This is where it all begins. 

How can you lead your church into ministry that really makes a difference?  This module will get you started.

We will talk about the challenge of leading a church in a post-Christendom world and what kind of mindset we need in order to lean into the ministry God is calling us into.

You will learn the four key practices that will help you and your congregation begin to engage in God's mission, as well as why you need to conduct an experiment.  

Finally, you will make two key decisions to kick off the process of discerning the life-giving ministry to which God is calling you and your church.

It'll take you a few weeks to implement what you learn in Module 02. 

So, in this Module (and the next one)--while you work on implementing Module 02--we're going to focus on the theology behind the Neighborhood Connection Group process.

We'll talk about the purpose of the church.  Guess what.  It's not to provide "spiritual goods and services" to a bunch of spiritual consumers.

The purpose of the church is to live out the mission of God.  And what is God's mission?  It's to restore shalom in the world.

We'll talk about what shalom is and why it is God's mission.  We'll talk about how the church lost it's mission as Christendom began to dominate Western culture.  And we'll talk about the challenge for the church today.

It's important when leading your congregation toward new ways of engaging in God's mission--which often means leading change--that forcing change isn't particularly effective.  It only leads to unnecessary resistance and resentment.

That's why the process of action-reflection is so important.  Action-reflection is a method that invites people to try something out, reflect on it together, and then try something new based on those reflections.

This module will dive into how action-reflection works, why action-reflection works, and the fact that action-reflection ultimately leads to transformation.

Choosing a ministry experiment is the final component of the Neighborhood Connection Group action-reflection process.

Here's the thing.  This experiment may or may not actually be what God is calling your church to do, but it is an important step toward that calling.  
Churches need to try stuff out.  Not just anything, of course.  But something rooted in what has been learned about the community, about God's activity in the community, and about the congregations gifts, passions, and capacities.

That's what the ministry experiment is.  And you will learn exactly how to implement the ministry experiment.  

In fact, there will be two ministry experiments.  There will be a small mid-point experiment and final bigger experiment.

The beauty of this whole process is that it can be continued and repeated over and over, continually learning and discerning what God is up to in your neighborhood and how God is calling you and your congregation to join in God's mission in new and unique ways.