Back to the Foundations
Elbows sprawled out on the table, I leaned my head forward to listen intently to everything he said. It was late and most conference-goers had retired for the night, but a friend and I were holed up in the booth of a hotel restaurant, eager to learn from Jeff Vanderstelt.
Jeff had come to Minneapolis to speak at the Desiring God 2011 National Conference. I had been helped by Jeff’s teaching previously, and, by the sheer grace of association, I somehow found a way to that moment as he shared his heart for the local church.
With a contagious passion for discipleship, Jeff said he feared too many church planters were going about it all the wrong ways. He hoped to call planters back to the Scriptures, to focus on the essentials. He elaborated on things he said earlier in the day, during his conference message — things such as:
My observation of most of our church planting efforts is that we identify one person we think is extraordinarily gifted and ask them to go out and do it. But when you look at the Acts account, you never see that happening. You see Paul being brought into Antioch with Barnabas, working in a church, and then they are set apart to go out. Then they get a team, and they plant a church with a team.
He convinced me that the team was vital.
He also talked a lot about “missional communities” …
When we are with our missional community, one of the things we say is: “We want to encourage you to, first of all, embrace the idea that you are the gospel-witness people who are sent to a place so that these people might be reconciled.” I tell all of our leaders to encourage all of their people that the people they live by, or the people that they’ve been connected to, are not a mistake. It’s that God wanted a priesthood there, to proclaim Jesus to them. He’s not wasting his resources. God knows what he’s doing. It’s not a mistake. He is in control.
And also:
One of the things that we teach our missional communities is: live a life that demands a gospel explanation. Live a life that could not be explained in any other way than the gospel. See, [an unbeliever who gets to know us will then have to tell people about Jesus, because they can’t just go on from there and say, “Well, there’s a bunch of nice people, and they really are nice and good, and they do good works.” … They can’t really explain what we’re doing unless they talk about Jesus.
* * *
Cities Church in St. Paul doesn’t look exactly like the church Jeff pastors in the Pacific Northwest, but many of our foundational convictions are the same, partly because Jeff influenced me so many years ago.
This is why I’m excited and honored for us to host Jeff Vanderstelt on November 22–23 for a conference called “Wholehearted Disciple-Making.” This is a conference for the whole church, men and women, members and friends, pastors, deacons, and CG Leaders — it will be a great time of learning together, of going back to the foundations.
All Peoples Church and Saturate Ministries are organizing the conference, but we’re supplying the venue. They are graciously offering Cities folks a special discounted price of $40/ticket (use the promo code: mnfriend). I hope you can make it! And, if you’re interested in volunteering for hospitality ministry, email Carter Franze (carter@citieschurch.com) and let him know! All volunteers will receive free admission.
