The Internal Debate of the Family on Mission

So I'm pretty excited about the Family on Mission Action Journal coming out next month. I thought I'd take a minute and share some thoughts on the making of the journal.

I've had this internal debate going on for months now regarding the making and sharing of this journal. It began as an overflow of the discovery process with my wife on what it looks like for the Christ-centered family (our family) to live out Gospel truth together.

Leaning into 3dm's Up / IN / OUT discipleship rhythm we've been worshipping, learning, playing and serving on purpose in our home, neighborhood and network. Creating and taking opportunities as they come.

In the past few years we've come to realize that while each individual believer is gifted by the Spirit to serve the body and engage the world differently, the Apostle Paul really engages this teaching, as a family unit we're designed to live a Christ-centered rhythm together in ways no other space can replicate.

The local Church offers so much opportunity for personal discovery of these gifts that Dad can minister to the body regularly in a different spaces than Mom. Mom and daughter never have to cross paths in between the women and student ministries. Father and son can be engaged in totally separate multi-evening weekly events and never really share a 1x1 meal engaging in healthy Kairos moments together.

So as my wife and I have been discovering and recreating a healthier family rhythm I've been wrestling with whether or not I'm qualified as a healthy and maturing father, husband and disciple of Christ to offer my understanding of the Biblical call to live on mission as a family with others. It's a humble position to be in to ask another to engage in a particular rhythm of mission that I'm personally convicted about. It's one thing to attempt to live it out in my home and quite another to invite others to invest in a resource that I have invested in.

So while some days I feel like a failure and other days victorious in my walk - this internal debate is healthy as it propels me to desire Christlike maturity as developed and defined by Scripture. It's unhealthy in that it causes me to negatively compare myself with other mature believers which stunts my ability to see clearly the simple nature of sharing Truth that the Spirit has shared with me.

'Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sin psalms, hymns and spiritual sons with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.' - Colossians 3:15-17

That said, the Family on Mission Action Journal is on its way. The debate is nearly over. Peace and Word are doing their work and Thankfulness is the result.

It's a resource. A tool. An opportunity to propel our families toward discovering a healthy rhythm of life together as long as your season of parents and children share space under one roof - your roof.

Dwell in the word.
Sing together.
Serve together.
Pray together.
Eat together.
Play together.
Commune together.

This Action Journal is a way of taking the most practical elements of engaging Christ and His call to engage the our families and those closest to us together and tossing them on our dinner tables to discuss, pray about and creatively engage in our home and in our neighborhoods.

And I'm incredibly excited to hear your family stories on mission.

Which events, activities, passages, experiences, spaces and moments open doors for you and your family to engage the muddy waters of lifestyle disciplemaking.

Let discipleship be an overflow of your family life - not an added element of volunteerism in your weekly endeavors!

January 2015 Book Release / A Family on Mission Action Journal

A Family on Mission Action Journal  /  Coming January 2015

Check out my first forthcoming Action Journal dedicated to fostering intentional family life in Christ together. Get active on purpose and regularly at that! Next Year (January 2015) order a copy for your family - and one for each of the families in your Missional Community. Get active together one day at a time.

Live UP / Live IN / Live OUT  This rhythm of life as a family dedicated to growing in Christ personally and together AND engaging Jesus' call to make disciples who make disciples is a wild adventure. On our journey to engage our neighbors and network with the Gospel together as a family we need a little encouragement from time to time.

Journey together through UP - IN - OUT adventures, journal about the events, the people involved, the work of the Spirit and the fruit you'll be praying about for future relationship and mission.

Being missional as a disciple of Christ is most rewarding when it's the overflow of our Deuteronomy 6:4-9 family life rhythm. It's most fruitful when it leads to discipling relationships both inside and outside the home.

Are you enjoying the call of Christ right here in your home?

A Family on Mission Action Journal / The Next Absolutely Unprofessional Publication coming January 2015.

One Year Since Departing...

The other day a friend asked how my position was fleshing out at the local church I had moved here to Ohio to help launch. Two things came to mind:

One: Man, time flies! It's been one year since I parted from that position and local body.

Two: I haven't connected with this guy in a year. That's ridiculous!

I hadn't intended on processing the previous season at the one year mark but around this same time I bumped into another individual I had been building a relationship with during my time on staff and was struck by their impression of my departure. These encounters have spurred me on to continue to reflect on the growth, healing and hoping process as the Spirit regenerates and repurposes my family and I.

Here are a very, very few things that have come to light.

The Junk:
It's safe to say I had some baggage going into that position that hadn't been dealt with, much I was even unaware of. An unhealthy blend of self-deprecation and pride blasted my confidence in the Lord and thus robbed Him of His due glory.

When there was no one left to 'do ministry' with and my family I were thrust into a season of reconciling our purpose and rhythm with our present circumstances...then pride and self-deprecation were dragged out into the open and I have been forced to reckon with these oppressive character traits.

Freedom does abound beyond the restraints of 'self'. You know what light does, right? It dissipates hurt and disillusion and everything that's false. Not quickly, but surely.

The Family:
Goodnight! I have an incredible wife. I have two incredible kids. I missed them and I wasn't even aware of just how much. During my stint on staff I had spoken a lot about healthy family rhythm and quantity of time with the family, not simply quality...honestly I felt much like a skipping record on these verses.

Yet, somewhere in the midst of that season I lost touch with my own family, my own healthy rhythm and all in the name of 'getting my crap done so the Kingdom can move onward.' By the time I left my position I was disillusioned with my call, my gifts, my family unity, my role in the Kingdom and the individual relationships with my wife, my son and my daughter.

In the past year my wife and I have been rebuilding a vision for the future and acting on our mission. I have reimagined an honest discipling relationship with my son. I am also learning to be the father of a beautiful little girl who doesn't need a pastoral figure in the house but a father chasing after God's heart.

The Parting:
I was surprised (maybe not entirely) to hear the impression my friend had regarding my leaving the position and thus the local body. He wondered why I would move here, build relationships and then depart overnight without a word to anyone personally and all under the banner of a 'difference of ministry philosophy and vision.'

Great question. At the moment I didn't know what to say except what I had been saying - that my personal expectations grew apart from the direction of the body and so I departed. I suppose that's true.

What's more, however, is that I didn't choose to depart, at least not quickly and quietly and not at that time. I had been asked to leave. There's a difference. This particular conversation revealed a hurt caused by my rapid abandoning of this budding friendship, hurt in no major way I should add, but hurt that I would choose to indirectly disown them and that without a word.

I didn't intend to. Yes, my pride and self-deprecation robbed us of fruit and relationship but these were heavily intertwined with ministry philosophy changes and challenges creeping in apart from those I was truly convicted of and so I wasn't able to (or willing to) reconcile what I had moved here to serve and partake in with what was actually being developed. But I didn't jump ship. The ship made a brief but rapid stop and asked me to depart. I did not intend to abandon any relationships and yet I did, collateral damage.

You know how it works, you're hurt so you inadvertently hurt others and communication breaks down and impressions and assumptions are made etc. And so I consolidated my personal resources and relationships and bunkered down to regroup. Some people didn't make it in the bunker. I'm sorry.

So now what? Well it's interesting to look back over the past year and see this Sovereign God still at work.

While I cannot reconcile all of the experiences during my time on staff with Gods heart and purpose, it is safe to say that He neither abandons His people, those on all sides of such painful interaction, nor does he abandon the work of expanding His Kingdom one disciple at a time through those who are faithful. That is glorious knowledge and faith abounds in retaining such truths.

So how is my position fleshing out? Well, it's doing just that. The Spirit is continuing the lifelong process of incarnating the Gospel within these old bones, within my family and my home. One year is not a lot of time. It's the amount of time I spent investing in that local body. It's also the amount of time I have had since leaving that position.

One year goes by fast and while the above realizations are important they are only a slice of what has been taking shape. It feels good to own my junk, my sin. It also feels good to own my decisions and let go of those others have made on my behalf.

I wonder what you might be in the process of realizing, overcoming, healing from and hoping for?

Where do you see the Lord at work and where do you see Satan creeping in to steal and destroy?

And of course - what is God teaching you about who you are in His Kingdom and what are you going to do about it?

A year flies by. Don't waste it.

Called & Quiet?

There's a new/old tension in the Western Church lately regarding the form and quality of discipleship. A tension in philosophy where on the one hand every disciple is called and gifted to be engaged in incarnational mission while on the other appropriate Christian programming within the church is the focus and scope of discipleship.

Missional communities or small groups?

1x1 disciple making and multiplication or classroom Bible study?

Between Matthew 28:18-20 'Go and make disciples,' and 1 Thess. 4:11-12 'Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life.'

There is a real tension, a real division in thought and practice between a local body that sees every individual actually doing the work of ministry as one united body AND a local church whose overseers do the work and invite the body to come and see.

The problem is that Jesus' call to make disciples (Matt 28) is not a different call from Paul's later challenge to live quietly (1 Thess. 4). That while there might be tension built into these dueling passages there's unity of mission. Even where there is a difference of interpretation there is no less a call to fulfill both.

Go & Do: We're familiar with the charge of Christ to go and make disciples of all nations. And we're familiar with the subsequent disciple making movement in Acts. We may even be familiar with the reality that in the following three hundred years after Christ much of the Middle East and most of Europe had converted to Christianity. So the rhythm of personally proclaiming Christ and then personally teaching others to obey His commands = making disciples, may be radical to us but it's not new territory.

But this isn't separate from Paul's charge to aspire to a humble and quiet life. To work diligently with our hands and win over outsiders. What's the context? Is there a reason for this intentionally mild-mannered challenge in light of Jesus' radical call? Probably.

Stay & Be: The Thessalonians turned from their idols to Christ in such a way that they became a model to all of Macedonia and Achaia (1:7). Their faith had become known everywhere (1:8). Despite severe suffering they were infused by the Holy Spirit to endure and so imitate Jesus (1:6). They abandoned their temples, discarded their false teachings, dropped out of trades and unions devoted to false gods and were most likely denied access to many social functions. Culture felt the impact.

Paul thanks God for their 'work produced by faith' - 'labor prompted by love' - 'endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ' (1:2-3)

Even their brotherly love is so extravagant that Paul notes their understanding and lifestyle of love has been directly taught by God and felt all over the countryside (4:9). Paul even urges them to demonstrate it more and more (:10). It's as if the humble and quiet life he goes on to cherish is full of persecution, hard work both in the use of their spiritual gifts and their vocation, a genuine labor of love-lifestyle towards all brothers and sisters and an endurance through all things for the sake of Christ!

Apparently this joyful (5:16), prayerful (5:17), thankful (5:18), zealous (5:19), faithful (5:20), discerning (5:21), aware (5:22) quiet and humble lifestyle is exactly what Jesus meant when He prayed for future generations of disciples on mission (John 17) and then called His own disciples to go and make disciples until the whole world knows of His love.

So, where is this tension? It's not in the Biblical call to make disciples. It's not in a lifestyle that demonstrates His Truth wholly. Where is it?

The tension arises in two places (actually more but I'm writing here and this is all I want to cover):

1. General & Specific Fears
2. Misunderstanding of Gifts / Personality

Fear: We fear all sorts of things but typically we don't live this lifestyle because we're scared. I won't go into detail on this point, if you fear anything or anyone other than God and His divine power then submit and move forward.

Misunderstandings of gifts and personality: We generally agree that the spiritual gifts are given to serve the body and entice the non-believers to Gods grace - but personality is a messy and subjective discussion. That our personalities are given by God and shaped by our circumstances is an important piece of who we are and how the Lord calls us.

I wonder if it isn't within a deeper understanding of our personalities that our humble and quiet life is better discerned. Yes, our culture will shape how the Gospel is lived out and communicated, but so will our personalities. That two very different disciples both with the gift of teaching may very well utilize this gift in very different capacities - one on a stage and the other in a living room.

My wife and are both quite introverted and yet her form of quiet yet intentional living quite naturally looks different than mine and often we're tweaking and shaping and challenging and sacrificing what that means within our household and ministry.

Living quietly and working diligently will be different in different towns, homes and local churches - yet the work of making disciples will always be laborious, faithful and self-sacrificial work requiring perseverance and wrought with forms of persecution.

Who are you in Christ and who are you called to connect with intentionally yet humbly?

Redeeming the Sacred Night of the Candy

Oh sweet hallows eve.  Some thoughts for incarnational living on this most...religio-sacro-spirituo-holish-day.

It's that strangely universal celebration of after-hours-candyholics.  One that draws your neighbors out of their homes once a year - so hand something out and connect with them.  (If you don't agree with candy do something cool like temporary tattoo's, please avoid the rice cakes, please.)

1. Why not walk around and chat it up around fires, glowing pumpkins and bowls of sugar with the rest of the neighborhood?  In fact, make it point to connect on a deeper level with at least one other family on your journey.  (I've not yet been accused of anything more than having a sweet beard and a lot of fun on Halloween.)
2. Join up with your missional community, small group or extended family and have a party in your front yard handing out candy to neighbors.  Why not add some sweet music and a barbecue and I promise you'll not only connect with the unknown hermits down the street, but you might enjoy it yourself!
3. If you simply must redeem the night through blatant Christianization from the commercialized-pagan-holish-day, and if you must dress up as your favorite patriarch of the faith, and if you  must quote copious amounts of Scripture...then please, please, please at least do it with some serious pizzaz, drama and fanfare as though you actually believe and enjoy the dramatic ancient beauty of the text, the heroic people, and the their powerful God.

Oh, and whatever you choose to do with the night, model for your children what it means to glorify God through missional candy collection, proliferation and neighborhood connects...and for those of you staying indoors with your kids, demonstrate healthy fasting from what you believe to be all-too-close identification with and worship of the worlds gods without condemning the rest of the Body.

Party on Wayne...Party on Garth.

A Key Ingredient to an Ancient Message

'Adam, here's Eve. Love her.'

'Eve, here's Adam. Honor him.'

Brooke and I dated for three years before marriage.  I've uncovered a type of love not experienced with another along the journey through life together.  All in all I've known my wife for over a decade, nearly 1/3 of my life.

We love one another.
We had thought this might become true as we dove into a relationship.
We proclaimed it's truth at the onset of our united life together.
We experience this truth as we travel together daily as a family.

'This is message you heard from the beginning. We should love one another.'  John wrote this in the midst of describing the life of one who truly demonstrates the love of God on a daily basis.  Habitually.  Daily they become more like Christ than they do the devil.  Pretty direct.

As we discover and experience a healthy love for one another we're demonstrating a Truth as old as anything we understand.  This was and is Gods message.  Love one another.

Personal observation here:  Our current age, current culture desires immediate knowledge, quick decisions, immediate fulfillment.  In everything from vocational success to how we want to view the world.  While we might be quick to proclaim a willingness to love another, to proclaim it honestly and experience it habitually takes time.  Love is slow, and just as a river slowly moves and grooves into the land, love moves likewise.

This concept flows way beyond marriage and into the array of relationships all about us.  Within friendships, neighbors, working acquaintances, disciples, bosses, professors, pastors...move slow, with hope and not skepticism, move slow.

Decisions may be quick but nurturing the outcome takes time.  Knowledge comes in waves yet discerning slowly how to utilize it is vital.  I'm not attempting to write a prescription for the appropriate speed to obtaining relational depth...I'm simply saying there are key ingredients.

What relationships are you rushing?  Why?  Who are you intentional with?  Is there a toxic relationship that doesn't allow for a reciprocal one-another love you ought to step back from?  Is there a hard heart you ought to steadfastly, patiently share that very message from the beginning with?

Read 1 John 3 for some thoughts on what it means to love well with a love eternal.

Spacesaver...

Spaces.

All of us live within a wild matrix of relational spaces. While there are four key spaces that all of us ramble about in, most of us only utilize a couple within our regular rhythm of life. And of those two-three spaces we only intentionally develop healthy relationships within one or two.

Public - 100 or more people/ work, concerts, community events, church services
Social - 25-75 people / parties, family gatherings, large classes, clubs
Personal - 5-15 people / immediate family, small groups, gangs
Intimate - 1-3 people / mentors, accountability, coffee groups, card nights, discipleship

The numbers may vary, that's not the important piece. What is important is a healthy use of space and defined relationships.

Who knows everything about you? Yes, it's awesome that your spouse does, but guys need other guys who know their strengths and weakness' etc. We need these intimate relationships that meet the deep 'one-anothers' in Scripture.

What small group are you part of? Who are you regularly sharing meals with, enjoying family time with? Who do your kids regularly get to hang out with and see you model life alongside?

What social gatherings are impacting your life and are you giving yourself to? Do you know your neighbors and hold bbq's? Is your small group a part of a larger community of 35 or so? In other words, do you have a good size spiritual family you don't get lost in.

What about the public sphere. Why is this important? To belong. Belonging to something bigger than ourselves and our spheres of influence is vital to remaining teachable and humble. The greater church is good for this: worship service, corporate teaching, greater vision, huge mission and simply the physical display of the body of Christ at large!

Spaces. We need each of them. In the last post I noted how Jesus displayed them with the ultimate goal of making disciples...the eternal use of space in action.

Community: What the...

Are we as the Church challenging, expecting and equipping God's Spirit-filled people to live as cultural missionaries?

OR

Are God's empowered people expecting those without that power to enter the church on their own?

Think of it like this. It's terrifying to radically alter your worldview, culture, mindset, belief system, lifestyle...so why do we expect those outside the Church to do all these things in order to engage with the Word.

Are we expecting more faith and courage from people who haven't interacted with the Creator than we are from those who are indwelt by Him? Who is called to be intentional: those who have been reconciled or those who haven't? Who's called to be an ambassador?

What if we spent our time being Christian community, gathering as believers, mashed together with our locale. There's lots of room to define what that really means without giving up the Gospel - the catch is, if we simply say we're doing this and aren't either experiencing fruit or persecution...we probably really aren't doing it.
Dang.

Read and be: Matthew 28:18-20 - 2 Corinthians 5:11-21

To be or Not to be...a disciple

Typically a Rabbi would wait. He would wait for students to prove themselves in knowledge and passion for God. To rise above their fellow students and eventually seek out the Rabbi with a desire to follow.

To become talmid - a student - a disciple.

Their goal was not to be greater than the Rabbi but to be like him. Sound familiar.

Yet Jesus worked in reverse. As a Rabbi He didn't wait - He went. At the right time and in the right place He sought out His first talmidim. He found a handful of fishermen, those living in a tiny village, and called them to be like Him.

What if they were only sort-of like Him? What if they only gave up most of their desires and plans and dreams? What if they held onto their business plans, family comforts, familiar culture? What if they continued to worship God as they understood Him?

But none of those were options were they? 'If I want him to ______, what is that to you? You follow me,' said Jesus to Peter in one of the most personal interactions with Jesus in Scripture.

Follow Me. Don't worry about how others claim to 'follow' me. Don't hold onto your own limited dreams and plans. Don't attempt to worship the 'god' you knew before Me. Be like Me.

Are you and I actual disciples? It's easy to gauge isn't it - is your one goal in life to be like Jesus in your current context or not? Is your hearts desire to worship Him alone and be holy as He is holy, or not? Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness? If so then you're a disciple and that changes everything about your life.

If not...

Kingdom Cycle

The Kingdom is not simply a 'then and there' locale that will one day replace our worldly system - the Kingdom is the original creation fused together with our current fractured one.

Miracles, truth proclamation and Gospel living are avenues for experiencing the original creation. Avenues for knowing that the divine nature the of eternal God is here and that His Kingdom is redeeming the earth and reforming it to its natural state - perfection. This is not replacement but reconciliation.

This is our Kingdom.

We have entered into it so we must continue to reveal it's true nature in all we do, say, believe. We are the firstfruits of restoration. Yes there will be an end - Yes it's incredibly horrifying that many will not live within the eternal kingdom. That is why we must be willing to live with a Kingdom mindset here and now. Without exception.

As our worldview transforms so do our beliefs and subsequently our actions. In the diagram above we see the cyclical rhythm to a life living out the Kingdom attitude. It flows as such:

Preaching Kingdom is a catalyst for proclaiming King

Proclaiming King is a catalyst for teaching Kingdom values

Teaching Kingdom values is a catalyst for living on mission

Living on mission is a catalyst for Preaching Kingdom...

Read Tim Kellers 'The Prodigal God' for more on the Kingdom.
Read Matthew's gospel chapter 4:12-25 to catch the beginning of this rhythm of life. Jesus Teaches, Preaches and Demonstrates Miracles.
Listen to my recent teaching 'It Begins' for a more in depth look at this cyclical idea of following Jesus in the Kingdom.

The Little Warrior Within...

Larry Osborne, at the Sticky Church 2.0 conference, spent some time challenging the notion that a person or a church or an organization needs replicate or reproduce a program, style, culture or quality that a more fruitful person/organization is doing.

He brought up David. Not King David but the young, confident, sheep herding David.

'Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine...', sound familiar? Dude was awesome, 'your servant will go and fight him.' Young and ready to do what he had been training to do - leading sheep, wrestling bears and lions, training. In speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity...set and example even in your youth. Those words from Paul to Timothy totally connect to David and his ability to move in the Lord at such a young age.

We know the Spirit was on David, that God had a plan for him to move into a role of leadership in Israel. We also know that the same Spirit that was in sheep-herding-King David is in us.

At this point David wasn't seeking out what other mighty warriors he could mimic in order to take on Goliath. He knew his strengths and weakness' so when Saul called for him he was ready to respond in a healthy way. When opportunity came he was comfortable with his capacity.

Ultimately Saul puts his own armor on David to send him in to battle. Seriously? Compared to Saul, David's a curly headed pygmy with a sling and some sheep. He was restricted, confined, unable to move about the way he had trained and knew he was capable of. He was being set up for success according to someone elses plan and purpose.

I absolutely admire what he did next. So simple and yet so bold. David stripped off the armor and left to fight using the skill set, vision and confidence that came from the Lord, not the mighty warrior and king Saul.

As a follower of Christ, empowered and designed by Him, who are you trying to be like that totally doesn't fit who you actually are. Yes, to grow we need to learn from all camps, from many sources beyond our own understanding and worldview...but our character doesn't change, our foundational qualities that are divinely handed down don't need to be thrown out right? Maybe revamped and reformatted but ignoring who you are or what your organization is designed to do in order to copy another 'more successful' can only lead to heart-ache and possibly sin either now or later.

Are you fighting in your strengths or someone elses? What Philistines are you trying to overcome with unnatural tools and style? Every warriors has his own skill set, what's yours?

Taken from 1 Samuel 17 and 1 Timothy 4:12

Mission

Now if the mission is to make disciples of Jesus who make more disciples of Jesus - and that mission is the result of the Kingdom of Heaven meeting earth upon Jesus' incarnation - then the mission of the Christian is really to grow the Kingdom of God one disciple at a time.

If you and I are given the power and authority to grow the Eternal Kingdom...what is stopping us?

If the power and truth and authority of the Eternal Kingdom are inside us...why does fear stop us?

Fearing God should bring knowledge (Proverbs 1:7) - purpose and obedience (Ecc. 12:13) - ultimately the truth of salvation (Philippians 2:12).

Our hearts, minds, souls, and strength are swallowed up in the Kingdom of God...our mission should be founded on the thrill of being part of such a Holy and Loving God and yet fearful of His awesome power.

Be on Mission. Meet someone new, love someone old, share Life with a friend, live Life with a neighbor.

Be on Mission.