Smith Cohort (3)

In the video below, Dr. Kent Smith talks about the third practice, meeting together as a family of Jesus. His comments help us understand why house church is so much more than changing venues from a special “church” building to a home. It is, in fact, a “whole different animal”. Failure to understand this has resulted in some people becoming disillusioned with house church.

One of the goals of the Apprenticeship is to train followers of Jesus in how to meet in such a way that we take seriously the fact that Jesus is the Head of His church. He is no longer the “honored guest” in our gatherings. Rather, He is “the master of ceremonies”. He brings the agenda when we meet. This changes everything!

And, church becomes very simple. Listen to each other’s hearts. Listen to Jesus’ heart. Everything else flows from that.

So, watch the video below.

Comments/questions?

John

House2House Conference

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!

John

Kent Smith (4): Tools

What are some tools that can help people better understand and engage the vibrant community life we have been considering?

Let me suggest three:

· Keep reading—and engaging with—"Stories From the Revolution". With your help we’ll continue to work to make this blog a steady source of practical and encouraging interaction with the growing community of people on this journey. I find it really helpful to have Feedblitz send me every new post. You can do the same by signing up in the right hand column here (on the site).

· Read Centered, the ebook I wrote with some friends as a brief introduction to this vibrant life. You can now get it in either the Kindle or DNL format here: thecenteredlife.net.

· Explore the resources at: LK10Resources.com. We’ll continue to populate this site with great tools to help practitioners.



What if you feel called to join the Peace Bearers (ie, church planters) in bringing the Kingdom news to new pockets of people?

· Join LK10.com A community of practice for church planters. Connect with over 500 people from around the world who are actively exploring life on mission with God. Discover people from your area who are on a similar journey.

· Consider apprenticing with a community-of-faith-in-training. This could be informal with people in your city or region who are already on this journey. For some a great option is to consider formal training, such as the program I direct at Abilene Christian University leading to a master’s degree in missions or ministry.

These are amazing days. What is possible now has never been so before. But as always, in the midst of this, God is at work to form his Bride and to establish his Kingdom among all peoples. And we have been invited to join him—each of us uniquely—in this great mission.

As you think about our mission and what tools are available either through our community or others, what needs to be done better? What else do you think would be helpful?

Kent Smith (3): Conditions for Community Formation

What conditions are needed for vibrant families of Jesus to form? This is a big question—but a great place to look for answers is to notice what Jesus actually did and taught. Two factors he seemed to think were important are:

· People of Peace: God-prepared individuals and communities who are ready to receive the life of God. This just makes sense when you think about it. God initiates, God invites his Bride. No kidding—He will build His church. No kidding—apart from Him we can do nothing. When we go casting about for other options we are wasting time and effort.

· Kingdom Carriers, Peace Bearers: Little communities (especially pairs), who carry the vision, message, power and life of the Kingdom as they listen to and follow the King into his work.

This is what Jesus did. This is what he taught his disciples to do. And this was standard practice in life of the early church as vibrant (and flawed!) families of Jesus permeated the Roman Empire (see the map).

So—what do you think about this? In the final post in this series, I’ll suggest some tools that can help people wanting to better engage this life. For now, I’m wondering if these conditions seem as important/possible today as they did two millennia ago? Are there more important factors for multiplied, vibrant families of Jesus in our time?

Kent Smith (2): Distributed Divine Energy

So, just what is a vibrant family of Jesus? I’d say: a communion of people whose lifestyles are so centered in God that each person is discovering and revealing God’s unique grace through their life. The result of all these grace-gifts working together is that the whole community is a beautiful embodiment of the life of Jesus in that place. Sure enough—the body of Christ, God with skin on.

Essential to this understanding is the unique and vital role every person in the community plays in forming vibrant families of Jesus. To borrow Paul’s language,

“From Christ the whole body is joined and held together . . . by means of the distributed divine energy of every single growing part of the body working to build up his body in love.” (Eph. 4:16)

I suspect many Christians have grown jaded, deeply doubtful that this can actually happen. But rather than give up on God’s dream wouldn’t a more realistic step be to reconsider the conditions under which such communities might form?

Here we are reminded again: if we think Jesus is God, we have to believe he is smart. I don’t suppose we’re going to find a better grasp on how this all works than what he actually did and showed his disciples to do. Luke 10 illustrates this beautifully.

In our next post, I’ll explore a bit of what those conditions are. But for now, what do you think? Is God’s dream a pipe dream? Is such a community even possible on earth? Have you ever seen the church actually functioning as a vibrant family of Jesus over time?


(JW: This is such an amazing concept! I've looked for a picture to help us visualize it but without success. If you've got a good one, send it to me and I'll add it to this post.)

Kent Smith (1): Incarnations of God

From Kent Smith:

Key Question: What would it take to see a vibrant family of Jesus in close reach—culturally and geographically—of every person on the planet?

Why is this question key? Because it can focus our attention on what has God’s attention: a Bride who, in her many-splendored beauty, is made up of representatives of all the peoples—every tongue, tribe and nation. This Bride alone has the capacity to reveal the fullness of God’s multifaceted wisdom, and to share intimate communion with God now and through the ages of eternity.

For this to happen, incarnations of God—communities that reveal Jesus with skin on—must come near in every people group on earth. Vibrant families of Jesus must spring up everywhere.

So, exactly what are these vibrant families of Jesus? In our next post I’ll unpack that idea some. Meanwhile, what do you think? Is this key question really key? From your perspective, why or why not?

A man who encourages me

Over the next few days, I going to send out a four short posts by Dr. Kent Smith. These posts are designed to help us think deeply about this idea of church as "a vibrant family of Jesus". But, today I want to tell you why Kent encourages me.

He encourages me because he is doing deep thinking and writing about the nature of church. You see, this house church "thing" is not just another new program or gimmick or fad. Rather, it represents a fundamental paradigm shift with deep theological roots. And, Kent, is one of the foremost thinkers in this area. He is a seminary professor. See http://www.acu.edu/academics/gst/faculty/smith.html And, he leads the most effective graduate level training program for church planters that I know of. See http://www.acu.edu/academics/gst/documents/MRNADescription.pdf

But, more than all of that, Kent is a good friend. We connect every week on the phone and do SASHET together. We share our lives and pray together. So, I know that the things he writes about are not just theory for Kent. This is what he believes and what he lives.

So, take a close look at his posts over the next few days. Ask questions. Make comments. Jump in.

John