SGN Symposium: Tuesday June 10, 2008

"At the very heart of a missional church is a gathering of people who are concerned with the bigger purpose of bringing God's Word into the larger community outside their walls." — "While small groups have been an integral part of churches across North America for the past fifty years, most of these groups have tended to become affinity and support groups with little or no sense of engagement with their neighborhoods and communities."
- Alan Roxburgh

Exploring Missional Engagement

Mission-shaped groups can be an influence for the Gospel and for the Kingdom within a city or neighbourhood. This one approach (among many) can make a powerful contribution.

With Author, teacher and pastor - Dr. Alan Roxburgh

Other Expectations of the day:

• Understand some basic principles of implementing the mission of the church
• Discover the challenges for mission, and how this can profoundly impact your church
• Come away with frameworks, strategies and tools to help leaders to mobilize the church into the community
• Learn about approaches to help transform the culture of a church to become mission-focused
• Hear Canadian stories of churches moving into their neighbourhoods.

Who should attend?
Church pastors, ministry coordinators, individuals within churches leading the way in being missional, those identifying themselves as: “interested in the 'missional conversation, and want to learn more.”

Location:
Waterloo Mennonite Brethren Church
245 Lexington Road, Waterloo
Directions: www.waterloomb.org/directions.html

Format:
Schedule:
8:30am – Registration
9:00am – 4:30pm, includes lunch
Throughout the day you will experience elements of teaching, facilitated self-discovery within teams/table groups, summarizing and formulating next steps and hearing stories from those who have begun mobilizing the church into their community. Consider the day as a type of "learning lab" for you and other interested leaders at your church on this topic.

View this video:
If you are planning to attend, please view this video with Alan Roxburgh before the symposium.
Three Churches and a New Age Mall (6:32 minutes in length)
Reaching a New Generation Revisited

In the video he revisits the neighborhood that inspired his book “Reaching a New Generation: Strategies for Tomorrow’s Church” and shares his thoughts about discovering what God is up to in our neighborhoods. He stresses the importance of God’s restorative work in our communities.

Want to learn more?
Watch this 30 minute video: WHAT IS MISSIONAL CHURCH? (opens a new browser window)

Alan Roxburgh Interviews Pat Keifert in conversation around the question, What is Missional Church? Pat is Professor of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, MN, President of Church Innovations and an ordained Lutheran pastor. Topics covered include: the difficulty of defining missional, the challenges of leaders and churches becoming "missional" and insights on what it means to live on mission with God. While the conversation is somewhat intellectual, it will help you clarify and better understand our Symposium topic.

Download this article: What is Missional Church: An introduction to the missional church conversation written by Alan Roxburgh. This article will give you a short recounting of Alan’s personal journey, some definition to what is meant by the term “missional” and some major themes and characteristics of the missional church.