Jeff Vanderstelt is a pastor and an equipper of church leaders. He served in Youth Ministry for 14 years and as a pastor for over 7 years. Presently, he is one of the pastors of Soma Communities, a multi-expression church and one of the founders and leaders of the GCM Collective. Jeff is married to his wife of 17 years, Jayne, with whom he loves and shepherds their three children in Gospel life and mission.

Jeff will be leading a lab at the missionSHIFT Conference titled, "Transitioning a Church to Missional." There he will unpack the principles and leadership qualities needed to move a church family through the process of recognizing God's mission and engaging in it. Jeff will share some of his experiences of leading Soma Communities and how your church can be on mission in its context.

Jeff shares some of his passion right at a well-received session at the Verge Conference:

Ed: Soma Communities is not a typical church. Or the typical name for a church. Tell us a little about the work of Soma.

Soma is the greek word Paul uses to describe the Church as the Body of Christ in and through which Jesus fills everything in every way (Eph. 1:22-23). When we started Soma 6 years ago it was our desire to become the kind of church that fills the city of Tacoma and the region of the Puget Sound with the presence of Jesus in every way through the Church being the church (not just attending 'church') in the everyday.

We started Soma as a Missional Community-- a small group of believers who radically reorient their lives together as Family around the daily mission of making disciples of a particular people group as missionaries, demonstrating Gospel-changed lives through tangible acts of service as servants and giving a Gospel explanation through proclamation as disciples of Jesus.

We discipled and trained others to lead Missional Communities in the midst of life and mission and after about 9 months we sent four teams of leaders out to start their own Missional Communities. This pattern continued... MCs making disciples, training up leaders and sending them out to start new MCs. As this continued, elders were being trained through this process and the collection of several MCs formed new churches. Presently we have about 50 MCs and 8 churches all in different stages of development. These churches gather together on Sundays in three different locations, in two states over four different times for the preaching of the Gospel, equipping for ministry and mission and celebrating and remembering Jesus through song, communion and meals.

A few years ago we changed our name from Soma Church to Soma Communities-- One Body, Many Expressions because we were becoming a multi-site church. Presently, our Gathering Hubs are located in Renton, WA, Tacoma, WA and Boise, ID. We have MCs in many other cities where we hope to also have Gathering and Equipping Hubs. Our long-term vision is to have a Soma Communities Hub in each major city on the West Coast as well as in four major cities inland.

Ed: What do you see in the church that is giving you hope that we are doing better at engaging in God's mission?

I am encouraged to hear more pastors throughout North America ask "How can we do a better job making disciples who make disciples and sending everyone out in our church as missionary people?" It doesn't matter what the denomination or model, this conversation is happening all over the place. It seems that God's Spirit is stirring this up in the church and we are all starting to have the same conversation.

I also am encouraged to see the unity that is happening as such diverse churches are coming together to work this out. It seems that if we can agree on the Gospel and the mission of the church, we are finding ourselves being united for the purpose of the church. Churches are open to sharing their resources and leaders in a way I've not yet experienced in my 21 years of ministry. I also see more churches aligning for the sake of reaching cities and regions together and not separately. It's very encouraging!

Ed: Obviously, the word "missional" is spoken of, used by, and claimed by many groups. Instead of giving another definition for the word, can you tell the readers an example of where you and your wife are seeking to live missionally?

The best expression of mission for my wife, three children and I is our own neighborhood and our children's elementary school. We have called a group of Christians to join us in the mission of making disciples who will make disciples in these two fields. These people have reoriented their lives along with us toward this mission.

This looks like meals together with believers and unbelievers 2-4 times a week; cleaning up the yard of our widowed neighbor next store; serving at the elementary's auctions, community events and after school programs; going through "The Story of God" 1-2 times a year with unbelievers to introduce them to the Gospel; sharing our house for others to live with us and join us on the mission; having an "open door" policy to our neighbors and friends; throwing parties regularly to meet more people who we hope will also come to faith in Jesus; etc... We focus on demonstrating the change the Gospel makes in our lives through tangible expressions of serving and declaring the reason why we live this way by sharing the Gospel.

In this past year, our group grew from 9 to 27, with 6 people coming to faith in Jesus and 5 people trained to lead new MCs. We recently sent out some leaders to start more groups to reach more people. Now my family is leading mostly new believers and unbelievers in living this Gospel-centered, missionally focused life together (all the others were sent out to start new works).

Ed: In terms of missionSHIFT and the Missional Manifesto, what would be a great end-game in your mind for this event and process?

I would love for the church to have a better understanding of the mandate of The Great Commission and better clarity on the term "missional"--t hat it isn't just a new form of social justice in action, but it is getting back to the heart of Jesus' mission to make disciples who make disciples leading to every member in the Body of Christ being a minister and missionary of the Gospel all day long, all week long, all life long. And, I would hope that we would be able to move from theory and talk to belief and action in very tangible ways so that North America might experience in this century the most pervasive missionary movement of Gospel centered and sent people it's ever experienced.

Are you registered for the missionSHIFT conference? You don't want to miss it. Register here.