Missio Dei Communities | Tempe, AZ

• Chris Gonzalez
• Apr 7, 2010
• Series: Church Profiles
• Categories: Church Planting Articles

Briefly describe your story of your call to plant a church 

I was a college pastor at a church near Arizona State University in 2006 when I went to the Resurgence conference in Seattle.

Ed Stetzer said, "If you don't love the people you are called to reach, you need to either repent or quit." The Holy Spirit really used that comment, and the time there in Seattle with other church planters to call me to church planting. I spent the next two years studying, researching and talking to people about church planting.

What were the biggest challenges you faced in planting your church (and/or currently facing)? 

Getting people to see these two things and actually live in light of them:

1. The gospel is central to all of life. As Keller says, "It is not the ABC's of the Christian life. It is the A-Z of the Christian life."

2. The Church is not primarily a building or a 75-minute service. The church is the redeemed community of Christ living as his missional people in the world.

What advice do you have for men who are wrestling with the decision to plant? 

Talk to and really listen to the following:

1. God

2. Your wife

3. People who know you well

4. Men who have planted already

How did you become involved with Acts 29? What have been the biggest benefits of being in the network? 

Justin Anderson, lead pastor of Praxis Church, introduced me to Acts 29. The biggest benefit has been the brotherhood of other men who are in the trenches trying to plant the gospel in their cities. I can't emphasize enough how helpful it has been to be on a team with men who are planting churches with solid Reformed theology and adventurous missional strategy.

How do you pastor your family? 

The same way I pastor people in our church. I spend time with them, live my life with gospel intentionality with them, pray for and with them, and tell them about Jesus.

Outside of the Bible, what is the most helpful book you have read for church planting?

The Mission of God, Chris Wright

How can we pray for you?

Jesus' Gospel would remain central to our community. The people of MIssio Dei would be freed up by the gospel to live boldly on mission. We would live everyday life in communities of grace.

Church Profile: Missio Dei Communities
Launch Date: June, 2008
Location: Tempe, AZ  

Mission, Vision, Values of Church 

A Body of Gospel-Centered Missional Communities

What is your biblical perspective on authentic community, and evangelism? How is this practically seen in your church? 

We are what some might call "Total Church / Soma Style". We see our church as a movement of missional communities who gather together on Sundays. That being said, we see authentic community happening in the context of intentional mission. We want everyone who is a part of Missio Dei Communities to be a part of a community on mission. We believe the gospel gives us an identity of Family and Missionaries. So we try to live in light of that.

What are some examples of God's grace that you have seen in your life and/or the life of your church? 

In my life: The gospel has freed me up to actually live missionally instead of just teaching about it. Over the last couple of years, my family and I have jumped headfirst into the lives of homeless people. We have learned to live the rhythms of our lives with them, baptizing one guy on our church's one year anniversary.

In our Church's life: We are 20 months in and Kevin, the guy I co-planted with, is heading to NJ in the next few months to plant our first church. I really see this showing God's grace to us that we hold our leaders with open hands and have equipped men to fill Kevin's role as an equipper.

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