Gathered and Scattered Identities

Throughout the book of Psalms, David writes about how important it is to praise God "in the Great asesmbly," or "in the great congregation."

I love this impulse of David's--having experienced something transformational in his life, his heart's desire is to publish that experience as widely as possible, in the largest gathering the ancient Israelites had.

Like the people of God of old, it not only makes sense, but is highly important that we have a gathered (and I would add, institutional) identity as followers of Jesus.

Traditionally this gathered identity has been called various things, such as "corporate worship," "going to the meeting house," "Sunday services," etc. 

But this can't be our only "religious" or "spiritual" identity. Allow me to me explain.

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Missional Communities

Pastor Jeff Vanderstelt, of Soma Communities in Tacoma Washington, spoke at the Acts 29 Regional Training event held this past May 3 at Realife Church in Philadelphia.

He addressed a number of topics important for Mercy Hill's effort to plant a contextual, Gospel centered community of faith in South Jersey.

Missional communities have been discussed in a number of different contexts in these pages before. Read about them here and here, for example.

Hearing Jeff in person was a real treat--all total, more than seven of us came to absorb and think through these subjects in more depth. Here are a few things we learned.

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