Missional Communities: Missional or Attractional?

This is a short clip from a 3dm work shop I attended. If you want to explore this expression of church I highly recommend Launching Missional Communities by Mike Breen & Alex Absalom.

Deal with your stress in a responsible manner

Feeling stressed and overwhelmed today but this helps…

Thanks to my friend Chris Kent for the wonderful Picture.

An Experiment!

For the past nine months Desire and I have loved being a part of a house church. We have loved meeting weekly with 8-10 people to participate in what it means to be church. We believe any group of people who live out DNA together are “church”.

DNA is …..

Divine Truth: Journeying through God’s word together. This is not just limited to bible study but also includes all forms of worship.

Nurturing Relationships: Living in Grace filled community.

Apostolic Mission: Loving your neighborhood in tangible ways with the same passion as the Apostles and the early church.

We have found that a group of 8-10 people creates a great environment for Divine Truth and Nurturing Relationships. What often is often lacking is Apostolic Mission. With 8-10 people you have limited physical & emotional resources for your home to effectively engage a neighborhood / people group for the long haul. In answer to this dilemma and new innovative idea is being practiced all over the world. This seemingly new concept is rather ancient and is called Missional Communities.

A Missional Community (also called Clusters, Mid-Sized Communities, Mission Shaped Communities, MSCs) is a group of anything from 20 to 50 or more people who are united, through Christian community, around a common service and witness to a particular neighborhood or network of relationships. With a strong value on life together, the group has the expressed intention of seeing those they impact choose to start following Jesus, through this more flexible and locally incarnated expression of the church. The result will often be that the group will grow and ultimately multiply into further Missional Communities. Missional Communities are most often networked within a larger church community (often with many other Missional Communities). These mid-sized communities, led by laity, are “lightweight and low maintenance”.

Here is the experiment….
Our hope, dream, & vision is for our current Paseo home to become a network of 3-5 Paseo united to show the love of Christ to Northeast El Paso through a common mission.

“How are you going to do this Nate?” I’m glad you asked.

This month we are exploring a new format for our Paseo home community. Our Paseo home currently meets every Thursday night at our house.

Week 1 (last night) will be a normal meeting at our house that consists of hanging out, eating food, laughing, praying, and exploring God’s word.

Week 2 will be more of the same.

Week 3 will be a guys/girls night out where we just hang out and have fun. One week the girls will hang at the house while the boys go out and the next week we will trade. I am hoping that week 3 will give everyone a desire to pursue discipleship relationships that we call 2’s &3’s (this is where you meet with one or two Christians of the same sex to pray, discuss Scripture, confess sins, & pray for the lost.)

Week 4 will be a Missional OUT. This is where our group shows the love of Christ tangibly to Northeast El Paso. Our current mission is Teen Challenge a residential program that helps men and women struggling with substance abuse. Our goal is to show the love of Christ to both the staff and residents of Teen Challenge on a monthly basis. In addition to Teen Challenge our group also has connections to missionaries in the Philippines. This will allow our group the opportunity to unite around the mission of Christ both locally and globally.

As we explore this new format during the month of July our two apprentice leaders are taking more and more responsibility in leading the group (I love how the group doesn’t need us anymore!). Starting in the month of August our Paseo home will meet without Desiree and I on Week 1 & 2. This will allow us to make more connections and to start a second Paseo home. We will still meet with our Paseo home on Weeks 3 & 4. As we form a new Paseo home, the two homes will be separate on Weeks 1 & 2 but will come together on Weeks 3 & 4. My hope is to repeat this process several times with he end result of 3-5 Paseo homes in Northeast El Paso united in the mission of Christ.

I am pumped!

Nate

Practical Help for Paseo Home Leaders: Divine Truth

Hey Paseo Home leaders,

As you know it’s our goal for every Paseo home to hit the three areas that make a group of people a church:

Divine Truth: You encounter the one true God together.

Nurturing Relationships: You live life together in grace filled community.

Apostolic Mission: You seek to love your neighborhood with the same passion as the early church.

Today I would like to give you some help in the area of Divine Truth. One aspect of Divine Truth is encountering God in his word. Below you will see our current sermon series for the Sunday Gathering. We have titled this series 29. For the rest of the summer we are looking at how the story of the early church is really our story. We are the twenty ninth chapter of Acts! If you are a leader who is struggling with what to discuss in your Paseo homes I hope this will help. Your home can discuss the text before Greg & I preach it on Sunday or maybe your group would like to discuss it the following week after the sermon. This is completely optional, so you don’t have to use it. I just wanted to through it out there.

July 10
Saul’s Conversion
Acts Chapter 9

July 17
Cornelius’s Conversion
Acts Chapter 10

July 24th
Jerusalem Council
Acts Chapter 15

August 7th
Lydia
Acts 16:11-15

August 14th
Slave Girl
Acts 16:16-21

August 21st
The Jailer
Acts 16:22-40

August 28th
The Riot in Ephesus
Acts 19

If your group is struggling with the area of Divine Truth I would also like to remind you about the principles from the Tangible Kingdom. Pick a small section of scripture (a single idea, story, or concept) and ask the following questions…

What don’t you like about the passage?
What do you like about the passage?
What is confusing or hard to understand about this passage?
What does this passage say about the nature of God?
No matter where you are at on your spiritual journey, how can you apply this passage today?

I hope this helps,

Nate

Why your dream church doesn’t exist and your vision may be dangerous.

The following is a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I think it has something prophetic to say to consumer Christians who are always on the hunt for the perfect church experience. I think it also has something to say to church planters and wannabe church planters (like myself) that are seeking to build new communities.

“Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a wish dream. The serious Christian, set down for the first time in a Christian community is likely to bring with him a very definite idea of what Christian life together should be and to try to realize it. But God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves.

He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial.

God hates visionary dreaming; it makes the dreamer proud and pretentious. The man who fashions a visionary ideal of community demands that it be realizes by God, by others, and by himself. He enters the community of Christians with his demands, sets up his own law, and judges the brethren and God Himself accordingly. He stands adamant, a living reproach to all others in the circle of brethren. He acts as if he is the creator of the Christian community, as if his dream binds men together. When things do not go his way, he calls the effort a failure. When his ideal picture is destroyed, he sees the community going to smash. So he becomes, first an accuser of his brethren, then an accuser of God, and finally the despairing accuser of himself.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Assessment

Church planting assessment is a three day evaluation of a potential church planting couple. Our assessment took place at New Life Christian Church in Odessa, TX from June 1st – 3rd. Desiree and I were evaluated along with three other couples by the staff of Christian Church Starters (a church planting organization out of New Mexico), the staff of Nexus (a church planting organization out of Dallas), the staff of New Life, veteran planters, and the head of counseling for Dallas Christian College.

Our dream is to plant a network of missional communities. The goal is to move to Las Cruces with a team of 8-10 people (we call this a huddle) and live in one particular neighborhood. As we live in this neighborhood we will show the Gospel of Jesus to this neighborhood through tangible acts of love that fit the needs and culture of that neighborhood. As our community grows we hope to have 3-4 house churches (composed of 8-10 people) that gather together to form a larger missional community (25-50 people untied to show the love of Christ to a particular part of town or group of people). When we reach this point, three leaders from our original huddle will launch their own huddles with the goal of starting three new missional communities in different parts of town. In the end we hope to start a movement of small communities living on mission that gather together for a monthly or bi-monthly Sunday worship celebration.

The Results of Assessment: We blew them away!

Nate: They were impressed with my level of passion for people and our vision of what Church could be. They felt that my personality fits well with our vision since I am highly relational and love to work in a team setting. They were also impressed with my ability to raise my own salary for the past nine moths even though I have had no formal fundraising training.

Desiree: The Counselor told Desiree that he had never seen a woman score higher in leadership potential (we both had to take several personality tests). The entire assessment team agreed that Desiree had huge leadership potential that she has not tapped yet.

As a Couple: They said that together as a team we were one of the strongest couples they had assessed. As individuals they would have misgivings about us planting but as a married couple, we are a great team. They told us that in order to move forward in planting, Desiree and I need to be equal partners in this endeavor.

The homework: They have encouraged us to stay in El Paso at Paseo Christian Church for another year and work on three things…

1). Attend formal fundraising training.
2). Start working more as a team (we already do this, but they want us to develop this more).
3). Work on developing leaders. An L1 leader is someone who does everything themselves, L2 is someone who raises up people to come along side them, and an L3 leader is someone who trains new leaders and releases them. Right now we are L2 leaders, but for our model to work, we need to be L3 leaders. We need to develop the skills to train people and release them.

The Future: CCS & Nexus want to figure out a new missional model of church planting. They feel we are people who they can work with as they explore the future of church. They want us to start forming missional communities in El Paso right now. If after a year we still want to plant in Las Cruces they will be behind it, but they are encouraging us to expand our vision. They see El Paso and our ministry as a potential training/sending center to release people to plant missional communities all over the Southwest.

Ecuador!

I had the privilege of spending eight days in Ecuador installing water filters. We flew into Quaquil, the economic capital of Ecuador, boasting a population of 5-6 million people. We spent most of our time in El Recreo, which is a town of 50,000 people just outside Quaquil. The people of El Recreo live in simple houses constructed with concrete blocks that are stacked on top of each other three to four stories high. They have tap water, but it is untreated. Two of our team mates (both civil engineers) discovered that the government of Ecuador uses huge pumps to suck water up from the ground and is then put into the system without being treated. Because of this the people of El Recreo depend on purified water purchased from the store, but it is not really purified. Sometimes the water they buy is yellow, and one person told me he found a severed finger in the water.

Just outside El Recreo is “The Invasion” which is a swamp inhabited by people who are unable to purchase a house in El Recreo. Most of the houses are of bamboo construction and are built on stilts since the area often floods. The people of the invasion depend on the “purified” water since there is little infrastructure. We were able to bring 100 simple water filters and instal them for 100 different families. These filters are simple, last a life time, and filter 99% of all bacteria. (For more information visit givecleanwater.org) I have been on many missions trips, but this trip blew me away. Each demonstration and installation took only 20 minutes, and in that short time, I saw a family’s life change.

I was installing a water filter at the house of an older woman. After the demonstration we asked her if we could pray for her and her family. She told us the story of her five-month-old grandchild. One day the baby was fine and the next day the baby was stricken with dysentery and wasting away. The baby was at the hospital at the time. The people of Ecuador are surrounded by constant illness. If there is one thing they should be able to trust, it’s their water. They should be able to take a drink of water and know that it will help them and not hurt them. One hundred families can now trust their water.

I want to be carful to not give the wrong impression. We were not a group of optimistic gringos swooping in to save the day. Every step of the way we were working in partnership with a local church. This church was planted by a minister from Chile named Marcello. Marcello started by building a children’s ministry 10 years ago, and now those children are grown leaders of the church. They are looking for ways to engage their community through tangible acts of love. This church seeks to love its community free of charge and with no strings attached because this church loves Jesus. It was humbling to see these brothers and sisters naturally living out a form of Christianity that is so difficult for us in America to achieve. What we wish for and write books about, they live.

Up, In, & Out *

* The concept of Up, In, & Out comes from Mike Breen. To further explore this concept pick up Launching Missional Communities & The Passionate Life both by Breen.

Mark 1:29-35

“And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon’s mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them. That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” ESV

In six verses we see the rhythm of the life of Jesus.

In: Jesus builds a close knit community with his twelve disciples, their friends, & their families. In this verse we see Jesus serving his community by healing Simon’s mother-in-law and once she is healed she starts serving Jesus right back. This small community operated like a spiritual extended family where everyone served everyone. This is the rhythm of “In”.

Out: Once Jesus heals this member of his community he turns his attention to the rest of the town. It says the whole city was gathered at his door! Once you develop a small community where people find transformation you will then be presented with opportunities to show love to your whole neighborhood. This is the rhythm of “Out”. Building a community that doesn’t have a “Out” rhythm is like having a car with no gas. If you focus totally on community you may or may not succeed in building community. If you focus on mission you will always get community.

Up: What does Jesus do after all this community and all this mission? He recharges by connecting with his Father in heaven. We call this the rhythm of “Up”. Christ holds all things together and draws all things unto himself. Without a steady rhythm of connecting to the Father our man made attempts at community and mission will be just that, man made. If we focus on exalting the Father in the rhythm of “Up” the rhythm’s of “In” & “Out” will fall into place. Worship, Community, & Mission must all align.

I am enjoying the process and journey of practicing this rhythm in my own life. I am also enjoying the transformation process as our current house church enters into this rhythm. My dream is to plant new communities in Las Cruces New Mexico that live in the rhythm of In, Out, & Up just like Jesus.

Nate

What Church can be

I saw this video at Exponential. Two things really struck me at the time. One is how much this community reminded me of Paseo. The second is how the children were so involved within the life of the community. I don’t get really emotional at conferences but when I saw the little girl praying over that man with the rest of the Missional community I cried. Actually I am tearing up a little right now. I don’t want my kids to just learn about Christ and His Church. I want my kids to see Christ and His Church.

This is what Church can be and this is what it is becoming. God is doing amazing stuff in Tacoma, Atlanta, Chicago …… and I hope you see what He is doing in El Paso. I pray that God will also do amazing stuff in Las Cruces. Actually, I pray He does this everywhere.

Nate

What is a Missional Community?

A Missional Community (also called Clusters, Mid-Sized Communities, Mission Shaped Communities, MSCs) is a group of anything from 20 to 50 or more people who are united, through Christian community, around a common service and witness to a particular neighborhood or network of relationships. With a strong value on life together, the group has the expressed intention of seeing those they impact choose to start following Jesus, through this more flexible and locally incarnated expression of the church. The result will often be that the group will grow and ultimately multiply into further Missional Communities. Missional Communities are most often networked within a larger church community (often with many other Missional Communities). These mid-sized communities, led by laity, are “lightweight and low maintenance” and most often meet 3-4 times a month in their missional context.
Taken from Wikipedia

A great biblical example of a MC is Acts 9:36-43.

36 Now there was in Joppa a disciple named Tabitha, which, translated, means Dorcas. She was full of good works and acts of charity. 37 In those days she became ill and died, and when they had washed her, they laid her in an upper room. 38 Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him, urging him, “Please come to us without delay.” 39 So Peter rose and went with them. And when he arrived, they took him to the upper room. All the widows stood beside him weeping and showing tunics and other garments that Dorcas made while she was with them. 40 But Peter put them all outside, and knelt down and prayed; and turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. 41 And he gave her his hand and raised her up. Then calling the saints and widows, he presented her alive. 42 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed in the Lord. 43 And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.
ESV

The fruit of a person’s life is often exposed when that person dies. Here a disciple named Tabitha dies and her life is laid bare for all to see. Tabitha has formed a MC (a community of Christians united on a particular mission). Her MC revolves around showing the love of Christ to widows by providing for their practical needs. As this community gathers to mourn the lose of their leader I love how it includes “saints & widows”, both Christians & non Christians being served, both groups being equal participants in the community. What is the result of this MC? Peter shows up but more than that Christ shows up with the power of the Resurrection.

This is what a MC is all about. A group of Christians serving non Christians in a practical way so that everyone may experience the power of Christ and his Resurrection.