Stories from the Revolution

Powerful new insights on how to resist the devil

2012-02-06T10:38:00.002-07:00

Too often we separate Scripture and spiritual principles from the real world. As a result, these principles loose much of their power. For instance, James 4:7 tells us to "resist the devil and he will flee from you".

But, how exactly to we do this?

No doubt, James had in mind real life examples of combat when he wrote these words. No doubt, he had seen someone physically attacked and he could picture the one being attacked resisting the attacker. (In the Greek, "resist" is a compound word: anti + istemi. Literally, "to stand against".) Seeing a literal picture of someone resisting or standing against an attacker gives us powerful insights into how to engage in spiritual warfare against the devil.

Here's an example. In this short video, Tony Blauer, an expert in personal self-defense, demonstrates a key skill in resisting. Here are some things that I notice.

1. Perhaps most important is Tony's attitude. Because he is both conditioned and skilled, he exudes confidence. He isn't "quaking in his boots" at the prospect of being attacked. If anything, the attacker is in for a rude awakening. This reminds me of Jesus' attitude during his encounter with the devil in Matthew 4. Can you picture yourself having this same confident attitude?

2. Resisting requires particular skills. In this video, Tony is teaching "Outside 90". What skills are necessary to resist the devil?

3. Resisting requires that we practice the skills of combat. Just knowing the theory isn't enough. We must become practitioners. We know that God is infinitely more powerful than the devil and could get rid of him at any moment. Why doesn't He? At least one reason is that we need an opponent to grow stronger and more skilled. (1 Peter 5:8 even calls the devil our "opponent" or "adversary".)

What else to you learn about "resisting the devil" from this video?

Tony Dale: LK10 adds the personal touch

2012-01-26T07:34:00.000-07:00

House2House Ministries and the LK10 Ministries are two of the organizations serving the growing house church movement. While I (John White) am the Director of LK10, I also serve on the Board of Directors of House2House.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Austin, TX for a meeting of the Board of House2House at Tony and Felicity Dale's home. Tony and Felicity are good friends and we've been involved with them in the house church movement for over twelve years.

In this video, I asked Tony to comment on some of the ways that these two ministries compliment each other. One of his observations was that LK10 adds "the personal touch". And, that's exactly right. I wish you could see what is going on in the Foundations One Courses that just started. These are small virtual groups of 8 to 12 people (we call them cohorts) where people are learning in the context of community. In addition to the "personal touch" of the cohort community, each person receives one on one coaching every other week. If this sounds good to you, consider being part of next round of courses.

Update from the LK10 Equipping Center:

*Two Foundation One Courses are just starting up with participants from Colorado, Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, Minnesota, Florida and Alberta (CAN). One of the amazing things we've learned from these Courses is how significant community can develop in these virtual learning environments. We'll let you know when new Courses are starting.

*A Foundations One Course will soon be starting with leaders from several African countries.

*We've had to postpone the beginning of The Family Blessing Course. We'll let you know the new start date.

The Family Blessing - Part 2

2012-01-16T06:00:00.003-07:00

John White interviews Tim Pynes about the details of his new class that LK10 is offering. The class is called The Family Blessing: Reclaiming the Home as the Center for Spiritual Training.

To register for this new class, please visit this link: http://familyblessing.eventbrite.com/

New Course offered: "The Family Blessing"

2012-01-09T07:17:00.001-07:00

Registration is now open for a new session of our Foundations One Course. For information about this Course and how to register, see the right column.

In addition, we are excited to offer, for the first time, a new Course called "The Family Blessing"which will be led by one of our LK10 Coaches, Tim Pynes. The mission of LK10 is to see "a vibrant family of Jesus within easy reach of every region and people group". This Course is an important resource towards that objective. ("The Family Blessing" applies LK10 practices specifically in a family context whereas "Foundations One" has a broader focus.)

For information about the course and how to register, see below...

The Family Blessing - Part 1

I (Tim Pynes) was in Israel over the summer and one night, in Tel Aviv, I witnessed an amazing scene in the restaurant at the hotel where we were staying. It was Friday evening and the hotel restaurant was packed with hundreds of people of all kinds. After going through the buffet line and sitting down at a table to eat, I noticed a family of Orthodox Jews stand up at their table near me and begin to pray. As I watched them, the mother of the family pulled a shawl over her head and lit a candle. In that moment, it occurred to me that the sun had just set and the sabbath had begun. I turned in my chair and saw that there were Jewish families interspersed throughout the hotel restaurant who were standing at their tables and also beginning the shabbat meal ritual. These Jewish families seemed unaware and unconcerned with the mealtime chatter happening at tables all around them as Muslim and non-Jewish families carried on eating and celebrating dinner together.

I focused my attention on one young boy at a table near mine (he was a red-haired, Orthodox Jewish child with the long curled locks hanging down on either side of his face who appeared to be around 9 or ten years old) and watched him as he stood at attention with his family, focusing his gaze first on his mother as she spoke, and then on his father. As I watched this young boy and his family continue the shabbat meal ritual, I was reminded of this scene from the movie, Fiddler on the Roof.

The powerful and moving scene I witnessed that night in Tel Aviv and this scene from Fiddler on the Roof cause me to consider and ponder such thoughts as:

Imagine growing up in a home where at least once a week your parents took turns to look you squarely in the eyes and speak words of love and blessing over you.
Imagine growing up in a home where at least once a week you got to observe your parents speaking words of love and blessing to one another.
Imagine growing up in a home where at least once a week, you connected on a heart level with your parents and your siblings.
Imagine growing up in a home where the stories of God’s goodness - stories that naturally overflowed from having a vibrant, personal & intimate relationship with God - were shared at the dinner table on a regular basis.

I want to explore these thoughts - and many others like them - and I want to reclaim the home as the center for spiritual growth and development. I long to see vibrant families of Jesus scattered throughout the world; families who are connected with the heart of God and who are being the Church wherever they go, wherever they are. Because of this, I have created a 6-week course titled, "The Family Blessing: Reclaiming the Home as the Center for Spiritual Training". The focus of this course will be on helping you to reclaim your home as a center for spiritual training. By instituting a weekly family blessing time, you will help to cultivate one anothers spiritual life and develop a more intimate relationship with God. You will learn to create a weekly space in the natural rhythm of your family’s life where you connect with one another and with God at a heart level and learn to see one anothers design and glory and call it forth.

Here are the details for the class:

The class is 6-weeks long and begins on January 23rd and ends on March 2nd.
The class is limited to 15 people. The first 15 people to register get in. Once 15 people have registered, we will close registration and create a waiting list.
The cost of the course is $100 per person or $150 for couples.
Every week on Monday, you will be emailed a workbook with your assignment for that week.
Also, there will be three 1-hour conference calls provided for you over the length of the course where you can connect with your classmates, ask questions, discuss what you are learning, etc.
In addition, you will be provided two 45-minute coaching sessions during the length of the course.

Registration opens today, January 9th and ends at 5 p.m. MT on Friday, January 20th or once the class has 15 participants, whichever comes first.

You can register for this course at http://familyblessing.eventbrite.com

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me: timpynes@gmail.com

What happens in a Foundations Course?

2011-12-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

The video above is an interview with Walt Hastings who is one of our LK10 Coaches. Walt has just finished leading one of the Cohorts in our six week Foundations Course and is describing what happened during the Course. (See below for comments from members of that Cohort.)

Five new Cohorts are beginning in January. One in Africa. Two in Australia. Two in the US. To find out more information and to register see the right column. Further questions? Send me an email at john.lk10@gmail.com

John White

Comments from members of Walt's Cohort...

Phyllis: I had gotten God's messages before, but had never thought of it as hearing His voice. I had never tried a dedicated "listening time" before either. So I guess you'd have to say I am leaps and bounds beyond where I was. I'd love to live my whole life as a "listening time"... The class has emphasized for me that "church" is about relationship (to God and to each other) more than it is about worship. Worship flows from the relationship.

Joseph: The class has strengthened my marriage. We have checked in with each using "SASHET", which helps us to state where we are much more quickly. Sometimes we can't put emotions into words but this method helps. The class also has helped me to be more in tune to God and to listen to Him.

Angie: My highlight was meeting new people. I also liked the roadmap that LK10 presented. Doing check-ins using SASHET helped me understand where others are and be more tender toward them. I learned to listen to others, without offering advice. I was able to hear God's Voice every day and journal. I am appreciating that God wants to be with me each day, and that He desires relationship. Observing Walt when coaching allowed me to see a good example of listening well and asking good questions, without telling people what to do.

Troy: I liked the course material, especially how the role of the Holy Spirit was presented. It was great having a coach to whom to be accountable. My coach made observations and asked good questions that led to personal growth. I also like the training options for the future that LK10 is planning.

Raymond: For me, the highlight has been the Skype session with the group. The fellowship with the other members in Skype was so welcome and refreshing. One member came through with some useful info on home churches that he sent to me. It has been a great encouragement to me to have fellowship with others of like mind and desires.

Audrey: I've learned better skills for listening to God. Taking out more quiet times to spend with God, has made my relationship with Jesus seem more real to me... I think that just knowing someone is committed to connecting with me each day (CO2) is pretty great, as well as knowing that I have a non-judgmental ear ready to listen to what's going on with me... When we arrive at our church meeting, I already feel connected to her, not like I'm only seeing her for the first or second time during the week.

Bob: I see more clearly the presence of Jesus in people in our cohort. I have new friends via the cohort. I want to hear what God does in their lives in the future, and to find opportunities to encourage them in their journey.

Youth Ministry: A 50-year-old failed experiment (2)

2011-12-14T16:20:00.000-07:00

Reggie McNeal, author of The Present Future, weighs in on this issue of youth ministry...

We typically hire children's and student ministers to run programs for children and young people. In fact, this approach by the church may do more to decimate the home as a spiritual center than anything coming into the home on television or the Internet.

Reggie hasn't quite gotten to the house church concept (home = church) yet but he's headed in the right direction. Here's more from Reggie...

From Classroom to Living Room

In the new world the place of learning has shifted from the classroom (academic model) to the living room (life learning)...

This shift raises the question of why churches spend millions of dollars building file cabinets to put people in for an hour or two each week (we call it "educational space") when the most effective spiritual formation does not occur in these settings...

This issue in spiritual formation is bigger than just location. It involves a philosophy of where spiritual formation is centered. In the modern world spiritual instruction was owned and operated by the institution of the church. In premodern and postmodern cultures the home was and is the center for spiritual formation...

The typical church family leaves spiritual stuff to what happens at the church thereby delegating spiritual formation to the institution. And the institution encourages it! ... I'm amazed a how our best church families have no clue as to how to have conversations at home about spiritual subjects. p. 88

The good news is - there is a revolution underway. More and more Christians are rising up and saying "No!" to this institution-centered model. They are returning to the New Testament model of the home as "the center for spiritual formation".

And, LK10 is a "community of practice" for these revolutionaries. Here are some ways you can connect with this community:

Two Foundations Courses are starting in January. For more information on what this is an how to register go here: http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/09/foundations-course.html

Also coming in January: "The Family Blessing: Reclaiming the Home as the Center for Spiritual Training". More information to come.

Youth Ministry: A 50-year-old failed experiment (1)

2011-12-07T04:34:00.001-07:00

A recent book on youth ministry by Scott Brown is causing quite a stir. Here's the title...

A Weed in the Church: How a culture of age segregation is harming the next generation, fragmenting the family and dividing the church.

What's the weed?

Age-segregation.

"There is a crisis among the Christian youth. They drop out of church. They remain childish. They are biblically illiterate. The church is losing the next generation.

Church youth ministries are failing to reach children and teens at an unprecedented rate. Depending on what survey you look at, these ministries have a failure rate of somewhere between 70 and 88 percent. We are losing 7 to 9 out of every 10 kids to the world. This is a time of emergency. People are wondering what is wrong with the youth."

What's the answer according to Scott Brown?

Stop age-segregation and start age-integration (especially get the fathers involved).

Our view?

As a former youth pastor, I completely agree with Scott Brown. This is a huge step in the right direction of restoring the biblical values for church and family. My only concern is that it doesn't go far enough. In the New Testament, families didn't "go" to church together. Rather, it was understood that the home, and not some church building was the center of spirituality. In other words, the marriage, and then the family, was the first and most foundational expression of church.

Our motto?

Every home a church.

This is a biblical value that the LK10 Community is seeking to restore. Coming in January, a new course called "The Family Blessing: Reclaiming the Home as the Center for Spiritual Training".

John White

"The end of church planting?"

2011-11-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

I recently received an email from a friend with the above title. It was referencing a blog that suggested that we may be coming to "the end of church planting" by means of the "professional entrepreneurial pastor" (Rick Warren would be the prototype for this kind of church planting).

Here's my response...

Thanks for the article ("The End of Church Planting?" http://mastersfellowship.com/?p=73).

While I largely agree with the author, I want to suggest that he doesn't go nearly far enough. Jason Hood, following an article by David Fitch, advocates shifting from "professional entrepreneurial pastors" to "missionary teams" for church planting. A missionary team might consist of "three or four leaders" (or "lead couples"). This is a good start.

However, the critical issue that is not addressed is the nature of the church being planted. The picture of the desired outcome of the church planting process determines how this missionary team seeks to function. Do they begin to gather people in order to rent or build a facility? Do they form a worship team? Develop a children's ministry? Secure a preacher? Develop a marketing plan? Do demographic studies? Etc. All of these activities point to what is a generally accepted, modern understanding of what a church should be. What I'm suggesting is that this understanding is a major departure from the biblical practice of church. And, that while we are reconsidering "how" a church is planted, it is even more important to reconsider "what" a church is.

In the beginning of the Jesus Movement, for at least the first 40 years, every local church that was planted was Jewish in nature (although not everyone who was involved was Jewish). This is because, at least until the First Jewish Revolt (66 - 72 AD), there was no such thing as a separate Christian religion. Everyone that we would call a "Christian" or a "follower of the Nazarene" was considered part of Judaism. And, implicit in Judaism, was this value: the home, and not the synagogue, is the center of spirituality. Our Father Abraham: The Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith by Marvin Wilson makes this abundantly clear. Every Jewish home was considered a miqdash me'at, that is a "miniature temple". The home was the primary location for worship, prayer, the study of Torah and ministry to the community. (In short hand, we might express this as "home = church".)

The early Christians did not invent house church. They simply build on what was already present. "The Jewish Sabbath celebration provided a pattern for the development of early Christian house churches." (Heidler, The Messianic Church Arising!, p.61.) The key to the rapid expansion of the early church was the fact that there were approximately six million Jews living in the Roman Empire outside of Palestine. (Stark, The Rise of Christianity) Most of these diaspora Jews understood what most American Christians have never considered: the home, not the synagogue, is meant to be the center of spirituality.

Therefore, when Jesus planted churches, He planted a very specific kind of church. It was a church that was centered in the home and that functioned like an extended spiritual family. (And, Jesus did plant churches! See House Church and Mission by Roger Gehring.) And, when Jesus taught His disciples how to plant churches (Mt. 10, Lk 10, Acts), it was the same kind of church. Dare we consider how far we have departed from this picture?

The prototypical example of this kind of thinking about church planting in the New Testament is Priscilla and Aquila. Everywhere they went (Corinth, Ephesus, Rome) a house church sprang up. It wasn't so much that they planted churches as that they understood that they already were a church (a church of two?). And, in each situation, a larger community emerged around them in a very natural way. (Apparently, three or four "lead couples" were not needed. Only one couple was needed which follows the model that Jesus' explained in Lk 10.) What if a million Christian households in America began to think this way?

Two summary statements. First, this way of thinking about church, although often foreign to our experience, is far more consistent with the biblical record than our traditional, building-centered model. We say that "Scripture is our authoritative guide for faith and practice". Are we ready for Scripture to become our authoritative guide as to how we "practice" church? (Isn't it odd that we would fight for this principle of the authority of Scripture in other areas but often completely ignore it when it comes to how we "do" church?) Our understanding of what a church is greatly influences our understanding of how a church is planted.

Second, this way of thinking about church is far simpler, far more natural and far less expensive than the traditional, building-centered model. This way of thinking about church opens the door for both viral multiplication and life-changing transformation.

So, I'm glad that we are coming to "the end of church planting" by means of the "professional, entrepreneurial pastor". But, my hope is that we will soon also come to "the end of church planting" where church means a building-centered, clergy-centered, program-centered organization.

John White

John White
Team Leader
LK10: A Community of Practice for Church Planters

*For stories of people who are "doing it": http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/

In addition to the books listed above, I've also found two books by Joseph Hellerman to be valuable. When the Church Was a Family: Recapturing Jesus' vision for Authentic Christian Community and The Ancient Church as Family: How the Earliest Churches Reconfigured Family and Religion.

Best House Church Resources

2011-11-25T05:29:00.000-07:00

I recently met with a Christian leader working on a national level who is interested in exploring the idea of house church. In his experience, traditional, building based churches had generally done a poor job at making disciples. And, yet, embracing the house church model would represent a huge paradigm shift with many implications. He wanted to understand the Biblical basis for seeing church this way as well as the state of the house church movement. "Send me everything you've got" he said.

When we started on this house church journey in 1998, there were very few resources on the subject. Today, there is a wealth of helpful books, videos and articles. I didn't send this man everything I have but see below for some of what I think are the best resources available today.

In the "Comments" below, add the resources that you've found helpful. Also, I mention a couple of documents that I couldn't include in this post but would be glad to send you upon request.

John White

john.lk10@gmail.com

1. Let's start with a general introduction to house churches in the world today.

"Tidal Wave" video: http://vimeo.com/4521963

"When You Come Together" video: http://vimeo.com/4678782

NBC Nightly News Report on House Churches: http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2010/10/nbc-news-reports-on-house-church.html

2. Jesus' strategy for fulfilling the Great Commission. As I mentioned, Roger Gehring's book House Church and Mission: The Importance of Household Structures in Early Christianity caused a huge shift in my thinking. Many people have developed strategies for fulfilling the Great Commission, but what if we adopted the strategy that Jesus used? Gehring explains what that was. (The book is a difficult read for most people as it was written as a 450 page doctoral dissertation. I've collected the most important quotes in the attachment below.)

(Glad to send this attachment upon request. Just write "send Gehring".)

3. Our traditional, building-centered forms of church are a significant departure from the Hebraic roots of the church. (No wonder they are highly ineffective at making disciples!) The early church was thoroughly Jewish. (Christianity did not become a separate "religion" until at least 70 AD and perhaps not until as late as 130 AD.) The Jews always understood that the home and not the synagogue was the center of spiritual life. Marvin Wilson, in Our Father Abraham, tells us that the Jews understood that each home was to be a miqdash me'at (a miniature temple). That's why every church in the NT met in a home and functioned as an extended spiritual family. Every epistle in the NT was written to people who were in house churches.

As Evangelicals we affirm that "the Bible is our authoritative guide for faith and practice" but we have departed from clear Biblical practice when it comes to how we do "church". Can we really expect God to empower a spiritual revolution if we reject biblical (ie, Hebraic) church values and practices?

(Glad to send the excerpt from Wilson’s book about the Jewish home upon request.)

To read: Pagan Christianity: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices by Frank Viola and George Barna. This is the other side of the coin. If our current church practices didn't come from our Hebraic roots, where did they come from? (By practices, we're talking about things like church buildings, the sermon, the clergy, the Lord's Supper, etc.) Viola and Barna make a compelling case that many of our current church practices have no biblical basis at all. Warning! This is a shocking book. Key quote: "We are making an outrageous proposal: that the church in its contemporary form has neither a biblical nor a historical right to function as it does." (p. xx)

4. Two key rhythms. We in our ministry (the LK10 Community) teach people two key rhythms or practices at every level. The first practice is that of listening to God both as individuals and as a church. The second is connecting with each other on a heart level. We use a simple tool called SASHET to do this. These videos will explain. The result of this approach is that almost everyone is capable of starting and leading a church.

*Church flows from listening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BDBw1HZJWs

*CO2 (church of two). Two guys from my house church: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6HTr0Un_xc&feature=related

*Doing church with your family: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmTMYv9oq6A

*Using SASHET to connect on a heart level: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MWujA_D3K0

*Learning to hear God: 3 part video

1. http://www.youtube.com/user/LK10VIDEOS?feature=mhee#p/u/55/6jd7e5ZZYR4

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAyj0NIXAUc&feature=related

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lme_YhCk7qk

*Campus Crusade leader on listening to God: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CA24nGNmvo

*The Spontaneous Church. This the first of a four part series. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o33ygW6kwJs

4. Stories from the Revolution. People who are doing it. There are many more stories on our blog. Here's a sampling...

*Praying the Lk 10:2b Prayer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9lnDS_JALQ

*Changing the culture in Kenya: http://www.youtube.com/user/LK10VIDEOS?feature=mhee#p/u/55/6jd7e5ZZYR4

*House churches in Brighton, CO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOYgTGPWSp4

5. Other resources.

*Houses that Change the World by Wolfgang Simson. Key quote: "Much of Christianity has fled the family, often as a place of its own spiritual defeat, and then has organized artificial performances in sacred buildings far from the atmosphere of real life. As God is in the business of recapturing the homes, the church turns back to its roots - back to where it came from. It literally comes home, completing the circle of Church history at the end of world history."

*The Messianic Church Arising: Restoring the Church to Our Covenant Roots! by Robert Heidler. Key Quote: "The change from the informal house church to the formal basilica changed the whole concept of church. Before Constantine, a church was a family of believers. After Constantine, the church became a building.... The Jewish Sabbath celebration provided a pattern for the development of early Christian house churches."

*The Global House Church Movement by Rad Zdero. Key Quote: "The early church of the first three centuries was a 'living room' movement. This was the church that "upset the world" (Acts 17:6) in the first century and that forced the mighty Roman Empire to legalize Christianity after a three hundred year showdown. It is also the church that tens of millions of Christians are rediscovering today in places like China, India, Africa, Cambodia, Cuba, England and Western Europe, and, yes, even in North America."

*When the Church Was a Family by Joseph Hellerman. Key Quote: "For Paul, as for Jesus, the church was to function as a family... (The early Christians) had no temples, no sacrifices, no priesthoods, no liturgy - just an informal weekly meeting in a local home where they broke bread and sang a hymn "in honor of Christ as if to a god" (Pliny).

Church of Two: "I feel so supported!"

2011-11-21T12:45:00.001-07:00

A CO2 (church of two) is amazingly simple yet profoundly powerful. We think it's the missing structural element in most churches. Here's the definition of a CO2: Two people. Two rhythms. As close to daily as possible.

Imagine a house church made up of 3 or 4 CO2s! Imagine a tradition church made up of 100 COs!

Tracey Schlafer and Brittani Morris have been connecting with one another in a CO2 for almost a year now. Brittani's comments: "This is a place where I experience the heart of God on a daily basis." Here more of their story in the video below.

The six week LK10 Foundations Course goes in depth into the two rhythms that make up a CO2. A new session (cohort) is beginning on December 1st and there are a few openings. For more information about the Course, go here http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/09/foundations-course.html

Email me right away if you are interested. John.lk10@gmail.com

John White

Traditional church organization plants 75 house churches

2011-11-17T05:24:00.000-07:00

Sending missionaries... across the street.

Most churches understand and practice the concept of sending missionaries overseas. And, now, there is a growing understanding that we also need to send missionaries across the street.

Reggie McNeal, noted author and church consultant, made this startling comment to a large group of traditional church pastors, "Probably most of the people in your city who are interested in coming to your church are already there." What this means is that tradition churches that truly want to reach the unchurched in their cities (in Denver, that's 94% of the city) will not do so by tweaking their current programs and hoping that people will show up on Sunday mornings.

Rather, traditional churches will need to develop a revolutionary missionary mentality within their own cities (ie, across the street). The very best way to do this is to send out (apostelo) men and women to start independent (but connected) house churches.

One group that is leading the way in this innovative strategy is the San Antonio Baptist Association led by Dr. Charles Price. (Charles' son and daughter-in-law are LK10 Coaches and church planters on Colorado's Western Slope. See http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/08/church-planting-18-months-or-1-day.html ) I enjoyed "hanging out" with Charles at the National House Church Conference in September. He tells the story of the San Antonio House Church Movement in the video below.

(Send this post on to a traditional church leader that you know.)

Find more videos like this on Great Commission Initiative

Henri Nouwen: "The real work of prayer"

2011-11-07T06:22:00.001-07:00

The prime directive of the LK10 Community is to "Listen, obey and teach others to do the same." (Jn. 10:27) This is our entire discipleship "program" because we believe everything else flows from this
intimate conversational relationship with Jesus.

But, what do we listen for?

Henri Nouwen (pictured in photo) is immensely helpful at this point. “The real "work" of prayer is to become silent and listen to the voice that says good things about me."

The starting point for all of life and ministry is learning to listen to God. And, the starting point for listening is learning to hear the "good things" Papa has to say to me and about me each day. Many of us grew up in homes that had more critique than affirmation. More criticism than blessing. And, those words of criticism are what our "ears" are attuned to. Our hearing must be retrained one day at a time to hear the "good things" that our heavenly Father wants to say to us.

Implications for church? Huge! This should be a community where we together are "listening to the voice of the one who says good things" about the others in the family.

One place you can deepen your ability to hear the Lord in this way is in a learning community called The Foundations Course. For more on this, go here http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/09/foundations-course.html

And, for more from Henri Nouwen, see below...

To gently push aside and silence the many voices that question my goodness and to trust that I will hear the voice of blessing-- that demands real effort.
― Henri J.M. Nouwen, Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World

Biography

Fr. Henri Nouwen was born in the Netherlands, where he was ordained to the priesthood and earned his doctorate in psychology. After nearly two decades of teaching at the Menninger Clinic in Kansas and at the Universities of Notre Dame, Yale and Harvard, he left to share his life with mentally handicapped people at the L'Arche community of Daybreak in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of many books on spirituality and psychology, including The Return of the Prodigal Son, In the Name of Jesus, and The Life of the Beloved.

"The Life of the Beloved"

I would like to speak to you about the spiritual life as the life of the beloved. As a member of a community of people with mental disabilities, I have learned a lot from people with disabilities about what it means to be the beloved. Let me start by telling you that many of the people that I live with hear voices that tell them that they are no good, that they are a problem, that they are a burden, that they are a failure. They hear a voice that keeps saying, "If you want to be loved, you had better prove that you are worth loving. You must show it."

But what I would like to say is that the spiritual life is a life in which you gradually learn to listen to a voice that says something else, that says, "You are the beloved and on you my favor rests."

You are the beloved and on you my favor rests.

Jesus heard that voice. He heard that voice when He came out of the Jordan River. I want you to hear that voice, too. It is a very important voice that says, "You are my beloved son; you are my beloved daughter. I love you with an everlasting love. I have molded you together in the depths of the earth. I have knitted you in your mother's womb. I've written your name in the palm of my hand and I hold you safe in the shade of my embrace. I hold you. You belong to Me and I belong to you. You are safe where I am. Don't be afraid. Trust that you are the beloved. That is who you truly are."

I want you to hear that voice. It is not a very loud voice because it is an intimate voice. It comes from a very deep place. It is soft and gentle. I want you to gradually hear that voice. We both have to hear that voice and to claim for ourselves that that voice speaks the truth, our truth. It tells us who we are. That is where the spiritual life starts -- by claiming the voice that calls us the beloved.

Spiritual ADD?

2011-10-31T11:26:00.000-06:00

ADD - Attention Deficit Disorder.

This is a disorder (often now referred to as ADHD) that affects 15% of the adult population as well as a great many children. Although the symptoms can be complex and varied, the commonality is a difficulty in staying focused on one thing at a time. These people are easily distracted and wandering attention makes it difficult for them to stay on track. ADD can have a devastating affect in school, at work and in family relationships.

As harmful as physical ADD can be, Spiritual ADD may be much more widespread and have even greater negative consequences. Epidemic, especially among American Christians, this condition is one of the greatest strategies of the Enemy. As someone has said, "If the Devil can't make you bad, he will make you busy." And, Christians in the US are some of the busiest people in the world!

Recapturing our most valuable possession. In the interview below, Dr. Kent Smith reflects on the meeting of our LK10 Board of Directors held in Jan. 2011. In this context, he talks about the idea that we have been robbed of our most precious asset - our attention. The result is Spiritual ADD. We can only recapture our ability to be centered on Jesus as we train ourselves in "rhythms of attention." (Kent is a professor at the Abilene Christian Graduate School of Theology.)

Possible next step for recapturing your attention? The LK10 Foundations Course is designed to train Christians in the rhythms of attention. For more information and to register, go to http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/09/foundations-course.html

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes. Mt. 6:34 (The Message)

Planting a church called "Beer and Bible"

2011-10-24T10:54:00.000-06:00

What if planting churches was much simpler than we ever imagined?

What if planting churches flowed naturally from hearing God's voice?

Early in 2010, Sean Hyatt took his wife out to eat in an area of Denver called the DTC (Denver Tech Center). While there, he felt the Lord telling him to plant a church in that area. The next step was asking some friends to join him in praying for direction. The result, a year and a half later, is three churches in some unlikely places.

Here's the story...

Want to grow in your ability to hear God's voice? a great next step is a six weeks learning community called The Foundations Course. For more information and to register, go here http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/09/foundations-course.html

Eugene Peterson: "Crowds more dangerous than sex or drugs"

2011-10-18T11:18:00.000-06:00

Pastors of traditional churches are trained to do everything possible to increase the number of people in their Sunday morning congregation. Great preaching. Inspiring music. Excellent childcare. Adequate parking. The list goes on and on. Success or failure is measured, to a significant degree, on the pastor’s ability to draw (and keep) a crowd.

Eugene Peterson, well-known author (The Message paraphrase of the Bible) has a shockingly different perspective on the meaning of crowds in church on Sunday morning.

Earlier in his life, Peterson was, for many years the pastor of a Presbyterian church in Bel Air, Maryland. For much of that time, he was part of a fellowship of other pastors. One day, a member of the group announced that he was leaving his congregation to become the pastor of a church of a thousand members, three times the size of where he was. Peterson had lunch with this man and found himself bothered by his motivations to make the change. Over the next week, he wrote a letter to this friend. Some of what he wrote, speaks to the reasons that a growing number of leaders are being drawn away from traditional church to the original (small!) form of church found in the New Testament.

The following excerpts from that letter are found in The Pastor: A Memoir (Chapter 18) by Eugene Peterson …

…Classically, there are three ways in which humans try to find transcendence – religious meaning, God meaning – apart from God as revealed in the cross of Jesus: through the ecstasy of alcohol and drugs, through the ecstasy of recreational sex, though the ecstasy of crowds. Church leaders frequently warn against the drugs and the sex, but, at least in America, almost never against the crowds. Probably because they get so much ego benefit from the crowds.

But a crowd destroys the spirit as thoroughly as excessive drink and depersonalized sex. It takes us out of ourselves, but not to God, only away from. The religious hunger is rooted in the unsatisfactory nature of the self. We hunger to escape the dullness, the boredom, the tiresomeness of me. We can escape upward or downward. Drugs and depersonalized sex are a false transcendence downward. A crowd is an exercise is false transcendence upward, which is why all crowds are spiritually pretty much the same, whether at football games, political rallies, or church.

…I really do feel that crowds are a worse danger, far worse, than drink or sex…

Although, as far as I know, Peterson has not come to the place of embracing the house church model which really is the logical extension of his thinking about crowds.

The alternative to crowds? Small, family-like churches multiplying like rabbits across the landscape. Just like they did it in the New Testament!

How do we learn life in a house church if we’ve spent our whole lives in a traditional church? A great first step is a six week learning experience called the Foundations Course. To learn more and to register, go to http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/09/foundations-course.html

Pair power!

2011-10-10T17:40:00.000-06:00

Meeting once a week for church (even house church!) just doesn't do it.

We are encouraged and nurtured and filled up when we meet with God's people. But, then, we have to wait seven days for it to happen again. Instinctively, we know this isn't enough. Clearly, God has constructed us to need the encouragement of God's people on a daily basis.

And, this is exactly what Scripture commands us to do. "Encourage one another daily" (Heb. 3:13) The Greek word for "encourage" is parakaleo. The noun form of this word is what Jesus calls the Holy Spirit in John 14:16. "I will ask the Father and he will give you another Paraklete." The word literally means "one who is called along side to help or encourage". Our ministry to one another is similar to the ministry of the Holy Spirit to us.

But, how do we do we encourage one another if we don't live next door to the others in our church? The answer to this question is a CO2 (a church of two). This "practice" was at the heart of Jesus' group (church?) of twelve. Every one had a partner. (See Mt. 10:2-4) And, every person Jesus sent out went with a partner. (See Lk. 10:1) No exceptions!

The CO2 concept allows us to "do church" daily. To come alongside one other person every day for mutual encouragement. The CO2 is the basic building block for all larger expressions of church. A house church with several CO2s functioning during the week becomes much more powerful when the whole church gathers together in its weekly meeting.

One of the primary goals of the LK10 Community is to train believers in the practice of CO2. We do this through a six week learning experience called The Foundations Course. We currently have a few openings for Courses beginning in October. To learn more and to register, go here http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/09/foundations-course.html

There are hundreds of CO2s now spreading around the world. The interview below gives you a picture of how one CO2 functions. This is one of three CO2s in the church that meets at Tim and Brittani's house. (See more CO2 stories below.)

More CO2 stories...

*Tony Dale (House to House) tells of finding CO2s in the Philippines... http://youtu.be/PcRVtntSwJo

*There are dozens of CO2s now in Australia. They all started here... http://youtu.be/3CPg7h-5lX4

Shaun King discovers "Jesus Calling"

2011-09-29T09:46:00.000-06:00

In my last two posts, I've told the story of Shaun and Rai King leaving the church they started in Atlanta. This story seems important to me because I believe it is the story of an increasing number of the leaders of traditional churches. Over and over, we keep hearing leaders say something like, "I still love Jesus but church is killing me. There has got to be a better way!"

I happen to check out Shaun's most recent blog post (9/17) and was quite surprised and delighted to seethat he was talking about a book he just discovered called "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young. This is significant because I believe that this book unexpectedly holds the key to the "better way" of doing church that Shaun and Rai and many others are longing for. http://www.shauninthecity.com/2011/09/not-a-joke-you-need-to-buy-this-at-list-click-on-the-link-4-my-birthday.html

Here's what Shaun wrote about the book...

Last week my wife bought herself a daily devotional entitled, Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence. The lady at the bookstore swore by it. She said it had changed her life and the lives of more customers than any book they sold. Within two days my wife was completely hooked. We've been in a real transitional season of our lives and she said it was helping her in amazing ways.

So... I decided to try it myself. I generally hate daily devotionals. Not this one. It's profound. It cuts right to the chase. It's written as if it is Jesus speaking to you and it's not the slightest bit cheesy. Each day has verses and a simple lesson and I'm telling you it changes my day.

The author of Jesus Calling is Sarah Young. Here's what she writes in the Introduction (xii) about how the book came about...

I had been writing in prayer journals for years, but that was one-way communication: I did all the talking. I knew that God communicated with me through the Bible, but I yearned for more. Increasingly, I wanted to hear what God had to say to me personally on a given day. I decided to listen to God with pen in hand, writing down whatever I believed He was saying. I felt awkward the first time I tried this, but I received a message. It was short, biblical, and appropriate. It addressed topics that were current in my life: trust, fear, and closeness to God. I responded by writing in my prayer journal. My journaling had changed from monologue to dialogue.

...This practice of listening to God has increased my intimacy with Him more than any other spiritual discipline.

Stay with me now as I "connect the dots".

When an individual begins the practice of listen to the Lord, prayer changes from monologue to dialogue and amazing things happen. As Sarah says, "This has increased my intimacy with Him more than any other spiritual discipline.
When a group (ie, a house church) begins the practice of listening to the Lord, amazing things happen.

Here's the simple but powerful tool that changes everything. We teach individuals in a house church to take a piece of paper and write this question: Jesus, what do you want to say to this church today? Then, we send everyone off for 20-30 minutes to listen to Jesus about that question and write what they hear. When people come back, they simple share what they have written down. And, what happens?

Church flows from listening
Community flows from listening
Bible study flows from listening
Worship flows from listening
Prayer flows from listening
Intimacy flows from listening
Mission flows from listening
Changed lives flow from listening

We've been doing this for several years and I can tell you that it really works! Jesus really is the Head of the church and He brings the agenda every week. And, that changes everything! I'm convinced that this is the "better way" that Shaun and Rai and so many others are longing for.

Equipping people/churches in this "better way" is the mission of the LK10 Community. To learn more, go to http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/09/foundations-course.html

John

For more on the biblical basis for thinking this way about church and mission, go here... http://www.youtube.com/user/LK10VIDEOS?feature=mhee#p/u/97/9lh7GysHCJM

and here...

http://www.youtube.com/user/LK10VIDEOS?feature=mhee#p/u/96/GekEFaTkAHs

The Senior Pastor's wife weighs in

2011-09-25T06:21:00.001-06:00

A couple of days ago, I told you the story of Shaun King stepping down on September 1st as the senior leader of Courageous Church in Atlanta. Shaun resigned not because of a scandal but because he was worn out and disillusioned from trying to transition his church from "the big Sunday morning event" to small missional communities. Read the whole story here: http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/09/mega-church-pastor-we-are-completely.html

Now, here is Rai King's (Shaun's wife) take on what happened. All I've done is take sections from her own blog (the link to this is at the bottom). It's a little longer than most of my posts but what she writes is so gut-level honest that I couldn't cut it back any more. (I like this lady! I hope I get to meet her some day) I think you will find this to be compelling reading.

I wonder how many other pastors' wives might write something similar if they had the freedom to "tell it like it is"?

Here are Rai King's own words...

"I have never loved leading this church. Ever. I didn’t want to plant it and have had just a hand full of days since planting it that I felt like it was worth it.  Shaun, however, has loved this church with his whole heart from the moment he conceived it. Before one person set foot in anything called Courageous Church, he dreamed about it, prayed for it, and worked around the clock for months getting it off the ground. He contacted church planting organizations and sought their financial support. He went through their assessment centers, filled out their paperwork, went to their meetings, emailed their leaders.

...Shaun thought that if people witnessed courageous leadership, and listened to edgy, courageous teaching, they’d be inspired to get out and be the hands and feet of Christ themselves and provide life changing power and solutions to a dying and hurting world….Um, FAIL! (JW: You mean great teaching/preaching doesn't result in genuine disciples???)

...So 2 years into it, after 300+ sermons, who knows how many songs, people coming, people going, stressful lead team meetings, raising money from outside sources because the people who attended the church didn’t actually give enough to support the church, Shaun got frustrated, a few leaders got tired and left, and Jinean got sick of being the only “crazy” person in the room and started serving God on her own in Mexico.

...Thus Shaun had a vision for “the shift”…as it has come to be known. After searching the scriptures and seeing Christ’s ministry for what it really was we decided we no longer wanted to participate in the spectator sport we Christians call CHURCH. So we said, "let’s stop meeting every Sunday. Let’s instead, meet in small groups in each other’s homes. Let’s share a meal and learn how to be true disciples of Christ.  Let’s all serve together. Let’s have each small group belong to a cause group that addresses a need in our city." (JW: Sounds a lot like the house churches of the New Testament!)

We talked about it, met about it, argued about it, preached about it, sang about it, and read books about it for months.  And for the most part, people were buying it. As a matter of fact, the month before the shift, when Shaun was preaching the "hows" and "whys" of what were about to do was our highest attendance and our highest offering in all of 2011. We thought that meant people were actually ready to be radical and courageous. 4 months later, it’s clear that what that meant was that people love HEARING about being radical and courageous.

(This is where Shaun explained that when they actually implemented "the shift" all hell broke loose. Within 3 months, 85% of the church was clamoring to go back to the Sunday "experience".)

...I thought the problem was that we weren’t organized enough. Maybe people weren’t serving because we’re not organized. So this summer we went into super churchy, extra responsible, grown-up church mode. But after months of church meetings, and the ridiculous antics of electing a board, and forming ministry teams, we’re the most organized we’ve ever been, and STILL, no one shows up to "the cause" group meetings and outreach initiatives.

...Am I frustrated? CLEARLY! Am I overstating the irrelevance of the Sunday morning song and dance? Probably. Did people come to Christ and renew their relationship with God because of what Courageous Church did for so long on Sunday mornings? Absolutely! But, then what? Glad we baptized you, glad we helped you believe in church again and feel all warm and fuzzy about your creator, but I’m sorry we failed to actually make the vast majority of you into disciples.

...We’re leaving because we will not go back to the stress and relative lack of actual disciple making of the every Sunday model. Sunday morning has its place. I too missed the gatherings, but I will never again participate in a model that replaces the real work of Christ with the mundanity of 2 songs and a feel good sermon.

...I actually feel I owe Shaun and apology. For so long I have put all of the church’s problems off on him as a leader. I complained that he wasn’t organized enough. So time and time again he devised and implemented strategies to make the church better organized. Then I complained that he didn’t spend enough time on his sermons. So he’d hunker down and study more and preach more well thought out sermons.

...The truth of the matter is, Shaun is simply exhausted. Pastoring people has been 10 times better than my best hopes and 100 times worse than my worst nightmares. Unless you’ve done it, you will NEVER understand it. It looks one way from the outside looking in, but trust me, you don’t know the half.

Pastors are the sickest, loneliest, most depressed people in church. (JW: Wow! Read that last sentence again. What is it about the way we have done church that produces those results in the lives of many pastors?) That’s why they have affairs, that’s why they die at the age of 42 from heart attacks and drug over doses. That’s why every time you turn on the TV there’s a new scandal, and a fresh news story about the latest greatest to fall from grace. Taking criticism day in and day out from people who swear up and down they know better is exhausting. Having people leave for stupid, selfish reasons is exhausting. The divorce rate for pastors is among the highest of any other group in the country. Shaun and I have decided we’d like that to not be our story.

...To close, I want to be clear that Shaun and I haven’t given up on “church.” We’re just finished with church as usual. There must be churches out there getting it right. Evidenced not by how big and cool they are, but by the fact that they’re actually making disciples who are recapturing the world for Christ."

My response: I believe Rai is telling a story that hundreds (maybe thousands) of pastors and their spouses could tell. I was a pastor in traditional churches for 25 years and its a story I know well. Having been in the house church world now for many years, we have learned something of what's necessary to grow churches that "actually make disciples" and that don't burn out leaders.

If you are interested in learning more, check this out: http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/09/foundations-course.html

John White

To read Rai King's entire blog, go here: http://raiking.com/this-is-probably-a-manifesto-leaving-courageous-church/

The Foundations Course

2011-09-24T12:42:00.000-06:00

Over the last 15-20 years, many in the LK10 Community have been on a journey with the Lord to learn how to tap into the New Wine necessary for the New Wineskins (house churches). In other words, how does a house church actually become a "vibrant family of Jesus"?

In the LK10 Foundations Course, we make available to you what we have learned from the Lord through years of practice. This Course is an opportunity for you to learn simple but powerful practical practices and tools for walking with the Spirit as an individual and as a community. The goal of the Course is not just to learn theory but to become practitioners.

Registration for the Foundations Course is now open for two cohorts/groups.

*Desi and Rose Starr will be leading a Foundations Course for married couples beginning in mid October. There are openings for six couples in this cohort.

*Walt Hastings will also be leading a Foundations Course beginning in mid October. There are opening for six pairs (we call this a CO2 or church of two). The pairs could be two men, two women or a married couple.

To learn more about the Foundations Course, watch this short video and then read the information at the bottom of the page.

Course Description...

Each Foundation Course takes place in the context of a small "learning community" (6 to 12 people) called a cohort. The Course lasts for six weeks. Here are the key elements...

1. Weekly learning assignments. Articles to read and videos to watch that explain "foundational" practices and the Biblical basis.
2. CO2 (Church of Two). This might be a married couple or two men or two women. For six weeks, you will practice key rhythms daily with this one other person. Our conviction is that the CO2 is the basic building block of all larger expressions of church. We are following Jesus' model of putting people in pairs (Mt. 10) and sending them out together. For more information on the CO2, see the CO2 video and flyer in the right column of this site.
3. Online Forum (Facebook Group, etc). Regular posting to a forum where you discuss insights, comments, experiences, questions with the rest of your cohort.
4. Individual Coaching Appointments with the leader of your cohort. At least two one-on-one sessions during the Course. We want you to experience the value of this kind of coaching.
5. Conference calls with your cohort. At least two calls with your cohort during the Course to share comments, experiences and questions with the rest of your cohort.

How to register...

1. Determine your CO2 partner. Make sure they understand the commitments of the Course. Both members of the pair must register. (Married couples can register as a couple.) Registrations fee is $100 for an individual ($150 for a couple).

3. Go here to register: http://lk10.eventbrite.com

4. Want to know more about the values and practices of LK10 Community? In the right column of this blog, see the many posts under "Topics". Questions about the Foundations Course? Contact John White at John.lk10@gmail.com

Mega church pastor: "We are completely off base with what discipleship means"

2011-09-19T12:42:00.002-06:00

Shaun King stepped down on September 1st.

Shaun resigned from the church in Atlanta that he started three years ago. Called "Courageous Church", it was, in Shaun's words, a "super cool Sunday worship-service-centered church with 700 people". A mixed race congregation, it was seen as one of the cutting edge churches in the city. Highly "successful"!

Leonard Sweet, scholar and author, called Shaun, "One of the most dynamic, entrepreneurial, creative and passionate leaders on the American scene today." How could this guy possibly fail? What would cause him to throw up his hands and give up?

Shaun stepped down not because of any scandal but because he was disillusioned and burned out. He had followed the advice of church planting experts on how to develop an exciting, growing church by focusing on a dynamic Sunday morning "experience". He writes, "I sold my soul for church attendance in our first week and I could never quite get it back."

Over time Shaun came to understand that "the overwhelming percentage of our time, energy, skills, budget and creativity were spent preparing for Sunday morning services, getting people to our Sunday services and getting them to volunteer for our Sunday morning services." Then, Shaun made a big "mistake". He tried to change all of this. He tried to create a discipleship oriented church where the "time, energy, skills, budget and creativity" went primarily into caring for people and meeting needs in the city. And, since he was the senior leader, he could make this work. Right?

Shaun planned to move the whole congregation into small missional groups with one large meeting each month. He worked with his leaders to develop the new structure. He preached a whole sermon series on the new vision. http://www.shauninthecity.com/2011/03/its-true-preaching-my-last-sermon-series-courageous-church.html (Preaching changes people. Right?) He reports that, as long as he was preaching about it, the people loved it.

But, once the "shift" took place, in his words, "all hell broke loose". Three months later, 85% of the congregation wanted to go back to the "super cool worship-service-centered church". Four months later, Shaun stepped down as the lead pastor. Here's his evaluation...

"What I am saying is that church attendance, Sunday morning services, sermon-listening (or even sermon preaching), song-singing, hand-clapping, amen-saying and all the other things that "Christ-ians" have lifted up so high look so little like Christ himself that I am utterly convinced that we are completely off base with what discipleship means. Considering all of this, I think I have given up on church as I knew it. Big buildings. Hugh crowds. Few disciples. I'm not with it. It's inefficient and just doesn't feel right with my soul. This is not a rejection of big buildings or huge crowds, but an indictment on how few disciples are being made in the process of it all. A better way has to exist."

Well, Shaun, welcome to the growing number of traditional church leaders (perhaps 1500 a month by some estimates) who are coming to the same conclusion. That is, that the building-centered, Sunday big worship-service-centered "experience" (one mega church here in Denver calls this "the big magic") is a great way to entertain people but an inefficient way to make disciples. Not only that, but it takes a terrible toll on the pastors and on their families. (In my next post, I'll tell you what Shaun's wife wrote about this whole experience. I'm telling you... this lady shoots straight!)

And, yes, Shaun a better way does exist.

What might that "better way" be? http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/09/shaun-king-discovers-jesus-calling.html

Here's what Shaun's wife, Rai, had to say: http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/09/senior-pastors-wife-weighs-in.html

For more on Shaun's story: http://www.shauninthecity.com/2011/09/3-extremely-hard-earned-trust-me-lessons-on-starting-something-new-change-and-discipleship.html

Why the missional movement will fail (2)

2011-09-17T09:27:00.000-06:00

In my last post, I passed on to you the startling critique of the missional church movement by Mike Breen, one of the leaders of that movement. "We are a group of people addicted to and obsessed with the work of the Kingdom, with little to no idea how to be with the King." See the entire post here: http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/09/why-missional-movement-will-fail.html

This made me think of a comment by Lesslie Newbigin (theologian, author and missionary in India) in his Foreword to a biography of Roland Allen.

"Missionary thinking is still pervaded by Pelagianism. Mission is conceived as a task, rather than as a gift, an over-spill, and an explosion of joy." (Pelagius was a fourth century British monk who believed that salvation could be achieved entirely through human effort.)

Newbigin goes on to say...

At the center of (Roland) Allen's message was the conviction that the Holy Spirit is the active agent in the Christian mission. For him Pentecost was the key for the understanding of mission. Allen could write about the "Spontaneous Expansion of the Church" because he saw it, not as a human enterprise, but as a divine activity. To understand that, is to be delivered from the anxieties, the burdens and the sense of guilt which so often forms the atmosphere of discussion about mission." Roland Allen: Pioneer, Priest, and Prophet, xiii. (See photo of Allen.)

If Allen is correct (and I think he is), the reason that the Church is not more missional is not for lack of knowledge and exhortation about mission. Rather, it is because individuals and churches do not know how to have an intimate, conversational relationship with the Holy Spirit (the "active agent" of mission). Or, as Mike Breen writes, they have "little to no idea of how to be with the King".

Get people genuinely and deeply connected to the Holy Spirit and mission will be, as Allen would say, the spontaneous and natural result.

Why the missional movement will fail (1)

2011-09-15T10:07:00.001-06:00

In this post, I want to share with you a bombshell blog post on 9/12/11 by Mike Breen who is one of the leaders of what is called "the missional church movement".

First, let's define the term. Here's what Alan Hirsh, another leader of the movement, writes...

"Missional church is a community of God’s people that defines itself, and organizes its life around, its real purpose of being an agent of God’s mission to the world. In other words, the church’s true and authentic organizing principle is mission. When the church is in mission, it is the true church. The church itself is not only a product of that mission but is obligated and destined to extend it by whatever means possible. The mission of God flows directly through every believer and every community of faith that adheres to Jesus. To obstruct this is to block God’s purposes in and through his people." The Forgotten Ways, p. 82.

Now, here's part of what Mike Breen writes in his recent blog post about the missional movement...

"It’s time we start being brutally honest about the missional movement that has emerged in the last 10-15 years: Chances are better than not it’s going to fail.

That may seem cynical, but I’m being realistic. There is a reason so many movements in the Western church have failed in the past century: They are a car without an engine. A missional church or a missional community or a missional small group is the new car that everyone is talking about right now, but no matter how beautiful or shiny the vehicle, without an engine, it won’t go anywhere.

...We are a group of people addicted to and obsessed with the work of the Kingdom, with little to no idea how to be with the King.

...Many church leaders unknowingly replace the transcendent vitality of a life with God for the ego satisfaction they derive from a life for God.

This is the crux of it: The reason the missional movement may fail is because most people/communities in the Western church are pretty bad at making disciples. Without a plan for making disciples (and a plan that works), any missional thing you launch will be completely unsustainable."

Exactly!

This is what we here at LK10 have been saying for some time. The focus on mission is well-intentioned but misguided. In Scripture, mission is not the focus. (Think about it. How many times is the Great Commission repeated in the Epistles?) The church's "organizing principle" was never meant to be mission.

It's about learning to be with the King!

The church's focus and "organizing principle" is meant to be an intimate, conversational, love relationship with Jesus. The Biblical metaphor is the Bride (ie, the church) who is passionate about her Bridegroom. (Eph. 5:22-33) Mission is the spontaneous by-product of that relationship. (We have lots of evidence that this is, indeed, the case!)

Here at LK10 we articulate our "plan for making disciples" in nine words. "Listen, obey and teach others to do the same."

Want to know more about our "plan"? Stay tuned for information about our Foundations Class coming soon.

To read Mike Breen's entire post go here:

http://mikebreen.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/why-the-missional-movement-will-fail/

A tool for deepening relationships in families and churches

2011-09-12T10:47:00.000-06:00

Maree Watson has been leading a LK10 Apprenticeship (called the Foundations Course this fall) in Australia. In the video below, Maree interviews two members of the Course, Sharon and Annette, about a simple tool (called SASHET) that they have learned. Around the world, God is using SASHET to deepen relationships in marriages and in house churches. In the video, you will see the enthusiasm that these ladies have for what God is doing.

Interested in learning some of these practical house church tools? Registration for the next Foundations Courses will open in the next week. Stay tuned!

How do you find "people of peace"?

2011-09-10T09:23:00.000-06:00

One year ago, I interviewed Maree Watson from Australia at the National House Church Conference. Maree shared how she found a "person of peace" who became her CO2 (church of two) partner. See the video below.

Since that time, Maree has become a LK10 Coach and has just finished leading a Foundations Course (previously called The Apprenticeship) where she is teaching others become practitioners of CO2 rhythms. She also regularly prays the prayer in Lk 10:2b which, we believe, is our part in finding "people of peace". See below for a recent story where Maree was surprised to find an answer to her prayer right beside here in an Organic Market.

For more on the "10:2b Prayer", see the posts collected here: http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/search/label/10%3A2b%20Prayer

This is a photo of my new friends at the Organic Market where I have a stall on Sundays. After 18 months spending most Sunday mornings at my stall where I sell my shampoo and ask God to show me people of peace and pray for the harvest of mostly hippy, health conscience, new age types, my last Sunday before heading off on holidays was an overwhelming experience of PREVENIENCE. ("Prevenience" means "before" as in God is at work in each situation before we show up.)

To my great surprise my regular neighbour "the coffee tent" was not there but instead a group of harvest workers come to offer Jesus as an alternative to the fortune tellers ,tarot, and crystal ball readers. These guys were low key and covertly offering dream interpretation and spiritual encounters and healing.

I witnessed some of the regular characters agreeing to be prayed for after being listened to and loved. God in action right in front of my eyes! I joined them in prayer and was blessed by a healing word from the Lord. The leader thanked me for preparing the way for them and for ushering them in, I felt like I was passing on a baton for the next season.

I know now first hand the power of praying LK102b. Oh yeah, Mark, the smiley Man in the photo, wondered if I knew of any courses that were good for establishing small groups, the Lord has told him to prepare for a big harvest in his area!!! Just so happens I do. Praise God!

Methodist House Churches?

2011-09-07T08:59:00.000-06:00

I've just returned from the National House Church Conference in Jacksonville, FL. It was a wonderful time with 180 participants, 80% of whom had never attended the Conference before. One observation is that the Lord is increasingly drawing people in traditional churches (Baptist, Methodist, etc.) to consider house churches. The brief interview below with Rev. Nicole Reilley, a Methodist pastor from the LA area, is one of many examples of this encouraging development.

To all of these brave pioneers who are moving towards the house church model, I feel the Lord wants me to ask a question again that I posed in a post a few weeks ago. Did John Wesley, who was an amazing house church planter in his day, make a fundamental mistake? And, if he did, will we make the same mistake? To see my take on Wesley's "fundamental mistake", see this post http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-john-wesley-missed-family-church.html

Why did Wesley make this major "mistake"? This link probably explains the reason: http://lexloiz.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/john-wesley-and-his-wife-part-2/

Colorado House Church Moves to Uganda

2011-08-29T17:17:00.000-06:00

How do house churches become more missional?

Not by trying to be more missional. Not by exhorting people to be missional. Not by developing great missional strategies and programs.

Instead, they focus on listening to Jesus. Individuals and churches that listen deeply to Jesus do amazing missional things! Roland Allen said it this way, "For centuries, the (early) Christian Church (which knew how to listen!) continued to expand by its own inherent grace, and threw up an unceasing supply of missionaries without any direct exhortation." The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church, p. 6.

Here's an amazing story from Lee Price about one of the RiverChurches (a network of house churches on the Western Slope of Colorado http://www.riverchurches.org/index.html ) that literally "followed Jesus to Uganda" as a result of listening to Him. To learn more about this remarkable group go to http://www.followingjesustouganda.com/index.html

The Foundations Course. Want to learn to listen to God like this? (You don't have to go to Uganda... unless He tells you to!) This fall, LK10 will be offering The Foundations Course, a six week experience designed to teach the spiritual values and practices necessary for this kind of this kind intimate conversational relationship with Jesus. The Course involves weekly learning assignments, group conversations with your cohort and individual coaching. More information on this in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

The Lone Ranger and Tonto considering a CO2

2011-08-27T05:23:00.000-06:00

Last weekend, Desi Starr and I were in New Castle, Colorado leading a Regional LK10 Conference. On Sunday morning, Desi and I had breakfast with Lee Price (who leads the RiverChurches Network on the Western Slope of Colorado) at the New Castle Diner. Throughout the Diner there were life-sized cutout figures of well known TV and movie personalities. John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, etc.

Right behind our booth stood The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Hey, I'm so old that I grew up watching these guys on TV every week. I couldn't resist interviewing them. (You can see Desi and Lee in the background.)

CO2? This is a "church of two". This is a simple but profound concept that was central to the ministry of Jesus but which has been largely overlooked by today's traditional church. This tongue-in-cheek interview actually demonstrates how simple church planting becomes when you understand the CO2 concept. For more on CO2, see the right column of this blog.

Hi Yo Silver!

(If you have no idea who the Lone Ranger is, check out the second video below.)

The Foundations Course. Want to learn more about CO2? This fall, LK10 will be offering The Foundations Course, a six week experience designed to teach the spiritual values and practices that make up a "church of two". The Course involves weekly learning assignments, group conversations with your cohort and individual coaching. More information on this in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

Church planting: 18 months or 1 day?

2011-08-25T14:28:00.000-06:00

Back in the late 1980's I planted a "traditional" church. What a difficult and laborious process! It took about 18 months and involved many hours spent in demographic studies, committee meetings, budgeting process, locating a facility, developing a worship team and a children's ministry, gaining approval of my denomination, etc.

I decided that I never wanted to go through that again.

The way churches were planted/birthed in the New Testament was infinitely simpler. This was one of the themes we developed at the Regional LK10 Conference last weekend in New Castle, CO. New Castle is located on the Western Slope of Colorado about three hours (depending on traffic!) west of Denver. Desi Starr and myself led the Conference for Lee Price who has developed a network of churches called the River Churches. http://www.riverchurches.org/index.html

In the video below, Lee and Desi talk about the simplicity of planting churches and about the two churches that were started as a result of the Conference.

The Foundations Course. Want to learn more about this kind of New Testament church life? This fall, LK10 will be offering The Foundations Course, a six week experience designed to teach the spiritual values and practices necessary for this kind of this kind of life. The Course involves weekly learning assignments, group conversations with your cohort and individual coaching. More information on this in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!

What John Wesley missed: family = church

2011-08-15T09:26:00.000-06:00

250 years ago, John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Movement, glimpsed the simple but powerful concept that "family = church".

"In his sermon "Of the Church", Wesley said the church is, in the proper sense, "a congregation, or body of people, united together in the service of God." Even two or three united in Christ's name, or a Christian family, may therefore be called a church." Snyder, The Radical Wesley and Patterns for Church Renewal, p. 73.

Although Wesley saw this truth, as far as we know, he never implemented it. Wesley was hugely gifted at developing a system of starting and overseeing small, house church-like small groups called "classes". By 1798, seven years after Wesley's death, there were 101,712 members in these groups. As powerful as this movement was, it began to erode over time. Today, the class concept is largely unknown in the Methodist church and, in some cases, is actually opposed.

Contrast Wesley's strategy with a talk given by Dr. John Patrick with this title: "Why There Are No Hittites on the Streets of New York". The Hittites were a world super power 2500 years ago but today they have disappeared from the face of the earth. On the other hand, the Jewish culture continues to thrive after 2500 years in spite of terrible persecution. Why?

Dr. Patrick makes that case that the Jews have endured because the home was the center of their spiritual life. The temple could be destroyed. The synagogues could be destroyed. But, as long as there was one Jewish family, that spiritual heritage would survive. The Jews have survived and often thrived because they obeyed God's direction to make the home the center of spiritual life. (Dt. 6:5-9)

The early church, which was thoroughly Jewish, followed this same pattern. When a new church was birthed, it was always in the context of a household and a family. And, that church functioned like an extended spiritual family. "A house church could only be established if a well-functioning family existed." Gehring, House Church and Mission, p. 240.

How might the Methodist Movement turned out differently if John Wesley had followed through on his insight that a Christian family could be considered a church? If he had taught each Christian household how to function like his "class" groups (ie, house churches)?

And, will the current house church movement recapture this foundational divine definition?

Family = church = family.

For more on this subject, see http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/search/label/every%20home%20a%20church

John Wesley's mother births a church

2011-08-11T08:12:00.000-06:00

John Wesley (1703 - 1791) is known as the founder of the Methodist movement which transformed the England of his day and then spread around the world. At the heart of that movement were small groups that are similar to the house churches of today. But, where did John learn about the value of small, family-like expressions of the church?

No doubt, John was deeply influenced by his mother, Susannah. While his father, Samuel, saw the value of smaller groups (called "religious societies" in his day), it was his mother who actually lived this out. This amazing women had 19 children, nine of whom died in infancy. Here's the story of how she started a "church" (although that term wouldn't have been used in her day for what she started).

What Samuel Wesley only dreamed and talked of doing, however, his remarkable wife Susannah carried out, at least in a measure. Samuel Wesley often traveled to London on church and political business, leaving Susannah and the large family alone at Epworth. In early 1712 (John would have been about 9 years old), while Samuel was on a prolonged absence, Susannah began a small meeting in the parsonage. As she related in letters to her husband, the meeting grew out of the family devotional time Susannah held on Sunday evenings with her children. A few neighbors asked to attend, then others, so that the group soon grew from about thirty persons to over 200. At these gatherings Mrs. Wesley would read a sermon, pray and talk with the people who came.

This new venture caused a stir in Epworth and some friction between Susannah and her husband. Samuel liked the theory but not the practice. He objected to these home meetings because they were led by a woman, might cause him some embarrassment and would be seen by some as a "conventicle," a private, separatist religious gathering." Snyder, The Radical Wesley: Patterns for Church Renewal, p. 16-17.

Two observations about this story...

1. The healthiest house churches generally form around one or more "spiritual parents". A spiritual parent is a person who is an "elder" as to maturity (ie, a spiritual grown up). And, they have the heart to care for spiritual "children". (By "children", I'm not talking about physical age.) Susannah is a great example of a "spiritual mom". See John 14:9, 1 Cor. 4:15, 1 Thes. 2:7, 11.

2. No doubt, most New Testament house churches also started from family devotions. In the Jewish culture, the home (not the synagogue) was always seen as the center of spiritual life. Family devotions (the Shabbat Meal) occurred on Friday evenings. The core group was mom and dad and the kids. (Family = church). Into this family community, friends and neighbors were invited and the house churches grew. A high value for the LK10 community is expressed in this statement: The marriage, and then the family, is the first and most foundation expression of church.

For more on Susannah, who is called "the Mother of the Methodist Movement", see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susanna_Wesley

"God became the keynote speaker".

2011-08-09T12:54:00.000-06:00

Three years ago Marty Reiswig was a skeptic.

He was a devoted follower of Jesus. In fact, he spoke to youth groups all over the country. But, he was skeptical about God speaking to him on a regular, daily basis. Maybe God would speak once in a long while about the big issues - who to marry, etc. But, not as a part of daily life. We have the Bible, what else do we need?

But, things have changed in Marty's life. He has come to experience an intimate, daily, conversational relationship with Jesus. And, he's teaching this to teens. Below, he reports on a youth camp where he spoke this summer. He helped 200 Jr. Hi and Sr. Hi students learn how to hear God's voice. He reports, "I had this strong thought/sense that I was to let God be the main speaker - all the students would listen to him and share what they heard."

Before you read what happened with the teens, watch this short video where Marty describes some of his journey. (What if this is supposed to be the normative Christian experience?)

Here's Marty's report about how God became the keynote speaker...

For the past few years I’ve had the opportunity to be the speaker at some teen camps. Each one is unique, challenging, and exciting. At almost every camp God moves on young people’s hearts, brings them to repentance and salvation, and teaches all of us something. This year was very different. God became the speaker.

I took a few teens from CCWC to the CO/NE camp. The first night was filled with God’s compassion for those caught in sin. He freed us. The second night I felt like God wanted me to switch things up and teach on hearing God’s voice and then take a few minutes at the end to let kids pray and listen for God to speak. Reports came pouring in that night and the next day about what God was saying to students and adult leaders alike. The third night I taught about growing deep roots in Him and allowing God to produce his fruit in your life, but I felt like there was something incredibly special coming for the last night.I couldn’t put my finger on it, though.

As adults, we came together in prayer unlike I’ve ever seen before and begged God to show us what we were supposed to do. Should preach one of the messages that I brought? Should we have a worship night? Should we get in groups and pray? We sought Him with everything we had.

As the worship was blasting wonderfully, I went to the back soundboard and joined a few men in prayer about what I was to do. I had this strong thought/sense that I was to let God be the main speaker – all the students would listen to him and share what they heard. I immediately suppressed it. You simply don’t do that with 200 Jr. and Sr. high students. Not with your reputation on the line. There’s too much that can go wrong. Just then, one of my prayer partners said he believed God had already told me what to do. So we proceeded.

I’ve never experienced anything like it. Two hundred students sat in absolute silence for twelve minutes listening to the Spirit of God. Then I asked anyone who heard something meant for the group, not just for them, to stand and share one at a time. And for the next 45 minutes, student after student stood to share. Confession, prayer, scriptures, encouragement. My favorite was students praying for other students. God became the keynote speaker.

http://treasurefield.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/summer-camps-exciting-report/?utm_source=TreasureField&utm_campaign=b9c12d0e67-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email

Five ways to listen better

2011-08-06T09:42:00.000-06:00

At the heart of the LK10 Community is a deep commitment to take seriously Jesus' teaching about the Holy Spirit. In Jn. 16:13, Jesus explains that "He (the Spirit of truth) will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on His own; He will speak only what He hears..."

The point here is that the Spirit is not just a vague presence. He is a person and HE SPEAKS. This is Jesus' teaching! And, the obvious implication is that the most important skill we need to develop is that of listening to Him (and obeying). HE SPEAKS. WE LISTEN. Everything else flows from that... family, church, mission, etc.

Chris Jefferies (England), recently sent me a video of a TED presentation by Julian Treasure called "Five ways to listen better". As you watch this, think about how it applies to listening to the Spirit.

Here are a few of Chris's comments about the video...

According to Julian, hearing is something that our ears do pretty much autonomously, but listening requires intent, focus, and deliberate attention. But Jesus says that even though we listen (pay attention) we still may not hear (understand in depth). He says there are those who pay attention and hear the words but the spiritual meaning eludes them.

..Physical reality always points to a spiritual reality; that's why Yahshua spoke so often in parables. Understanding the physical truth can help us grasp the parallel spiritual truth. The need to pay attention to physical sounds points to the notion that we also need to pay attention to spiritual 'sounds'. We need to listen intentionally to the Spirit of Christ in the same way we listen to the words of the people we meet. The Spirit is a still, small voice. We have to pay close attention to him.

..We are losing our listening - The church has substantially lost the ability to listen spiritually. Many believers are not even aware that listening is possible, others have no idea how to go about it.

To read all of Chris' comments go to: http://jesus.scilla.org.uk/2011/07/response-are-you-listening.html

Ways to connect...

*I'll be leading a seminar (on listening to God!) at the National House Church Conference. Love to see you there! September 2-4 in Jacksonville, FL. http://www.cvent.com/events/momentum-basics-and-beyond/event-summary-
35d9eb8b489245b383c00068e2ebd074.aspx

*Along with Desi Starr, I'll be leading a one day training on the western slope (New Castle) of Colorado. Love to have you join us! Contact Lee Price for more information. lprice@sopris.net

*LK10 Online classes starting in September. More information on this soon.

Contagion

2011-08-02T07:55:00.001-06:00

The clip below is for a truly frightening new movie coming out in September (Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon). As you watch it, consider that epidemics or contagions can be either negative and destructive or positive and constructive.

Con-ta-gion. From contagio (Latin) meaning to touch. 1. the spreading of disease from one individual to another by direct or indirect contact... 5. the spreading of an emotion, idea, custom, etc. from person to person until many are affected.

Here are two of my favorite books that bear on this topic...

Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, develops this idea. "Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do."

Roland Allen in The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church and the Causes Which Hinder It. Without using "virus" or "contagion", he is saying something similar about the expansion of the early church.

"This then is what I mean by spontaneous expansion. I mean the expansion which follows the unexhorted and unorganized activity of individual members of the Church explaining to others the Gospel which they have found for themselves; I mean the expansion which follows the irresistible attaction of the Christian Church for men who see its ordered life, and are drawn to it by desire to discover the secret of a life which the instinctively desire to share; I mean also the expansion of the Church by the addition of new churches.

I know not how it may appear to others, but to me this unexhorted, unorganized, spontaneous expansion has a charm far beyond that of our modern highly organized missions." p. 7

What Allen disliked in his day, almost a hundred years ago, is even more prevalent in the American church today. We seek to fulfill the Great Commission through organization and exhortation. We create programs, develop marketing plans, build buildings and organizational structures, recruit huge budgets to pay for it all. The result? The church in America continues to decline. See recent research by the Barna Group. http://www.barna.org/faith-spirituality/504-barna-examines-trends-in-14-religious-factors-over-20-years-1991-to-2011

The alternative? We need to return to the dynamic of the New Testament Church. A new/old paradigm. We need to learn to nurture that which is simple and spontaneous and organic and viral. We need to learn to join God in what He is doing rather than trying to "make it happen" ourselves. We need a benevolent Gospel contagion in our day. "And, the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved." Acts 2:47

This is exactly the focus of the LK10 Community. We are a "community of practice" that is learning together how to join Jesus in birthing churches that are both transformational and viral. In other words, a Gospel contagion.

*Practical help for simple organic churches. We'll be posting new LK10 content (stories, videos, articles, etc.)

every couple of days

designed to help simple, organic expressions of church. Don't miss out! To subscribe, scroll down in the right column and enter your email address in the small white box.

*Hope to see you at the National House Church Conference. September 2-4 in Jacksonville, FL. http://www.cvent.com/events/momentum-basics-and-beyond/event-summary-35d9eb8b489245b383c00068e2ebd074.aspx

On not being "helicopter" leaders

2011-07-31T07:31:00.000-06:00

*What do you do when people in your house church are struggling? Perhaps they are in an unhealthy relationship or they have made bad financial decisions. Out of compassion, our first impulse is to jump in and help them out, to rescue them. Sometimes this is exactly what is needed. But, sometimes our rescuing can get in the way of what God is doing. (Parenting with Love and Logic (Cline and Fay) calls this "helicopter" parenting. As in a helicopter "hovers and rescues".) In each situation, we need to listen carefully to be clear about God's directions.

Why did the father of the prodigal son in Luke 15 not go to the "far country" to rescue his son? What would have happened if Jacob had rescued Joseph from Pharaoh's prison in Genesis? The video below presents us with a perspective that wise parents (and house church leaders) need to consider.

Our Struggle with Their Struggle from Stewardship Ministries on Vimeo.

*A core belief of LK10 is that church = family. It follows then that church leaders = spiritual parents (in the very best sense of the word). A core mission of LK10 is to train spiritual moms and dads who can give healthy leadership to vibrant families of Jesus.

"... in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel." 1 Cor. 4:15

"... we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children... we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children... " 1 Thes. 2:7, 11.

*Letters to the House Church Movement by Rad Zdero. Chapter Eleven is titled "Letter to a National House Church Movement". "Some house churches reject the whole issue of leadership because they feel that Christ alone is the only leader of their group or because they have been hurt by institutional leaders in the past... (This idea) must be rejected altogether because it is not a biblical idea.

...Your house churches today, must encourage the emergence of healthy leaders. Micro leaders (or elders) are unpaid spiritual moms and dads who nurture, train, and empower believers in their house church to do the work of the ministry. Macro leaders (or apostles) are pioneers, visionaries, and strategists who start new house churches, adopt existing house churches, link them together into
networks..." p. 152.

*Practical help for simple organic churches. We'll be posting new LK10 content (stories, videos, articles, etc.) every couple of days
designed to help simple, organic expressions of church. Don't miss out! To subscribe, scroll down in the right column and enter your email address in the small white box.

*Hope to see you at the National House Church Conference. September 2-4 in Jacksonville, FL. http://www.cvent.com/events/momentum-basics-and-beyond/event-summary-35d9eb8b489245b383c00068e2ebd074.aspx

How to start a million churches

2011-07-29T14:00:00.000-06:00

*Every home a church. The subtitle of The LK10 Journal is "Stories from the Revolution". So, what exactly is the nature of this revolution? One critical aspect is a return to the Biblical concept that the home and not the church building is the center of spirituality.

The Chinese house church movement captured this simple but powerful concept with their three mottos...

1. Every home a church

2. Every follower of Jesus a church planter

3. Every church building a training center

So, the house church movement does not necessarily mean that traditional churches or church buildings must cease. Rather, it means that the priorities must be reversed. The large (church services, etc.) must begin to serve the small (the church in the home). The first expression of church must become the small family-like group meeting in the home. The larger gathering must become secondary and supportive.

Want to see revival in America (or, whatever country you live in)? This one revolutionary shift might just do the trick: Every Christian household begins to see themselves as a church. That home would become the center for worship, for education, for outreach. With this revolutionary concept, a million new churches could be started this week (with no building programs!)

This is the vision of the LK10 Community: fulfilling the Great Commission by seeing a vibrant family of Jesus on every block of every neighborhood of every city in every nation on earth.

What might this look like? In the video below, you will hear the story of one of the families who is beginning to live this out. Let's pray for 999,999 more like this one.

"It is not a church’s job to spiritually develop your children. Scripturally, it is the job of the parents. The church body is supposed to support parents in raising children, not replace them." -George Barna

"Write these commandments that I've given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night." Dt. 6:6-7 (The Message)

“The household (in the New Testament) was more than a model; it was the matrix of the new congregation.” Gehring, House Church and Mission, P. 193, footnote quoting Campbell.

*Physical training informs spiritual training. In 1 Tim. 4:7-8, Paul writes, "Train yourself for spiritual fitness (or godliness)". The word for "train" is gymnazo from which we get gymnastics. See also 1 Cor. 9:24-27. Clearly, Paul's idea of spiritual fitness was shaped by his understanding of physical fitness. And, it certainly involved more than showing up as a spectator at a church service once a week!

In this short video, you see people who are making physical fitness a way of life.How do we make spiritual fitness a way of life? http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/Reebok_ItsAWayOfLife.wmv

*Hope to see you at the National House Church Conference. September 2-4 in Jacksonville, FL.http://www.cvent.com/events/momentum-basics-and-beyond/event-summary-35d9eb8b489245b383c00068e2ebd074.aspx

Top Ten Reasons for using SASHET in your church (# 10)

2011-07-25T09:14:00.006-06:00

* Top Ten Reasons for starting simple church by using SASHET to "check in" with each other..

#10. SASHET is viral. Neil Cole made this important observation: "Only that which is simple can multiply rapidly." And, that's exactly what we have seen with SASHET. This powerful community building tool is so simple that, if a person experiences it once, they often begin teaching it to others right away. In the video below, you will hear how the CO2 (church of two) which uses SASHET, has spread rapidly to the third and fourth generations. SASHET helps create an environment where a viral church planting movement can occur.

Want to know more about CO2s and SASHET? Here's a brochure we've prepared that tells you all you need to know. Feel free to make as many copies as you need.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/20072785/C02-Church-of-Two

*Number of unchurched in America grows by 50%! In a just released "State of the Church, 2011", George Barna reports that the percentage of adults categorized as unchurched has increased by 50%/

"The most prolific change in religious behavior among those measured has been the increase in the percentage of adults categorized as unchurched. The Barna Group definition includes all adults who have not attended any religious events at a church, other than special ceremonies such as a wedding or funeral, during the prior six month period. In 1991, just one-quarter of adults (24%) were unchurched. That figure has ballooned by more than 50%, to 37% today." http://www.barna.org/faith-spirituality/504-barna-examines-trends-in-14-religious-factors-over-20-years-1991-to-2011

Our comment? For a growing number of people, the traditional paradigm of church is no longer working. People are voting with their feet. As Reggie McNeal said: "Probably all the people in your city who would be interested in your church are already there." If we want to reach the growing number of unchurched in America, it's time to embrace new paradigms of church.

*Subscribe to this blog. We'll be posting new content (stories, videos, articles, etc.) every couple of days
designed to help simple, organic expressions of church . Don't miss out! To subscribe, scroll down in the right column and enter your email address in the small white box.

*Physical training informs spiritual training. In 1 Tim. 4:7-8, Paul writes, "Train yourself for spiritual fitness (or godliness)". The word for "train" is gymnazo from which we get gymnastics. See also 1 Cor. 9:24-27. Clearly, Paul's idea of spiritual fitness was shaped by his understanding of physical fitness. And, it certainly involved more than showing up as a spectator at a church service once a week!

In this short video, you see the value of a coach. Who is coaching you spiritually? Who are you coaching? Are you clear about the exercises/practices your disciples need? http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFitJournal_PeterEgyedCoaching1_PRE.wmv

*National House Church Conference.September 2-4 in Jacksonville, FL.http://www.cvent.com/events/momentum-basics-and-beyond/event-summary-35d9eb8b489245b383c00068e2ebd074.aspx

Top Ten Reasons for using SASHET in your church (# 9)

2011-07-23T06:58:00.004-06:00

* Top Ten Reasons for starting simple church by using SASHET to "check in" with each other..

#9. SASHET transforms families. By regularly "checking in" using SASHET, the simple church gatherings equip couples, families and households with a powerful transformational tool.

In the video below, Hugh Brandt (who was a missionary in Africa for many years) and Walt Hastings (who is coaching church planters in Kenya) explain how the CO2 (church of two) concept (which includes daily SASHET) is changing families in Kenya. While the African customs may seem strange to us in the west, the reality is that communication around the typical dinner table in the US is often equally superficial.

(This video also is evidence that the CO2 concept and SASHET are transcultural. People in every culture have emotions and need ways to connect with each other on a heart level.)

*Subscribe to this blog. We'll be posting new content (stories, videos, articles, etc.) every couple of days. Don't miss out! To subscribe, scroll down in the right column and enter your email address in the small white box.

*Physical training teaches us about spiritual training. In 1 Tim. 4:7-8, Paul writes, "Train yourself for spiritual fitness (or godliness)". The word for "train" is gymnazo from which we get gymnastics. As you watch this video, ask yourself the question: "How intense is my spiritual training? What does it mean to give it all you've got?" http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/09Games_CoupletWrecksShop.wmv

*National House Church Conference.September 2-4 in Jacksonville, FL.http://www.cvent.com/events/momentum-basics-and-beyond/event-summary-35d9eb8b489245b383c00068e2ebd074.aspx

Top Ten Reasons for using SASHET in your church (# 8)

2011-07-21T18:37:00.010-06:00

* Top Ten Reasons for starting simple church by using SASHET to "check in" with each other..

#8. SASHET engages young people.

Clearly, SASHET is not just for adults. In fact, children seem instinctively
to want to talk about what is going on in their heart. And, they want to
know what is going on in our heart. SASHET allows young people to feel part of our house church gatherings. And, it deepens conversations around the family dinner table.

Here's what 14 year old Nathan had to say on the subject...

This is from Ken, in California...

“Hey John,

I just wanted to tell you that my five year old reminds us to do SASHET

around the breakfast table every morning. It has been good for us as a

family.”

*Subscribe to this blog. We'll be posting new content (stories, videos, articles, etc.) every couple of days. Don't miss out! To subscribe, scroll down in the right column and enter your email address in the small white box.

*National House Church Conference. September 2-4 in Jacksonville, FL.http://www.cvent.com/events/momentum-basics-and-beyond/event-summary-35d9eb8b489245b383c00068e2ebd074.aspx

Top Ten Reasons for using SASHET in your church (# 7)

2011-07-21T13:08:00.000-06:00

* Top Ten Reasons for starting simple church by using SASHET to "check in" with each other...

#7. SASHET helps create a true sense of family (even with seminary students!). In the LK10 Community we talk about a very simple equation that explains a great deal about house church. Church = family. While this is easy to say, it is often difficult to implement because our experience of church has been anything but family. (Hard to experience "family" in a gathering of a thousand people!) We've experienced...

Church = meeting

Church = performance

Church = organization

Church = business

But, in the New Testament, church was none of these things. Church was always seen as an extended spiritual family. In Roger Gehring's very important book, House Church and Mission, we read “... this concept of church as the ‘household of God’ (1 Tim. 3:15) incorporates two aspects: (a) the house or family is the fundamental unit of the church, and (b) the church is a social structure patterned after the household.” P. 7

So, if we understand how healthy families function, it will go a long way towards understanding how healthy NT churches function. And, healthy families are groups of people who are able to connect with one another on a heart level. SASHET is a powerful tool for creating that sense of family. In the video below, Hobby Chapin, church planter in Brighton, CO tells how he used SASHET to help a group of seminary students experience that "true sense of family".

*Physical training teaches us about spiritual training. In 1 Tim. 4:7-8, Paul writes, "Train yourself for spiritual fitness (or godliness)". The word for "train" is gymnazo from which we get gymnastics. As you watch this video, think about James 1:2-4. "Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFit_WOD110720_CFSC_WtPushUp_final.wmv

*National House Church Conference.September 2-4 in Jacksonville, FL.http://www.cvent.com/events/momentum-basics-and-beyond/event-summary-35d9eb8b489245b383c00068e2ebd074.aspx

Top Ten Reasons for using SASHET in your church (#6)

2011-07-18T11:11:00.003-06:00

* Top Ten Reasons for starting simple church by using SASHET to "check in" with each other...

#6. It's simple (but profound). SASHET is so simple that it can be explained in ten minutes. And, then, it can be immediately put into practice.

Over 10 years ago, the Lord gave us the term "simple church" as a way of explaining house church. He said, "This is a way of doing church that is so simple that any follower of Jesus can say, "I can do that!" " Simple church does not require a seminary education. It doesn't take years of training. It's a concrete expression of the priesthood of all believers. (1 Pt. 2:5, 9) And, SASHET is a "tool" that makes simple church simple.

SASHET is like baseball. It is simple enough that five year olds can enjoy playing T-ball on their first day. Yet, it is so profound that grown men (and women) can devote their entire lives to mastering its subtleties. (To clarify: SASHET is only a tool. The goal is learning to pay attention to our own hearts and the hearts of others. To do this well takes both coaching and experience.)

*Physical training teaches us about spiritual training. In 1 Tim. 4:7-8, Paul writes, "Train yourself for spiritual fitness (or godliness)". The word for "train" is gymnazo from which we get gymnastics. I'm going to begin to post short videos about physical fitness that can teach us about spiritual fitness. Notice the role of the coach in the process of "skill transfer". Who is coaching you? http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/CrossFitJournal_CarlKelly_ThePosition_PartFive_PRE.wmv

*National House Church Conference.September 2-4 in Jacksonville, FL.http://www.cvent.com/events/momentum-basics-and-beyond/event-summary-35d9eb8b489245b383c00068e2ebd074.aspx

Top Ten Reasons for using SASHET in your church (# 7)

2011-07-18T11:08:00.006-06:00

* Top Ten Reasons for starting simple church by using SASHET to "check in" with each other...

Church = meeting

Church = performance

Church = organization

Church = business

*National House Church Conference.September 2-4 in Jacksonville, FL.http://www.cvent.com/events/momentum-basics-and-beyond/event-summary-35d9eb8b489245b383c00068e2ebd074.aspx

Top Ten Reasons for using SASHET in your church (#5)

2011-07-16T06:00:00.000-06:00

* Top Ten Reasons for starting simple church by using SASHET to "check in" with each other...

#5. It helps new people quickly connect with the community. "Practice hospitality." Romans 12:13. Imagine you are going to a house church for the first time. It can be awkward (especially if you are a little introverted to begin with). What do you talk about? You wonder how this kind of church works. What are the "rules"? And, all of these other people already know each other. It's easy to feel like an outsider.

By starting the meeting with SASHET, everyone (visitors and regulars) are placed on the same footing. The "rules" are very simple. After one or two people share, you can quickly see how it's done. And, you can share at any level of vulnerability you are comfortable with so, you feel safe. SASHET moves the whole group beyond the level of "small talk". It provides an easy starting place for lots other follow-up conversations. In the course of one meeting, you are part of the community. No longer an "outsider".

What benefits have you found from "checking in"? Add your thoughts in the "Comment" section below. Also, if you are new to SASHET and the CO2 concept, see the resources in the right column.

*"Hospitality is a fundamental function of the Jewish home. This practice is also central in the Hebraic heritage of the Church. Schooled in a rich rabbinic background, Paul inculcates this teaching in his readers... The term used in rabbinic literature for hospitality is hakhnasat orhim, literally "bringing in of guests" or "gathering in of travelers."... The rabbis considered hospitality one of the most important functions of the home... Guests were to be received graciously and cheerfully." Wilson, Our Father Abraham, p. 219-220.

Hospitality means opening our homes to guests. Perhaps even more important is the opening of our hearts to guests. SASHET gives us a pathway to do just that.

Tim Morris, a house church leader in Denver, share about the value of SASHET for himself and his house church.

*National House Church Conference.September 2-4 in Jacksonville, FL.http://www.cvent.com/events/momentum-basics-and-beyond/event-summary-35d9eb8b489245b383c00068e2ebd074.aspx

Top Ten Reasons for using SASHET in your church (#4)

2011-07-12T08:33:00.007-06:00

* Top Ten Reasons for starting simple church by using SASHET to "check in" with each other...

#4. It helps the church obey Scripture. "Weep with those who weep." Romans 12:15. This is the flip side of Reason #3. Whenever a church of almost any size meets together, it's inevitable that there will be some who are sad. Some parent is hurting over one of their children. Someone has lost a job. Someone has experienced a death in the family. To live this life is to suffer loss. And, God intends that the community called "church" is the place where we receive support in our sadness.

But, often, church is the one place we have been taught not to weep. Put on a happy face! "How are you doing today?" "I'm fine. How are you?" People may be weeping on the inside but they may have learned that church is not the place (not safe?) to weep on the outside. As a result, we disobey the Lord's instructions for what should go on when we gather.

When we begin the meeting with SASHET, we find out who is sad this week. Then, we can obey Scripture and weep with them. This is the very nature of a healthy body. As Paul says in 1 Cor. 12:26, "If one part of the body suffers, every part suffers with it.

*Side note: And, of course, it is impossible to obey this command if the church is made up of 100 people, let alone 1000 or more.

What benefits have you found from "checking in"? Add your thoughts in the "Comment" section below. Also, if you are new to SASHET and the CO2 concept, see the resources in the right column.

* "It's no wonder that the church has intuitively avoided these psalms (of disorientation). They lead us into dangerous acknowledgement of how life really is. They lead us into the presence of God where everything is not polite and civil... They lead us away from the comfortable religious claims of "modernity" in which everything is managed and controlled... The remarkable thing about Israel is that it did not banish or deny the darkness from its religious enterprise. It embraces the darkness as the very stuff of new life. Indeed, Israel seems to know that new life comes nowhere else." The Message of the Psalms by Walter Brueggemann, p. 53.

Examples of Psalms of disorientation and lament: 13, 22, 30, 35, 74, 79, 86, 88, 137

*Interview with Desi Starr. Hobby is a house church planter in Denver, CO. In this short interview, he explains how the SASHET "tool" bonds a group and why he teaches it to every new house church that he plants.

*National House Church Conference.September 2-4 in Jacksonville, FL.http://www.cvent.com/events/momentum-basics-and-beyond/event-summary-35d9eb8b489245b383c00068e2ebd074.aspx

Top Ten Reasons for using SASHET in your church (#3)

2011-07-10T10:02:00.005-06:00

* Top Ten Reasons for starting simple church by using SASHET to "check in" with each other...

#3. It helps the church obey Scripture. "Rejoice with those who rejoice." Romans 12:15. This is an exhortation to the church. But, if we don't know who is rejoicing we won't be able to join in their rejoicing. When we share SASHET, especially the Happy and Excited parts, we know from the start of the meeting who we can rejoice with. This is the very nature of a healthy, functioning body. As Paul says in 1 Cor. 12:26, "If one part of the body is honored, every part rejoices with it.

*Side note: And, of course, it is impossible to obey this command if the church is made up of 100 people, let alone 1000 or more.

What benefits have you found from "checking in"? Add your thoughts in the "Comment" section below. Also, if you are new to SASHET and the CO2 concept, see the resources in the right column.

*National House Church Conference.September 2-4 in Jacksonville, FL.http://www.cvent.com/events/momentum-basics-and-beyond/event-summary-35d9eb8b489245b383c00068e2ebd074.aspx

*Letters to the House Church Movement by Rad Zdero. Chapter Six is titled "Letters to Critics of House Churches". Some have suggested that the early church met in homes because they didn't have enough money to build church buildings or in order to avoid persecution. Rad refers back to one of his earlier books to make the point that meeting in homes was for a much deeper theological reason.

"Although they (the early church) did not necessarily employ the house church form consciously, it was the natural result of their theology of church as family and their belief in the participatory and interactive nature of gatherings." (Zdero, The Global House Church Movement, page 56.)

In other words, the idea of house church has a solid theological basis. (It's actually institutional church that is on shaky ground here!)

*Interview with Hobby Chapin. Hobby is a house church planter in Brighton, CO which is north of Denver. In this short interview, he explains how the SASHET "tool" bonds a group and why he teaches it to every new house church that he plants.

Top Ten Reasons for using SASHET in your church

2011-07-09T08:11:00.004-06:00

* Top Ten Reasons for starting simple church by using SASHET to "check in" with each other...

#2. It helps me know what part of me is present. How many times have we gone to church meetings without thinking deeply about where our own hearts are? As a result, we end up merely "going through the motions". We relate on a superficial level. But, when I take time to think through SASHET (Sad - Angry - Scared - Happy - Excited - Tender), I can be authentic with my community. I present my "true self" and the result is meaningful relationships with both the community and with God.

What benefits have you found from "checking in"? Add your thoughts in the "Comment" section below. Also, if you are new to SASHET and the CO2 concept, see the resources in the right column.

*National House Church Conference. September 2-4 in Jacksonville, FL. http://www.cvent.com/events/momentum-basics-and-beyond/event-summary-35d9eb8b489245b383c00068e2ebd074.aspx

*Letters to the House Church Movement by Rad Zdero. Chapter Four is titled "Letter to Women in House Churches". Rad comments that "Women (in the early church) were full participants in church life and mission. They could pray, prophesy, teach, encourage, and use all their spiritual gifts." He lists a number of roles that women functioned in. One particularly significant role was that of apostle. "Women were apostles. In Rom. 16:7, Paul greets two outstanding apostles. One is a man named Andronicus. The other person's name, however could either be read "Junias" (male) or "Junia" (female), ... the evidence overwhelmingly favors the female name "Junia." p. 50. (Rad goes on in the book to outline that evidence.)

When we pray Lk10:2b, we beseech the Lord of the harvest to send forth both male and female apostolic church planters! And, it's happening!

Perhaps you've seen the video below - Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy. What are the lessons for the LK10 Community?

"Checking in" as a core practice for simple churches

2011-07-08T15:11:00.004-06:00

* Top Ten Reasons for starting simple church by using SASHET to "check in" with each other...

#1. It announces who is present. That is, not just the names and faces of those who are present, but the condition of their hearts. By starting here, the potential for deep connection and significant transformation immediately goes way up.

What benefits have you found from "checking in"? Add your thoughts in the "Comment" section below. Also, if you are new to SASHET and the CO2 concept, see the resources in the right column.

*National House Church Conference. September 2-4 in Jacksonville, FL. http://www.cvent.com/events/momentum-basics-and-beyond/event-summary-35d9eb8b489245b383c00068e2ebd074.aspx

*Letters to the House Church Movement by Rad Zdero. "For the most part, Jesus Christ is relegated to being the guest of honor in most churches... But, Christ does not want to be just the guest of honor when the church gathers. Rather, he wants to be the Master of Ceremonies, directing each of us to contribute and to give something to the spiritual "potluck" or "smorgasbord" dinner, so that everyone can benefit." p. 46

*The CO2 (church of two) concept is changing family culture in Africa. In this video, Hugh Brandt (who was a missionary for many years in Africa) and Walt Hastings (who is coaching the Apprenticeship in Kenya) talk about family culture in Africa.

National House Church Conference

2011-07-07T12:14:00.003-06:00

I've been attending this annual conference for 7-8 years. It's a great place to both learn more about the house church movement and meet people from all over the country who are on this journey. (You are not alone!)

I'll be leading one of the breakout sessions this year on "How to Hear God's Voice". Understanding these key concepts totally changes how church works. It enables you to go from "Jesus as Honor (and silent) Guest" to "Jesus as Master of Ceremonies".

Click on the link above ("National House Church Conference") to find out more. Hope to see you there!

John

Report on LK10 Conference (2)

2011-06-13T09:42:00.004-06:00

At the Conference, we explored two simple "equations" which explain so much about NT church life.

1. Church = Family

2. Leaders = Parents (in the best sense of the word)

On Thursday night and Friday morning we had two equipping tracks designed to help people learn to use two "tools" that are vital for good parenting/leading.

Track One: Coaching. The coaching tool helps us serve individuals by helping the them to better pay attention to what the Spirit is doing in their lives. While there is certainly a place for telling and teaching, we know that people don't grow to maturity without coaches who help them to learn to think for themselves by asking great questions and listening deeply to their answers.

Track Two: Facilitating. The facilitating tool helps us serve groups by helping the group pay attention to what the Spirit is doing in its midst. Facilitating is different from the way that many of us where taught to lead a group which was essentially to disciple individuals in a group context. By contrast, a facilitator sees the group as a living organism and disciples the group which then disciples individuals.

In the video below, Walt Hastings and Tim Morris comment on these two equipping tracks.

John

Report on LK10 Conference (1)

2011-06-08T11:16:00.002-06:00

The first annual LK10 Conference was held at the end of may at Abilene Christian University. This Conference was hugely significant because it was our first attempt at applying LK10 practices in a conference setting. We have lots of experience at living into these practices as individuals, as CO2 partners and as house churches. The Conference was a wonderful affirmation of the way the Lord can work through these rhythms in a conference setting.

Typical Christian conferences are built around "talking heads". Even though research shows that lecture is the least effective means of communicating information (not to mention changing lives), we continue to feature well known speakers at conferences. (This is similar to the high value for preaching in church services.) The LK10 Conference represented a major paradigm shift in that it was built around collaborative listening (to each other and to God). Over the next several posts, we'll tell stories about what this was like.

Talking about the priesthood of all believers vs experiencing the priesthood of all believers.

Announcing the 2011 LK10 Conference

2011-04-02T12:01:00.003-06:00

I am very excited to announce the 2011 LK10 Conference!

In the flyer above, you will see that this Conference, which takes place over the Memorial Day Weekend in Abilene, TX, will be unlike any conference you have attended. No more endless hours of talking heads! What you will experience is collaborative listening - to God and to each other. Ask the Lord if He wants you to join us for this powerful weekend together.

To learn more about the World Cafe format, go to: http://www.theworldcafe.com/articles/cafetogo.pdf

For more information about the LK10 Conference and to register go to: https://files.me.com/rlongwell/ewzlam

Questions? Shoot me an email: DenverWH@aol.com

John

"For the first time, I'm seeing the value of "checking in"."

2011-03-22T11:16:00.003-06:00

Apprenticeship Rhythms One and Three: The Weekly Assignments and Daily Forum Posts

The Assignments in Week Eight focus on the simple but powerful idea that "church flows from listening". Below is the forum post of one member of the Apprenticeship. Below that is my response to his post. (You can see how the online forum becomes a place of dialogue and learning.)

John

"Well, I must admit for the first time I am seeing the value of “checking in” (with each other and with God) to planting house churches—such simple practices that take the onus off any particular “leader” and can be replicated by anyone. And while I still don’t care much for the acronym SASHET (men don’t sashet; they CLOG), so far this is the simplest way I’ve heard to get all participants to open up, allowing others to know what is going on in each others’ lives. Good stuff. Thanks John."

My response...

"Thank you. I totally understand your reluctance with SASHET. I felt the same way when I was first introduced to it. However, I am a pragmatist at heart. I'm interested in what works. And, I have to say that I have never found a tool that is this effective at facilitating community. As with any tool (ie, my example of a hammer), it's value increases with experience and training but even a "beginner" can employ it effectively."

"My 6 yr old is learning how to hear the Holy Spirit."

2011-03-21T09:48:00.002-06:00

Apprenticeship Rhythms One and Two: Weekly Learning Assignments and CO2 (or CO3)

Here's another wonderful report of a household (with young children) functioning as a church.

John

"(The assignments in) Week 7 was awesome! We use sashet here at home with our 6 year old boy and 2 year old girl. Helps them identify emotions and helps them feel like we hear them and their heart. My 6 yr old is learning how to hear the Holy Spirit. Looking forward to this week's assignments and learnings."

Family flows from listening

2011-03-17T11:25:00.005-06:00

Apprenticeship Rhythms One and Two: Weekly Learning Assignments and CO2 (or CO3)

The Apprenticeship is twelve weeks long and every week, members receive a new chapter in our eWorkbook. Each chapter has three Learning Assignments. This week, the focus is on family flowing from listening. See below for another example of a home functioning as a church.

John

"This being spring break, I was a bit tempted to skip out on Luke 10 for spring cleaning and a mini-vacation--can you believe that? But my heart leaped when I saw that the week was about 'Family.' I felt really encouraged by Sean's story and wanted to embrace a bit more detail for our family CO3 sharing, which most often happens at mealtimes.

Today (in our family time) we read about feeding 5000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish and listened to God around that story. It was a really fun time, especially to see (our five year old daughter) so tender and full of enthusiasm as she shared her thoughts, drew pictures and engaged us like a teacher with her questions!

Also, I am touched by the idea that listening to God, others and our own hearts can make us so much more receptive to God and each other. Not only can you 'go to church', sit in a pew, and go home again without really knowing others..or yourself...or God better, it happens at home too. We can go through our day with everyone busy in their tasks and not really know what each other is struggling with, challenged by, happy about if you don't intentionally stop and listen to each other.

I felt really washed clean and shined up and closer to my mate and child by spending this time together listening and sharing hearts. It really is a big deal.

14 year old prefers house church

2011-03-14T08:03:00.002-06:00

Apprenticeship rhythm Number Two: CO2 (Church of Two)

The rhythms of a CO2 (checking in with each other and listening to God together) overflow very naturally into family life and into house churches. Below are two examples of this.

The first is a member of the Apprenticeship posting on his cohort's forum. Notice how delighted this father's heart is to see his 12 and 14 year old engaging with these rhythms. And, note how naturally mission flows from their listening together.

Below that is a video interview with another 14 year old, Nathan Duncan, here in Denver. Compare what you hear from Nathan with the typical approach to youth ministry which is a desperate attempt to entertain kids so that you can slip in a little spirituality. Feel the difference?

John

"Checking in as settled today, just feeling tender and loving towards my peeps & my honey & happy to have the Coach with us in our family check in this morning. Many fears and hopes were laid out & i feel that my 12 year old & 14 yr old are really engaging in the CO2 process. We had the joy of blessing some homeless folks today & it's becoming a matter of course for the children to see the poor & needy among us & they are beginning to have an expectation of opportunity in that area, which is cool. we're all listening for the Spirit today with regards to our future & I have this picture of us all standing at the throne, waiting expectantly :) "

Africa: 100 CO2s?

2011-03-12T15:04:00.003-07:00

Apprenticeship rhythms Number Two and Four: The Church of Two (CO2) and coaching.

The interview below is with Walt Hastings who is coaching our African Cohort. Here are three things that encourage me from the interview...

1. CO2s are transforming marriages.

2. CO2s are multiplying rapidly. Probably more than 100 now in Kenya.

3. CO2s are culturally transferable.

And, all of this is happening in a country where there are tremendous technological obstacles. Only a couple of people have their own computers - everyone else has to go to an Internet cafe. Often the connection is only dial-up, so they can't access our eWorkbook. (Walt puts the Learning Assignments in a simple word doc.) Electricity is only available occasionally. Etc.

John