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

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.

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

Establishing a Missional Culture Part 2

Today, here are 2 ways to establish a missional culture. They are both about learning to be part of God’s mission involving new ways of approaching the shape of our week, different from the ways our culture or our past experiences have influenced us to do life. You might want to apply it both to your own journey of learning how to do this, and to how you lead.

1 Establish Missional Rhythms

Learning to live differently takes time and spiritual disciplines allow God, over time, to change us. You may already be familiar with spiritual disciplines such as bible reading, fasting or celebration, try to think creatively about what missional spiritual disciplines you and your community could use. Perhaps you could learning to prayer walk an area, to talk to new people on the commute to work or a regular commitment to be in a public place where people gather. What could you do on a daily, weekly or seasonal basis? A group of my friends choose to spend just under an hour straight after work one day a week walking particular roads of the estate they live in. They prayed for it, talked to anyone they met who seemed friendly and often bought take away prawn crackers to share. Some weeks there were great stories of people they met or answers to prayer, but many weeks seemed un eventful. Over time they got to know people and a group now gather weekly in one of their houses for worship, food and bible reading. What missional discipline would help you invest time to allow God to teach you and use you in his mission? What might this look like this summer? Allow God space to surprise you by what he does.

2 Establish missional Accountability

Building on a missional rhythm, accountability about how your missional spiritual disciplines are going helps it to be a journey of learning about mission and not an event that you just do. When it’s difficult, scary or more likely you just feel tired or bored, sharing your journey with others helps you decide what you want to do about that. Sometimes it might be time to step it up and add another level of challenge, if you’ve been going making new friends is it time to offer to pray with them? Or time to invite people along to something? Alternatively you might be pushing yourself too hard and you need to learn to relax and just be available in a place and let God surprise you. On Saturday I managed to run 2.5k around the local park. On my own I would never have made it, but I was running alongside my sister in law. Partly just the shared nature gave me encouragement to keep going, but also as I started to flag ¾ of the way along, her simple running wisdom on my failure to breathe properly allowed me to make the finish line. Learn to let others encourage and challenge you in your pursuit of a missional lifestyle. Where do you already have accountable relationships? As part of this do you discuss what you are learning about mission? Allow others to be part of what you learn.

Todays two reflections are not quick wins to a missional culture. The culture we live in can encourage us to live quite isolated lives and without deciding otherwise we can slip into a lifestyle where we are not meeting new people. The church culture some of us have grown up in may not have taught us alternative ways of living that make mission a natural part of our way of life. Rhythms of mission and accountability are two ways God can teach us to live differently from these assumed patterns. How could you inspire those you lead to take on missional spiritual disciplines? What ways can you include missional accountability in the discipleship or leadership structures you already have?

Connections

Let me introduce you to a couple of my friends, Debs and Angela*. Debs lives in Perth, Australia and Angela lives in Sheffield, UK.

Debs is someone I have known for nearly 3 years. I coach her, over skype, in planting Missional Communities (which she has done a great job of!) as part of her Church in Perth. Their vision is to welcome newcomers to Perth and there are many internationals who move to the city through various business links. They also look to be good news in their neighbourhoods, create authentic community and support each other in sharing their faith across the city. We've had a couple of stories from Connect Perth on our website before.

I met Angela about 2 years ago when I re-located from my office to be out in my local community every Wednesday. She owns the coffee shop in Hillsborough that I work from each week - having space to read my bible, pray and reflect; doing emails; having meetings and chatting & getting to know the regular customers. Over the past few years the coffee shop has hosted missional community gatherings and also a Christmas carol service!!

This week Angela told me she is emigrating – to Perth, Australia!!!

I will be able to connect a person of peace from my local community with someone on the other side of the world, who I am coaching and who has a vision to welcome newcomers - it’s a small world and God is good!!

Written by Rich Robinson
*Name changed for privacy

Uniquely Salty

"You are the salt of the earth." Matthew 5:13

I've been using a book of meditations recently* and came across one about salt. We are probably

well used to thinking about mission in terms of being salt and light to the world, but this particular meditation made me think about what being salt means more deeply.

What do you think of when you hear the phrase 'You are salt'?

I usually think of the traditional uses for salt - preserving & flavouring, and apply them to mission by looking for ways to add to or enhance what God is already doing. Or by thinking about ways I can preserve the Gospel in the mission context I'm in. If I'm really honest I usually think that being salt = being an evangelist. Apparently however, less than 5% of the world's salt production is used in flavouring and, most astoundingly, there are an estimated 14,000 uses for salt.

14,000! I don't think I could think of 14! This book listed a few other uses for salt, such as being used in solution to administer medicines, as an antiseptic, as a water softener, making soap and glass, making paper whiter, melting ice from roads, and a host of other historical and cultural uses, including being used as a symbol of honor, hospitality, friendship and purity.

All this got me thinking about how individual we are. Jesus says "You are the salt of the earth", and I don't think He was trying to make us conform into one of a very few ways of expressing that, or trying to make us feel guilty that we're not 'being salt' in the traditional ways we might think of or feel a pressure to be.

Knowing that there are so many uses for salt releases us from having to conform or be like anyone else in the ways we express our 'saltiness'. We are each free to express and live our calling uniquely, in the ways that God creates us to be. We may function in one or more of the Ephesians 4 roles of pastor, teacher, apostle, evangelist and prophet, but we are completely free to express those in a vast multitude of ways.

Salt has many distinct purposes and effects. Likewise the ways God has so uniquely created, equipped, called and em-passioned us are beyond counting. Jesus says we already ARE salt - there's no point in trying to be salt, we already are this way; the question is simply one of HOW.

"Salt does not exist for itself. Its purpose is to penetrate and affect that with which it comes in contact." *

So...

• How are you made to be salt? How are you affecting that with which you come into contact? In whatever way?

• How are the people in your Missional Community being freed to be salt in their own unique ways? Are you releasing and acknowledging all the multitude of ways in which this can happen?

• How is your Missional Community as a whole being salt to your chosen mission context? What are the unique things your community can do and be to the people around you, as distinct or complimentary to other MCs?

* "Named by God - 50 Meditations. Discovering the power of God's names for you." Mary Foxwell Loeks

Rest

We all know we sometimes need to stop.  We know that we're created to work from rest, rather than rest from work.  Its good to remember that rest is for communities as well as individuals.

The time we spend as community,  doing nothing particularly purposeful,  is very important.  The BBQs, trips, parties and movie nights,  are often the times when really significant conversations happen.  Sometimes these are the events people bring their friends to.  Other times they just get to know each other more deeply.  Such times may not help your group achieve your vision,  but your community will certainly be better and closer for it.

When I look back at our missional community of 4 1/2 years,  it's often the rest time that I remember most fondly,  like the times it'd be getting close to 10pm and we still hadn't got properly started because everyone was chatting.  Or the picnics at a local stately home we took in the summer.  Or the long conversations as relationships were formed over amazing puddings.  Our community was better because we rested and had fun together.


I know this is simple,  but we often miss the obvious things.  My advice would be to make sure there's some rest or fun time in every thing you do as a community (don't meet unless you eat used to be one of our community's mottoes) and then every now and again make sure you devote a good chunk of time to doing nothing in particular,  together.

How do you make time to rest as a community?

The picture is by downthewaterfall on flickr

A reason not to give up

Like a few in this missional movement,  I'm part of The Order of Mission.  TOM is a covenant community  of people committed to living as missionaries and disciples for Jesus.  We are a global family with members all over the world.  Helen and I are permanent members,  which means we've made some scary life-long promises.  If you want to find out more about The Order then leave a comment here or check out the website.

Anyway, this Advent TOM members are reading a chapter of Luke a day,  it conveniently has 24 chapters so fits well.  This has been really good as a way of contextualising the usual Advent/Christmas story within the wider life of Jesus and his disciples.   Each day a member posts a reflection on the chapter for that day.  I got day 13 and was asked to reproduce my post here. Before you read any further you might want to stop and look Luke 13.

My original TOM post follows.

I'll be honest. If I were one of the disciples, following round after Jesus, then Luke 13 may well have been the place I gave up and headed back to the fishing nets or tax desk.

The doom and gloom just seem relentless. First he's asked to comment on recent local disasters. His response? Something worse could happen to you.

Then there's the matter of the authorities. Why won't he just lay off them for a bit? They've obviously got it in for him, and he's really not helping. First the Pharisees, then Herod, who else is he going to take a pop at?

And to make it all worse, even those who do follow him in the street and listen to his teaching may not make it through the narrow door. The first will be last, and those who thought they'd made it may be in for a nasty surprise.

Come on Jesus, enough gnashing of teeth, can't you tell us something nice? Something encouraging? Yes, if I were one of the disciples, I may well be packing my bags right now. Except for two little things he says.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed. It's small, looks pretty insignificant, but when it's planted it grows. The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast. It's tiny, but only a very little works through the whole dough. It reproduces.

I think (I hope) that would have kept me. I hope I would have wanted to be part of this thing: The Kingdom. The place where the tiny and the insignificant grow. The place where the last are first. I hope that would have encouraged me to stay, to go with him even through the hardness.

When life is hard for you, when the One you are following just doesn't seem to give up or he becomes almost too challenging, may you know that you are part of a Kingdom where the small things grow and the hard things become beautiful. May you remember that the last people you'd expect, the weak and the struggling, get to go first.

(The photo is by cardoso on flickr.  It is a reference to the very funny film Dogma which I'd recommend only if you don't mind being offended.)

Grand Designs

'No-one can lay any other foundation than the one we already have -Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials -gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on judgement day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person's work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames'. 1 Corinthians 3: 11-15

What is the foundation we build our lives upon? It's Jesus -his grace to us in relationship, in freedom and in securing our identity with our Father. God is very concerned that we build on the right foundations. Sometimes our foundations are a bit shaky, sometimes we’re not on solid ground and maybe we haven’t realized. Fear, insecurity, wrong identity, misunderstanding the character of God, striving for acceptance, achievement and status in places other than our Father – all of these things need to be dug out and rebuilt on truth to make sure our foundations are strong, secure and will stand the test of time.

But God is also bothered about how we then build on that foundation.

This little passage from 1 Corinthians makes it clear that He puts value on how and what we build our lives with. Gold, silver and jewels indicate that there are things worth building that are of great value in the Kingdom. But it also suggests that there are things we can build that are of no eternal value and which will be burned up. The Bible is absolutely clear in this passage and in other places that what we do cannot earn us salvation -that is only possible through grace - but it seems that God does have an agenda for how we live our lives once we are in relationship with Him. So my question is, what are you building with?

How are you building the things of God and His Kingdom in your life, your family, your community, your workplace?

I'm not sure there is a list anywhere of what activities God does or does not consider valuable. I do think that the Bible makes it clear of one thing that is important, and that is LOVE. 'The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love' (Galatians 5:6); 'These three things will last forever -faith, hope, and love -and the greatest of these is love.' (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Love. Does your community, your ministry, your daily interaction with people ooze love? How is our motivation? Are we motivated by wanting success, by wanting influence or power, by wanting to look good in other people’s eyes, even wanting to achieve great things for the Kingdom? Or is our primary motivation to love the last, the least and the lost? In everything we do? It’s tough! Ask the Holy Spirit to help you examine your motives today in what you’re building.

Whatever you do, however you build, build it with love and I reckon you can't go far wrong.

Are we ashamed of the gospel?

I've been reflecting recently on the responsibility we all have to make disciples of people who are not currently in relationship with Jesus. I know that in my embracing of post modern values some years ago, (many of them good), I essentially threw out my responsibility to proclaim the Gospel in favour of just living and demonstrating it. The problem has been – that decision has not proved very fruitful in terms of seeing people come to faith!

God has been taking me through a process of repentance – changing my wrong thinking, and challenging me to step out in faith in accordance with the truth of His Word.

Jesus said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, therefore go & make disciples..." (Matt 18 & 19)

It's easy to miss this vital part of the great commission Jesus has given us to make disciples - the fact that the absolute authority given to Jesus has, in turn, been given to us! Therefore, we should not be apologetic in our proclamation (and demonstration) of the Gospel. We speak with the full weight of authority of the King of the Universe, and it's reassuring to know the command also comes with a promise; He is with us always.

Paul says in Roms 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation…"

And in vs 15, "I am so eager to preach to Gospel to you…"

Is this something we can say is true of us?

It's interesting to reflect on where shame and fear re; proclaiming the Gospel have paralysed us...Our own culture can intimidate us....many of us have worked so hard at being perceived as "normal" because we've thought people would receive our message better that way, but in the process have neglected the fact we still have a truth to tell. And this truth will get us into trouble – the early church were never in trouble for feeding the poor and rarely in trouble for healing people – the opposition came when they "spoke in His name"! The need for "Courage under Fire" springs to mind!

Satan does not want us to speak up because he knows the Gospel message IS the power of God for salvation! Jesus didn't say,

"Go into all the world and befriend people."

He said,

"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." (Mark 16:15)

Signs and wonders accompanied and confirmed this spoken Word. (See Mark 16:20)

I'm convinced our confidence in the power of the spoken Gospel (not just the Gospel demonstrated through loving actions or even healings) needs to be refreshed. As does our confidence in the simplicity of the Gospel – Paul did not use clever arguments designed to impress people, on the contrary he preached the simple message that God justifies the ungodly by faith. - That's it!

It's true that timing is important and this takes discernment - we need to ask the Holy Spirit to help us recognise the times to sow and the times to reap. We don't want to fall into the trap on the other side of the pendulum swing of pushing people to pray prayers before they are ready or declaring them Christians when they haven't yet understood or responded to the invitation to discipleship. But this is not the challenge for the majority of us.

For most of us, the challenge is more likely to include repenting of being ashamed of the Gospel message & stepping out in renewed faith & confidence in it's (Jesus') power to save.

If this resonates with you, I'd encourage to engage with this process, both personally and in your communities. My prayer is that we will all do business with God on this, and ask Him to replace our fear and shame with His love, faith & courage! Amen.

written by Linz