Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture
There's got to be more to church than this.
People around the world are seeking a community that focuses more on others than on themselves. Yet most don't know where to start.
Drawing from his own journey, Brandon Hatmaker reminds us that serving the least is not a trendy act of benevolence but a lifestyle of authentic community and spiritual transformation. In Barefoot Church, he explains:
- Practical ideas for creating service-based, missional communities
- How the organizational structure of a church can be created or restructured for mission in any context
- How any church can truly be a catalyst for individual, collective, and social renewal
Whether you are a leader or a layperson, this book is meant to renew your passion for the church and inspire you to take your affections off yourself, place them on people who have nothing to offer you, and lead others to do the same.
1. WHY A BAREFOOT CHURCH: * Doing More * The Barefoot Story * Making it Personal * Foundations for Structure.
2. BEYOND the SOCIAL GOSPEL: * There is no reason for poverty today. We literally have every resource to abolish it. Our only need is the people willing to give it. * The Church of tomorrow
* Hollywood and Justice: Where’s the Church? * Never been more culturally relevant. (Church Growth) * A discussion of changing the posture of church to the unbelieving world through observing the natural “Missional Flow” as discussed by Hugh Halter’s “Tangible Kingdom”
3. THE DANGER with MISSIONAL without MISSION-MINDED: * MISSIONAL JARGIN (defining missional, mission, and compassion). * Missional is not a Fad. It’s Biblical. Service is the key to keeping it outward. * Observing what’s next on the missional landscape
* Why the mission to engage need is critical (a) biblical (b) continuous.
4. BALANCING GATHERING and SENDING of the Church (finding the crisis) * Both/And: Key to our strategy (Hugh Halter) * Our gathering Culture. * Need: Spiritual, Emotional (relational), and Physical – Mother Teresa. * Strategy of Exposing, Experiencing, and Engaging needs in community.
5. TENSION and STRUCTURING FOR SERVING (Compassion Ministry) * Structure of staff meetings * Personnel and Salaries. * Structuring through tension. * The sacrifice of tension. * The difference between self-less service and self-service. * Evaluating our motives. 6. SERVICE-MINDED COMMUNITY. * Mission and staying “sent” * Decentralized leadership * Illustrating the “love your neighbor, serve your city” model. * Balancing Incarnational Community with Missional Community
7. EVANGELISM AND SERVING (Compassion Ministry) * Two Inextricable Links: Gospel and Serving the Poor * Posture of Service and the walls it breaks down * Stories of those coming to faith through service and returning to faith through relationship/service
8. DISCIPLESHIP AND SERVING (Compassion Ministry) * Go and make disciples. What does that mean? * Selfless Service of a Disciple: Serving with a REAL heart to gain nothing. * Obedience, Self-Sacrifice, and Sacrificial giving. * “Nothing of great significance comes without great sacrifice” * The strategy of doing what you least want to do. * Real life transformation.
9. SERVING AND MEASURING SUCCESS * Changing what we evaluate * Faithfulness verses Completed tasks * Trusting God with the Results * People not Programs. * Sustainability: The New Idol * Planting Churches
10. KINGDOM PARTNERSHIP AND SERVING TOGETHER. * What is Kingdom: Really? Do we know? * Keys to the Kingdom. * Non-Profit Partnerships. * Serving Together: Eliminates fear. * Planting Together * Networking Together * Mega and Micro Church partnerships
11. WHAT’S NEXT? * Re-Structuring for Service: Starting Slow. * Structuring for Service: Starting Over. * Maintaining Unity: Serving in a consumer culture without judgment. * Model for Multiplication and Reproducing
Product Details
- Title : Barefoot Church: Serving the Least in a Consumer Culture
- Author: Hatmaker, Brandon
- Publisher: Zondervan
- Publication Date: 2011
- ISBN: 9780310492276