Mission Lab

Shawn sat down with one of his new elders at his church to talk about his journey into missional leadership. Hear James Moors's inspiring story from living on the streets of Bangor to running a soup kitchen to being an elder of evangelism for a restarted church. 

Hard conversations are, well, hard, but they are so critically important. We talk about the importance of dialogue - both when it comes to life in community as well as discipling others who don't know Christ, offering a few pointers.

We're back again - this time with Camille, to discuss children's programming and what it's been like to provide it during the adult worship gathering.

Shawn shares a few stories he experienced recently about people who were trying to proselytize and witness and reflects on whether these are the best ways to be missional. 

After taking a hiatus for a couple months, Shawn returns and explains where they've been, what they've been up to, and how their church restart and missional efforts are going.

What can happen if we regularly show up at the same place at the same time? Good things. Though we've touched on this before, we discuss the importance of getting into missional rhythms, sharing some inspiring stories about the people we've blessed and drawn into our lives simply by showing up repeatedly to the same place at the same time. 

Meet Jose. He's a friend of Shawn's. The two met while Jose was serving Shawn and his book club at a Mexican restaurant in Bangor. From there, the friendship blossomed - and now Jose sits down with Shawn and shares his reflections on his disbelief in God, growing up in Mexico, living as an undocumented immigrant in the United States, and his experience at Shawn's restarted church.

After "re-launching" our Sabbath gathering service on September 15, we share some reflections on what went down and how it went. 

Shawn shows his "conservative" stripes by sharing some reflections on the message we bear. He notes how when we proclaim Jesus, we're not just proclaiming a shallow and vague picture of Him; we have a beautiful and powerful message to share, flowing from the idea that "God is love," and enunciated through Adventist theology and doctrine.

He also offers a prize at the end. So listen up!

Is doing evangelism or being missional simply about plugging in a canned technique and waiting for people to be converted? For far too long, this is how people have approached evangelism in the West. But Shawn expounds upon how it's not about finding the right method or perfect technique; it's about interpreting the surrounding culture to which you've been sent and, in the Spirit's power, contextualizing the gospel so it looks and sounds like good news to those you're trying to bless and serve.