Posts Tagged ‘Shift Missional Ownership’

Stop Setting Up Leaders to Fail

By: Jock Ficken

The door to a vibrant, future church in 2030 swings on the hinges of relational discipleship! Here are 4 thoughts: We’ve settled for a discipleship that looks good on the surface. You can only give away what you yourself possess. Minimally transformed leaders produce minimally transformed leadership groups that result in minimally transformed ministries. And… … Continue reading →

Quick + Crowd = Greatest Impact?

By: Jock Ficken

What’s the quickest way to the greatest impact? For the sake of the Mission of God? Maybe “quickest” and “greatest” are not compatible when it comes to impact. Leaders often equate “quickest” plus “crowd” with “greatest impact.” Particularly if “crowd” was modified with larger or bigger! There’s a growing uneasiness among leaders with this equation: … Continue reading →

Get In The Game

By: Jock Ficken

Get yourself in the mission game if you’re not there already! Don’t wait for all those folks to one day wake up and decide they should ask you about Jesus. You’ll be waiting a long time. (Review our Christendom and Post-Christendom PLI Entry Paths.) It was incredibly difficult when I started down this path. I … Continue reading →

Pockets and Places

By: Sarah Greiner

“I’m in church work so I’m around Christians all day. It’s not possible for me to meet people who don’t know Jesus.” Sound familiar? We often perceive roadblocks to living missionally and feel stuck in the circles of the church world. PLI believes that God opens up possibilities for relationship with lost and broken people … Continue reading →

How to Successfully Invite People to Your Church

By: Jock Ficken

Over the last several decades, churches that experienced steady or rapid growth and people coming to faith in Jesus had congregational members who joyfully invited their friends, family, and neighbors to come to church. Several things were essential: People had relationships with people who didn’t attend a church. They were motivated by the love of … Continue reading →

What if YOU were the Mission Program?

By: Jock Ficken

Which would you choose to do mission: Being outfitted with a “program” (there are lots of them)? Or, BEING the “Mission Program”? My guess is that a lot of us would reach for the program! Ironically… Our trust in fitting into a program tends to run higher than our trust in God fitting us into … Continue reading →

Mapping Cultural Distance

By: Jock Ficken

The PLI community cares about leaders and the future of the church and the sharing of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Its pioneering spirit looks to journey toward new, better horizons. Let me tell you a quick story from lunch at a restaurant the other day and then it’s translation! “I overheard what your … Continue reading →

So You Think Your Church is Failing…What Can You Do?

By: Jock Ficken

80% of U.S. churches… Worship less than 100. Face steady to rapid decline. Possess collective memories of being 2 times or 10 times larger. Leaders and members are taunted with the whisper that they’re failing. Usually today’s realities were set in motion years earlier by… A stubborn refusal or inability to make necessary changes for … Continue reading →

4 Questions Missional Leaders Should Ask

By: Sarah Greiner

Discipleship: Three lessons I learned from playing Simon Says

By: Sarah Greiner