2011 National Gathering Testimony: Mission

Andrew Foster Connors: Lessons from Community Organizing for the Missional Leader

[Andrew’s talk begins at: 2:54] “Missional action almost always has evangelical results,” says Andrew Foster Connors in this 20-minute talk on missional leadership, or, as he calls it, “The Pastor as Organizer.” In this inspiring talk, Andrew names five leadership insights he’s gained from community organizing and how they’ve shaped the congregation he serves into more faithful, fruitful followers of Christ. Tim Hart Andersen introduces.

Andrew Foster Connors is the pastor of the Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, MD and serves on the NEXT Strategy Team. Tim Hart Andersen is the pastor of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, MN and serves on the NEXT Advisory Team.

Indianapolis 2011 — Intro to NEXT and Monday Morning Worship

Intro to NEXT Church by Tom Are

[Begins at: 33:56]  The church isn’t dying; it’s changing. God isn’t done with the church. At the first NEXT Church National Gathering, Tom Are identifies theological convictions that ground the NEXT Church movement and calls on the church to find its voice to bring good news in an age of anxiety and transition.

Tom Are is the pastor of Village Presbyterian Church in Prairie Village Kansas and serves as the Co-Chair of the NEXT Church Strategy Team.

Scott Black Johnston, preaching

[Worship begins at: 47:30; Sermon begins at 58:26]  There is much conventional wisdom about why North American Protestant churches are in decline. Scott Black Johnston, reflecting on the prophet Jeremiah, suggests that the church has been sent into exile because we’ve been corrupted by political power. In this powerful sermon, Scott names the gifts of exile and calls us to follow God’s command to the ancient exiles: seek the welfare of the city in which I have placed you in exile.

Scott Black Johnston is the pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, New York and served on the initial steering committee of NEXT Church.