Equipping Leaders for Mission | An advocate and champion for movements of gospel-centered Missional Communities, Verge Network exists for church leaders, students, entrepreneurs, artists, urban innovators, business leaders, community development specialists, non-profit leaders, church planters and everyday leaders – anyone pursuing the mission of God, in community, whatever the context, for the sake of the Gospel.
Leonce Crump and his Missional Community at Renovation Church talk about the joys and challenges of planting a church in a diverse neighborhood in Atlanta.
When Paul is urging the church to imitate him, he's saying yes there is lots of great information you can get out there, but you need a father. You need to stand at my shoulder, because you can't be what you can't see.
What if we took the words of Jesus seriously, and began to live incarnational lives? This is what Sara has by moving to the South Bronx, one of the poorest neighborhood in the US, to live amongst the people who need to see Jesus.
For all of our compassion, we should be seeing some substantial positive changes in the lives of poor people and communities. The reality is that the poor are poorer.
Jesus' method was this: spend time with the few in order to reach the many. Why is it that our churches spend so much time on the many to reach the few?
"We need to take people back to John 1: 9 - The blood of Jesus Christ, God's son, cleanses us from all sin. This is what changes people!" - Dr. John Perkins
What Jesus did with His 3 years of ministry was invest in a few, entrusting the message to 12 men. There was no Plan B to his master plan for world evangelization. There was only 1 plan: Disciplemaking.
"You can't be what you don't see. We get discipleship, but how many of us have seen it last more than one generation? Will we let people imitate our lives? Do I have a life worth imitating?"