10:2b Story (Part Three)

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Great comment from Carolyn Spence (Clovis, NM) in response to Mike Deaton's interview in yesterday's post:

OK, agreed! We need the opportunity to see it practised. My mother (89 years young) cried to experience the very tiny taste of our gathering in Clovis with MRT members from Albuquerque and Colorado saying, "now I see what you mean"... If you are going to spread a virus, personal physical contact works best... Carolyn

Today, we have an interview with JoEtta Deaton. She tells a similar story. To paraphrase: "By visiting some of the house churches in Brighton (CO), I experienced a whole different paradigm of church. What I saw was church that flowed out of listening to Jesus. This was transformational and I want to begin to try this out when we go back to Virginia".

(JW: This is the third of seven LK10 Practices. Church = a spiritual family focused on listening to Jesus.)

Now, listen to JoEtta tell the story in her own words below. Share with us your response to what she has to say.

John

10:2b Story (Part Two)

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As Hobby and his apostolic partner, Robbie James, began praying the 10:2b Prayer (see yesterday's post) the Lord of the Harvest began arranging divine encounters. In the video below you will hear about one of those encounters with Mike Deaton, a professor at James Madison University in Virginia, and his wife JoEtta. (More from JoEtta tomorrow.)

Notice that Mike and JoEtta were already committed to planting house churches. But, two years of very limited success had made them hungry to learn. We have found this to be true for people who are answers to the 10:2b Prayer. In every situation, God has worked in their lives to prepare them. They have been "thrust out" by the Lord of the Harvest and are already motivated. You might say that "God does the heavy lifting" in preparing these church planters.

See what else you hear in Mike's story.

John

10:2b Story (Part One)

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The DNA of our Luke Ten Community focuses on seven key practices. (To see all seven, go here: http://lk10.com/media/lk10_visionpaper_2_0.pdf )

The fourth practice is in obedience to Jesus' command in Luke 10, verse 2, part b. We sometimes call this the "10:2b Prayer". This was Jesus' solution to a specific problem. Namely, "the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few". To Jesus the answer was obvious - ask the Harvest Master for more laborers.

So, what does a "10:2b answer" look like? In this three part series, you will see three examples of harvest laborers sent out by the Harvest Master.

First, in the video below (the first of three parts), you will see Hobby Chapin who was a "10:2b answer" here in Denver over a year ago. Hobby has become a good friend and a very effective church planter in Brighton (north of Denver). Tomorrow, you will see what happened as Hobby prayed the 10:2b Prayer.

John

New MRT in Clovis, NM

Email from Peg Batcheller...

Hey John,

I'm still in Clovis meeting with Carolyn Spence (pictured here with her husband). We had a great time this morning with a small group of men and women who seem to be ready to start a simple church together! We were able to SASHET, we spent time listening to God for direction for the group, and had a super time sharing God's vision for His kingdom to come to this area. We also talked about the need of building the church through CO2s, and I believe they really caught the vision for it. Carolyn has a great heart for house churches to be started throughout the city, so we're going to start an MRT this week. Just thought I'd let you know.

So just a few weeks left for the official MRT date, huh? Well, now that we're just starting, we'll probably continue it anyway. Hopefully I'll still be in touch with Hobby and his women HC leader in the weeks ahead.

Peg

Lots of things to give thank to the Lord for in this email from Peg!

• A new church birthed in Clovis (not hard if there are people of peace!)

• A new MRT birthed in Clovis (not hard if there are apostolic people!)

• Answers to Peg (and others) praying Lk 10:2b for New Mexico

• Women functioning apostolically

• Members of the MRT Community praying for and encouraging one another

• What else do you see?

Peg and Carolyn - I'm pretty sure we will do a MRT Experiment (2.0) this summer so delighted that you are joining us now. Carolyn - would love to hear something from you about what you see God doing.

John

Four Generations

There's more to say about "small groups vs house church" but I wanted to go a different direction based on an email I received today from Hobby Chapin (Brighton, CO) who is part of our MRT Experiment. Hobby's email showed the viral nature of the CO2 (church of two). Here's the story...

Generation One. Almost a year ago, the Lord brought the basic elements of the CO2 together for me while I was doing a conference in Albuquerque. I invited the people at the conference to try it out over the summer.

Generation Two. A number of us in Denver connected with Hobby last summer. (He very much seemed like an answer to the 10:2b prayer!) Some time during the fall, I invited him to do a CO2 with me for a couple of weeks. Hobby immediately "got it" and began teaching it to people in Brighton (where he is planting churches just north of Denver) and other places.

Generation Three (a). Hobby has taught CO2 to quite a number of people. One of them is Charles Kiser who is a church planter in Dallas. (In Hobby's email today, he pointed me to Charles' blog.) Here's what Charles had to say, "I’ve been enriched in the past few weeks by an emerging structure for spiritual formation called Church of Two... The benefits of Church of Two are immense: it has helped me stay in touch with myself much better; I’m learning to listen to others at a deeper level; I’m learning to listen to God and discern what I’m hearing in times of stillness; I’m learning to have times of stillness – period; it’s a great tool for discernment and decision making; it has helped me to connect to old friends on deeper levels." Read all of what Charles had to say here: http://inthestoryline.com/2010/04/08/church-of-two/

Generation Four(a). In his blog, Charles explains that he is doing CO2 with a number of people including his co-worker, Ryan Porche, and Paul McMullen, a church planter in East Vancouver (WA?). See http://www.thevinevancouver.com/

Generation Three (b). Hobby also taught CO2 to Micah Lewis, a church planter in Grand Prairie, TX. Micah reports: "Much of the listening to God that I have been doing lately has been through some guidelines that are called CO2 or Church of Two. The idea is that you listen together with another person on a heart level as you listen to God and let him speak to your heart. I have been mentored in this discipline by my good friend and fellow Mission Alive church planter Hobby Chapin. Hobby has been practicing this listening for a while now and has found it to be very helpful in discipleship and transforming people to live missionally. I have found this practice to be the most exciting spiritual practice I have ever done. I don’t even think of it as a practice but simply as pouring myself into a relationship with God."

Generation Four (b). Micah is now "infecting" someone else: "I have started a CO2 with a good friend that I work with at Starbucks. We check in almost everyday, sharing the state of our hearts and talking about how we have been hearing from God. It is really exciting to see how God has been at work in both of us as we listen to him. If you are interested in learning more about the details of this practice, Hobby has started a blog that unpacks some more of the details of CO2. Check it out." See Micah's blog here. http://micahlewis.wordpress.com/2010/02/18/co2-church-of-two/

So, we are seeing more and more evidence that this simple tool (CO2) is both transformational and viral. Your thoughts? (Also, love to hear any generational stories you have about CO2s!)

John

10:2b Prayer - From South Carolina to Colorado

MRT Friends,

Almost eight years ago, my friend, Kenny Moore and I were having breakfast together and we were talking about our mutual passion to see "a vibrant family of Jesus" within easy reach of every person in Colorado. Our conversation began to settle on Luke 10. And, then on verse 2 of chapter 10. And, then on the second half of that verse.

Therefore, beseech the Lord of the Harvest to send forth workers into His harvest.

That morning, light bulbs began to turn on. If we could only do one thing towards the goal of saturation church planting in Colorado, praying this prayer would certainly be that one thing. Kenny and I made a commitment that morning to pray what we later called "the 10:2b prayer" for Colorado every day for seven days and see what we learned. Who knew all that would come from that small step! (To read more of the story, go to http://lk10.com/practices-and-patterns/the-102b-prayer/ )

Today, many of us in Colorado (and many in other places around the world) are praying that prayer daily for the our particular part of the harvest field. In the video below, you will see one of the recent answers to that prayer. It's an amazing God story of three young men in South Carolina who felt that God had called them to move to Pueblo, Colorado (2-3 hours south of Denver) to plant organic churches. As far as they knew, they would be the first to plant organic churches anywhere in Colorado! :-) Then, through a magazine article they got connected with us and we were able to spend an afternoon together a couple of weeks ago.

So, take a look at the video and tell us your thoughts. Also, it seems to me that our MRT Community should be a repository of 10:2b stories. So, let us know what you have learned as you have prayed this prayer and the answers you've seen in your part of the "field". (BTW - still waiting for a 5 minute video story from one of you all!)

John

PS. Subscription to The Abilene MRT Experiment blog that I mentioned a few days ago is by invitation only. If you are interested, contact Ron Longwell at rlongwell@mac.com