church, Gospel and Culture(s)
8. Toward a Missiology of Western Culture
9. A Missionary Encounter with World Religions
10. Urban Mission: The New Frontier
11. Missions: A Witness to the Gospel Where There Is None
Indexes

Mission Planning resources

ELCA congregations have developed a number of mission planning resources that help congregations and their leaders develop mission that relates to their context and giftings.

The resources include:

Essential Background

Guiding Principles for Mission Planning

Marks of a Missional Congregation

Model for Thinking About Mission

Paradigms for Mission Renewal

Worship and Mission

Do it yourself resources 

Adaptations of 1-to-1's

Beyond Our Doors

Building a Mission Table

Congregation Life Cycle Question

Discovering Approaches to Mission

Front Porchin' Workbook

Growing Congregational Vitality

Guide to 1-on-1 Conversations

Manual for Congregational Mission Planning

Process for Discerning Purpose Statement

Read, Reflect and Respond Bible Study

Season for Prayer and Renewal

Some Basics for Evaluating

Some Basics for Planning

Story Matters

Resource Lists

For Deep

For High

For Wide

Missional Leadership Books

Resources for Going Deeper

Web site Links

Mission Planning resources are available at http://www.elca.org/en/Resources/Mission-Planning

Missional Lutheran Education from the journal Issues in Christian Education

Missional Lutheran Education is the them for the Spring 2010 journal, Issues in Christian Education.
This edition has the following:
Reflection relating to being Lutheran and Missional
Editorial - Intruder Alert
Editorial - A leaky roof
Editorial- Missiodoctrinology
Article:  What is Lutheran Missional Education?
Article:  Missional Education
Article:  Confirmation:  an outreach ministry?
Book reviews

Go to Issues in Christian Education 2010 to read all these articles

Missional Web site: Dwelling 1:14

Dwelling 1:14 references John 1:14 and the incarnational, missional nature both of Jesus and of those who would follow Him into the world. Dwelling 1:14 is a nonprofit ministry which helps like-minded Jesus-followers connect in their neighborhoods, workplaces and schools for discipling and missional living.  This nonprofit ministry is lead by Greg Finke, an ordained LCMS pastor with more than 20 years experience growing and leading congregations. For the past seven years, he has been discovering how to live missionally, how to disciple missional leaders and how to establish and multiply missional communities.

Every Sunday, your congregation gathers around Jesus through His Word and sacraments, and is then sent out to join Jesus as He carries out His mission in the world. Joining Jesus in His mission is what is meant by missional living.

Dwelling 1:14 helps individuals, families and congregations reorder their lives to seek the Kingdom of God, have more fun, and spend more time enjoying people through missional living. Dwelling 1:14 is not about changing Sunday mornings but about what happens the rest of the week “out there” in the world, where your congregation lives, works and goes to school.  We have found that when people support each other in seeking the Kingdom of God in the places they already live, work and go to school, really cool things begin to happen regularly!

At Dwelling 1:14 you will find:

• Training options
• Missional ideas
• A Blog from Pastor Greg Finke
• information and encouragement on being Missional

Greg has also written the book:

Joining Jesus on His mission

Joining Jesus on His Mission will alter the way you see your life as a follower of Jesus and take you beyond living your life for Jesus to living life with Jesus. Simple, powerful and applicable insights show you how to be on mission and recognize where Jesus is already at work in your neighborhoods, workplaces and schools. You will feel both relief and hope. You may even hear yourself say, “I can do this!” as you start responding to the everyday opportunities Jesus is placing in your path.

video: being a church in but not of the world....

Christine Caine discusses what it means to be a church in but not of the world

Book: Missional Map Making - skills for leading in times of transition

Missional Map Making by Alan Roxburgh offers guidance for church leaders to develop their own maps and chart new paths toward stronger, more vibrant, and more missional congregations
In the burgeoning missional church movement, churches are seeking to become less focused on programs for members and more oriented toward outreach to people who are not already in church. This fundamental shift in what a congregation is and does and thinks is challenging for leaders and congregants. Using the metaphor of map-making, the book explains the perspective and skills needed to lead congregations and denominations in a time of radical change over unfamiliar terrain as churches change their focus from internal to external.
Offers a clear guide for leaders wanting to transition to a missional church model
Written by Alan Roxburgh, a prominent expert and practitioner in the missional movement
Guides leaders seeking to create new maps for leadership and church organization and focus
This book is written to be accessible to all Christian congregational styles and denominations.

Chapters 
PART ONE When Maps No Longer Work
CHAPTER ONE Maps Shaping Our Imaginations in Modernity 
CHAPTER TWO Leading in an In-Between Time 
CHAPTER THREE When Common Sense Is No Longer Common 
CHAPTER FOUR From Playing Pool to Herding Cats 
CHAPTER FIVE Why Strategic Planning Doesn’t Work in This New Space and Doesn’t Fit God’s Purposes 
CHAPTER SIX Eight Currents of Change and the Challenge of Making New Maps 
CHAPTER SEVEN Lessons from the Formation of the Internet for Leading in This New Space 
PART TWO The Map-Making Process 
CHAPTER EIGHT Cultivating a Core Identity in a Changed Environment 
CHAPTER NINE Cultivating Parallel Cultures of the Kingdom 
CHAPTER TEN Map-Making Partnerships Between a Local Church and Neighborhoods and Communities

Reviews
Amazon Customer Reviews
From Modern Ekklesia
By Chris Enstad
By Bob Cornwell

Mark Sayers: writer and speaker, who is highly sought out for his insights into faith, contemporary culture and the future of the Church in the West.

Mark Sayers is a writer and speaker, who is highly sought out for his insights into faith, contemporary culture and the future of the Church in the West. Mark is the Senior Leader of Red Church, and the co-founder of Über Ministries.

Mark is the author of The Trouble With Paris: Following Jesus in a World of Plastic Promises,The Vertical Self: How Biblical Faith Can Help Us Discover Who We Are in An Age of Self Obsession and The Road Trip that Changed the World: The Unlikely Theory that will Change How You View Culture, the Church, and, Most Importantly, Yourself .

He is the founding pastor of Red Church and Über Ministries.  

If you are keen to minister to Generation Y Mark Sayers and his resources may help visit http://www.redchurch.org.au/mark-sayers/

Church to visit: St Lydia's a dinner church

St Lydia's calls itself a dinner church...tied to the Lutheran and Episcopalian traditions

Who they say they are?

Our congregation is looking for an experience of the Holy that is strong enough to lean on, deep enough to question, and challenging enough to change us.

Our life together is founded on three pillars:

• Sharing the Meal: Our worship takes place at the table around a big, delicious meal that we cook together. Communion is made as we share food and ourselves by exploring scripture, singing, and praying together.
• Telling Our Story: Jesus told a lot of stories, and so do we. We tell the story of Christ's dying and rising, and through it, uncover the daily dyings and risings that comprise our lives.
• Working Together: When you arrive at St. Lydia's, you'll be put straight to work preparing dinner or setting the table. Working together unites us as a community and brings us closer
  to God.

Visit their site to discover:

More about St Lydia's

How you can get involved in building the church community

Frequently Asked Questions

a guided tour

weekly blog

Visit St Lydias at http://www.stlydias.org/

Video resource: Father's love letter

What is Father's Love Letter?
Father's Love Letter is a compilation of Bible verses from both the Old & New Testaments that are presented in the form of a love letter from God to you. Each line in the Father's Love Letter message is paraphrased, which means we have taken each Scripture's overall message and summarized it as a single phrase to best express it's meaning. We have heard testimonies from thousands of people all over the world who have had a life-changing encounter with God while experiencing the message found in Father's Love Letter. Since 1999, this message has been downloaded from our website in 99 languages from people in almost every nation. It has also appeared as full page newspaper ads and has even been delivered home to home in entire countries . 

Visit http://fathersloveletter.com/index.html to look at this video and other resources.

transitioning to a missional church without killing your church

Mike Breen from 3dm ministries, leads a 55 minute training session on tranisitioning to a missional church.  
He discusses how congregations should be both attractional and missional.