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“When does your church meet?” “Our missional community celebrates together on Sunday nights.” “Why Sunday nights?” The Acts 13 Network is building from the ground up in an intentional way. We are meeting on Sunday nights because it is, quite simply, the most strategic time to gather.  Sunday mornings are a tradition in the West.  There is nothing in the Scriptures that commands the people of God to gather on Sunday morning. What we see in the book of Acts is the people of God gathering.  They gathered around meals. We are a movement that desires to connect with people who are near to God, who areRead More →

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Many times when someone thinks about planting a church they look to the suburbs. Why? They do this because that’s where the money lives. We are decidedly not going in that direction. To launch a movement launching movement we strategically located ourselves in a college town. Why? Very simply: laborers. There is no better place to raise up laborers for the kingdom of God than the university. Eastern Michigan University is a campus of more than 20,000. These are people who will have an influence beyond the average. Anywhere you go in Southeastern Michigan you find people who are directly or indirectly connected to EasternRead More →

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As we entered into the process of launching a new movement we quickly found out that the name is significant. Initially this was a silly concept to me (Dan).  So, I began reading Acts for some inspiration. In today’s American Christian subculture Acts 2 is held up as the model church community. You know what? It sounds really nice. However, this church ignored the Jesus mandate to ‘go’. When persecution hit, they finally went. I am glad they did because some of them went to a city called Antioch (Acts 11)… 19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveledRead More →

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Amy, Ethan, Libby, and I are thankful that Grace Chapel and the Midwest Presbytery are sending us to follow what God is calling us to to in Ypsilanti, MI. It’s been a two year process of God pushing, pulling, and prodding. We have had to look, listen, live, and learn. Ever since we joined the staff of CRU I (Dan) have been dreaming about a movement in a college town that mobilized the whole community. Now, God has opened the way for us to engage in this dream. What would it look like for representatives of Jesus to live together in community and invite peopleRead More →

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I was in a great conversation with some friends the other day talking about The Antioch Movement. One of them asked me, “So you’re the lead church planter?” I responded, “Lead movement launcher.” The next question was money, “Why not a church?” So if you’re planting a church the end goal is to have, well, a church. A building or something, the focus becomes the Sunday gathering. We are going to try and build a movement that is reproducible and sustainable. The end goal is not the Sunday gathering, but to launch movements into the fourth generation and beyond. The “church” is a means forRead More →

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Have you ever thought about the context within which the Jesus movement began? It began in the Middle East. Specifically, in and around the area of Galilee and then migrated to the city of Jerusalem. Many times we think of these places like Galilee and Capernaum as being little farm towns. The towns while being small were also dense. When you visit these sites you leave amazed at how compact they were. It takes mere minutes to walk from one end to another. The streets are narrow. The houses right on top of another, some times quite literally. Why would God start a movement inRead More →

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“I don’t know how.” Four words that keep most people from doing, well, anything. The fear of the unknown, a sense of unpreparedness, drives us to a place of safety. We decide to not even try. This is especially true when it comes to talking with people we know who are far from God. We are pretty sure we won’t be able to answer their questions.  We have doubts.  We don’t know what to say. What if they get mad? What if they don’t really want to talk about God? So we hide. We run for cover. This is the case and we all feelRead More →

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The Apostle John shares with us a moment that is remarkable from chapter 20 of his gospel, 19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”22 And when he had said this, he breathed on themRead More →