Ben Sternke

Field notes on our life in God after Christendom

Missional Communities

Reflections on a Church Planter Workshop

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A couple weeks ago I helped lead a workshop on missional communities for church planters in Pawley’s Island, SC, along with Steve Cockram, Doug Paul, and Brent Barger. (Another one is scheduled for Sept 13-14 in San Francisco. Watch the 3DM website for more detailed info soon.)

It was a really great time of meeting some quality people, talking about the vital foundation of discipleship, and discussing strategy and tactics for planting churches with MCs from the get-go. Here are a few of my reflections from the two days.

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Top Ten Reasons Missional Communities Fail

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My good friend Doug Paul has started a series on his blog on the Top Ten Reasons Missional Communities Fail.

Besides being really helpful for anyone thinking about planting Missional Communities (MCs), it’s very timely for us, as one of the main tasks we are working at right now in our church plant is multiplying: this fall we will go from one MC to two or three.

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Free Missional Community Workshop

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I will helping to facilitate a FREE Missional Community Workshop for church planters June 7-8 in Pawley’s Island with 3D Ministries. If you’re a church planter, or thinking about it, you should come. It will be a great time.

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Why Size Matters in Missional Communities

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When I’m talking with people about Missional Communities, they often ask me why MCs need to be “mid-sized,” aka consisting of 20-50 adults. Why not just add a “mission focus” to a small group and call it a Missional Community?

I addressed this in my Missional Communities Series, but the short answer is that mid-sized communities hit a “sweet spot” of being small enough and big enough: small enough so everyone can be known and cared for, but big enough to do more substantial mission together. Small enough to care, big enough to dare. But are there other reasons? Sure.

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Launching Missional Communities: A Review

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A few weeks ago I read through Launching Missional Communities, a new book by Mike Breen and Alex Absalom. The super short review: it is the single best resource available on Missional Communities (MCs). I absolutely loved it.

The main reason this book is so good is that Breen and Absalom are practioners, not just theorists. Now, as an INTP, I can certainly get excited about a robust and elegant theory! But I shared the frustration of the church planter who wrote the introduction to the book. As he was searching books and podcasts for help on cultivating and implementing MCs, he found

There were a lot of people writing about the social theory and theology of movements and mission, but no clear practices for doing it… It seemed like there were a lot of thinkers who didn’t practice and a lot of practitioners who didn’t think.

The authors of LMC step into this void as practioners who think. Breen practically invented MCs 15 years ago when he was leading St. Thomas’ Church in Sheffield, England. Absalom was there with Breen, and has since planted hundreds of MCs and worked with several established churches at a more strategic level, helping them transition to a MC model. Because of this, this book is dripping with wisdom that comes from the blood and guts experience of actually doing this stuff for many years.

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