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How (not to) engage in mission with young children

Image: jannoon028 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I have a vivid memory from 2007.

It is etched on my brain because it became a “kairos” moment for me and my husband, Rich. At the time we were living on an inner-city estate. Part of our “missional activity” involved weekly door knocking to various houses .We would often be invited in to chat, pray, and read the bible with people. I would take our eldest son, Josiah, who was at the time around 18 months old. On this particular day we were in one home praying for one of the women who had broken her leg. I had left Josiah to amuse himself. Mid-way-through-prayer-for healing I became distracted by a loud unceasing banging. I peeked through my closed eyes to see my adorable toddler whacking the woman’s washing machine with one of her crutches. I guess maybe he wasn’t so enamoured with the “missional activity” as I was.

That moment confirmed what I was beginning to already conclude: mission with families is a different ballgame. We had moved specifically to the area because we wanted to reach out to the local community, but with a toddler and another baby on the way we needed to re-think. Being missional couldn’t look the same for us as it did to most of the other young adults who were part of our team.

So I swopped the door-knocking with trips to the park, the library, and the local baby groups. Having a baby (or a dog) instantly opens up relationships. We invited people into our family activity. We had one woman who would turn up on-the-dot- at 5.30 every evening. She would come in, put the kettle on for us all, help bath Josiah, and then sit down and read the bible with us as a family. Our friendship with her developed from a simple act of inviting her to choose a Christmas tree with us.

When we miscarried a baby we invited people in the community to join with us in a ceremony to plant a tree in remembrance. Allowing others to minister to us in times of sorrow is a powerful thing, and we found relationships deepened so much in doing this.

Some other things we have tried:

• Litter-picking and prayer-walking in our local area as a family.
• An alpha-course in our front room with another mum who was keen to learn more of Jesus.
• Opportunities to pray for other mums just by being present at toddler groups.
• Just this morning we simply took the kids with us to a few of our neighbours to give out small Christmas gifts, and a card with a little prayer for the family inside.
• Kids parties
• “Hanging-out” with other families and mums

These are ‘normal’ things we can do as a family, not additional missional-add-ons. They are small, simple acts of engaging with those who don’t yet know Jesus. And they are completely accessible as a family. We haven’t always seen much visible fruit from the things we’ve done, and we’ve made many mistakes along the way, but it’s a journey God is taking us on. We are constantly re-thinking what it looks like to reach out to those God gives us; we now have three children and with each season of life our approach needs to adapt according to the demands and needs of family life. What worked 5 years ago with one child no longer works with three children. I know that as we offer ourselves and our family to God even in the simplest of ways he can use it for His glory – because that’s the kind of amazing God we have.

How have you engaged in mission with children – we’d love to hear your stories and testimonies to encourage and inspire one another.

Written by Anna Robinson

Picture from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=2337

Missional Communities with Youth, Kids and Families

“Ah, what this Missional Community really needs, is some babies and toddlers.”

Have you ever thought that? No, me neither. And yet I find myself co-leading a missional community (MC) and being mother to both a baby and a toddler. In fact our MC has 6 little people in addition to our 15 adults. Despite this set of circumstances, I seem to know very little about how to successfully mix babies, toddlers, family life, and MCs. I know more about the challenges that come with the territory, and I know a lot more questions than I do answers. So below is my account of what I do and don’t know about children, youth, families and MCs.

Becoming a parent is bad for your intelligence. When sleep-deprivation leaves you without a working short-term memory, it becomes difficult to give as much to planning, meeting together or performing the usual tasks of leading a community. While some individuals manage to bounce back within a few short months of having a baby, others find that things never return to ‘business as usual’, and have to make major adjustments to how they are able to participate in the life of the MC. They (we) live in the space between their desires to be involved and their actual capacity, which generates at least some pain, frustration and confusion for themselves and those around them. This is difficult, and something we are still trying to work out. Patience and gentleness are called for in large measure.

This is one area where I don’t have many answers, but I trust that God will lead us into new discoveries, and as always seems to be the case, out of our own boxes. Perhaps we have a blind spot when we think about ‘reduced capacity’. Perhaps there are whole other ways of doing and being and leading community that will allow us to enter even more deeply into the richness of community life, even when we can’t remember what we ate for breakfast this morning. I suspect greatly that there are.

Adding children to the mix requires a leap in creative thinking and flexibility. Alas, our idea for a picnic combined with some contemplative meditation never made it off the drawing board. But other ideas have, and have given us space for the adults to make time to talk to God and each other, and the children space to participate too. We have found using activities with symbolic meaning have worked well. Planting seeds together whilst praying for the things we hope for, and painting pictures to show God what we are thinking about are a couple of examples that worked really well. A carol-singing walk together worked great once we adopted the pace of the slowest walker, writing a community thanksgiving song based around the thanks of both the adults and children was a real hit, and meeting around tea-times has actually worked well (fed toddlers are happy toddlers).

Sharing very personal testimony with toddlers around who are in the mimicry stage of language-learning doesn’t work very well. While the toddler will adore the feelings of attention flowing in his direction, the adult will have the vague feeling of being mocked.

We’ve found it helpful to have a clear idea of what we’re trying to achieve and when. Evening meetings when children are tucked up in bed are best used for ‘up’ time with God or for deep discussion with each other. Daytime meetings with children around are best used for building friendship, catching up on news and involving the children in ‘up, in and out’ aspects of community life. I’ll be honest, I don’t always get masses out of activities planned with a toddler in mind – attempting to work with a toddler tends to un-focus the mind - but I know that the evenings are the time and place for me to be refreshed. Having said that, it can often be difficult for both parents to get out to an evening meeting, so taking the focus off evening meetings and looking for other spaces in our day that we can share together is something we are working towards.

Call in the big guns when the time calls for it. It’s a noticeable trend that as the number of children in our community increases, the number of adults able to participate in things decreases. So when we’ve planned outreach events, we have called upon the fire-power of the church youth group. I can thoroughly recommend this tactic. You will get enthusiastic young people with energy to come and help out, and it’s of massive benefit to them as well.

Use babysitters if you have to. We recently took a Sunday morning to share and discuss vision together (there was too much to fit into an evening) and quickly realized we would need babysitters to come along too. Your sitters will find your small people adorable for at least the first hour, and after that their sense of duty will get them through ok. You will have had a couple of hours of being able to talk together without getting side-tracked by Iggle-Piggle, so well worth it.

Learning how to mix MC life with small children has been a huge challenge. We have had to relinquish things that have been precious, such as un-interrupted conversations, and find new ways of doing things that meet the needs of everyone – our children, our parents, our adults without children. This can’t usually happen all at the same time, so we have had to make different spaces for different kinds of activity, with mistakes made along the way. My prayer is that Jesus would teach us to let go of our pre-conceived ideas, meet us in our confusion and draw us ever more deeply into life in all its fullness together . And Jesus, if you could just help my baby to go to sleep on Wednesday night so we can both get out to the meeting, that would be great too.

Written by Sarah Cooper

Missional Communities with Youth, Kids and Families.

This week we begin a new series exploring developing missional communities with Youth, Kids and Families.  As I write I honestly don't feel like I have lots of tips and ideas for how to make this work.  In fact in our context this is one of the key questions that we are trying to crack.

What I do have is conviction backed up by story.  My conviction is this:  the best missional communities are the ones that start to function as family and family includes more than one generation.

A little bit of our story:

A few years ago we were sat with some now-very-good friends talking about our lives.  We were both couples about to start families and both recognised we needed some back up going into that new phase of life.  So we started meeting once a week and having dinner then doing the pub quiz.  Time went on,  babies came and so did new members, some who were also young married couples about to have kids others who were young adults.  We were never an exclusively family focussed community; we were just a family.

Community life began to change a little to accommodate the arrival of little people. We couldn't just meet on nights any more,  so we set up a weekend brunch.   Babysitting rotas and plans had to be co-ordinated and plans for worship or mission had to accommodate the potential risk of loud crying,  cold children or the need for feeding.  All of this I think humanized the community,  made it more real.

We had lots of picnics and barbecues,  we did a few dedications or baptisms,  we planned some family fun days and somehow the boundaries between the community life and just family life began to get very blurred.  Young adults came to take our young kids out for trips and give us a break.  Community members became lifelong friends and god-parents.   We took little faith-risks together, and involved our kids.  We went and served our community together,  with our kids.  And all this seems to have been attractive,  other people joined us and we grew.

Our kids knew they were part of that family,  their closest friends were from the community,  they got to experience being raised by a group and so the faith of the community started to become their faith too.

We've moved on to a different place now,  God called us there to work specifically with Children,  Youth and Young Adults.  We're trying to figure out how to connect them up with missional communities.  We don't really have a set of ten easy steps to do that yet,  just a desire to try it out and a personal experience that it can work,  can be a lot of fun,  can be beautiful.

Maybe there are some readers out there who have stories similar to this.  If so I'd love to hear your thoughts: How do you include kids and youth in your missional community?

Sustaining Missional Living

This week I'm in Holland at a Learning Community with Paul Maconochie and Rich Robinson. The teaching and input which they give is excellent but sometimes it's difficult to engage with as I've heard it so many times before! However, I do find that God often highlights one little aspect of something I've heard again and again to pinpoint an area of my life where he wants to bring revelation and change. This week it was the teaching on the semi-circle and having a rhythm of abiding-fruitfulness, rest-work, Covenant-Kingdom. (You can find more on this in the various 3dm books, as well as in other posts on this blog.) The semi-circle is an important part of sustaining missional living.

The past term has been crazy and exciting and very busy for all of us in the team. For me, many things have felt overwhelming, stressful, and pressured. I've felt like I'm going to drown, have thought there's no way I'll make it through and have definitely questioned whether I was doing the right thing!*

In the middle of the storm, it's easy to forget who God is and what he says about me. I forget he's in the boat. I forget the vision he's given me. I forget that he has called me for such a time as this. I forget that his promises are to never leave me or forsake me. I forget that it's in his strength that I can do all things. I forget that his grace is sufficient for me. I forget so many things when I'm feeling buffetted by the wind and the waves.

The trouble has been that I've been trying to write these things on my heart in the middle of the storm. What I've realised is that by then it's too late!

I need to take the time to abide, to remain in him, to listen to God's voice and allow him to transform my mind BEFORE the storm comes. When there are less busy times I need to make time and allow God to change the way I think so that my behaviour is different when it's time to act. I need to talk with those around me about the prize that Jesus is setting before me so that they can remind me of it when I'm running just to keep up. And even in the midst of the busyness, before I head out into the fray I need to make time to connect with God so that I can be reminded of who he is, what he's done, who he says I am and what he's calling me to do.

I obviously still need to learn how to do this and I want to take the time over the quiet weeks coming up to rest and abide in Covenant with him so that I'm better prepared for the storms ahead.

Have you learned to do this? What has or hasn't worked for you?

*It hasn't all been bad! There have also been lots of times of joy and excitement and encouragement.

Sustaining a missional lifestyle

Mission as an activity or a missional lifestyle?

Throughout my life as a fairly middle class individual, I have had the opportunity to experience different ‘mission activities’, such as social action, BESOM projects, community fairs, prayer walking and treasure hunting.  These have been stretching, uncomfortable, challenging and eye-opening experiences.  Often, they’ve involved stepping out of my comfort zone into a different culture, meeting people who live with a lot less than I feel I could live on, who have less opportunities and who often live in the less well-off parts of the city.  It is a chance to step across the boundary into something, which to be honest, is an alien experience, something I don’t encounter every day.  It does benefit me, as well as those for whom they’re organised. Perhaps it blesses missionaries who work in those areas long term, but need more hands for a particular activity, or the community. However, it can be difficult to see the lasting impact, as it is often going ‘to do’ mission and then returning to our normal life and the comfort zones in which we live.  These experiences left me for many years with the mindset that mission is a project.  Don’t get me wrong, it is important not to disengage from these opportunities, they are valuable and worthwhile, however, for me, this sort of mission is not about a sustainable missional lifestyle. 

A missional lifestyle, in order for it to be a lifestyle, has to be part of your daily life. For me, it’s about who you are where you are. It’s not avoiding challenge, but its about choosing to engage with those people God has placed in front of you at this moment. It seems to me that, at least in the past, mission was about leaving your normality, going to ‘do’ mission somewhere else.  How about relating to those people in the context where you are right now.  In many ways, I think this is a greater challenge. The people you see every day are the people who see your whole life, the good and the ugly. They see how you handle difficulty and challenge, how you communicate with others on a daily basis, how you talk about your work, your colleagues….. These are the people who you can relate to best whether it’s the challenges of being a mum or working for the NHS amidst difficult pressures and union action. In my opinion, these are the people who are close enough to you to see the difference Jesus makes in your life.  This is attractive, this is what will encourage others to know him too.  The acts of kindness or social action, I do believe, demonstrate Jesus too, but just not in a sustainable manner.

Too busy?

In this day and age many of us can often be heard commenting, life’s so busy, too busy, a bit busy….. the truth is that’s how life is. At least, the potential busyness of life doesn’t seem to get less. So, how do we engage with being missional now in the every day and the mundane, instead of when things one day are less busy? 

The truth is, if we keep mission as a project, it’ll be the first thing to go when life gets busy. If its part of who we are, where we are, on a day-to-day basis, it’s difficult to avoid!  Nevertheless, it may be that after taking part in a ‘mission activity’, you choose to incorporate this into your daily life. However, it requires an active engagement to prioritise what’s important, to be people who are focused, who know who we are meant to be, where we are meant to be and to do that wholeheartedly.

Where do you need to respond?

·         Is your life too busy to be interrupted?  Are you willing to be interrupted?

·         Are you able to recognise people of peace, those people who invite you, share food with you? Do you have time to invest in them, or do you put them in the diary in a months time?

·         Do you know Jesus in the every day, the nitty gritty of life?

·         Are you too busy meeting those who already know God, to engage with those people around you who don’t? Is there something you do anyway, like going to the gym or playing football, where you have the opportunity to get to know those who don’t yet know him?

Kirstie

Sustaining Missional Living

Our nation has changed.

Back in the 80’s a quick-fix invitation to a Christian event may have seemed like an effective missional approach.

This is no longer the case. We live amongst a generation who crave authenticity. If quick-fix solutions were ever effective, they certainly aren’t now. In our post-Christendom society we can no longer rely on people turning up at our church services because of a jazzy invitation to a jazzy event. This may occasionally happen, but it is not the norm.

I grew up in that event-orientated culture. “Evangelism” was something we “did”. It seemed unnatural, bizarre, embarrassing and completely detached from normal life. In the life of Jesus we can discover the keys to being who we are called to be, and doing all we are called to do.

What is the pattern of His life that we are called to imitate as we seek to live a sustainable missional life?

Jesus was Fully Dependent on the Father

In John 5: 19 Jesus tells his disciples “ I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the son also does. “

Jesus, in fully human and fully divine form, could do nothing by himself. He was completely dependent on His Father, imitating only what He saw His Father doing. How much more then do we, as fully human, need to depend on our Father as our source of strength and guidance for all that we do.

What might that dependence look like?

In Luke 10 Jesus sends out his disciples telling them to take “no money with you, nor a travellers bag, nor an extra pair of sandals.”

They weren’t sent with provisions, or a masterplan. They were sent out with hearts dependent on God, looking for the people of peace. When we are stripped bare of the earthy things we might depend on it is easier both to depend on Him and to see where He is at work.

What are the things, or the areas of our life, that we depend on instead of God? (knowledge, finance, strategies, relationships etc)

How can we actively choose to give those to God?

What does it look like to stop, look and listen to the Father?

Jesus Journeyed with a Community of Missional Disciples

Throughout history God’s people have lived as tribes, households and communities. Jesus picked 12 ordinary people to intimately share his life with. He ate, slept, journeyed, and ministered with a group of people. They were sent out, and returned, together in mission. They learnt together, prayed together, healed the sick together, ate together, partied together.

We see the same model demonstrated in the early church. In Acts the early followers met publicly together, broke bread in homes, shared possessions, saw people saved, healed people, persevered under persecution - all in the context of community. We cannot live a missional life in isolation.

Who are those that we mutually encourage, hold accountable, persevere, take risks with?

Jesus' Life was His message

I love the Message version of John 1: 14 “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighbourhood.” God left the perfection of Heaven and came to our messy, broken world, in the flesh.

We can never be incarnate in the sense of being fully divine in flesh. But we are called to incarnate, to “embody” the life of Jesus in the environment we’re in. We are called to “go” to the people, to live amongst them, and be Jesus and speak his message to those around us. When we are distant, or removed, from those we are trying to reach, it is always harder to communicate the fullness of the gospel in love.

When "mission" is an “add-on” to our lives it is exhausting - an extra “thing” we can’t find time for. When it is integrated in our life, and we live amongst those we are called to reach, our life becomes our message. Jesus said in Matthew 5 “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world” As followers of Jesus, that is part of our identity; we ARE the salt, and we ARE the light. We need to recognise, acknowledge, and choose to live that out.

How close are you to the people you desire to know Jesus?

How much do they see of your life? (and therefore of Jesus)

What, or who, does the message of your life speak of?

Training and supporting missional leaders - Value-added task

When previously writing on this blog, I contemplated on how to develop appropriate attitudes towards the communities we’re a part of. I identified the need for unity within community and the potential obstacles to such unity.

Zoning in on the topic of training and supporting missional (community) leaders, I’m wondering how the issue of unity relates here.

Recently, I’ve come across some pretty distinctive young adult leader-types. And...have myself the privilege of helping to lead them through a shaping time in their lives. Now, most of them are just at the start of discovering their passions, calling and leadership potential, but seeing their personalities unfold, as we get stuck in with different activities, it is clear that they are the next generation leaders in our church, our nation, potentially across Europe!! Keenly aware that it’s my job to help them discover how to grow in intimacy with God and submit their lives to him as they learn to walk out their (leadership) callings, I come up against all sorts of what feel like disunifying issues; situations where what they do or say clashes with what I and/or others think they should be doing or saying.

But: have you ever been in a situation where someone said something you found inaccurate, untrue, even offensive, but the Holy Spirit is not allowing you challenge them? Or you’ve observed somewhat unconventional, or maybe even inappropriate behaviour, vowed to bring it up as a “discipleship issue” only to find yourself unsure as to whether that’s really the right call? I frequently find myself in those kinds of scenarios, and as I’m not the type who’s afraid to challenge, I don’t think we’re talking about a case of needing to learn to be firm.

No, the lesson I think God is teaching me about how to support and train the next generation of missional leaders is about discerning his core values from my own personal ones (however legitimate and godly they may be) and allowing those I lead to rock my boat and make me feel uncomfortable about how they choose to live life, while at the same time being clear about what I sense God really wants them to take on board. It’s quite an uncomfortable place to be in, as I’m having to ask myself how sure I am of what I consider to be essentials. The oft-quoted phrase “in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity” sounds great, but fails to bring about the spirit of being “united in love” Paul encourages in the Colossians, if we don’t know what the essentials really are.

Our goals of seeing our cities and nations transformed for the kingdom of God sound grand, but sometimes unspecific. If we’re going to see thousands of un-churched people come to be led by the missional leaders we train, the values these leaders hold on issues like sexuality, social justice, care for the elderly, developing God’s call on your life, etc. will invariably influence the kind of transformation we’re going to see. Think of the scale of people who may look to the people you train for questions relating to the very make-up of our society.

So, in order to not end in a completely dis-unified quarry ten years down the line when we’re surprised what our lack of clarity in the essentials has produced or failed to produce in the disciples we make and in those we trained them to make, I wonder whether we need to ask ourselves more rigorously how sure we are of the essentiality and biblical-ness of our values in areas we maybe haven’t so far cared to think through or study too much. In order to attain true unity (one of the building blocks of revival) and for the sake of the sustainability of the revival we all long for, will you join me in digging deeper in defining the essentials of the life we sense God is calling humanity to live, as well as training others to do the same?

Training and Supporting Missional Leaders

As we have seen in the previous posts on this subject we are training and supporting leaders who have responded to a God given call and vision. That missional vision has come out of the missional culture that has been established. As we release those leaders into their missional vision it is essential that we have in place on-going support and training. All of us need this however experienced we are.

In her blog at the beginning of this series Helen wrote about apprenticeship. She gave us some very helpful thoughts on using the Lifeshapes Leadership Square as part of this process. The increasing use of the model of apprenticeship in the training and development of missional leaders as well as in society generally resonates with me personally.

I began my working life as an apprentice in the printing industry as a photo lithographer. When I started I signed a set of indentures that committed me to the company for 5 years. They also committed the company to me for that same period. There was a requirement on me to behave in a certain way but more importantly the company undertook to train me in the art and craft of photo lithography so that at the end of the 5 years I would be a qualified journeyman able to take my place among the skilled work force.

The training did contain some theoretical study and I still remember, even after many years the ‘inverse square law of light’, but mainly it consisted of practical training alongside skilled craftsmen.

They used the method we identify in the Lifeshapes Leadership Square. They did it while I watched. They talked to me about what they were doing and why and answered my questions.

Then I was allowed to help, again with lots of commentary on what was being done but now there were questions to me from them.

The next stage was one I still remember very vividly as I began to do some of the tasks. I still remember the things that went wrong and the discoveries I made through them.

Some of the mistakes kept being repeated until I really got it but in all that the people teaching me showed patience and persistence in ensuring that I learnt and could do the job. They gave lots of affirmation and encouragement, even when I kept making mistakes and they didn’t give up on me. That carried on through the next stage as ‘I did while they watched’. Sometimes that supervision was close at others it was just the occasional check. Very much low control, high accountability. I still remember the men who taught me during my 5 year apprenticeship. They invested in me and shared their experience and skills.

As I progressed through the years of my apprenticeship I began to take on some responsibility for other apprentices younger than myself. Not necessarily in teaching them great skills but in showing them how the place functioned and how to undertake the basic tasks that were essential for the smooth running of the department. When I was qualified I had apprentices of my own to train and it was through that process I learned even more about my work. Their questions stretched me and forced me to find answers to things I’d not thought of.

Training for missional leaders is important. Giving them the necessary information and skills is an essential part of the process. However we need to INVEST in them as thoroughly as we can both as regards to skill but also character. We should see them as whole people not just trainees. This requires us to commit to them in more than just skills training and the giving of information. This is costly but it is the way I have found that works. As we invest in missional leaders we are investing in disciples who in turn will invest in disciples and missional leaders.

I am so grateful to those who have invested in me over the years and to those that continue to do so. I would encourage you to thoroughly invest in those you are called to lead. You will have so much fun as you adventure together in missional leadership.

David Rosser

3 Weeks to go...!

November is rapidly approaching, which means we are on the countdown to our Missional Communities Taster Day in Sheffield!

The Taster Day will take place on SATURDAY 12th NOVEMBER at ST THOMAS' CHURCH PHILADELPIHA CAMPUS.

We will spend the day together hearing about and discussing both the Biblical basis for Missional Communities and many aspects of how they work in practice, whilst also getting people to share lots of stories about their experiences of leading Missional Communities.

It's going to be a great day and places are rapidly

fill

ing up, so if you are interested, make sure to get in touch!

For more information and ways to book on, visit us at www.missionalcommunities.co.uk

Training & Investing in Leaders (Part 2)

I'm writing this blogpost on the journey up the M1 to join in with a Learning Community at Sheffield with some members of our church team. As we chat in the car, we're reflecting on some of the things that have been helpful to us in our journey as disciples and missional leaders. We hope you find it helpful! - Jenny

Mike & Jenny

Invite people to share kingdom life with you. Jesus wasn't just a good manager or a strategic thinker. His way of doing mission and ministry was highly invitational and Incarnational - he lived with and amongst his team. What would it look like to invite some of your team to see your life as you follow Jesus? Not just the polished answers, but the hard decisions, not just the exciting breakthroughs, but also the disciplines?

Invest in the whole person over a period of time, not simply focusing on the present task at hand, but in their whole life, their relationships, their character, their lifetime calling. Who are you investing in for the long term? Are you using words to encourage them where you see their potential? Are you taking time to have the conversations that realty matter, including the hard questions of life?

Ignite them with a huge vision. Paint them a picture of what it would look like in your town or city when God's Kingdom comes that gives them space to grow and develop under you. Keep coming back to it, receiving it, interceding for it, and letting God enlarge it as a team together. Think about how to plan the year to give opportunities for this, think about a pattern of retreats, celebrations of what God has done and mission trips that will help leaders to look up from the details of life and catch sight again of God's call to join him in an adventurous lifestyle of mission.

With contributions from Gareth, Mike, Arun & Jenny

Training and Supporting Missional Leaders

So here we are again at the start of a new month and another new topic: Training and Supporting Missional Leaders. Once you've got a missional culture established and released some leaders into going for their missional vision you'll need to think about how to offer ongoing appropriate support and development for your leaders. It is crucial that leaders, who will effectively be leading small churches in their spare time, have enough support, training and encouragement to continue on with their vision and to see it bear much fruit. Without enough support there is a chance that they may find themselves over-burdened and under-equipped which could lead to burnout and failure of that community.

So what might be the key things to bear in mind as you think about supporting and developing your missional leaders?

1. Do it!

People will see what you value most by where you spend the majority of your time. If you really value growing a missional movement and supporting your leaders then I would suggest that they (and the rest of the church) need to see that worked out practically, as well as in just what you say. Look at your diary. Are MC leaders prioritised? If not, why not? Do they feel valued by how much of your time is spent on them and in visiting their communities, or do they see you focusing most of your time on central resources/events etc? Change your diary if necessary and put other people in place to do things you've been doing, or find someone whose job it is to take responsibility for coaching and supporting your MC Leaders. I know this is not always an easy one to change but I think it's vital for the growth and success of MCs in a church!

2. Apprenticeship

As much as possible take time to apprentice or coach your leaders in missional leadership. There are many ways to do this, not all of them requiring lots of time from you or them.

One of the best ways for a leader to be apprenticed is by them being raised up through a community by another leader using the Lifeshapes Leadership Square (going through a process of I do - you watch, I do - you help, You do - I help, You do - I watch.) Obviously when you are just starting MCs in your church this isn't possible, so then make sure that you spend time sharing stories of success and failure, your wisdom and your experiences of how you've led people before. Always give them the challenge to try and work things out for themselves with their team and the Holy Spirit - don't be tempted to 'rescue' them every time they have a problem or to tell them what to do. Keep them accountable for their decisions and actions (remember low-control, high accountability).

3. Training

Operate under the principle of 'just enough information, just in time.' In other words, don't 'front-load' your leaders with lots of information or training in areas they haven't yet experienced. The likelihood is they won't remember much of it. Give them the specific training they need as and when their experience demands it. Do balance this however with regular general leadership training/development input so that your leaders feel they are being invested into as they lead.

4. Value a range of leadership types

Don't assume that everyone ought to lead like you! Remember each leader is different, has different skills, gifts and passions and should be released to lead in their own identity rather than feeling they need to be like someone they're not. This might mean you need to help them discover some of what this is.

5. The most important thing is not the community they lead

Don't let your desire to grow healthy and fruitful communities within your church get in the way of growing healthy and fruitful disciples in your church. The most important things your leaders should invest in is their relationships with the Lord and with their family. Make sure they are putting regular time in their diary to spend in rest and re-creation. This might mean they can't get to everything you ask them to come to.....this is ok!!! You're much more likely to get healthy communities and people willing to step up to leadership if they see leaders who have healthy relationships and a healthy rhythm to their life.

6. Encouragement is vital

Nobody can get too much encouragement in their leadership. It usually comes rarely from the people we lead so make sure you give them as much as you can! Without it it's easy for a leader to become discouraged and disillusioned, especially when times are hard, so make sure you give them praise for specific things you've seen in them, and cheer them on when things get tricky.

I hope these few thoughts help you Church Leaders as you work out how best to train and support your Missional Leaders!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

North East Learning Community Taster Day!

It’s an exciting couple of months for the Missional Communities Team with lots of opportunities to connect with churches across the UK.

On Saturday 5^th November 2011 we are running a taster day in the North East for Church leaders and their teams. The day focuses on discovering how Learning Communities are a useful tool in launching and developing Missional Communities within your church.

Venue: City Church at The Castlegate, Newcastle
Time: 9am - 4pm
Cost: £10 per person (includes lunch)
To book online visit: http://bit.ly/nRiqWz

To find out more about Missional Communities and other upcoming event visit http://www.missionalcommunities.co.uk/

Image: Paul Martin Eldridge / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Discovering and Developing Missional Vision (4)

Whilst trying to think of what to write about discovering and developing missional vision that hasn't already been covered in the excellent preceding posts, I struck upon the idea of turning the question around.

Instead of asking how can we (encourage others to) discover and develop missional vision, I pondered on the question:

"what holds us back from discovering and developing missional vision?"

Of course that's a very big question, no doubt with lots of big answers. None-the-less, I want to make just one suggestion.

I suggest that one of the things that holds people back is that they dont have a big enough revelation of the transforming power of the gospel of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is such an incredible thing that whenever we get a piece of revelation about it, we can't help but be excited by it. Its this excitement that we need to help people discover if they are to get passionate about mission.

We see how this principle works when we look at how things like acts of service, healing on the streets and prophetic evangelism have inspired new generations to engage in mission. The amazing thing about the Kingdom is that it has power to transform and its this transforming power that we see at work in expressions of mission that use healing or prophecy or even Gardening! The Kingdom breaks in and begins to transform the lives of those involved.

Anyone who has been involved in these expressions of mission will testify to what an amazingly exciting thing it is to partner with God in this way - in his Kingdom transformation. It's especially exciting if you're passionate about the thing you're seeing transformed.

If you enjoy serving others, then demonstrating the power of the kingdom through acts of service is hugely exciting. Equally, if you love to engage with people on a personal level then seeing them personally impacted by a prophetic word or physically healed will really get your adrenalin going.

It is this excitement about the transforming power of the kingdom that inspires people to step out beyond their fears.

But our understanding of this is still so small! There's still so much we need to learn.

Colossians 1:19-20 says

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Jesus], and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Through Jesus' death, there is kingdom power to transform all things! A wise lady once asked "how many things can you think of that would be excluded from all things?"

Just let that sit with you for a moment before you read on...

It's this revelation that the kingdom can transform all things that will get people excited enough about mission to be able to break off their preconceptions and step out beyond their fears.

Think about the people you work or study with. They, like you, were interested enough in your field of work to study or train for it and to dedicate large amounts of time to it every week. If you suddenly found you had some amazing new insights for your field of work that could bless not only those you work with but the community at large, wouldn't you want to share them? Don't you think your colleagues would be interested to hear more?

Now I don't pretend to have much in the way of answers to what that might look like but I firmly believe that God's kingdom has power to transform your field of work, your field of study, in fact, anything you might be interested in. After all, that's what all things means.

I'd like to suggest a few examples of what this might look like:

Think about how someone with a fresh revelation of God's principles of communication could begin to transform the world of marketing. Marketing is about businesses connecting with their customers, it's about relationship and communication; these are really important aspects of God's kingdom. Imagine if marketing was done in love and mutual respect. What a blessing it could be. People would be blessed with good, reliable information about products and services that really suit their requirements. As it is all we do is curse our junk mail and spam emails on a daily basis! This a huge mission field and one that has the potential to greatly bless not just one or two but whole communities, even the whole nation.

What about the hospitality industry? What are the biblical principles that could transform the way the hotel sector or the restaurant sector operates? Perhaps Kingdom cuisine would be amazing food that's healthy and supports sustainable farming practices. You might argue that this is already the latest trend without trying to make it into a mission field. But that brings me to my next point...

The Spirit of God will move and can and does work through all manner of things (remember the donkey that spoke to Balaam?!). Perhaps the move towards sustainably sourced foods is a move of God? What an amazing Gospel message it would be for a colleague in the your kitchen at work who is passionate about these things to say, this thing that's on your heart is on God's heart too!

I'm just throwing thoughts out here so please don't get too caught up in the detail if you disagree about what Kingdom catering might be like. My point is that its just amazing to realise that there is such a thing as Kingdom catering, or Kingdom software design or Kingdom tree surgery for that matter. God cares deeply about all these things and yet our silence on these matters when we talk of faith gives the unconscious message that Christianity is irrelevant to these things. For your colleagues who spend their working days engaging with such issues, that's actually quite an off-putting message!

So if we want to get engaged with mission, we need to get a bigger revelation of the transforming power of the kingdom, which means a bigger revelation of the relevance of the cross, a bigger revelation of why Jesus came and a bigger revelation of God himself.

People need a vision they can get excited about. In fact, that statement is redundant because you can't have vision without excitement, the two go hand in hand. So we must help people to discover God's transforming truth for the things they have been created to be passionate about

So I'll end with the following questions:

"What would [add your vocation/passion here] look like in the Kingdom of God?"

"What can you do to partner with God in that transformation?"

Written by Stephen Richardson

Discovering and Developing Vision

Over the past few weeks our series on missional vision has focussed on both the biblical basis and understanding for obtaining missional vision as well as some practical guidelines for church leaders in how to facilitate vision amongst the main body of the church.

To conclude this series I thought I'd go back and look at the general question of why we should have vision. This is a key issue when obtaining missional vision yourself and leading others to discover theirs. We need assurance that vision is necessary if we are to discover it, develop it and live it out.

A revelation of our salvation

'Where there is no vision, the people perish.' Proverbs 29 v 18

For me, this verse is the crux of the matter. Every talk I've ever heard on vision busts this out as standard. But it's not always clear what it's really getting at. The word 'vision' can have so many different meaning (I feel a Specsavers ad coming on….) but to feel confident in structuring both our lives and our church communities around 'vision' we need to be confident in what's behind this verse.

The Amplified Bible gives more detail to the language:

'Where there is no vision [no redemptive revelation of God], the people perish; but he who keeps the law [of God, which includes that of man] – blessed (happy, fortunate, and enviable) is he.'

So vision in this verse means a 'redemptive revelation of God'. Therefore we could say that one meaning of 'vision' relates to our seeing and understanding of our salvation in Jesus. That's something that most people in the church can hopefully get behind! But is there any more to 'vision' than knowing that we're saved? Do we need to have a personal vision, with our own mission statement and context?

A revelation of our identity

Proverbs 29 v 18 also references 1 Samuel 3 v 1, 'The word of the Lord was rare and precious in those days; there was no frequent or widely spread vision.' This verse references God's 'word' and 'vision' as the direct revelation from God that we read of regularly in the Old Testament. This itself highlights that God's specific word (rhema in the Greek) and the revelation that accompanies it is necessary in order that we don't perish. Similarly the other reference made is from Amos 8 v 11 which talks about a famine, where there will be no word from the Lord. This signifies the relationship between God and His people. As a people Israel needed God's word to them, it was their whole structure for living and their lifeline in battles and times of need – His word gave them direction and life.

In the same way that a revelation of our salvation is imperative to our lives, a revelation of what that says about our creation and identity is also vital. We need a revelation of His word (both through the written word and His specific word) because He created us to have that kind of relationship with Him.

As we're made in His image and to be in relationship with Him, it's obvious to see that He's designed us to be in partnership with Him and implementing His plans. The issue of vision I believe is intertwined with the issue of identity. A right understanding of our humble position before God, but also the amazing invitation to be part of implementing His plans, is essential when we are trying to discover vision. So often 'vision' comes out of a place of insecurity, seeking affirmation, pride...etc, that we get side-tracked into thinking that vision is all about a life-plan or a revolution, not about Jesus and His Kingdom.

In John Wesley's famous prayer the line which states 'Put me to nothing' always presents a challenge to me. A great fear amongst many Christians who are passionate about God's kingdom is that they will never fully realise His call on their life, or that they will grow into old age feeling that they've never accomplished anything for the kingdom. But our acceptance by God doesn't come from what we've accomplished for Him. We're already accepted and that's not going to change. However, if we pursue a vision because we're trying to prove ourselves it's probably not going to get us very far!

A revelation of God's heart

'Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.' Psalm 37 v 4

As Simon discussed in last week's blog we need to get a revelation of God's heart, impressed upon our own. He has made us in His image, which means that the things He cares about He's made us to care about too. It also means that the skills and application needed has been put within us in order that the kingdom can be realised. God's put His desires and plans within us. A friend of mine always say 'It's in there, you just haven't realised it yet'. He's made us uniquely and as we let His heart impress upon ours we can discover the passions and desires that we have inherited from Him, in order that His kingdom can impact the earth.

A revelation of God's kingdom

And the Kingdom impacting earth is what it's all about! We need a revelation of Jesus and the authority and power He has, to give us confidence that the Kingdom is forcefully advancing. When we look at the book of Revelation God gave us a vision of an incredible life that we can look forward to - He (and we!) will build a new heaven and a new earth. If God has the vision for that, then He also has the vision for your street, neighbourhood, workplace, school, business, town, city, nation... to be transformed by His love. We need a revelation of what His plans are for those places. We only need to ask Him to show us what it is and what we do next.

• Do you have a revelation of your salvation that effects everyday life?

• Do you have a revelation of your identity and acceptance in Jesus, that means you seek 'vision' because of who you're made to be, not what you're trying to prove?

• Do you have a revelation of God's heart? Are you allowing His heart to be impressed upon yours?

• Do you have a revelation of God's kingdom and how it can impact the places you inhabit?

Discovering and Developing Missional Vision

Today I would like to share some thoughts on the mindset change I believe needs to take place in order for anyone to discover and develop real missional vision.

The starting point in mission for any follower of Jesus has to be that WE ARE SENT. After all, being "sent" is what "mission" or "missionary" means. We use these words because it's what Jesus said about Himself and His disciples (see Luke 4:18 and Matthew 10:3). The whole essence of mission is captured from this viewpoint. So how do we apply this? Well, as always, the best place to start with any question is to look at the life of Jesus. In scripture, I think we see 3 key elements to Jesus being sent:

Jesus was sent by God.....

Jesus was totally dependent and given over to the Father. He would continually spend time in communion with Him (Mark 1:35) and only do what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19). He had laid down His life long before He was crucified. He knew Father had sent Him. Often, the problem with being sent is that we are not the ones calling the shots. Missional vision comes from the Father. After all, it's His mission anyway isn't it? It's about choosing submission (being under His mission) and partnership (working with Him). I think the first part of discovering and developing missional vision is getting close enough to the Father so that His heart can be impressed upon ours.

Are we really listening?

Are we soft enough to Him?

Jesus was sent with a community.......

In order to carry out His Father's work, Jesus chose to seek out and surround Himself with people who were hungry for the Kingdom. In many ways they were nothing special, but they were the ones who would drop everything to follow the Messiah. This community wasn't ready made and good to go. It took Jesus time and effort to grow something around Him that reflected the Father He knew and loved. They had great times together (Luke 10:17) and tough times together (Matthew 17:17), but in the end they were the ones who would go the distance and change the world forever. I think the second part of discovering and developing missional vision is surrounding ourselves with people who are hungry for God's Mission and committed to seeing it through. Doing this allows us to grow and refine the vision that God has put in us.

Are we seeking out these sorts of people and committing to them in the context of shared vision?

Are we becoming the sort of person that others are drawn to do this with?

Are we speaking out what God is saying to us?

Jesus was sent to the world......

Jesus never lost sight of where He was sent to or what He was sent to do. He immersed Himself completely in His mission field, taking His disciples with Him and becoming totally accessible. He was often moved by the people He met as the Father's heart stirred within Him to reach out to the leaper, the prostitute or the demon-possessed. He understood people, because He lived like one of them. Nobody walked away without experiencing a tangible sign of the Kingdom. I think the third part of discovering and developing missional vision is to immerse ourselves in the context God has called us to, so that the Holy Spirit is able to show us HOW our missional vision can made real.

Are we making time and space to go and meet the people God has called us to?

Have we discerned how God wants to make His Kingdom real to them?

Do we ACT on this discernment?

Do we keep going even when it's hard or inconvenient?

Allowing God to change our way of thinking to being SENT in these 3 ways will ultimately grow and develop missional vision in us which is strong enough to last beyond any good idea, feelings, or fashionable activity. It will also start to make it possible for God's Kingdom to be made real and tangible to those He has called us to.

By Simon

Discovering and Developing Missional Vision: Leadership Part 2

Yesterday I shared some questions to ponder on setting a good foundation of a leadership culture within your church, focusing on releasing vision especially in those who might not look like a 'typical' leader. Today, some practicals.

Here are a few tips for releasing vision in the non-pioneers, the under-encouraged or those lacking in confidence:

1. Get to know people's passions, dreams & desires, especially those who are less 'obvious' as leaders. Make some time for those who don't seek you out to tell you their new vision or idea - look for those who are putting away the chairs, or serving coffee. Often these guys make brilliant missionary leaders because they know how to serve and love others.
2. Help potential leaders to clearly articulate their vision - writing it down or talking it through with friends can help with this. It doesn't have to be complicated, just clear. If it helps, get them to think about what they want to see in the UP-IN-OUT of their community. It can (should!) be that simple!
3. You can't encourage the unconfident too much! They need to know you believe in them. Take plenty of opportunities to let them know what gifts/skills you see in them and how you see God's call on their life. However....
4. Don't let them get away with procrastinating about getting to grips with vision and/or getting started. Hold them accountable and pin them down to a plan of writing a vision/plan/asking team/etc, or they might well never bite the bullet and get on with it!
5. Give people space to experiment and fail. Sometimes this might be easiest / feel safest for them within the context of a larger community from which they can then be released at the right time.
6. Train them to lead in their own style/giftings rather than in yours or someone else's. They stand a much better chance of succeeding! Help them to develop team who will balance out their giftings.
7. Good coaching is key to their success. They might well need more coaching than a 'natural' leader. Concentrate on encouragement and helping them to make decisions for themselves rather than giving them all the answers (or telling them what you would do!)
8. Don't necessarily expect their communities to grow as quickly or easily as other more experienced leaders - after all, they are just learning how to be a leader and how to lead with a vision. This will be especially true if their vision is quite 'specialised' or has quite a narrow focus.
9. Keep them missional! It's easy to get overwhelmed with leading people so keep their eyes on why they're doing it.
10. Celebrate success! Share testimony, encourage (again!) and remember that mobilising a whole variety of leaders across the body into missional vision and leadership is worth your time and effort!