The Missional Quest: Becoming a Church of the Long Run by @lanceford & @bradleybrisco Kindle: $3.99 "Not only are Brad Brisco and Lance Ford great friends, but they are also highly gifted colleagues deeply involved in helping to birth and nurture the missional church in America and beyond. This is a top-class practical resource to help any community live into its own missional future." - @AlanHirsch, author of The Permanent Revolution "The Missional Quest is a practical guide for how to get everyone in your church engaged in the mission of Jesus. I dream of a church where 100 percent of the people are sold-out, surrendered and serving Jesus, and Lance Ford and Brad Brisco show us how to make it happen." - @DaveFerguson, CEO & President of Exponential. Co-Founding Pastor of COMMUNITY, Author of award-winning books including "Hero Maker", "B.L.E.S.S." & upcoming "Multiplier." purchase link: amazon.com/Missional-Quest-B… @ivpress

The Missional Quest: Becoming a Church of the Long Run by @lanceford & @bradleybrisco paperback: $9.88 Kindle: $3.99 "The Missional Quest is a practical guide for how to get everyone in your church engaged in the mission of Jesus. I dream of a church where 100 percent of the people are sold-out, surrendered and serving Jesus, and Lance Ford and Brad Brisco show us how to make it happen." - @DaveFerguson, Co-Founding Pastor of COMMUNITY, Author of award-winning books including "Hero Maker", "B.L.E.S.S." & "Multiplier." "Not only are Brad Brisco and Lance Ford great friends, they are also highly gifted colleagues deeply involved in helping to birth and nurture the missional church in America and beyond. This is a top-class practical resource to help any community live into its own missional future." - @AlanHirsch, author of The Permanent Revolution purchase link: amazon.com/Missional-Quest-B… @ivpress

Disciplism: Reimagining Evangelism Through the Lens of Discipleship by @alanhirsch Kindle: $0.99 purchase link: amazon.com/Disciplism-Reimag…

When someone asks me what got me interested in the topic of #APEST. I shared how I found APEST to be part of the solution for two different issues. Church Planting. When we planted a church many years ago, I realized pretty quickly that I did not fit the traditional "pastor" role. I worked hard at trying to be a better shepherd. But despite all my attempts to sharpen those ministry skills, I knew I didn’t live up to the expectations others had of me as their leader. Instead, I knew I was created to start things, to pioneer, to architect, and innovate. As I began to engage APEST, I realized my calling, or vocation, was much more apostolic. For the first time, I understood how my gifting fit into the body of Christ. Activating all the people of God. I always struggled with how "non-pastors" fit into the mission and ministry of the church. The only lens I had in my early days of ministry was for "lay-people" to become pastors/teachers (like every other pastor and me) or to volunteer for empty slots in my ministry plan. APEST helped me see that the five-fold gifts are given by Jesus to the body, not simply leaders. Therefore, APEST provided a biblical framework to activate ALL the people of God for the maturity of the body (help to diminish the clergy-laity divide), but at the same time, it also provided a way to understand how our vocations fit into the marketplace, or broader culture (help to diminish the sacred-secular divide). Since my introduction to APEST, I would add that there has been a progression in my understanding and convictions. In the beginning, it was helpful to see APEST not as roles or offices in the church, but as individual callings. It was also important to see that these vocations existed not for the benefit of the individual, but for the maturity of the body. Later, with the help of @alanhirsch’s writings, I came to see that Jesus is the perfect expression of APEST. As Alan shares in the book 5Q, the Ministry of Christ (MOX) is given to the Body of Christ (BOX), which results in the Fullness of Christ (FOX). Finally, one of the most powerful aspects of APEST is seeing the gifts not merely as personal callings, but as functions of the church. Ask if the church is to be apostolic? Is the church to be prophetic? Is the church to be evangelistic? Is the church to be a shepherding and teaching community? Of course, the answer to each of these questions is a resounding yes! If this is indeed the case, then there are no better "marks" to help define who the church is and what the church does. If, for some reason, you have reservations about an aspect of APEST, please take the time and do the research. Your church will thank you.

If you want to know who God is, look at Jesus. If you want to know what it means to be human, look at Jesus. If you want to know what love is, look at Jesus—and go on looking until you're not just a spectator, but you're actually part of the action. ~ N. T. Wright

Oh yeah. This will be good. And exploration into movement spirituality and dynamics with two wonder people, Monica & Jeremy Chambers @100movements open.substack.com/pub/100mov…

Come and join missiologist Wes Watkins & moi for a strategic discussion on the importance of rediscovering church as movement in our time. 100movements.org/field-notes…

If you are interested in Covocational Church Planting, join me for a 50-minute webinar this Thursday (Jan 15th) at 6:00pm Eastern time. You can sign up here: covochurchplanting.com @sendnetwork #Covo

The amazing folks at Motus Dei have now released the definitive statement “Reactivating the Church as Movement” in multiple languages. I highly recommend reading this. motusdei.network/reactivatin…

To Contemplate Christ open.substack.com/pub/alanhi…

Clues about the Face of God open.substack.com/pub/alanhi…

Judas, Political Ideology, and the Crisis of Contemporary Christianity: A look into ‘the Judas option’ in our day open.substack.com/pub/alanhi…

Great questions from my friend, @alanhirsch! 👇🏼

Most complexity is unnecessary, but we manage it instead of removing it because deletion requires courage that addition doesn't. ~ @RoyMoran

An important manifesto for our time: ‘Motus Dei: Reactivating the Church as Movement” open.substack.com/pub/alanhi…

I believe I am not mistaken in saying that Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether. ~ Neil Postman

The Libertarian Way v. The Jesus Way open.substack.com/pub/alanhi…

Prophetic Intelligence for Apostolic Architecture open.substack.com/pub/alanhi…

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ~ Alvin Toffler #unlearning #metanoia