In today’s ever-changing cultural landscape, we are being invited to listen more closely, discern more faithfully, and join more fully in the mission of God.

The Missional Initiatives Team has developed an eight-module learning series focused on key shifts needed to form emerging leaders and to lead faithfully in our unique neighborhoods.

We partner with churches, leaders, and regions by offering:

• Teaching and facilitated dialogue
• Coaching and ongoing support
• Practical resources for discernment and mission

This learning tool will include webinars, workshops, one- to two-day seminars, coaching, and more. It has been designed to foster creativity, while keeping contextual expression in view, recognizing that each community will live this out in its own distinctive way.

Created with flexibility in mind, the series can be adapted to a variety of schedules and settings and is typically completed over 24–30 months.

For more information, contact Cam Roxburgh or Deb Judas.

The 8 Shifts

From Empire to kingdom

from our agency to god’s agency

from strategy to discernment

from doing for to being with

from programs to practices

from doing evangelism to being evangelistic

from fences to tables

from buildings to neighborhoods

The Foundational Shifts

From Empire to Kingdom

After decades of being shaped by leadership-driven, growth-focused, and efficiency-centered approaches, we now see how subtly these models have displaced Jesus’ call to seek the Kingdom above all else. As we move from an empire mindset to the Kingdom of God, we will examine how power, control, and results-driven ministry distort the heart of the Gospel. This shift invites into a renewed vision of leadership, trust, and faithfulness rooted in Matthew 6:33 and God’s agency rather than our own.

From Our Agency to God’s Agency

We sometimes assume that living missionally means doing more and making things happen for God. Missional living, however, does not start with us but with God’s presence and activity in the world. When we shift from our agency to God’s agency, we recognize that God is not inviting us to accomplish things for him but to join in and bear witness to what he is already doing. This shift is a quiet, yet fundamental, reorientation that helps us notice and respond rather than produce.

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From Strategy to Discernment

This shift contrasts strategy-driving ministry with a discernment-led approach rooted in attentiveness to God and place. Rather than relying on human agency and predefined strategies, we will look at the posture of discernment as a communal practice to hear where God is already at work and discover how to step forward together in faith, trusting God’s guidance and grace along the way. We will look at formative practices, such as “dwelling” in Scripture and our neighborhood, listening deeply to people and to the Spirit before forming plans.

From Doing For to Being With

This shift contrasts common Christian responses of doing for, doing with, and being for with the often-missing posture of being with. While action and advocacy matter, Jesus’s incarnational model shows that being present, relational, and attentive is central to faithful witness. In a culture driven by efficiency and problem-solving, the Gospel invites us to see the deeper issues, such as broken relationships and isolation. Ultimately, the call is to discern what God is already doing and to join in through a posture of presence that reflects God’s Kingdom.

From Programs to Practices

This shift invites us to move away from efficient, results-driven church models toward slower, relational, Spirit-led ways of being. It calls us from performance to formation, from activity to apprenticeship. Rather than eliminating programs, we are reorienting our focus: to be formed into the likeness of Christ. We engage in spiritual practices that shape us over time and help us discern where God is already at work and how we might john him there.

From Doing Evangelism to Being Evangelistic

This shift encourages us to see evangelism not as program, event, or technique but as a way of life, both individually and corporately. Instead of relying on strategies to produce results, we embody the good news of Jesus through everyday presence, faithful relationships, and quiet obedience. To live evangelistically is to let our corporate life and our individual lives speak—trusting that God is already at work and that he alone is responsible for the outcome.

From Fences to Tables

Living missionally means being centered on the Gospel—the good news that Jesus is Lord and all are invited to call upon his name. We engage others not from a posture of fear or self-protection but from a place of abundance. We lead with love and invite those we encounter into fellowship and community. To follow Jesus, we turn the fences that divide and stratify into tables where our neighbors are welcomed. Tables are places of fellowship, not division, and extend God’s mission. The Lord’s Table embodies hospitality, openness, and generosity, inviting us to live in the same way. This shift shows us what mission looks like when it is embodied.

From Buildings to Neighborhoods

This shift is embedded in all the others, as it invites us to discover and participate in what God is doing ahead of us in our neighborhoods—not just our buildings! We begin to pay attention to what it means to be good neighbors, to be with and love our neighbors, and in so doing, we discern and bear witness to the Kingdom of God come near. With Scripture, stories, examples, and practices, this shift helps us discern why and how every follower of Jesus is called, sent, equipped, and empowered to join the Spirit on God’s mission in their neighborhoods.