Portable Faith: Taking Faith Beyond the Four Walls of Your Building
Introducing Portable Faith, a book about living community beyond the four walls of your church. Coming April 1st.
This is a book about living and being church.
It’s about freeing God (or rather our perceptions of Him) from the bars of a sixty-minute service and a Sunday prison. And about using sanctuary seat time to catapult our belief beyond the four walls of the church building.
It’s an invitation for people of faith (congregation members or not) to seek God in the open air, to embody Jesus in the streets and to carry faith into the six days and twenty-three hours between Sunday worship services.
* * *
Sneak Preview & Feedback Series Every Monday Starting April 1st
Every Monday for the next 10 weeks of blogging, I’ll be sneak previewing a new exercise aimed at raising awareness about people groups on the margins of church communities. This is an effort to take this blog’s mantra, finding extraordinary friendships, to a community and corporate level.
You’ll be able to read a quick snapshot of one of the 33 exercises included in Portable Faith and provide feedback to help create free resources for churches who might want to customize these ideas to their own community.
Until Monday, here’s a little more about the book, which you can already order here.
* * *
This book is for pastors, church staff, and elders seeking practical ideas that encourage their congregations outward, without suggesting attenders abandon the churches in which they have staked their lives. It’s for church leaders who need a hybrid tool that respects the delicate balancing act of being both a church that calls people to come and a church that is willing to get up and go.
It’s for professors and students who are neck deep in spiritual formation, who’ve realized that the best ministry and seminary courses must have a lived out component. It’s for those who rightly worry that having correct doctrine on paper, but failing to embody those beliefs in practice, is an accidental but equally dangerous heresy.
It’s for those wandering nomads who feel most comfortable outside the church, and those lovely, crazy zealots who find the best visions of God in soup kitchens and mountain hikes, in protests on Capitol Hill or in the lyrics of a folk song.
It’s for tradition lovers, institution haters, and the often undefined groups of the religious and irreverent in between.
It’s for anyone willing to get his or her hands dirty in the work of Jesus.
The call to a going portable faith rises from the New Testament world, from Jesus’ parting instructions to his disciples, and connects to each of us who trek after his footprints today.
Before we get to Monday though, I’d love to find out: what other leaders, books, resources, conferences etc. have shaped the way you or your church look at “outreach” so far?
Todd March 27, 2013 (11:11 am)
Sarah:
I would without a doubt say that the books that have shaped my perspective on outreach the most (besides Scripture) are Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning and What’s So Amazing About Grace by Philip Yancey. Neither of these texts is a typical outreach/evangelism guide, yet both present the reality of God’s work within each of us (unworthy though we are), which in my personal life caused a re-orientation to the process by which I viewed others – my outreach orientation.
In regard to leaders, I think Shane Claiborne and this neo-radical movement have offered up hope of a new generation impacting the world in non-traditional ways. Such a perspective encourages a lived-out Jesus in our community, rather than just a preached-on Jesus in our churches.
Thanks for your work on this!
Melinda March 27, 2013 (11:21 am)
The church I attend is quite new. So really the only book that all of us have done together is called the Tangible Kingdom. I am not sure who wrote it. Some people in the groups really grasped on to it and others could not follow along with it because it didn’t seem to make sense to everyone. I hope this information helps!
Eric Haynes March 27, 2013 (11:25 am)
Right now, a couple of books for us is Scot McKnight’s book, The King Jesus Gospel, and Miraculous Movements by Jerry Trousdale. We have also been developing a hybrid approach to both the attractional model of doing church (getting people to come to our building) and a Go Strategy modeled on David Watson’s Disciple-Making Movements, which is outlined in Trousdale’s book.
Sarah March 27, 2013 (11:36 am)
@Todd, I like that you thought beyond books with outreach in the title. You’re right, what we’re really talking about is lifestyle shift.
@Melinda, thanks. I looked this one up. Tangible Kingdom was released in 2008 by Jossey-Bass. The authors were Hugh Halter and Matt Smay. Thanks for telling us about it.
@Eric Scot McKnight is a definite voice on living our beliefs. I’m going to look up the others you suggested I haven’t seen. Thanks!
Cammie March 27, 2013 (12:02 pm)
Scot McKnight, The Jesus Creed
Jim Palmer, Divine Nobodies
Gary Haugen, Just Courage
Sarah March 27, 2013 (12:10 pm)
@cammie, thanks! And by the way, I thanked you in the beginning of the book! =)
Krista March 27, 2013 (12:14 pm)
I have a couple categories I think of things that have influenced me personally, and helped with my role at our church, and then there are the things that have influenced the church body as a whole here.
Personally I think in regards to books, The Scent of Water by Naomi Zacharias, The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson, and Chasing Daylight by Irwin McManus have all had significant influences in the way I view people, prayer, and leading people to Christ. There are also countless speakers that I have heard that have added color and depth to my understanding and view of the way I personally am supposed to approach, love, and pray for people and my ministry.
As a church body, we are in and have been in a major state of transition for the last year, and will likely continue to be for the next year or so. We are working slowly, and step by step to get us out of the tradition view of ministry to a perspective that outreach is a constant daily activity, not a couple times a year event coordinated by staff. And, in our efforts as a church body and/or staff, we have read Radical by David Platt, Finish the Mission by John Piper, and Barefoot Church by Brandon Hatmaker (all within the last year), and I think they offer a great balance to the concept of going and doing as much as we can, but also the heart behind WHY we are going and doing, and the simple fact that in order to be effective as a whole church body, we have to each step into our own personal role and giftings.
~K
Sarah March 27, 2013 (1:02 pm)
@Krista, thanks for the thorough answer. I like that you have been influenced by ideas and principles which try to embody faith rather than just books about models for doing ministry. There’s something to be said for that.
Josh Cooper March 27, 2013 (1:05 pm)
There are so many…so, where do I begin?
1) Gospel Communities in Mission website – an excellent resource!
2) Anything written by (or conferences with) Alan Hirsch including: The Forgotten Ways & Untamed Discipleship
3) Deep & Wide by Andy Stanley
4) Hugh Halter’s stuff is really good…like Tangible Kingdom
5) See also Jen Hatmaker
6) Ed Stetzer’s book Planting Missional Churches
7) Just picked up Mark Scandrette’s book Practicing the Way of Jesus: Life Together in the Kingdom of Love. Will read this over Spring Break…Expecting good things from this!
8) The Art of Neighboring by Jay Pathak
9) One Of by Alex Absalom is another good book that I would recommend.
Doug Bradshaw March 27, 2013 (1:19 pm)
From the past “Cougageous Leadership” Bill Hybels
Just finished “Deep and Wide” Andy Stanley
Nate Nakao March 27, 2013 (1:56 pm)
I highly recommend stuff by Lance Ford and Alan Hirsch. Our leaders connect with the Forge Missional Training Network led by those guys. Their stuff has heavily influenced our missional community culture. We also have guys from Christian Associates who come and do training events for us.
KC March 27, 2013 (2:11 pm)
Our church, a country church of 50, has worked together through Purpose Driven Life. And, it is a denomination church in which the denomination encourages outreach.
Benji March 27, 2013 (2:29 pm)
Books:
When Helping Hurts by Corbett & Fikkert
Let the Nations be Glad by Piper
Conferences: (haven’t been but heard amazing things)
The Justice Conference
IJM’s national conference (April 6-8 this year)
Leaders:
David Platt
Francis Chan
Rev. Andy Bales (Union Rescue Mission LA)
Sarah March 27, 2013 (2:42 pm)
@josh so good. I am amazed I’ve not yet read a book with a title as awesome as The Art of Neighborhing. Thanks for that one especially.
@doug, interesting! I remember when they gave out Courageous Leadership at…either Q or the Willow Summit, I can’t think which. It didn’t occur to me then to look at it as informing of how we live faith in community as a church, but of course it all ties together in the end, doesn’t it?
@Nate, I’ve met Alan once or maybe twice and have read a couple of his books, but not stuff so I’ll make sure to get it. Also Mark Scandrette has one coming out this year…I think the title is Free. Might be worth a look if you liked the others you mentioned.
@kc, as surprising as it might sound, I never did Purpose Driven though I do (or at least I did have a copy). I’d be interested in hearing how it impacted your church’s outward focus…
@benji, thanks for mentioning some conferences and leaders too. David’s Secret Church really seemed to take in Christian culture and as a satellite event. Would love to hear about other conferences people find inspiring and shaping along these lines.
Sara March 27, 2013 (3:04 pm)
Some of our most influential resources have been Culture of Honor by Danny Silk, Abundant Living by E. Stanley Jones and Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Pete and Geri Scazarro. We have found that when people are moving from a healthy place themselves, they are better able to hear God and respond to His prompting appropriately…and by way of that we are experiencing outreach where He is already working. (Which carries the highest “return”!)
Sarah March 27, 2013 (4:29 pm)
@sarah, so true about moving to health ourselves…then being able to think outwardly with more health. Culture of Honor hadn’t been mentioned yet either. Thanks.
Ray Hollenbach March 27, 2013 (5:09 pm)
Well, now — you weren’t just gestation baby #2, were you? :-) This is a solid concept, and I trust people will rise to the communal nature of your work.
For me, last year I discovered a quiet, non-flashy ministry in SoCal, called CRM (http://www.crmleaders.org/) which is dedicated to local, incarnational, ministry that means commitment to the community (or perhaps “loving your city”). I sat in on a small group meeting in December and was touched by their genuine, relational ways. Check ’em out!
Sarah March 27, 2013 (6:08 pm)
Thanks @Ray. I’ll do that. It sounds familiar. I’m wondering if I’ve run into anyone there before…
Michele March 28, 2013 (12:03 am)
I have a secret thought. Shut it all down. Committees…out reaches…everything. Have just church. And then let’s see what authentically arises from the people who just want to help others without form or committees or clubs…what would happen?
Vicki Hanes March 28, 2013 (12:13 am)
I think my church is still in the “create environments that the unchurched love to attend” mode. We are still kind of “in the box” a little although we have separate outreach ministries.
Our church leadership attends Catalyst West every year. We have read Deep and Wide by Andy Stanley as a leadership group. We’ve read Barna statistics (more individual than a group.) We’ve read Sticky Church and Sticky Teams by Larry Osborn. We are watchers of things being done at North Point, Eastlake in Seattle and Chula Vista, Gateway Church in Texas, and Saddleback, and some of our actions have been influenced by Mark Batterson and National Community Church in DC. We moved out of an owned building and are now meeting in a theater.
We have ongoing discussions on how to best reach people in our community. Looking forward to anything that can help us rethink again.
Sarah March 28, 2013 (8:39 am)
@Michele, I have that thought too. Obviously many people of faith build relationships with their communities outside of any formal system. But then again, a lot of times churches begin programs because left to the default, things just aren’t as intentional and their attenders become unintentionally exclusive. No one takes initiative to welcome those on the margins…
@Vicki, interesting so you’re still putting a lot of energy into the “come here”. Have there been any big efforts aimed at getting to know the community beyond its doors?
Elle Pyke March 28, 2013 (10:43 am)
Our church has worked through the book, the workbook for Hugh Halters “The Tangible Kingdom”. I have found it challenging and thought provoking.
Also the book “The Cost of Community: Jesus, St. Francis & Life in the Kingdom” by Jamie Arpin-Ricci was another game changer.
Our challenge has been moving away from a “come and see” model, trying to attract people to church, rather finding much fruitfulness in approaching missions outside the four walls of church.
We have wrestled through conversations regarding relationship of place (and space) holistic mission and how we live “life to the full” to our neighbors and city. We are a church that is full of creatives and conversationalists, so it has been an interesting journey watching us grow.
Sarah March 28, 2013 (3:51 pm)
@Elle I forgot about the Cost of Community. This whole book rec post is going to cost me a lot of money in books… ;) Thanks!
Nate Nakao March 28, 2013 (3:25 pm)
@Sarah, Stuff’s not a book. Haha! I was just referring to his stuff in general. Specifically, I would probably recommend The Forgotten Ways to church leaders and Right Here Right Now to general congregants. Right Here Right Now serves as something of a primer for apostolic missional thinking, so if you’ve dabbled a bit in some of those ideas (cultural distance, APEST, apostolic environments, etc.), Right Here Right Now might be a bit redundant.
Sarah March 28, 2013 (3:49 pm)
@Nate Hahaha. I thought you meant he wrote a book on like, simplicity or freedom from possessions, called STUFF. I love that I’m now projecting new titles onto authors for them. =)
An Excerpt From Portable Faith, Which Releases Monday March 29, 2013 (1:08 am)
[…] can read more about Portable Faith, which releases Monday, here. Or go straight to Amazon and see for […]
It's Friday, But Sunday's Coming - Watch the Tony Campolo Sermon This Good Friday March 29, 2013 (8:57 am)
[…] Tony Campolo has made a dear contribution to my life for many years, first as a speaker and friend of my alma mater and then as a veteran of faith who intentionally invests in young leaders like myself. I’m honored he endorsed my book that comes out Monday. […]
Wes March 29, 2013 (3:24 pm)
For almost one year, I attended Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach Gardens, FL. This is the first church I’ve been to that, apparently annually, calls the entire church to fast and pray for 21 days. They have many outreach things going on, and I think that they started from seeing the region’s needs, first and foremost. Rather than saying “what can we do to get people in the door?” I think they were asking, “what are the needs, and how can we fill it?” When other folk (like myself) saw what they were doing, I just wanted to participate.
Carrie March 30, 2013 (9:51 am)
I just began Jim and Casper Go to Church by Jim Henderson. Two chapters in I am already amazed at what is being pointed out about church. I also believe that ministry is about listening to what others are doing and how it’s making a difference in their community.
So excited about this new venture!
Hilary March 30, 2013 (6:33 pm)
Two I can add:
– Tracey Lind, the Dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland. I don’t know if she’s got a book or not, but I heard her lecture once about how the church as traditionally be inward looking, but how we should really look at it as a Piazza. How does it serve the neighborhood – how are we hospitable. I have my notes from her lecture, if you’d like to see them!
– Elizabeth Drescher’s book, Tweet if you Heart Jesus. A sort of tongue in cheek book about how churches can effectively use social media.
Rik Hilborn March 30, 2013 (9:02 pm)
Hope I’m not too late. I’ve seen so many books I want to pick up now thanks to this discussion! For me, almost anything Tony Campolo has written or said. Andy Stanley is another one for me. But honestly a huge desire to see people meet Jesus comes directly from my past and understanding who I was and how much Christ cared for me. I know that is how He sees everyone. Brennan Manning and Mike Yaconelli (Messy Spirituality) helped me to take hold of the concept. I’m afraid this vantage point of looking to the future of the church without remembering the cost paid on our behalf is a tragic neutering of the Gospel.
Amy Jones March 31, 2013 (9:07 pm)
I think I have some books, I may be reading in the near future. Some of the books that have influenced my view of outreach include any of Ed Stetzer’s on cross-cultural ministry or missional churches, Phillip Yancey’s “What’s So Amazing about Grace”, Charles and Win Arn’s book “The Master’s Plan for Making Disciples”, Frances Chan’s “Crazy Love”,and Alan Roxburgh and Fred Romanuk’s “The Missional Leader.” People like Andy Stanley, John Piper, those involved with the Justice Conference (Dr. John Perkins, Stephan Bauman, Lynn Hybels, and many others), World Relief partners, and other local leaders reaching out in our community locally have had an impact on our church. Conferences include the Justice Conference, International Mission, and Renovare.
Sarah April 1, 2013 (7:47 am)
@Wes, that sounds like a good question… Thanks.
Thanks @Carrie.
@Hilary, thanks! I’ll see if I can find Tracey’s talk online anywhere.
Thanks @Rik. I think Yaconelli’s book impacted the constructs church people had in their minds when looking at spiritual growth.
Thanks @Amy. I hadn’t given a lot of thought to how Renovare might influence outreach by way of living practices of justice, for example.
Church Burns Down and Decides Not To Rebuild Building April 1, 2013 (9:40 am)
[…] I’ll be sharing a new exercise from the book every Monday for the next 9 weeks. You can also check out the reader comments from last week’s post, where people shared books that had been influential in shaping their ideas about […]
Teresa B Pasquale April 3, 2013 (9:04 pm)
This is a delayed response but I actually have had my answers (which came rather quickly) on my notepad of my iphone since the day you posted….it just took me this long and 5 projects finished to get it from iphone to keypad to post :).
!. Anything by Richard Rohr: his books articulate a Franciscan ethos of world as church and brings my favorite elements of contemplation together with the need for action in and with the world to have fully formed faith and deep intimacy with other people
2. UnChristian: because it conceptualizes all the things which have put me off church in the past and define the ways in which people in this place and time see religion, faith, spirituality …and takes all the information and synthesizes it down to a concise package of data to reflect on and to utilize to inform creating church and worship experience for others
3. the big book/12 step model of faith materials: because I have learned so much from the woundedness of addiction (and related so well to it as a trauma survivor in recovery from ptsd–my own roundedness) about the depth of the spiritual path created for people in the 12 steps and how this humble path can take people to deeply spiritual and resonant places; also working in the largest recovery community in the USA it is necessary to understand the culture of that to be able to adequately feed the spiritual community I serve
Those are the elements that come to mind as overarching themes…besides that there are so many bits and pieces from other sacred and micro-church communities I have found, practices of intimate community and how people relate to it, and encountering others with similar passions for ministry…
It is quite a blessed journey; this sacred space of calling and finding the places in the world and others that feed that call.
Teresa B Pasquale April 3, 2013 (9:08 pm)
Oh and two books I am loving right now:
Christianity After Religion: The End of CHurch and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening by Diana Butler Bass
and
An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor
team fortress 2 item hack November 27, 2013 (2:37 pm)
Heya are using WordPress for your site platform?
I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and create my
own. Do you require any coding knowledge to make your own
blog? Any help would be really appreciated!
http://afreetarotreading.blogspot.com January 9, 2014 (5:23 pm)
Tarot is not utilised to make a decision your big daily life decisions and solution your basic ‘yes/no’ queries as numerous of you may possibly feel, Tarot need to be utilised as
a manual to help you make the decision by yourself This is why the concern becoming asked in a tarot looking through is of significantly significance.
There are truly two different kinds of Tarot readings:
Open up Readings and Question Readings
Open Readings:
Open up reading through just signifies the tarot studying will handle bigger aspects of your existence,
not for smaller concerns or to reply certain queries.
This is typically conducted when moving into
a new chapter of your daily life, such as: Commencing a new
family members, Obtaining married or graduating from college.
Open up readings can be directed for a specified
subject, e.g. Well being or Associations and so on.. To aid the studying
go in that course and give you a basic thought of what is going on at that stage in
your daily life and to information you to make the right selections.
Concern Readngs
Concerns readings are almost the exact reverse of open up readings.
Query readings address a distinct issue or facet in your existence.
As pointed out previously mentioned, it is not supposed to reply
your question with a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’ , but to manual you in a direction to make the determination for your self.
This delivers again the notion of how essential the query
becoming questioned is.
The very best way to outline how a tarot reading through operates, is to knowledge
it for yourself. We are below to educate and supply individuals with a new expertise.
Encounter your free of charge tarot studying by clicking here: http://afreetarotreading.blogspot.com
Need for Speed Rivals keygen January 25, 2014 (9:30 pm)
Need for Speed: Rivals mettra en vedette un jeux similaire à un besoin de 2010 Need for Speed:
Hot Pursuit titre dans la franchise Need for Speed avec des voitures
exotiques et de la police poursuites à haute vitesse.
Les joueurs prennent le rôle d’un coureur ou un flic,
avec de chaque côté de la loi offrant son propre ensemble
de défis, les risques et les récompenses. Rivals mettra en vedette onze gadgets évolutifs tels
que les PGE, ondes de choc et la possibilité de faire appel à des
barrages routiers. Le jeu se déroule dans le une ville nomme ‘Redview County’,
une zone de monde ouvert qui est l’hôte de
déchets entre police et aux voleurs. Le monde ouvert mettra en
vedette une structure similaire à un besoin de 2012
for Speed: Most Wanted, avec plusieurs sauts, des pièges de vitesse et les voitures à débloquer.
miley cyrus sex tape March 17, 2014 (1:02 am)
Nothing at all shows every day life a lot better than miley cyrus sex tape, and I mean nothing.
It’s been explained in which the thing inside modern society that may make it through any nuclear attack is miley cyrus sex
tape. That is completely wrong, actually cockroaches usually are the sole thing which could survive a new nuclear
attack. Indisputably we have a link. Just how do this specific be
defined? Certainly interest will certainly sooner or later get rid from
your effective influence associated with miley cyrus sex tape, but is not just before
we all visit a standardised commercial policy for all. What everthing passes down for you to is money.
Capitalists appreciate miley cyrus sex tape.
www.elharo.com July 13, 2014 (4:31 pm)
Hey there, You will have completed an admirable job. I most certainly will definitely yahoo this along with my estimation advise to my local freinds. I think they’ll be benefited from this fabulous website.