If there was an image to describe me 15 years ago, just replace Jedi with evangelicalism…. “I think the Jedi are a massive system of unchecked power, posing as a religion.” – Acolyte quote If you’ve been here long enough then you know I used to write a lot on the whole missional church movement / church planting ‘industry’. It was my wheelhouse some 10-15 years ago. When it became evident I wasn’t going to carve out a space for my voice and expertise in an industry I switched gears. That doesn’t mean I have forgotten this bygone era, especially about the statements I made 10+ years ago, the ..read more

Download My Free E-Book This blog post is part of a series that has been updated and made available as a free E-book download when signing up for my monthly newsletter. This introductory resource is an excellent starting point for those embarking on the journey to anti-racism. The resource contains six small chapters, recommended reading lists, article links, videos and movie lists, and more! Success! First Name Last Name Email Main Main PDF Newsletter Mobile Download Welcome to my series on racism and the church. This blog series, now being turned into a downloadable .pdf, was init ..read more

I have, for a long time, advocating the de-centering of Sunday morning worship. It’s the most cost intensive monument of the church, and one we need to re-think in a post-Christian context. I’m not saying throw it all away, but we should be able to re-think its importance. I have also long suggested cancelling one service a month (or a quarter) as a test to see what might work in your context was a good first step. Well COVID is here and suddenly ALL the church services are cancelled. Now what? What are you pouring time into? What do you value now that you don’t have a Sunday service? If you’r ..read more

My book “Thrive” made the Top 10 Recommended Books on Church Planting from the Send Institute. They build denominational leaders into new ways of thinking on church planting. SEND operates out of Wheaton College, connected to one of the largest evangelical denominations around. I hope Thrive becomes widely read for up-and-coming planters. It was also neat to see how the list looked this year. It’s unlike previous years. More minority authors, women, and a Canadian (me :P). Shout out Daniel Yang for the mention. It means a lot to an indie publication like mine to make such a list, especially si ..read more

What would it look like if we built church planters and leaders to join existing churches in the neighborhood regardless of affiliation? *Originally posted in 2015, edited, and reposted.* I remember when I started my first church plant in 2009. Within a couple of years a ton of new church plants poured into the same place (around a dozen). The eclectic inner-city neighborhood seemed to attract every white suburban church to the scene. Which was fine, the more the merrier. Sadly, something became apparent. Few of the planters had any interest in collaborating with a) other churches, b ..read more

Pastors often ask me for ways to re-imagine and lead change in declining congregations. They’ll ask something along the lines of, “how do you get people to do, X, Y, or Z?” Be it how to build multi-ethnic communities, realize better discipleship, or increase missional activity in the neighborhood, one thing is constant: few of these pastors are hearing ideas for the first time. They understand what’s missing. What they want to know is how to implement successfully (which I talk about in my book, Thrive). Most want change but don’t have the skills or ideas to make it happen. Since they can’t se ..read more

My book, Thrive, won the top e-book cover design for the month of September over at Thebookdesigner.com. Although it’s mostly for bragging rights, winning the non-fiction category demonstrates the quality we were shooting for in production. My friend Riley and I worked on the concept over a month and then had Riley’s friend and (talented artist as well) Ryan Lee put it together. I’m happy the work is garnering some notice. Props to Ryan for the execution! The post Thrive wins best e-book cover (non-fiction) appeared first on Rohadi Nagassar ..read more

***Originally posted December 1st, 2014 and updated with additions. This post was the precursor to about 3 chapters in my book, “Thrive” now available. *** In this post I want to use a model many of us are familiar with to describe how to build a growing church plant. Full disclosure: I’m not a fan of models, they are prone to be turned into formulas or shortcuts. Do X + Y and you’ll get Z. Usually that formula is X = Have a great service; Y = Build great leadership development pipelines; Z = growing church planting movements. If your Z = over 10,000 churches then you can write a book and tour ..read more

There’s a notable theme when I hear stories from folks who find themselves on the outside of community looking in. (This was originally posted in the newsletter and reposted on the blog for public readership.) It wasn’t that long ago when I came to the understanding that despite all of my weird encounters with toxic church leadership, being male meant a LOT bad things skipped me. The same can’t be said for other marginalized folks like queer folks and women. Contemporary Christianity, especially the most popular kinds like evangelicalism, spend a lot of effort protecting the institution and t ..read more

Starting in February, and running every month so long as there’s interest, I’m happy to announce I’ll be running a deconstruction/decolonizing Christianity cohort. The March cohort is now open with two time slots including a morning (for me) to accommodate folks across the pond. I thought about launching this cohort after slew of deconstruction ‘coaches’ started popping up on social media. They offer cohorts but charge a LOT of money. Now, I’m not going to interrogate the validity or qualifications of ‘coaching’, some of it is legit. But I have a big problem when exorbitant fees are charged ju ..read more