You've contributed a number of good suggestions about a tag line for The Luke Ten Community already. Read through those suggestions and respond to what the Community has written as well as the ones I suggested yesterday.I think of The Luke Ten Community as two things. A set of values and a set of relationships.
A set of values. This is what holds a starfish organization together. (Spider organizations use hierarchy for this.) It's our DNA. Values like "mission emerges spontaneously from listening". Or, "church = family = church". Much of this is spelled out in the Seven Practices in The LK10 Invitation at LK10.com.
A set of relationships. The Luke Ten Community is also made up of people who resonate with our values. Particularly those people who have something apostolic in their souls. Some longing in them to see vibrant families of Jesus multiply across a particular chunk of real estate. Some in the Community are connected very loosely. (Over 500 people have signed up at LK10.com.) Some are much more closely connected - like those of us in this MRT Experiment.
So, how do we communicate this in a tag line? How do we express something of the uniqueness of our calling? How do we provoke a curiosity for wanting to know more?
Love to see your thoughts on this.
John
I will kick our discussion off today. I am doubting that my comments will be overly helpful today.
ReplyDeleteMy first thought centers around a new name for MRTs. I have actually really like MRT and the values represented in each word. The thought has recurred a few times that the MRT would be described well as a Community of Practice. I think the people we continue to connect with may appreciate the latter more if they are from unchurched backgrounds. I think the first may be preferred by seminarians. Something kind of humorous to me about Communities of Practice is that we would become COPs. My first impression is that this is probably not a helpful image. Two thoughts came to mind: 1) cops help those who are doing right and are not appreciated by those who do not, and 2) I have been reading over the Overseer role in 1 Timothy. A new frame of this figure for me is that this person is a Guardian of the Apostolic tradition. If we as apostolic leaders are embedding and guarding the DNA and then passing the guardianship along to another, this may be a good image. So, hopefully this was not a waste of your time. But, I kept thinking about it so I thought I better share it.
One last comment about my impressions of the tags. Yesterday in our MRT we talked about counterintuitive calling. I have really liked the words transforming, cities, households. My observation yesterday was that it seems slow, but it represents the aspect of apprenticeship that we carry in our practice. I think, though it is counterintuitive to broadcast a vision that looks like a slow moving process, these resonate the strongest with me at the moment. I would also say, I had to be led to this place. Most of that leadership came from John. When I first met John, I think I would have needed to have a faster-paced vision--though I'm not positive about that.
I'm in. I hope you all have a great day. May the Lord's grace and peace be with you.
Thanks Hobby, these are really helpful and useful comments. They're going to provoke a lot of thought.
ReplyDeleteLeadership changed so much with Yahshua. He came to 'make all things new', so although he is the King of kings he showed that even the King rules by an application of love. He made leadership 'new'. (I'm heading way off topic here, but it's what's Hobby has drawn out of my heart and I make no apologies!)
Pre-Jesus - patriarchs, judges, kings, prophets, priests. Rule was by edict. The Ten Commandments are a very fine example. Do this, don't do that.
Post-Jesus - apostles, prophets, shepherds, elders. Rule by example. Show the way so that others can follow.
Jesus really bridges the gap because he is the King and commands us but he is also the Shepherd and he leads us.
Do we love his sheep? If so our task is not to command them but to feed them. That means to go ahead of them to a place where there is good pasture. We must lead those entrusted to us beside streams of living water. And who is the Living Water? We must lead them beside Jesus!
Leading in the church must be based on love and on taking people into the presence of Yahshua! That's what we do with the person of peace and their community.
Is there some way of expressing this as a core value for LK10 as well?