Creating a movement of missionaries in Nashville.
A missionary on every block, and a micro church in every neighborhood.
We affirm micro church as the most basic expression of the church. When believers work together in sincere worship and genuine community to accomplish part of the mission of God, they are the church.
A decentralized network that serves missionaries and micro-churches.
Core to the Collective is the connectivity offered in ministry hubs that seek to serve and resource the needs of the missionary. These ministry hubs also facilitate connectedness within the micro-church gathered communities.
Communities on mission. The bottom-up model.
Keeping the organic (micro-churches) and the organization (network) connected, tilted toward multiplication, and agile in order to address emerging Kingdom opportunities and micro-church needs.
Learn More
Download the full proposal for Nashville Collective.
Our Distinctives
Laboratory > Lecture Hall
The way of Jesus necessitates life on mission and a follower’s missional pursuits must be experienced firsthand in environments curated for discovery and exploration into the mystery of God.
Radical Lordship > Cultural Assimilation
Helping everyone in our spheres of influence respond to a Lordship encounter with Jesus. Subsequent to a Lordship response it is imperative we curate environments enabling an individual to experience liminality and given an opportunity to discern God’s particular calling for their lives.
Practice > Cognition
We will resist the temptation to reduce the way of Jesus to primarily a cognitive pursuit and/or its initial pursuit.
Embodiment > Memorization
The Lordship of Jesus compels us to daily surrender every pursuit and action of our life to Christ; thereby reducing compartmentalization as we pursue to perfectly love God with equal pursuit of loving our neighbor.
Reproduction > Scale
We desire to tilt our micro-churches toward multiplication instead of seeking one body to get larger and larger. We recognize not all micro churches should multiply; yet, we highly value multiplication in our network’s DNA.
Belonging > Belief System
Creating environments in which people are invited to belong and encouraged to participate on a mission before they believe.
Particular > Generic
Micro-churches and communities on mission must design contextual ministries that engage particular contexts, address unique community needs, and translate into particular tribal cultures.
Prototype > Permanent
We must be willing to experiment, seek continual failure, and agile enough to address current contextual needs without being burdened by legacy fears.
JP and Traci VanDalsem
JP and Traci live in East Nashville with their four amazing kids (Hawkins 10, Coulton 9, Leighton 6, and Findley 4), and their dog Sydney. Through the course of 20 years of ministry, they have served in a variety of assignments in locations throughout the U.S., including Nashville. They were eager to move back to the city and neighborhood they love! JP and Traci have a passion to know and serve their neighbors. You can often find them in a neighborhood park with their kids or on their next outdoor family adventure.
Email : jpvandalsem@gmail.com
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