Welcome to Missional Journey

...thoughts on Missional churches, missional people and how a church planting movement might be fostered in the Texas District, LCMS.

Some have been gleaned from others who are writing, speaking and living with church planting everyday. Some are my own thoughts from my own experience with church planters and missional churches. Your comments and reactions are welcomed.


God's Blessings as you continue on your own missional journey.
Paul Krentz
Mission and Ministry Facilitator
Texas District, LCMS

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Marks of a Missionary Movement #3 - Contagious Relationships

While strategies and plans are helpful, nothing reaches movement status until it spreads through "preexisting networks of relationships." That is the third mark identified by Steve Addison in the book Movements that Change the World.

In his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell pointed out that one of the three characteristics of epidemic change is "contagiousness". Gladwell discovered "the critical role that groups play in social epidemics…small, close-knit groups have the power to magnify the epidemic potential of a message or idea."

That was certainly the case in the early church. By 40 AD, disciples of Jesus likely numbered 1,000 to 3,000 followers. By 300 AD, historians estimate there were 6 million believers, nearly 10% of the Roman Empire. The spread of faith in Jesus was fast, spontaneous and with no central organizing organization! It spread through contagious relationships. We know that it is happening that way in China, India and other parts of Asia. I believe it is beginning to happen in North America again as well.

Several times in the last month as I stopped at various coffee shops in North Texas, I noticed small groups of mostly young people (most everyone is younger than me these days) huddling over their Bibles with cups of coffee, deep in conversation over what they were reading. I don't think this is an uncommon occurrence. In fact, even though denominations and local churches are declining in number, I am hopeful that there are signs that the Spirit is blowing a fresh wind of faith in our culture as young disciples of Jesus are sharing Good News, often in very public spaces.

A few final thoughts from Steve Addison. He states that one of the most important factors in one coming to faith is "a close and positive relationship with a committed participant." That happens in the context of relationships. Malcolm Gladwell talks about the rule of 150...the number of people most of us are able to maintain a relationship with. Each of those 150 have 150 more people. Imagine what would happen if you began praying for God to use you to influence "your 150". What would happen if you urgently asked the Holy Spirit to give you the opportunity to share Jesus with them? Would that work? Think about how it worked here:

John 1:41 The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah."

1 comment:

Al said...

Paul,
Thanks for putting up a link to your blog on Facebook. I like what you are saying. It feels "contagious."

Al