MCN Report on the Mission America Annual Meeting

This past week, Monday - Thursday James and I were in Kansas City MO, for the Mission America Annual Meeting.

Mission America is a network of over 450 evangelical denominations and parachurch ministries, many with a national or global presence. It was encouraging to be around a lot of folks who have spent many decades serving Jesus, in ways that have significantly impacted countless lives for Jesus' kingdom. It's cool to find out that these national and global leaders are really just humble servants of Jesus. Just like it should be!

I was there also for the Loving Your Communities To Christ (LC2C) initiative, representing Newton, Kansas and all small towns for that matter!

Misson America has committed resources to help the movement of prayer, care, share in a small group of the pilot cities. Newton being the only small town with a focused pray, care, share strategy is being considered for Pilot City status. I have taken first steps for application, and met with Mission America leadership while at the conference, and they are interested in Newton being a Pilot City - the first small city ever with such a distinction - and helping us take "next steps" toward being a model other smaller communities can learn from. Our next step will be to send a letter from the board officially asking to be a Pilot City.

It was great to be in a LC2C workshop track that focused on learning how to collaborate and develop partnerships in your city. Led by seasoned pros Phill Butler and Bill Sunderland from visionSynergy, this was a very practical time of hearing about time-tested principles of working together. Awesome stuff! Many good ideas.

If was definitely a benefit for me, as we work in the greater Newton area to call the church together - to love and bless the city and it was inspiring to be around others who are doing the same kind of kingdom work in their cities - all of us talking about the successes and the struggles.

Well, there's a little update for you all.