Assuming we have discerned the place God is calling us to, the following 5 issues should be discerned as each group forms. Each one of these issues takes discernment as well as much prayer and seeking God for guidance. I take it for granted that each church planter is seeking God and listening to the gifts in community locally with people who already know them (Although JR has reminded me that I should not assume – instead we need to be intentional about that – Amen JR).
1.) DISCERN THE 3 (4 or 5) LEADERS. We (our church body) must discern the team of leaders who will be responsible for leading the theological integrity of this new community. This will be a team of leaders (as opposed to single superstar entrepreneur) who are on the same page philosophically, who will be bi-vocational, who will compliment one another in their giftings (APEPT), who have proven themselves in character and theological integrity so as to lead a community. Such a multiple bi-vocational leadership pushes the church outward instead of inward. Once assembled they will model THE 3 (4-5), THE 12, THE 120 seeking to build a strong shepherd/elder leadership who then they each shepherd 3-5 people. Together we learn the ways of “revolutionary subordination” – where God inhabits every conflict for the growth and furtherance of this community into the center of what He is doing in the community.
2.) They must then LAND (as opposed to a “Launch”). They will have to get jobs, places to live close enough together, start a small rhythm of life, a worship gathering, a communal meal, teach the children. Luke 10:17 tells us to “go eat there” – have a regular meeting with Jesus to be sent by Him (verse 1) from and return to (verse 17) to be grounded in Incarnate Christ. We enter not from power, but from humility …the goal is to become imbedded in sustainable and engaging ways of life with our surroundings.
3.) EXEGETE THE COMMUNITY (as opposed to doing a market survey) Again following Luke 10, we look for places to bless which usually means looking for the poor. We look for persons of peace (you will need relationships). We seek out the poor where God is working among the “poor in spirit” disenfranchised from the structures of power. Here we can find God at work and the harvest. Here we can learn about the Kingdom. We enter a community not to market, not from power, but meekly to discern where the hurting are.
4. TEACH MISSIONAL RHYTHMS. (As opposed to attractional events) We learn to inhabit and live among the places God has put us. We learn how to listen, pay attention, and take notice of those in our path as places where God is already working. We set places where we regularly visit same time same place every week. We seek out a time every month/week to be present among the poor (of all kinds). ALL WITHIN THE DAILY RHYTHMS OF LIFE (Luke 10.3 says “on your way,” 10.7 “remain eating and drinking”). We work not to build an evangelistic organization to individuals, but a missional way of life where God is at work. Luke 10:2 – the harvest is plenty; all we need is laborers out there.
5. PREPARE FOR A SUSTAINABLE WAY OF LIFE OVER A LONG PERIOD OF TIME. (as opposed to projected growth and financial sustainability after three years). EXPECT GROWTH TO BE SLOW, BUT OF MIRACULOUS VARIETY. YOU MAY START WITH 10-20 PEOPLE, EXPECT NO SIGNIFICANT NUMBERS FOR THE FIRST FIVE YEARS. IT TAKES FIVE YEARS TO BUILD A MISSIOANL PRESENCE. BY THE FIFTH TO EIGHT YEAR, GROWTH WILL HAPPEN.
David Fitch hits a home run when describing the unique approach of planting missional (Christian) communities, different from planting a more attractional church style.
The beauty of N.T. Wright is that for some he sounds like a milquetoast liberal and for others this will sound alarmingly fundamentalist. He must be doing something right. (HT: JR Rozko)
If you are part of a church that is thinking of starting a third place, and you have ended up on this site as part of your research (this happens for us now and again, it seems), allow me to suggest that you consider not starting a third place if any of the following things apply to you:
If there is already a third place in your neighbourhood.
If you are thinking of designating a room(s) in your church building for the third place.
If you are planning to create a third place as a way to evangelize, or grow your church.
If you are planning for this to be a place that is seldom/rarely open (ie. one evening per week).
If you think this will make you a bunch of money to fund your church.
If you think this is the new model for missional church… the next thing to do in church… everyone’s doing it.
If you have a hard (impossible?) time with living in tension.
If you feel the need to see results (quickly?) in terms of the number of people who join your church, find Jesus, etc. through the third place.
If you are not completely aware of the neighbourhood you are wanting to start the third place in. Do your homework. Live there for a few years.
If you have not gone through a process of discerning what the Spirit of God is up to / creating /doing in your neighbourhood.
It may sound silly, but I can’t tell you the number of church leaders who have approached us to “learn the ropes” and more than one of the above applied to them.
If you would like to arrange a time to chat with us further about third places, mission, or neighbourhood engagement, drop us a line any time: info@frwy.ca, or consider coming to our Cultivate Learning Party on Saturday, March 20 in order to spend the day learning alongside us.
Great thoughts by Pernell Goodyear on how (not) to start a 3rd place in relationship with your church and neighborhood.
I’d also suggest learning the early story of Church of the Saviour in Washington DC, written by Elizabeth O’Connor, which began as a coffeehouse just after WWII and grew into a network of mission churches.
Martin Luther King Jr. was an extraordinary person. Not perfect but nevertheless, extraordinary. While we remember his legacy again on this day…let’s not make the mistake of forgetting the God behind this extraordinary man.
It’s way too easy to talk about MLK because so many people and groups of people want to own him as their own. But they often don’t want to take ALL of him. At the core of his life, Martin Luther King Jr. was a follower of Jesus Christ. His faith in Christ informed all that he sought to do as a civil rights leader.
My friend Eugene writes an excellent story of Martin Luther King today, calling us to remember not just the pithy quotes, but the character behind the man who inspires us to be greater than we are.
The whole purpose of spiritual direction is to penetrate beneath the surface of a person’s life, to get behind the façade of conventional gestures and attitudes which one presents to the world, and to bring out one’s inner spiritual freedom, one’s inmost truth, which is what [Christians] call the likeness of Christ in one’s soul. This is an entirely supernatural (spiritual) thing, for the work of rescuing the inner person from automatism belongs first of all to the Holy Spirit. (Thomas Merton)
And another statement:
Spiritual direction is the process of helping every believer realize her or his own soul freedom and to help everyone accept the responsibility of developing a relationship to God through Jesus Christ while in community. Some spiritual guidance practices that strengthen that relationship include spoken and extemporaneous prayer in formal and informal worship; participation in challenging learning communities; dialogue on scripture, faith practice, and mission; personal study and interpretation of scripture; silence, meditation and use of the labyrinth in some associated churches. (Rev. Catherine Fransson, Seattle First Baptist Church, American Baptist)
Spiritual direction is not the same as therapy or counseling. While at first glance counseling and spiritual direction may seem similar, It is important to recognize some of the distinctions.
1. Spiritual Direction assumes relative emotional and psychological health whereas therapy assumes issues to be worked through.
2. Spiritual Directors will share from their own life experience and sojourn whereas Counselors guard against such disclose.
3. In Spiritual Direction the goal is to learn to dance with God, hearing God’s voice and seeing God’s activity in the directee’s life whereas the goal of therapy is to regain health so as to function productively as a member of society.
4. Most Spiritual Directors are not not licensed and trained counselors, nor do they claim to be therapists. Though at times, I will work with a person who is seeing a counselor while they are seeking spiritual direction.
For the past months, I’ve received spiritual direction and have also been blessed to find a soul-friend in the Celtic style. I highly recommend these practices and hope you can find someone to help you on your journey also.
Jason Francis passed away earlier today. I never did meet Jason, but we had many friends in common, attended sibling churches in the Vineyard movement (Jason was at Seattle Vineyard for years), were similar in age and life stage (he was 37, married with two kids), and everybody that I know who knew Jason loved him and spoke highly of him.
Just three months ago, Jason had a stomachache and when it was diagnosed, he found out that he had an aggressive cancer. Despite treatment, he has left us.
This morning when I learned of his passing, I was praying and reflecting on the difficulty of this transition. A friend of mine wrote me on twitter about Jason, and she said this about him:
Thanks brother. It’s a deep loss b/c he was a man who loved deeply.
At first, I read that differently. I read “he was a man who was loved deeply”, and then I reread it. That description is profound.
He loved deeply.
Jason’s life became a centering point for me today. At first, I thought it would be good for me to try to love deeply today, but that seemed misaligned.
I honestly don’t think that would be the description placed upon me today, but I can’t imagine a better epitaph than this. I want to be known as a man who loved deeply.
So then I thought about this, all day: What would it take for me to become more and more capable of loving deeply? What has to change about my life, my time, my personality, my priorities so that when my time comes, my friends and family will describe me that way?
I have ideas about what this means for me, and no easy changes, but … are you a woman or a man who people will describe in this way? Are you satisfied with that description of your life? If not … what needs to change in order for that to be true about you?
Godspeed, Jason. I hope to say that you’ve taught me well.
I met today with three of the fine folks at One Day’s Wages, a Seattle-based non-profit which is generating a global grassroots community to end extreme poverty.
Last November, I blogged and posted a link to the launch video for the group (watch it if you haven’t already, or watch it again if you have :-)). They have gotten a great deal of momentum in the past several months, and have recently announced their first funding grant, to enable education for Burmese migrant workers.
I’ll write more here as the results of our meeting take shape, but I’ll be volunteering some time to help ODW’s street teams to spread the word about the agency and its vision. It’s going to be a fun role, and I am happy to support a great team to get the word out about their dead-simple approach to attacking extreme poverty across the globe.
If you haven’t registered yet for the website, create a profile and check out the site – there’s a lot of good information there already.
And, please consider signing up for the Global Street Team if you’d like to make a unique impact on poverty across the planet!
The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Messiah. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Fire and water. Judgment, love and acceptance. I find myself skimming past the scene of the wheat harvest as quickly as I can, but I see and I settle on the elements. I see water in baptism in the beginning and end; I see fire in the middle. The water is peaceful; the fire is terrifying.
I read again, and I see that the story is framed by Luke saying that the people are looking for Messiah, and paying attention to the signs they found around them. John’s message perked up their ears, even if it was hard. The unexpected was at hand. John deflects interest away from him and goes deeper. He’s not The One, but when water turns to Spirit and fire, a swift harvest will happen. Wheat, ground, fire. The people were baptized. Water again.
And now Spirit, visiting Jesus in peace and in encouragement. Father God’s voice lands as well; in the water Jesus has not Spirit and fire, but Spirit and love.
Is love the unquenchable fire?
Is it love and God’s pleasure that separates the shell from the jewel within?
Purify me, Lord. Separate the husk from the meat. Blow away the dust in my heart; as it settles to the ground receive the crop within. Love away all that is not you and yours.
My web-friend Steven Hamilton over at Verve and Verse invited me to group-blog some lectio (meditation on Scripture) with some other great folks at Sustainable Faith (David Nixon’s awesome work). I wrote the attached last night, which profoundly impacted me as it developed..
i hear so much complaining about this subject, i just wanted to lay my practical experience on you. free.
first, three pre-conditions:
1. if you are a very materialistic person, skip this article, i don’t think you are going to like what it says. 2. if you don’t have the music where you want it art-wise, you might want to go work on that, this article isn’t going to help you much either. you will be better off by practicing and studying and working on your music instead. you will need to get the art pretty close to where you want it, before you should worry about making much of a living out of it. 3. determine if you are actually called to be a musician. if you aren’t called, all the gyrations in the world, won’t make it work. if you are called, no matter what you do, it’s going to work. this determination will solve most of the problems you are going to encounter.
assuming these three conditions are met, you are financially workable and you have the music where you want it and you are surely called into the art, here goes, in no particular order as i am want:
I ran across this article on a forum for musicians that I frequent. the advice is helpful not just for musicians, but for other artists who want to make a living at their craft.
Those of you who are pastors-for-pay may enjoy this as well.
Welcome to In the Coracle, Pat Loughery's blog. Make yourself at home, and do join in the conversation by commenting on what you find here.
I make my living as a software engineer and project manager. I have particular interest in social software, social networks, and systems that build relationship between people.
I blog a lot these days about spirituality and spiritual formation, and I have a particular interest in learning from the early Christian church's approach to spirituality and mission.
I'm a student at Bakke Graduate University, studying for a Doctor of Ministry in Transformational Leadership for the Global City.
I'm studying spiritual formation in an Internet-based world. I'm trying to learn from early Christian spirituality's monastic movements: the desert fathers and mothers, Benedictines, Celts, Fransciscans and others, in order to see how they ordered their values and actions to be fully devoted to God's work. Their total devotion to the presence of God was countercultural, that can show us what it means to be countercultural in our wholehearted devotion to God in contemporary culture.
You can read more about me and this blog at the About page.
I found concert work difficult. U Cld never tk eye from camera & were at the mercy of the lighting people, who were usually on drugs. A Lieb 15 hrs ago
fascinated that half my twitter folks thought The Who were fantastic, the other half thought they were putrid. No middle ground. 1 day ago
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I met today with three of the fine folks at 
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