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I have recently had a few people tell me, “Pastors keep failing. I think that God is raising up athletes to be his spokesmen to reach this generation.” Then the names of certain prominent Christian athletes are brought up. Pastors fail all the time. So do athletes. The ones we know about are also celebrities. Christian celebrity is a new phenomenon. It really began with the First Great Awakening. Prior to that most pastors labored locally. Some traveled (the Methodists are the best example) but most settled in for a long faithful pastorate caring for and preaching the gospel to a particular people. In theRead More →

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In the previous post we looked at the necessity of rightly understanding our Christian identity. Now we must ask, what is our uniquely Christian identity? Many times when I think about Christian identity the image of a superhero pops into my mind. Almost all superheroes have secret identities. They go through their everyday lives as mild mannered citizens. Then when a problem occurs they break out of their “mild mannered citizen” appearance and turn into Superman, Spiderman, or Batman and save the day. Their friends always wonder where they went during the crisis. The thing is, this is a terrible image of Christian identity.  Superheroes are notRead More →

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The follower of Jesus is a strange person. He does not fit any place. Jesus told him to “be in the world, not of the world.” What does that even mean? Christians have been struggling with this concept ever since Jesus said it. Yesterday I spent some time with a group of men that I affectionately refer to as The Calvinistas. Our conversation turned to the topic of what it means to be in the world, what is our responsibility as an individual Christian? What about the church corporate? These are important questions because they go to the heart of our mission as followers ofRead More →

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When many people think about “church” they think about a building where people go on Sunday mornings to sing and hear a book report. We want to flip the script on that kind of thinking. For a movement to start, the people of God have to realize that it is people who are the “church” not a building or gathering. Many new churches start with a worship service and build out small groups from there to care for the people that are coming on Sunday morning. We want to start with mission groups all over the place and then, as a result, gather together toRead More →

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At the Antioch Movement we are committed to sending. It is part of our DNA. We are a sending community seeking those far from God. We invite you to listen to this message by Dan, one of our movement architects, to get a sense of why we are so committed to being sent.Read More →

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“And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (Matt 9:35-38) This is one of those “vision” passages that have captured my imagination for quite some time. I remember hearing it for the first time whenRead More →

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We are launching The Antioch Movement with purpose and clarity. The purpose is to launch a global movement of missionary communities that function as ambassadors of King Jesus. We are clear that this movement is to be built by multiplying missionary communities that begin in Ypsilanti, MI and spread to the very ends of the Earth. As we are stepping out into this glorious adventure we often get a very simple question that has significant implications. Why are you moving to Ypsilanti when you only live fifteen minutes away? This question is powerful. It is based in what I call the “Dream of Detroit”. DetroitRead More →

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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 →