Ten years ago, the Lord taught my friend, Kenny Moore, and me what we came to call "the leadership solution". That was the answer to this key question: where do you get the leaders for a church planting movement? What we knew was that, if you have the leaders, planting churches was not difficult. But where do the leaders come from?
We learned that the answer to that question is found in Luke 10:2. The needed leaders come from the Lord of the harvest. And, the part we play, as the Lord explained in that same verse, is to "Beseech the Him to thrust out workers into the harvest". The Lord further instructed us to begin to teach this concept at every opportunity. We found that whenever we did, people quickly "got" it and began teaching it to others. Soon, we began calling this "the 10:2b virus". (The whole 10:2b story is here: http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2010/09/102b-virus-1_23.html)
Some years later we taught this principle to Neil Cole who began to encourage people to set the alarm on their phones to go off at 10:02 am to remind them to pray this prayer. Now, Bob Logan, church planting expert, is passing on the 10:2b Virus through his blog below.
One year ago, I interviewed Maree Watson from Australia at the National House Church Conference. Maree shared how she found a "person of peace" who became her CO2 (church of two) partner. See the video below. Since that time, Maree has become a LK10 Coach and has just finished leading a Foundations Course (previously called The Apprenticeship) where she is teaching others become practitioners of CO2 rhythms. She also regularly prays the prayer in Lk 10:2b which, we believe, is our part in finding "people of peace". See below for a recent story where Maree was surprised to find an answer to her prayer right beside here in an Organic Market.
This is a photo of my new friends at the Organic Market where I have a stall on Sundays. After 18 months spending most Sunday mornings at my stall where I sell my shampoo and ask God to show me people of peace and pray for the harvest of mostly hippy, health conscience, new age types, my last Sunday before heading off on holidays was an overwhelming experience of PREVENIENCE. ("Prevenience" means "before" as in God is at work in each situation before we show up.)
To my great surprise my regular neighbour "the coffee tent" was not there but instead a group of harvest workers come to offer Jesus as an alternative to the fortune tellers ,tarot, and crystal ball readers. These guys were low key and covertly offering dream interpretation and spiritual encounters and healing. I witnessed some of the regular characters agreeing to be prayed for after being listened to and loved. God in action right in front of my eyes! I joined them in prayer and was blessed by a healing word from the Lord. The leader thanked me for preparing the way for them and for ushering them in, I felt like I was passing on a baton for the next season.
I know now first hand the power of praying LK102b. Oh yeah, Mark, the smiley Man in the photo, wondered if I knew of any courses that were good for establishing small groups, the Lord has told him to prepare for a big harvest in his area!!! Just so happens I do. Praise God!
The fourth of seven practices that the LK10 Community is committed to is obedience to Jesus' command in Lk 10:2 to "beseech the Lord of the harvest to send forth workers". Jim and Cathy Mellon (as well as many others) have been praying this prayer for the Killeen area of Texas. See http://storiesfromtherevolution.blogspot.com/2010/09/102b-virus-1.html
So, what does it look like when the Lord of the harvest answers that prayer? See the video below for Wade Adams' (thank you, Wade!) interview with Roger Russell. Here are some of the things that jump out at me...
1. Roger is an experienced, mature "worker". (Sometimes we ask that God would send us people who are "fully formed".)
2. Roger has undergone a "radical personal transformation" from "strategic planning" to listening to God.
3. Roger is clear that God has called him to central Texas to plant churches. He has a vision for that region and then the whole country and the world.
What jumps out at you in the interview?
Note: Roger and Wade and Jim are part of an MRT (an apostolic team) that meets at a Starbucks every week to listen for God's instructions re church planting in their part of Texas.
Dean Cross is the Battalion Chief of the Folsom (CA) Fire Department and a member of Tim Pynes' cohort in our LK10 Apprenticeship. Dean reported this wonderful CO2 story last week on the cohort discussion board.
John
Yesterday, My new CO2 partner Daniel and I had an amazing few hours together. Daniel came to my place of work and road along with me as he also is looking into a fire service carreer. We many time respond to animal and pest concerns if the incident is immediately hazardous. A woman called into the business line and was getting attacked by wasps at her front door. Normally, being the Battalion Chief, I usually assign these types of calls to an engine crew, yet I now know it was the Lord that was telling me to go take care of this problem myself.
The resident ends up being a very prophetic prayerful sister in the Lord in her 70s that I knew years ago from a church we attended. So she invites us in and I begins telling both Daniel and I amazing stories on hearing God's voice and His going before us to battle. I felt the Lord nudge me to have her pray for Daniel and I in this new partnership of CO2 and we all felt the Spirit of God rush over us as she prayed the most amazing prayer for me and Daniel that I have ever heard. She ended the prayer by quoting Matthew 28: 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
I have experienced this twice this week and it is like I hear God saying, there is power when two or three are coming before His throne praying for each other and for God's heart and passion to know us intimately. I just wanted to share this mountain top experience with all of you and yes we did take care of her wasp problem without getting stung. I believe God used this to bring us all together in the first place. She also agreed to continue to pray for us in this area of Luke 10:2b. She knew the passage before I could even tell her what it said. Nice knowing there are older and wiser saints out there being prayer warriors for us.
Here's the story of how the 10:2b virus got started. (Of course, it really got started with Jesus a long time ago. But, this is the story of how two simple guys rediscovered this simple concept.)
It was October 2, 2002. My friend Kenny Moore and I were having breakfast. (At the time, Kenny was the Director of Church Planting for the Southern Baptists in Colorado.) We were discussing saturation church planting in Colorado. That is, what would it take to see a vibrant family of Jesus (ie, a church) within easy reach of every person, culturally and geographically, in the state of Colorado.
We had both been around long enough that we were pretty burned out with the typical programs or campaigns that Christians come up with to "fulfill the Great Commission". We found ourselves drawn to Luke 10. What would happen, we wondered, if we were to take seriously Jesus' instructions in the second half of verse two to "beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into the harvest"? How different that seemed from the usual man made strategies! Being great men of faith (!), we decided to give this a try for seven days. We agreed that we would pray this prayer for Colorado with each other on the phone every day for a week.
Well, that small step was the beginning of Kenny and me praying that prayer almost every day for six years. During that time, we saw many answers and learned many lessons from the Holy Spirit. (Who knew there was so much to learn about a half a verse!) One insight was that "beseech" was an imperative verb (ie, a command) and that this was something that Jesus wanted all of his followers to do. We began teaching people about this command. (We called this "infecting them with the 10:2b virus".)
The Luke Ten Community is defined by seven core practices. Anyone who is seeking to live out these practices qualifies to be part of this Community. These practices are spelled out in The LK10 Invitation which you can read here: http://lk10.com/media/lk10_visionpaper_2_0.pdf
Here's Practice #4: Praying Lk 10:2b
In LK. 10:2, Jesus made a startling statement. In front of Him were 84 (12 + 72) church planters (“sent ones”, apostles). That sounds like a lot to us, but His evaluation was that it was only a “few”. Apparently, He saw the need for many more. And, in addition to identifying that need, He gave the solution. He commanded them to engage in the practice of “beseeching the Lord of the Harvest for more workers”. In this context, workers are both people of peace and more church planters.
We engage this practice with our CO2 partner (as well as others) for the region we are called to as close to daily as possible. This relentless widow lady in LK. 18 is our model for this kind of tenacious praying.
Key quote: “The 10:2b Prayer is the leadership solution.” -Kenny Moore
In the video below, Jim Mellon tells of some amazing answers to this prayer. Notice the wide variety of harvest workers that the Lord of the harvest has sent to Jim and Kathy. Notice also how naturally mission flows from this kind of praying.
Over the next few days, I'll be sharing an interview with Jim and Kathy Mellon who are church planters in Killeen, TX. For several years they have been faithfully praying the prayer that Jesus instructed His followers to pray in Luke 10:2b...
Beseech the Lord of the Harvest to thrust out laborers into the harvest.
In addition to the video below which is the first part of my interview with Jim and Kathy, I just received the following email from Jim. As you read what Jim wrote and watch the videos over the next few days, I want you to pay attention to the idea that "God does the heavy lifting". That is, that mission isn't something we strain to do. ("We must be more missional!") Rather, it's something that flows almost effortlessly from prayer.
John
Email from Jim...
I am excited that we had 5 unbelievers at our HC meeting yesterday. The guy who hosted this particular meeting is a recently retired army Sargent [3 tours in Iraq and a Bronze star]. He had a poker game at his house Saturday night and invited the guys to church at his house Sunday morning. One guy brought his wife and was pretty quiet. One guy confessed that "He is the worse sinner in the room because he use to know the Lord and has been backslid for years" He rededicated his life in front of everyone and wants to be mentored. Another young solder shared that he has had a pulling towards God recently and couldn't believe he was sitting in a church meeting. The last guy sat in the kitchen while the meeting was going on. I sat with him as we had coffee and he shared that he was having trouble integrating after his recent return from Iraq. The whole group spent the afternoon eating and watching football. I look forward to what the Lord will do with this group of soldiers.
At this moment I'm in Dallas for the House2House National Conference. I had the privilege of facilitating the main session yesterday (Saturday) morning. Our goal was to illustrate what leadership looks like when we really take seriously the idea that Jesus is the leader. I shared with the conference this thought provoking quote from Kent Smith. "What does it mean to be a leader in a kingdom when you are not the king?" Then, we brought the whole Board of H2H Ministries up front as a panel to talk about how this worked out at our Board retreat back in March. I think it was a great picture of what this new leadership paradigm looks like.
I've also been interviewing people who are living out our LK10 Practices. Jim and Cathy Mellon (Killeen, TX) have some amazing 10:2b stories. Marie in Australia shared how CO2 has transformed her relationship with the Lord. Richard and Peg (soon to be) Hijar (Albuquerque, NM) talk about why they have joined the Apprenticeship. (And, Peg did a great job of leading two breakout sessions on women in leadership.) I'll get some more video this morning. I'll be sharing those video interviews with you in the weeks to come on this blog.
This afternoon I drive with Kent and Karen Smith to Abilene for a retreat with Kent's graduate students. These folks will form one of the three cohorts in the Apprenticeship this fall so I'm really looking forward to our next day together!
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.
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.
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.
