My colleague and friend J.R. Woodward, author of Creating a Missional Culture and leader of the V3 church planting movement, was recently leading a â??Community of Practiceâ? â?? a collection of church pastors and leaders working over the course of the year in a peer-learning environment to reframe their congregations toward a discipleship culture.
Woodward rightly insists that discipleship means â??outâ? as well as â??upâ? and â??in.â? In response to a question about the disappearance of pioneering leaders in the church, he began to talk about the emergence of parachurch movements after World War II. â??Parachurch leaders are often the apostles, prophets and evangelists whose voices were not heard in our pastor/teacher-heavy churches. Imagine what could have been if all five of the voices of Ephesians 4 could have led in congregations over the last century!â?
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