a l i v e & a w a k e

 

 

One of the greatest gifts I received (looking back) in my life was Christ. Before you say ‘oh, of course you would say that’, realize there is a certain aspect of eternal life that was given to me in this relationship. I have heard many before say this. Many emphasize the salvation of Christ (meaning ‘I’m going to heaven’) and that is good –a great bonus. The greatest aspect of the gospel for me is that I have been called into the living work of Christ manifesting Himself on this earth on a daily basis. That has much more comfort to me rather than a beautiful place of ‘gold’ that I will spend eternity.

In essence the gift Christ has empowered me with is Mission!

 

Salvation for the human race has to include Mission. For me it has been crucial to my growth and awareness of who Christ is to seek, see and act (celebrate). This is not a one time occurrence but an ongoing salvation (sort of like “work out your salvation with fear and trembling”-Phil 2).

 

My first injection of this mission was at Graphite Camp. I seem to go there for the girl population and it was just a fun thing to do over the summer, but I caught a taste of something else—mission. It was the mission (looking back) of community building, helping the poor and sharing Christ that I really enjoyed on a deeper level. I had this experience off and on for about 5-6 yrs. It wasn’t until I was asked to be apart of starting a new ministry in Bancroft (switch Yard –see stories from Joe’s view) that I grabbed hold of the way Christ had equipped me. 

I am now at a church (The Meeting House) and finding this dynamic of missional is needed in my setting. I see people who have not been empowered to be on mission but want to contribute to a bigger cause. The history of the church has proven to be one of a fortress mentality as opposed to an organic community placed on this earth to bless others with the mission and life of Christ.  I’m in no way perfect and I forget many times to be intentional in this way. Mission is where we can all find a purpose and place to belong.

 

A great analogy of a Missional and non-missional mindset

If you were prejudice, racists, complainer type, you would not have time to be any of those things if you were in the heat of battle on the frontlines. On the frontlines, the bombs are going off so you can hardly hear, the bullets fly over head and your have a gun in you hand hoping the person beside you is with you. You wouldn’t care if they were racially different. You wouldn’t care if the food wasn’t great that morning, or if your clothes were the most comfortable or fashionable.

 

Back ten miles from the frontlines –rear echelons—they find the soldiers are complaining about everything –even when they can hear the battle in the distance!

 

This is true with the church sometimes if we are not consistently putting ourselves in the reality of the battle around us. If we are positioned in the church like a ‘rear echelon’ than we will find people complaining, acting on prejudice, apathetic and harmful for team moral.

Here are some of my thoughts on how the church can transform into a missional community. We need to create missional environments. It is moving from where we have typically practiced church to something else.

Missional is moving from

l       Giving l       God’s power Revealed l       Learning l       ‘what’ thoughts l       Building relationships l       Christ –reconciler

to...

l       Equipping l       Empowering l       Learn to teach l       ‘how’ thoughts l       Partnering l       Christ reconciling through us

Cultivating an atmosphere of Moving from a goal to gather,  to a goal of gathering to move. Bottom word INTENTIONALITY!

 

Lots more can be said, but this a taste of my journey.

Plowing- Cultivating and Atmosphere of Leadership Skill Set 2

 

One of the most important skills we need in developing people is to bring people into an ever awareness of God’s work in every given moment.

Jesus models an ongoing awareness of the Father’s work in everything He did  (John 7:16-19, 8:16).  Every response, action, and word he said was out of His unhindered divine source of God the Father through the Trinity. That ability was not just to be practiced by Him and no other, but that skill was to be practice by us.

 

We need to lead others to create environments that heighten this awareness.

Here are some of my thoughts and questions on this skill set.

 

 

-A concentrated listener and highlighter of where God is working and where an individual of a group is at through intentional speaking and living the irreligious life in Christ.

1. Be succinct, specific and generous in our dialogue (and teach others the same) about where God is working through perceptions, filters and details.

2. Listen not with our agenda in mind but freshly attentive to What God is saying through a circumstance, person or team. This is developing mostly how people think, not what they think.

3. It is most important to be teachers that model highlighting and listening. Ask “How many people are sitting around and having discussions of development in our group?”

 

Practically

 

Individually:

Continue to ask, when meeting with individuals “What has God been showing you this week? (in the last year, over your life time).

 

Look into the past and listen to what consistent messages God has been speaking in areas of personalities, circumstances, passions, value systems, spiritual gifts and key moments.

What probing questions has someone asked you that prompted self examination, thoughtful reflection or decision making about the crucial issues of life?

Highlight and provide suggestions as to ways they can highlight the work of God in their lives through journaling, symbols, memorization, or key words and vision statements

Spend time listening to God experientially on a walk, in a book, or with others.

How often does someone actively listen to you? (posture, verbal etc)

Ask people you interact with (challenge them to do the same) to tell them how you are perceived as a listener? What ways are you being vulnerable to those you meet with?

Why is it so hard to process fear, frustration, failure of faith questions alone?

At the end of the meeting express the way God was speaking in your time together through highlighting key moments of God’s character and attributes being revealed.

 

 

Group –Home Church:

 

This is to grasp at the living gospel happening ‘live’ in your midst but also to see faith of the intergenerational, past and future being completed to the fullest life over human time.

 

During any of the worship, prayer, teaching and sharing time, prepare minds to listen to what God is saying to us as a group. The key is being intentional in all interactions. (i.e. God has brought us together for a bigger reason than just this next 2 hrs. He has put us together because collectively we cannot live our mission on this earth alone. We need to grow , belong and love together for the group sake but also for the world’s sake and this is the best context to do this in this day and age).

Give time for others to express to the group how God has been working through their lives, prayer, gifts and allow a time of prayer and celebration in conjunction with the updates.

Always make sure to highlight the living breathing activity of God in the group at the moment it occurs (i.e. looking for job,,, someone able to give a job in company, we celebrate as a group the activity of God’s provision through our group).

Through the teaching times watch for moments where people are having inspirations/ goals/ focus/ vision/ applications (new revelation) and listen for what is God saying to the individual or group. You will want to ask some bigger questions as to “Why did God chose to reveal this now in this way to this person(s)?” This is the activity of God and need to be celebrated and highlighted in the group.

During this time we can always communicate the pillar revelations and strategies of the irreligious movement as they emerge. Make sure it is communicated clearly each time –seeking, missional, compassionate community, duplication (church planting), generosity and maturity.

At the end of the evening Highlight ‘what we saw God doing through all aspects of Home Church’ tonight. This also applies to how we serve in the community seeing the characteristics and attributes in the streets, faces, and activities.

Continue to present and use language that makes a growing awareness of God’s activity being shown for a purpose and mission.  The character of God is revealed so that we are empowered to cultivate the community in the ways He has equipped us.

 

TEAM BUILDING

What are do we see as a team God doing as He gathers us together?

As a team how are we communicating the DNA of the mission and vision?

Good evaluating question is “How is our Home Church/Team becoming more and living more like the DNA? (list strengths and weaknesses)

As a team how do we create ongoing dialogues with each other and with the people in our community about the DNA of our call?

A quarterly time should be set to focus solely on the movement and preparation God is actively a part of as we grow and compassionately move into a World Missional Strategy Centre.

 

 

Personally I find that my ability to make decisions for myself and others relies fully on this skill. I have pioneered new work, developed existing ministries and individuals and good directional vision came from knowing how to listen to God and His heart and plan.

 

Looking to be cultivators of people, means a ever renewable fresh look at how we lead. I am playing with three sections in my mind -plowing, planting, and producing. I will first start with the plow, because nothing good will grow without preparing the ground inwhich we want to plant something that lasts.  

Leadership has been on my mind for the last couple of years. I have felt that a lot of the Christian information on leadership seems to focus on the position we have in Christ (being). This is great because if we fool ourselves into thinking we have the abilities a part from our true identity in Christ, we are presenting a second rate leadership.

Knowing we are leaders in Christ is not enough if we are to be cultivators of others, action is required.

The next load of information on leadership shelves is the actions of a leader (Doing) and how to manage people in 7-31 great steps. This is also good, a lot of reading, but good. I have found myself still not satisfied with this list of ‘to do’s’ partly because the strategy and the skill set to have a leadership perspective is really what I find need.  A Strategy skill set (becoming) answers more through questions and cultivating thinking. At first this could seem lacking in help but my journey this far has brought me to really appreciate training that creates a place of growth rather than a place for answers.

By no means do I find myself an expert and a guru, but I have been collecting some great thoughts and questions from some great strategists. I hope to teach this and learn from this as I teach this to those who I am a steward of this. I also would be open to tons of feedback on these concepts. Here is the first I am massaging. Note: the format is not in ‘easy reading’ mode, but the content is there.

-A credible authentic relationship builder in any and every community or group structure which the leader seeks to ‘be’ where people are.

            1. ‘Be’ is defined as a committed consistent presence

2. A cultivator of communities safely engages and becomes a part of any group by being ‘touchable’.

3. Has character that has favour with others.

4. Is intentional to see people beyond busyness and tasks.

Practically Individually

To begin building people up individually you will need to model availability and ‘be-ing’ in their lives in a safe way that earns credibility. They in turn can build relationship by spending significant time with people to earn credibility.

To cultivate a lifestyle of building relationships, you can ask;

What does the amount of room we make for people in daily life reveal about our priorities?

How many people do they know on your street and in your normal spheres of influence?

Where do they hang out, spend time, live? Make a regular pattern to meet and ‘be’ there.

What would it take for you to free up 3 hrs a week to make yourself available to people?

What creative ways do you bring to cultivate good relational connection beyond the superficial? (creative dialogue, engaging stories,)

Do you allow yourself to be vulnerable?

Group-Home Church

It is a little easier to build in Home Church because people are coming to you.

How do we build strong relationships in the midst of community?

Our mandate is to have an atmosphere that allows people to belong and be known. Asking good questions is key (be intentional to find out a person or group –vision,-gifts,-history,-current life stage,-priorities,-passions,-goals,-challenges,-social interactions,-prayer,-working together-spiritual companionship) How many are known this way?

 How many are in spiritual companionship relationships?

 How many opportunities do you let people be known in? (in a week, month, year)  This is social activities, community development events, coffee’s, meals, trips, etc.

Are you as the cultivator allowing yourself to be vulnerable?

During such activities and even normal week to week interactions we need to communicate the sense of emerging vision that we have seen in our teams.  Building unity through the vision of the irreligious message is crucial to see any development of our home churches.

How do we communicate the importance of a welcoming, safe and communal atmosphere.

Do we allow for the group to understand each other? (do we know each other?)

 Find a common script that you can frequently communicate environments that allow ownership of relationship building.

TEAM BUILDING

As you get to know people in your group, who are people who display or live an irreligious life (seeking, missional, generous, compassionate community member, leadership and duplicating [cultivators])?

When team building, it is good to have others around you who are getting to know the same person you see displaying possibilities of leadership. It is important you all understand what you are looking for (the DNA) and can ask questions of the person that can deliberately find out these attributes. This is pretty clear to the individual that you are looking to them and understanding their leadership potential.

The tougher skill is how to develop people to ‘be’ outside of the group.

Some safe ways to build relationships outside of the group is to serve in practical ways without an agenda to push people to Jesus. Prayers walks are helpful as you intentionally and consistently walk in parts of the neighbourhoods around you, others who are regularly out will learn that we are ‘safe’ and not imposing. Conversations can build out of safety.

Allow hobbies and natural patterns of life as a group to engage and be seen by the community (i.e. when having a social BBQ as a group have it on your front yard rather than backyard and invite neighbours.)

Ask the question regularly “How are we building credibility and a reputation to improve the city?”