Tag Archives: vision

Feb 28 2013

How to…start a Missional Community

In previous blogs we have looked at many of the principles and activities that go into the life of a Missional Community. As we look at some of the steps we need to take in starting an MC I am assuming that it is all being done with the agreement and blessing of the leadership of the church.

athletics track lanesStarting a Missional Community isn’t just a matter of going through a check list of tasks. There are practical steps that need to be taken as you begin, but they follow later in the process. As we have started MCs and helped others to start them the first thing we have done is ask a couple of questions. Those questions are:
  • What is God saying to YOU?
  • What is on your heart?
  • What are you passionate about?
Missional Communities are vision and passion led.

Over the past few years of leading and observing MCs we have identified that a clear vision and sense of calling have been a key factor to determine whether we see breakthrough in establishing a community.

In his book ‘The Forgotten Ways’ Alan Hirsch writes challengingly:

‘The most vigorous forms of community are those that come together in the context of a shared ordeal or, communities who define themselves as a group with a mission that lies beyond themselves – thus initiating a risky journey. Over-concern with safety and security, combined with comfort and convenience have lulled us out of our true calling and purpose.’

So for me the first step in starting an MC is to LISTEN. Listen to what God is saying to you. As you listen to God you might want to ask yourself a number of questions:
  • What is my heart’s desire? What do I long to see happen?
  • What do I ache for? What do I hope for?
  • What is my holy discontent? What do I long to see changed?
As you listen to God you will DISCERN.
  • Who am I called to?
  • Where am I called to?
This is followed with LOOKING and LISTENING.
  • Where are the opportunities to love and serve?
  • Where are the people and places of peace?
  • Where can we be good news to people?
  • What does good news look like to people?
As your vision for the MC becomes clearer you will need to write it down and share it with others who you see as potential leaders with you. Having refined and defined your vision and gathered a team who share your vision, you can begin to look at some of the other key principles that go into a Missional Community. Others have written about these in more detail but I do want to emphasise two.

Firstly ensure that the UP/IN/OUT principles are central to the life of your MC. Secondly make your MC Lightweight and Low maintenance. (For the 5 Essential Ingredients of a Missional Community see Mike Breen’s post from 3DM US.)

You are now ready, or as ready as you will ever be, to start your MC. Having a clear vision and knowing who and where you are called to will help answer the practical questions of where and when to meet.

So what do you do?

Just get going. Step out in faith and enjoy the adventure.

One of the promises that God gave us as we went on this journey is from Exodus 33:14 ‘My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’
david and jenny rosser

David Rosser lives in Durham with his wife Jenny. They have been involved in the development and implementation of missional communities for the past 11 years.

Image courtesy of mack2happy / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Feb 25 2013

Community Values: tomorrow’s ideals or today’s reality?

 

In this blog post we’re going to explore some of the principles of how to live out the values of a shared missional community life together. When our church family first began the re-discovery of biblical community with young adults seeking to live out the dynamic relationships of UP-IN-OUT in the context of mid-size groups, we talked a lot about having a shared vision and shared values.

As we’ve developed and grown and learnt a lot along the way, we’ve realized that something more is needed. Values are a great thing to have for people who are good at boundaries. Yet if you’re working with the current Generation Y of largely undiscipled young adults – who have massively high idealism and hopes for a better future tomorrow, but often little understanding of how to live that out today – it can be helpful to do a bit of translation. Mike Breen posted about this recently in the ‘State of the Evangelical Union’: Gen Y want to rebuild something from the ancient foundations of the Christian faith, but the question they are asking is ‘how’?

Community values should be more than defining your boundaries or a set of rules of who or what is allowed in the life of your group. They need to be embodied or rooted into community practices – things that you do together day
in, day out, that work for the size and context of your group. We call this a community rhythm of life. Jesus had a ton of values – we can call them the way of the kingdom of God – but the way he really got them under peoples’ skin was
how he integrated his talking about God’s new values (Sermon on the Mount…) and demonstrating God’s new values in the everyday of first century life in Galilee and Judea (Healing people, eating with sinners, and discipling those around him.)

season-ticket-45034-348987
It’s the difference between saying you like football and holding a season ticket for your local club.

So, if one of your values is prayer (which is a good one to have!), then the question shifts from ‘we are community that values prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit’ to ‘we are a community that prays together every day/3 times a week/etc etc…’

If one of your values is ‘we do mission together’, then it only truly becomes a value – something lived out, that you place importance and value on in terms of your time, energy and resources – when you can show someone outside your
community how they can come and join you next week in what you were already planning to do.

At their worst, values can remain at the conceptual and visionary stage of tomorrow’s ideals.

At their best, values which are expressed in shared rhythms of life can be the very pathway of seeing your vision become a reality day by day.

There’s a little tool we’ve been learning about recently which develops the process of taking something you want your group or team to be about to it actually bearing fruit.

First, you need structure. When will you do this (insert aspired value) and how?

Commitment to a regular structure leads to stability. Don’t change things yet just because it’s harder than you thought!

Stability leads to security. People start to trust the process and the effort, and own the value as something that they can be a part of.

Security leads to significance. People start to see the benefit and significance of the thing they’ve been investing into.

Finally, significance leads to success. The process of sowing into the new thing sees the new value take root and before long fruitfulness comes, but often not in a way that could have been predicted back when you started.

Spiritual disciplines, after all, are about the indirect effort of the kingdom – investing the little what we’ve got, so God can give us what he’s got (Feeding of the Five Thousand).

The missional community we are part of here in Coventry seek to incarnate the life that we see Jesus living, through:

  • Life of communal prayer every weekday.
  • Eating together every day and being thankful.
  • Doing mission together, at least once a week, through kids work on the estate, visiting families, and showing hospitality to our neighbours.
  • Being part of a wider family of people who inspire us, challenge us, love and cheer us on (for us this is our sending church and the Order of Mission)
  • Sharing of resources, including generating income and blessing others.

How does your community reflect some of these values?

gareth irvineGareth Irvine, together with his wife Jenny and baby daughter planted a new missional community base called Saint Aidan’s in the north of the city of Coventry last summer.  They took a small team of young adults with them, to live as an incarnational community focused around prayer and mission.  They’re currently involved in Kidz Klub which works with children from challenging housing estates, and visit about 30 families each week on the estate where they live.

Feb 4 2013

Top 3 Posts of 2012: Oikos

 

Today we continue our re-posting of the most popular 3 posts from 2012.  Today, an introduction to the principles of Oikos from Simon Ford.

 

Some of the most common questions you hear people asking about MC’s are “what’s so unique about Missional Communities?” or even “why is a Missional Community different to a small group?”

If you have looked around this site much or been involved with MC’s for a while, you will know that Missional Communities are described as “extended families” on a mission together. This extended family principle is a key foundation of any MC and refers to a particular way of living that we see the early disciples experiencing in the book of Acts. The word in Acts that describes this extended family is “Oikos” – an odd sounding Greek word that really helps us to understand what the heart of a MC should be!

For example, in Acts 20.20, Paul writes “…I have preached the gospel publicly and from house to house” – in effect from household to household. This word for house/household is Oikos.

But what does it mean?

Well, to Paul’s original audience, this would have had a very clear meaning. They would have know that he was referring to the everyday “extended family unit” that everyone functioned in – a place where extended families spent time together, shared meals, took care of business and looked after each other.

20120904-173152.jpgIt would be easy to read this from a Westernised mindset and automatically think we’re just talking about the modern day nuclear family – we’re not! Most of these extended families would have involved around 15-35 people (which, funnily enough is the size we normally recommend for a MC) and would have included Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and others. There is a particular dyanamic created in a group this size (known in sociology as the “social space” – one of 4 types of space that we all look to function in. Click here to read a blog from 3DM about this) which is very different to that of a small group.

This style of belonging would also have been very useful social structure for the disciples when they landed themselves with thousands of converts to disciple and a faith community to lead that was growing daily!

As an overview of how these things worked, here are 5 key principles involved in an Oikos that help to inform some of the underlying values of a Missional Community (an extended family on mission together), along with some quick examples and questions for you to ponder.

1. Prayer
Oikos was a place for spiritual growth and expression. As an extended family, we gather together in times of prayer and worship. This doesn’t mean replicating a Sunday service, rather learning to engage with the Lord together as a family would. This could take a variety of forms and be with or without music, using Psalms, writing words of praise or simply giving thanks round the table. Does your community come together before God?

2. Meals
How many examples are there of the disciples eating or sharing food together? Lots! Sharing meals is such a key part of building community and growing extended family relationships! In our Oikos, we do this through a combination of Sunday lunch, meals in the evening and often breakfast together! Whatever works for your “extended family”.  How often does your community share a meal together?

3. Shared Resources
An Oikos meant members of the family becoming interdependent and sharing what they had (we see the disciples spelling out this principle for us in Acts 2:42). This is often the hardest aspect of Oikos for people to grow in, as it can be the most countercultural. This could look like sharing possessions, offering regular time to help someone out, supporting someone financially, inviting someone to live with you… The list goes on! It’s about finding somewhere to start. Where could you take the next step in shared resources within your community?

4. Fun
When do you simply enjoy each other’s company? Jesus said of his disciples: “I no longer call you servants…but friends” (John15:15). Its important that those in our communities are growing deeper in friendship, as well as their personal discipleship. When are the times that you know you can just be together and have fun?

5. Mission
An Oikos had common purpose as well as relationship. Our communities need to be galvanized around a common vision and direction. The mission of the family should be know to everyone in the family. Where are we trying to make a difference? Who are we reaching out to? How are we being committed to seeing the kingdom break into a neighbourhood or network of people?

There are many aspects of Oikos that can feel unnatural or hard initially. Be encouraged – you are not alone! We all have lots of cultural obstacles to overcome in order to grow these “extended family” style relationships within our communities. This is because this so-called “social space” has largely disappeared from our culture today (how often do you see extended families gathered together?) so it won’t happen instantly. But with each of these characteristics, perhaps ask yourself where God is calling you as a community to take the next step.

To read more on Oikos, check out our series on the 3dm UK blog

Simon Ford lives in Sheffield, is part of the King’s Centre Church and works for 3dm UK. He has been part of and led various young adult and workplace-focussed missional communities over the last 9 years.

Nov 6 2012

How to…multiply your missional community

 

How easy is it to multiply a Missional Community? Given our title it could be assumed that it is a simple and straightforward process. In one way it is but in another there are some obstacles to overcome.

The principle of multiplication needs to be part of the DNA of all missional communities from the very beginning. Without it the process will be much harder than it needs to be. A reluctance to multiply limits vision and can lead to a community becoming inward looking and stagnating. In multiplying a missional community the first obstacle to overcome is not a practical one. Rather it is an emotional one. A group that has spent time together on mission and have learned to love one another as they live out the vision of the community are naturally very close and often reluctant to see some of their friends go off to form a new community. However this is something that has to be overcome.

Is multiplication part of the DNA of your Missional Community?

If we build in the principle of multiplication from the beginning we will encourage the development of more missional leaders. Our expectation was that at some point all of our missional communities would multiply and we challenged leaders accordingly. As your missional community matures you will begin to identify those who could lead a new community. Training and development for them is important and being part of a huddle* is essential.

Are you huddling, apprenticing and developing new missional leaders?

Vision is essential in the establishment of any missional community and so it is with multiplication. Multiplication for its own sake is not enough. Those who are going to lead the new community must have a clear call from God and have a vision and purpose. When you as the leader are approached by someone who wants to share what they believe is a call from God to begin a new community – rejoice. Don’t see it as a threat. The fact that people in your community are listening to God’s call to step out is a positive sign of life and growth. Obviously the vision needs to be weighed and shared with the leadership team before it is released to others.

Are you asking new leaders the question ‘What is God saying to you?’

How you enable the sharing of that vision in your community is important. It needs to be positive and affirming and not reluctant. Encourage those who want to explore this new vision to talk to both you as the leader and those who are to lead the new community. Stress that this is growth and new life not the diminishing of the existing group. Celebrate both the new and the existing. We have found that releasing a new community with prayer and celebration ensures that everyone sees it as a positive thing.

Are you looking to release new leaders and see new Missional Communities started?

If you are looking for and expecting multiplication it will be much easier to handle in your missional community. Be positive about it. Encourage it. Rejoice and celebrate when it happens.

 

David Rosser lives in Durham with his wife Jenny. They have been involved in the development and implementation of missional communities for the past 11 years.

* A huddle is a small group of leaders who meet regularly for intentional discipleship and skills development.  See ‘Building a Discipleship Culture’ for more information (ebook version available here)

Jul 26 2012

Upcoming Autumn Workshops

 

Interested in coming to hear more about Mission and Discipleship or Missional Communities?

Our workshops are a great place to explore some of the key principles, tools and vehicles that form the basis of the movement. They are also a fantastic opportunity to bring others from your local church/community and process the day together as a team. 

All of our workshops are run by the 3dm UK team, who combine their many years of experience in leading huddles, missional communities, senior teams and churches using the principles of mission and discipleship.

We have 2 dates confirmed for 3dm UK Workshops in the Autumn:

Missional Communities Workshop (Sheffield): 22nd September - Book here

Discipleship and Mission Workshop (London): 27th-28th November - Book here

Click on the image to view and download a copy of this flyer.

May 28 2012

How to…inspire your leaders

 

In another post in our How to… series, Jenny Irvine gives us a few pointers in inspiring our leaders to keep going.

 

Where are your leaders stuck?

Do your leaders have aspiration?  Are they seeing these dreams worked out in the fabric of their lives?  Is the reality transformation of communities?  How do we help create environments that will allow the leaders around us to thrive?  Today I suggest three areas to reflect on how we can help leaders to see, to walk, and to keep moving.

 

SEEING

What would expand the horizons of these leaders?  It might be seeing some aspect of your life and ministry.  Are you going to visit another church, another city or another country and if so why not think about taking some other leaders with you.   If leaders cannot see that the future can be different from the present reality then which places would help them to see in action something that will inspire them?

If leaders lack aspiration – reflect on what environments you can expose them to that will spark their imaginations

 

WALKING

To invest in other leaders you need to be willing to help them in their God-given aspirations.  Leaders who are not seeing their dreams become reality may be stuck in knowing what the stepping stones are.  Make space to listen to their aspirations and reflect on whether you have anything to offer.

If reality is lacking among leaders with big dreams – reflect on how you can make space to listen to what they see and process together what the steps might be.

 

KEEPING MOVING

Maybe leaders are telling exciting stories, but are stuck at moving beyond the intial breakthroughs into lasting community change.  For leaders to keep going they need people to talk to along the way when the going gets tough.  This conversation needs to begin before the points of burn out and giving up.

If perseverance is lacking – reflect on how you will notice when leaders are feeling the strain.

 

 

Jenny Irvine

We’re Gareth & Jenny Irvine, and in 2012 we will be planting a new missional community base called Saint Aidan’s in the north of the city of Coventry.  We’re taking a small team of young adults with us, to live as in incarnational community focused around prayer and mission.  We’re currently involved in Kidz Klub which works with children from challenging housing estates, and visit about 30 families each week on the estate where we’ll be be moving in July.

Apr 2 2012

How to…Get Vision

Sometimes we think that uncovering and establishing our own missional vision is going to be difficult. It may require time and effort but we can all discover the vision that God has for us.

The key questions to ask yourself are: ‘What am I passionate about?’ and ‘What is God saying to me?’ As George Bernard Shaw said: ‘You see things as they are and ask why? But I dream things that never were and ask why not?’

Over the past few years of observing communities, we have identified that a clear vision and sense of calling has been a key factor to determine whether we see breakthrough in establishing a missional community, and if the resulting missional community achieves sustainability. Everyone can learn how to uncover their own missional vision.

A good biblical example is Nehemiah:
We see in chapter 1; Nehemiah’s picture of how things should be  which grew from description he was given of the present reality in Jerusalem. From chapter 2; He goes round the walls of Jerusalem and surveys the scene for himself and pictures how things could be.  With this vision – Nehemiah was able to lead the people in the task of rebuilding and restoring Jerusalem.

God-given vision emerges when we become aware of a situation in this world. We are gripped by how it is right now, compared to how the Holy Spirit convicts us that God intended it to be. In this gap between present reality and Kingdom possibility – vision is birthed which propels us to action.

The key to all this is prayer. Positioning ourselves to hear God’s heart and receive the revelation of what could be.

It is good to reflect on your passions, interests, relationships and networks and then add a good dose of ‘What If?’

Pray with others too as you consider the following:

  • What is our heart’s desire? – What do we long to see happen?
  • What do we ache for?    - What do we hope for?
  • What is our holy discontent?- What do we long to see changed?

Reflect on and express vision through Scripture. Share what you hear God saying with others. It may be that vision will come through prophetic words or visions from God, through other Christian leaders. or circumstances working together or through requests for help from others. Sometimes facing the truth about what is not working can help as vision can be birthed from difficulty or frustration.

It all comes back to what God is  saying to you? Don’t overlook the importance of setting aside the time to listen and hear Him speak. Once your vision is birthed, prayer becomes key to the on-going reality of your vision; see Isaiah 6: 1-9.

Remember vision and call is for everyone. Not just for the big and famous!

Jenny Rosser lives in Durham with her husband David. They have been involved in the developement and implementation of Missional Communities for the past 10 years.

Image: Pixomar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net