The idea of a missional community is we're always on mission to make disciples of Jesus,

and yet we're meant to do it together with others.

And so it's the tension of mission and community together, whereas people tend to swing the pendulum between the two.

Like we're all about community, but we're not on mission to make disciples.

We're all about making disciples, but we're all doing it as individual evangelist. And both those are ineffective and really are not in line with the biblical

picture that you see with Jesus and his disciples and with the early church. So that's really what it is.

It's a smaller group of people, committed to love one another, to be a picture of the kingdom of

of God breaking in as we serve tangibly, and then to be ready

to give an answer for the hope that's in us through a verbal witness, hopefully then making

disciples in the context of community.

Welcome to the Crossway podcast, a show where we sit down with authors each week for thoughtful

interviews about the Bible, theology, church history, and the Christian

life.

I'm Matt Tully, and today I'm talking with Jeff van der Stel.

Jeff serves as a teaching pastor and director of missional communities at Doxa Church

in Bellevue, Washington.

He's also the founder and visionary leader of Saturay and the Soma family of churches, as well as the author of two

books, including gospel fluency, speaking the truths of Jesus into the everyday stuff of life

from Crossway. Today, Jeff and I discuss what it means to be fluent in the gospel, and why that's an

essential part of what it means to live as a disciple of Jesus.

He reflects on his own journey as a pastor and efforts to cultivate a culture of gospel fluency in the churches where he's ministered.

He highlights why the concept of the missional community is so central to how he views what the church is called to be,

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