Rhythms, routines and practices (3)

One more post on this topic of spiritual practices. Why? Because this is a key concept for the Luke Ten Community and the MRT Experiments. We don't invite people to be committed merely to values. Rather we invite them to be committed to concrete practices that embody our values.

Alan Hirsch in The Forgotten Ways captures this way of thinking as he talked about his church in Australia. (p. 46-48)

We would not develop a philosophy of ministry per se, but rather a covenant and some core practices. Behind this thinking was the belief that when we talk about core values, the appeal is (only) to the head... What we wanted was to covenant ourselves to a set of practices that embodied the core value and demonstrated it. (Hirsch describes these practices as the DNA of the movement.)

Each group had to be engaged in a healthy diet of spiritual disciplines - the only way to grow in Christlikeness that we were aware of.

...the only other requirement to belong to the movement is that each group is covenanted to multiply itself as soon as it is organically feasible and possible. This ensures healthy multiplication and embeds and ongoing sense of mission.

This is exactly what the MRT 2.0 Experiment is about. A group of people committed to certain core practices for three months who share what they learn along the way. Thanks for being part of this community of practice!

Your thoughts on calling people to core practices?

John

Rhythms, routines and practices (2)

Today, I would like you to watch the short (4 minutes) video below. But, as you watch it, I would like you to think about Paul's words in 1 Tim. 4:7-8.

Train yourself for the purpose of godliness. Physical training has some value but godliness is profitable for all things (in all directions), since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

The imperative "train yourself" in the Greek is gymnaze from which we get the word "gymnastics". No doubt Paul had in mind the rigorous training that a gymnast commits to when he exhorted Timothy to train himself for godliness. At the heart of this sort of training are specific routines and disciplines that the athlete engages in.

An MRT is two or more people (a team) who have God's heart for the expansion of His kingdom in a city or region. They are committed to spiritual training with a specific set of spiritual disciplines (see the MRT 2.0 Invitation).

*Intentionally paying attention to my heart and your heart daily is a spiritual discipline (see SASHET)

*Writing out my dialogue with God each day and sharing it with you is a spiritual discipline (see VIRKLER)

*Meeting each week with my MRT to listen to the Lord of the Harvest about church planting in my city is a spiritual discipline

*Reading this blog each day and responding is a spiritual discipline

*Investing financially in church planting is a spiritual discipline

What do you see in the video below that relates to spiritual disciplines?

John

Rhythms, routines and practices (1)

John Grisham's goal: to write a page every day.

The best-selling novelist began this routine while he was still practicing law and writing at the same time. "The alarm clock would go off at five, and I would jump in the shower. My office was five minutes away. And I had to be at my desk, at my office, with the first cup of coffee, a legal pad, and write the first word at 5:30, five days a week." Sometimes that one page would take ten minutes, sometimes an hour; often he would write for two hours before he had to turn to his job a lawyer, which he never especially enjoyed.

Sticking to a schedule and maintaining loyalty to ideas is hard. Execution is rarely comfortable or convenient... Developing a consistent daily regimen for execution can help us make ideas happen." Belsky, Making Ideas Happen, p. 98 -102.

In simplest terms, an MRT is

• two or more people
• with a passion to help birth vibrant families of Jesus
• in a particular city or region
• who are relentlessly seeking to live into a specific set of spiritual practices
• and who are in community with other MRTs committed to the same practices

(The MRT practices for the summer of 2010 are spelled out in the MRT Invitation. Let me know if you need another copy.)

In the area of writing, my practice or regimen is to post to this blog post five days a week. How about for you? Do you have any practices in the area of writing you could share with us?

John

John Eldredge and CO2s

As far as I know, John Eldredge has never advocated the "church of two" idea. However, this wonderful quote from the book Love and War by John and Stasi describes perfectly how a CO2 functions in marriage.

Making decisions is probably the number one source of stress, tension, anxiety, pouting, manipulation, and arguments in a marriage. Isn't it true? Well, okay - there is money, and your family, and his parents. But you have to make decisions about money and family and parents, so I still argue that decision making is the mother of all marital strife. As soon as Stasi says, "Honey we need to decide..., " anxiety leaps from within. Aooogha, aooogha. All hands on deck. We have just entered mine-filled waters.

So, we want to offer you what might be the single most helpful thing anyone has ever offered you when it comes to your marriage. Drumroll, please. Aren't you just waiting to hear what it is?

Learning to hear the voice of God, together.

Yes. It is the simplest, most helpful, least practiced treasure and it will literally rescue the two of you in countless ways.

The secret of the Christian life - and the Christian marriage - is that you don't have to figure it out. You don't have to figure life out, you don't have to figure each other out, you don't have to figure parenting out, or money or family. You have a counselor, you have a guide - you have God. What a relief that we don't have to figure it all out! We get to walk with God. That is the beauty of Christian spirituality. This is not about mastering principles; it's about an actual relationship with and actual person who happens to be the wisest, kindest, and, okay, wildest person you will every know.

If every household made this practice - learning to listen to God's voice together - their number one goal, I believe our country (and your country) would be well on the way to transformation. And that's the goal of our MRTs - a vibrant family of Jesus on every block of every city of every country in the world.

Your thoughts on this?

John

Are you "in"?

Are you "in"?

Click on "comments" below and let the rest of us know if you are planning to be part of our community of practice (MRT 2.0) this summer. Also, let us know which cohort you will be with - John's or Hobby's.

John

Are you "in"?

Spiritual research (2)

More from Carolyn Spence's email...

Is there a reason that this "present kingdom" model doesn't seem to be promoted among simple church proponents? If we are truly following where God is going, would he not be working some of the same things today that he did then? Should this not be a part of our expectation and our report?

Absolutely! In fact, the listening (Virkler) part of a CO2 puts us in a place where we can join God in his supernatural work just as Jesus did. See Jn. 5:19.

Shouldn't this be one evidence of a vibrant family of Jesus? Shouldn't his presence among us produce an effect that ministers to people in the same ways he did when he was here? It seems that we do get from the Lord what we seek after, and what we expect. Can we share stories of how we see the kingdom come to encourage each other that this is a part of the normal Christian life? Now I am newer to the MRT, and maybe I am off base, or it’s a topic already covered that I have missed... so please excuse me if it is. Tell me what you think. Carolyn

Carolyn, you are totally "on base". The MRT 2.0 Experiment is designed to provide a basic framework or starting point for spiritual research. My hope is that this spirit of questioning and experimenting will characterize our community and that people will experiment with all kinds of things having to do with helping to birth "vibrant families of Jesus". Carolyn, please take the lead in reporting what you are learning this summer about demonstrations of God's power as it relates to church planting.

Speaking of God's supernatural power, take a look at the story below of healing at our city wide house church gathering in Denver a couple of weeks ago.

John