Forge Residency: Intensive Weekend #1

www.forgedallas.org

It's been a couple weeks since our first Intensive weekend with the Forge Residency. Our cohort met together with Lance Ford (Right Here Right Now: Everyday Mission for Everyday People, co-authored with Alan Hirsch), Brad Briscoe, blogger (http://missionalchurchnetwork.com/) and our cohort leader, Ryan Hairston (http://wakenministries.org). My husband, Shaun, and I were able to be there for most of the sessions and really felt encouraged and challenged by the session.


The greatest part is hearing real stories from people engaged in relationships with their neighbors, real people and the true challenges those relationships bring. I love seeing how the Holy Spirit is drawing people from being stuck inside the church walls to actively participating in the lives of everyone. 


Ideas I've been mulling over these past two weeks:


- The church is important. We should be sent as missionary people, both individually and collectively.
- Jesus spent 30 years listening before acting. Establish a posture of listening/relationships.


- 95% of churches are trying to reach 35-40% of the population (ouch!)

- The U.S. has some thorny ground (culture): individualism, consumerism and materialism. The thorns shut down our missional imagination. Every hear, "we can't do that"?

- Compartmentalized life. Everything is separate: home, church, work and friends. How do we bring those things together? Instead of being so stretched.

- Think redeem. Redeeming life around us (through the work of the Holy Spirit).

- Storing up riches in heaven -- in people. Now!

Sender - missio dei, sending nature of God

Sent Ones - everyone

Place - wherever we are

Purpose - kingdom, think redeemed - restoration of all creation

Love these thoughts below. Working it's way through my life right now.

Missional Rythmn

Reaching Up (Jesus one-on-one)

Reaching In (Jesus is the body)

Reaching Out (Jesus outside in the least of these)

Living in rhythm. Like a dance. Rhythm of rest, reflection and mission.

Weekly:

Bless 3 people (1 Christian, 1 non-Christian, 1 either)

Eat with 3 people 

Listen to the Holy Spirit 1 hr/week (be still)

Learn from the Gospels (or sit with Jesus)

Sentness (reflect: how did I respond/resist God today?)

As I think about how rhythm affects everything and how important it is I grab hold of these thoughts and put them into practice. These are not meant to be laws, holding you to the fire of guilt, but placing you at the feet of the cross every day in a posture of openness to whatever the Holy Spirit has ready for you that day/week. I am challenged and asking the Lord to renew my mind, my schedule and use it for his glory.

Halloween

Our neighborhood seems to love Halloween. Everyone is out trick-or-treating and talking with their neighbors. This is a rare experience in our neighborhood filled with back alleys, high fences and busy lives.

This Halloween we'll be having a grill out in our front yard. A step up from our 'spider cider' (apple cider in a crock pot) and candy fare we've served the last two years. We simply pulled our outdoor furniture from the back to the front yard for Halloween and actually got to know a couple of our neighbors.

We'll see how the grill out goes this year. Hamburgers, hot dogs and chicken for our non-beef eating neighbors will be on the menu. It'll be a fun evening. Looking forward to meeting more neighbors and actually getting to talk with them, instead of just handing out the cider.

It's tough to get to know neighbors. Do you know your neighbors?

Desiring Noise Again?

Sending a missionary couple (Apartment Community Advocates) into a new community is not an easy transition, especially if the community is in turmoil. With a number of evictions taking place over the past few months and other reasons - there is a lot of noise. Banging doors, yelling, police presence for a moment to check out the disturbances and other loud moments make for sleepless nights. It's noisy.

As I read too many books at once, The Shaping of Things to Come, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical, Generous Justice and, oh yeah -- the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) I struggle. Maybe that's a little too much at once. Maybe it's exactly what I need. Am I that complacent? Do I need that much ignition to get me out of my comfort zone and into the neighborhood?

I feel a tug. Not really sure what it means right now, but there's definitely an uncomfortable-ness to life recently. I don't feel as comfortable in my home, my car or doing anything else I normally do. Is something about to change?

As I move people from our congregation into new neighborhoods to be Jesus to the people around them, I question if I'm being Jesus to my neighbors. Do my neighbors even know us? Do I know them? So that's where we're starting. Getting to know your neighbors is really hard in Texas. There are a lot of fences here and busy lives. Those two things coupled together make for a really quiet neighborhood.

Makes me long for a little noise again. Children in the yards, people out and about, and more talking. Are we in the wrong neighborhood now? Eek. I can't believe I asked that question. It's a great place. Nice streets, lights in all the right places, a community pool, community playgrounds, gazebos and even a community exercise area. Why would I feel uncomfortable here and long for the noise again?

We used to live in downtown Dallas, off Swiss Avenue, while we were going to seminary. It was a little noisy with the grocery carts rolling past, the roosters who obviously escaped their fighting ring, people fighting in the street, helicopters shining their lights through the streets and the normal ambulance picking up another dying person from the nursing home. I miss the realness of life. That noise.

I had someone look at me seriously and say, "be careful what you ask for." I know that. This isn't something I'm asking for, it seem to be asking of me. So here we are, our little family - a mama, daddy, spunky toddler and one on the way - ready for more noise.

Refreshing Tension

What a weekend! Shaun and I were in Lancaster, PA for a family member's wedding. It was actually green there and cool. A huge shift from the Texas drought and wildfires. It was refreshing to say the least.

Time with family is refreshing. Usually. It can also be stressful at times. Our family has had it's ups and downs like most families. Even when there's frustrations though we love through it. I think about how loving people through the hard stuff makes for pretty intimate relationships. Something to remember when I want to bail from a tough time in the future.

Romans 5:3-4 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

As we flew from place to place this weekend and drove around, I was beginning my journey with the book, The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. This book is going to be a much deeper dive into the missional church. I had a few feelings of frustration with the introduction of the book labeled, read this bit first. It's the tension between the established church and the organic, break the mold, incarnational church. I enjoy both. I love both. I'm involved in both. That's a tough tension.

I feel the tension but yet agree at the same time with the statements about starting over to establish a truly missional community, but at the same time I'm a Mission Director at an established church working with a congregation to turn our eyes outward into our community and the world. I have hope for our church. I see the fruit of missional living in families homes, neighborhoods and the apartment communities we are sending missionaries into.

I have hope.

Why Forge?

Why would I sign up for the Forge Residency for the next 9 months?

Taken from the website:

Forge Mission Training Network, founded by Alan Hirsch, seeks to be a midwife to the missional church, helping give birth to the missional church anywhere it is appearing.

Forge brings together denominations, seminaries and faith communities of all kinds as it trains people to live on mission, lead missional communities and create missional movements.

After meeting with Ryan Hairston at Cafe Brazil (good conversations happen at Starbucks or Cafe Brazil) I was very intrigued into this process. A year and a half ago Michael Frost was the main speaker during the Dallas Seminary's World Evagelization Conference. I haven't even gotten through the whole week's worth of speaking, but just Day 1 rocked my world. I was brought to my knees thinking about the time wasted on the unnecessary and the people God cares about right outside the door. My heart was prepared to jump into the Forge Residency since March of 2010.

How could I not join into this amazing opportunity to read, learn and be challenged by a group of genuine people? We signed up and found ourselves met by an incredible group of residents and coaches last Saturday night. This is going to be a journey. As you read this can you take a moment and pray. 

We are now reading The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. It's said to be a foundational resource for missional movements. I read ahead as you may have seen on a previous post and finished The Tangible Kingdom. 

We're also tasked with getting back to basics and digging into the gospels. As I meditate on the beginning of John I feel locked in for an adventure I pray I'm prepared for. We've been warned that the enemy doesn't want to see God's children awaken to the realities around them and will try to get in the way. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 

- John 1:1-8

May I bear witness about the light.

The Tangible Kingdom

I'm finishing up the book The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay. Very interesting read - a fast read. It's caused me to spend time thinking about how bogged down we get in the structure of church. I appreciated that by the end of the book there were glimpses of hope for the established church. Spurring individuals to just start inside their church and not jump ship.

So often books like this cause more fleeing of the church and continued confusion among Christians vying for the next 'cool' thing. I appreciate the encouragement of those in churches to stick with it and ignite the passions of mission and incarnational living with their friends and fellow church members.

Yesterday I met with our Children's Director to discuss summer plans. We had an idea on the horizon for a Family Campout for the Spring, but it's now morphing into a Family Mission Camp (within 300 miles of the church). The whole purpose would be to spark the missional imagination in the family together. From the beginning to the end would be about service. I can see fun, creative ways to get families out of the box and serving alongside each other. Serving one another in the family, serving the others at camp and also serving in the local community as well. It would be a serving explosion!

How amazing would it be if these families would take their excitement for serving and model that in their neighborhoods and in the church? There would be a catalyst effect. It's a God-sized goal and I can't wait to see how it'll end up.

http://forgedallas.org/residency

Forge Dallas

Shaun and I have been praying about joining this residency program through Forge Dallas. We're applying. I'll be honest, it's a big step of faith. I'm already at 22 weeks in the pregnancy and going to have a new baby. Can I do this in the midst of growing our family?

Isn't it amazing when God calls you to do something, even when it seems impossible. Shaun and I are looking forward to hanging out with mission-minded people, learning from leaders and being challenged. We want to be challenged in our weaknesses and work with our strengths for God's glory.

The program is 9 months of intensive reading, weekly meetings with a coach and ongoing missional living, of course. I'm feeling called to do something in our neighborhood. It's been nagging at me since we moved into our house. Maybe a mommy get-together or progressive supper or game nights - whatever it morphs into I pray we will see the Lord glorified through laying down our whole lives to him.

Check out Forge Dallas for yourselves.

Interested in helping us reach our $3,000 goal? Email me: daughertybeth@gmail.com