No Lone Rangers in Mission

One of my all time favorite authors is Frederick Buechner. In his book, “A Room Called Remember” he says this:

“We are all such escape artists, you and I. We don’t like to get too serious about things, especially about ourselves. When we are with other people, we are apt to talk about almost anything under the sun except for what really matters to us, except for our own lives, except for what is going on inside our own skins. We pass the time of day. We chatter. We hold each other at bay, keep our distance from each other even when God knows it is precisely each other we desperately need.”

One of our strategic initiatives at Forge America is “Connect”. We want our movement of missionally minded women and men to be connected to their teams, their contexts, resources, and other like-minded movements. This is no small task, especially when we are apt to “hold each other at bay”.  Mission is no place for lone-rangers. The task is hard enough and the stakes are far too high to go about this thing alone. 

The actual definition of tribe is “a group of persons having a common character, occupation or interest.” Our common character is the Missio Dei, the Mission of God. Our hope is that Forge is connecting with people who believe in the Mission of God and are living as sent people. 

In my context here in Knoxville, this desire to connect has brought us to great relationships and friendships in the city. One example would be our friend Kevin Dubose. Kevin was a city planner here in Knoxville for two different mayors. Now, Kevin is the Community Development coordinator for a large inner city youth and sports ministry called Emerald Youth Foundation. Early in our Forge journey, our paths crossed and we quickly realized we had the same heart for the city.

Currently Kevin is on our Forge Knoxville team and has placed us in strategic relationships with people all over the city. Kevin also pours into our Forge residents through coaching and by leading an intensive that gives our residents a tour of the city that helps them understand the history and brokenness of our scruffy little town. 

Connecting is a key strategy for furthering the missional and incarnational movement that Forge wants to be about. We desperately need movements to connect with other movements in our contexts. But, more importantly, we need to connect with each other to keep this movement going. 

- Alan Bradford, Forge Knoxville

Four Hats, One Mission

After twenty-two years of pastoral ministry in larger church contexts, my wife and I decided to follow the missional calling that God had put within our hearts, and already being experienced in our daily lives. Church ministry was good but looked very different than the ministry in our everyday lives. Weekly worship planning, teaching and bible studies seemed very different than the ministry we had with the homeless teens or single moms living in our spare room. What was happening at the church building or in the Bible study was packed with good teaching about the Kingdom, but what was playing out in our relationships outside of church was packed with what FELT like the Kingdom. This way of living for Jesus, combined with many years of reading Hirsch, Frost, Newbigin, and others, led us to decide to resign my position as an Executive Team member and Worship Pastor at a large multisite church and seek Jesus in a purer missional way.

We engaged a process of asking what ways we could join God outside of just the Sunday morning gathering. Questions and prayer started about moving to China, a country we have visited multiple times and have a love for. We discussed and even talked with other leaders about planting a different kind of church in a traditional manner. Ultimately, my studies around “third place environments”, readings from missional leaders, and love for coffee, led us to engage a missional business model in partnership with a church plant.

Two years ago we embarked on the journey of launching Third Space Coffee in Colorado Springs, Colorado as a for-profit coffee shop and event venue. Our vision has been to create a place of intersection that builds community in the North Colorado Springs area. In combination with Third Space, we planted, along with a leadership team, Ecclesia Colorado Springs which meets in the coffee shop on Saturday nights. While Third Space is not advertised as a “Christian” café, EcclesiaCOS meets as a missional community in the space and invites anyone wishing to know more about Jesus and Christian faith. Most of Ecclesia’s meetings revolve around “the table”, food, discussions about scripture and missional practice, the Lord’s Table, and prayer.

Ironically, as we were launching this new missional journey, two other missional opportunities came into view. Through common friends, I became connected to Forge America and recently launched a Forge Hub in Colorado Springs. While this launch was being discussed, I also became involved with a larger church in Colorado Springs that made the decision to embrace growing the Kingdom by launching micro-communities and expressions, rather than building a larger campus, and recently hired me as the Pastor of Missional Culture at Pulpit Rock Church in Colorado Springs to spearhead these efforts.

These four hats, while seemingly a lot, work in synergy with God's mission to love the city and announce Jesus to our community. I’m amazed today at what God has brought to me and how it fits so well with my design and calling to the Kingdom. I often think that I would never have gotten to this place had I not released a comfortable position in the church I was on staff at before. I wake up every day excited and amazed that I get to experience the missional conversation as a practitioner in a small faith community, large faith community, missional business, and as a Forge Hub Director.

- Rowland Smith, Forge Colorado Springs

Dynamic Adventure One-Day Trainings

What We Know Matters Very Little If We Cannot Put It Into Practice. Let "Dynamic Adventure" Help Get You Started.

My name is Jack Wolfe and I lead Forge Atlanta Hub where we focus primarily on church planting. I also serve Communitas (a Forge partner) as Southeast Regional Director of the North American Advancement Team.  My wife, Stephanie, and I have been pioneering ministries for over thirty years. Now, we are empowering people to follow the passion in their hearts to “do church” in whatever missional way is organic to their context.

I’m excited to announce that I’m using a great resource “Dynamic Adventure” to offer a quick-start format to deliver this material.  Curated out of 50 years of ministry in Europe, it is endorsed by our good friend Alan Hirsch who states,

“I love what my sisters and brothers at Communitas International are doing to train and develop church planters and missionaries in the incarnational mode. The material articulated here has been worked out through decades of experience in the white-hot context of mission in the toughest places in Western Culture. We do well to pay attention and learn from them.”

The 6 Dynamics: Embed, Initiate, Practice, Mature, Hub, Extend.

Each one-day session will cover these 6 unique dynamics and will be applicable for ministry teams, church planting teams, as well as ministry leaders. This is conversational material filled with over 50 practical exercises to help you explore the 6 Dynamics and learn to apply the results to your unique context. 

I am offering a one day 6-hour workshop experience that will introduce these 6 Dynamics - allowing you to see how Dynamic Adventure helps get you beyond the conversations, to application and then…to the traction you desire to see in your own ministry.

To Bring This One-Day Training To Your City, We Need:

1. A host church or site

2. A small team to facilitate an event up to 90 people

Cost for the day is $39 per head. If you can secure underwriting to make it more affordable, we encourage that as we don’t want anyone left out because of money.

This is not a workshop that is filled with slogans for your office wall, but tactical ideas that make your dreams visible. If you would like to host a 6-hour “Dynamic Adventure” in your city, simply contact me at jwolfe@gocommunitas.org.

Intersecting Cultures

It’s a very unique feeling for me to live in an area where many or maybe even most of the people weren’t born in the United States. My husband Matt and I live in Valley Ranch, which is a community in the northern part of Irving, Texas. The population here is very diverse, though a very large portion of the area identifies as Muslim or Hindu. If we’re not careful, we could easily finding ourselves merely living as parallel cultures instead of them naturally intersecting.

We have both been going to our church for about eleven years, and a few years ago, I found myself feeling a disconnect between what the Bible said we should be doing and how I was living. We have always been very involved in our church, but somehow it all felt so empty. We heard about Forge Dallas and went through the residency in January of 2015. The thing I loved the most about Forge is that it equips you to be a missionary where you are rather than everyone’s fear of needing to move somewhere less comfortable.

Thankfully, we have never felt the need to switch churches or neighborhoods. Because we know that many of the people in our neighborhood aren’t likely to go to our church, we decided to shift a lot of our volunteering from being inside the church walls to out in our community. At first it felt odd and even lonely to be pioneers without the safety net of our church planning all of our events, but we’ve been able to build some beautiful relationships as a result of being out and among our neighbors.

We are very deliberate with our interactions with others and with our routines: we try to stay close to home with our errands and our play, and we go to the events that the community association already has planned. We have taken time to understand cultural differences, and it has been so beautiful getting to have friendly chats with other parents at the playground and cashiers at our grocery store.

I love that we haven’t really had to make many changes to our lives and our routine; we just needed to open our eyes and get to know the people we see every day. God has made us more aware of the people in our area and see that we’re more alike than we are different: we’re all in need of a Savior, and I look forward to even more everyday opportunities to share our hope in Christ.

-Summer Cromartie, Forge Dallas

"Next Door As It Is In Heaven" One-Day Workshops

Your church already has what it takes to bring God's goodness to your city.

How would you respond if the mayor of your city said to you what she said to a group of pastors in her city: “From the city’s perspective, there isn’t a noticeable difference in how Christians and non-Christians neighbor in our community.” 

How would you respond if the Chief of Police of your city said this to you: "For 80% of the calls we receive, people do not need a uniformed officer, they need a neighbor."

Is the greatest opportunity to impact your community sitting on the sidelines?

The members of your church are doing life everyday in the harvest field. Help them see the opportunities and resources already at their disposal. Join us for a fun but productive day of interactive training for your church staff, small group leaders, lead teachers, or any everyday believer for in-depth learning in the what, why, and how's of developing a neighboring culture. 

Bring a group to a Next Door As It Is In Heaven workshop. You and your friends will be inspired and trained to impact the places of your life with the good news and good works of the Kingdom of Heaven.

• Awaken Imagination—Mix "I can do that!" stories and examples, along with proven principles and practices, and your folks will open their lives up like never before. 

• Recognize Opportunities—Learning to align our lives with God's purposes will help your church see and act upon possibilities in new and creative ways.

• Everyone Plays—As your church members engage the places they live, work, and play, your team has increased exponentially and so has your reach.

Discover how easy it is to ignite a vision and passion in your church members for your city.

If you would like to host a 6-hour Next Door As It Is In Heaven workshop in your city contact Lance Ford at svlance@gmail.com.  All we need is: 1) a host church or site, 2) a small team to facilitate an event up to 90 people.  Forge will set up a registration site and link so everything else is taken care of.  Cost for the day is $39 per head.  If you can secure underwriting to make it more affordable we encourage that as we don’t want anyone left outside because of money.

Turning Food Into Love

Every Sunday afternoon, a team of Forge Hollywood residents take to Hollywood Boulevard and share meal with the local homeless community living in tents along the 101 Freeway.  The sight of a team handing out food to locals living on the street is not necessarily unique in Hollywood. Many feel a burden to care for the chronically and situationally homeless in Los Angeles and are well aware that the most recent citywide count revealed a 23% increase in homeless residents over the past 12 months.  What is unique, is to see a team of people taking food orders, cooking alongside the homeless and then sharing the meal together over a long folding table right on the boulevard sidewalk.  It is a scene right out of Heaven itself; rich and poor, successful and downtrodden, all sharing their laughter and lives together in the intimate communion of a common meal.

The story begins, oddly enough, with a man who was formerly homeless himself and the hope he found in the power of grapefruit. 

At his lowest point, Jason Brown was 100 pounds overweight, unemployed, and living out of his car around the side streets of Hollywood.  His first steady job in months came when a security guard company hired him to work the lobby of the historic Pacific Theater in the heart of Hollywood on Sundays while a church met in that space.  As Jason connected with the church community of Ecclesia Hollywood, he began to rediscover his childhood faith.  A desire for health and transformation was reborn within him.  The job led to a steady paycheck, the paycheck to a new apartment and eventually Jason was trying to lose the weight he had gained amidst his depression and dislocation.  A friend suggested he begin eating grapefruits as a healthy snack to increase his metabolism. 

Jason the "Grapefruit Guy"

Within weeks Jason became known as the “Grapefruit Guy” carrying one with him wherever he went. As Jason’s physical habits became healthier, he also re-centered his life around Jesus and that change bore fruits of its own. Jason wanted to find a way to offer the love and hope of Jesus to those still on the streets of Hollywood.  Since Jason’s radical changes were so tied to healthy eating and a renewed commitment to Christ, he thought it appropriate to use food as a way to build relationships.  Armed with a brown bag of grapefruits, Jason began walking the streets after his shifts as a security guard offering the fruit and trying to make new friends. To his church friends, he jokingly called his crusade, “The Grapefruit Gospel.” Much to Jason’s dismay, he learned quickly that grapefruits were not necessarily everyone, or anyone, else’s favorite fruit.

A friend who was in the midst of the inaugural Forge Hollywood residency program, invited Jason to join her at one of the weekend intensives.  There, Alan and Deb Hirsch shared about how missionaries can't assume what people need but rather must take time to listen and learn  what good news is for the people to whom we are sent.  At a follow up lunch with Hub Director, Jon Ritner, Jason was challenged to think through how to contextualize the gift of grapefruit into something that would be good news for other homeless who were rejecting his offer. 

The next week, Jason took back to the streets with his grapefruit.  But rather than passing them out, he used it as a way of sharing his love for healthy, comfort food and asking a new question, “What is your favorite comfort food from childhood that always reminds you of home?”  People lit up sharing about their mother’s chicken pot pie, or their abuela’s cheese enchiladas.  Then without much warning, Jason asked them if he could prepare that meal for them and bring it back next week to eat together? 

In Jason’s own words “I seek to reconnect an identity that may have been lost through living on the streets by evoking good memories of times past and the love they received from someone they cared about via a comfort meal.  We serve those on the streets for no other reason than for who they are in God's image, to remind them that they are loved, and that they are not forgotten. We turn food into love.”

Today, Jason himself is a resident in a Forge Hollywood cohort and is deepening his theological understanding of just how Christ-like his missional incarnational approach to sharing the gospel really is. He has recruited 2 other Forge Tribe members to join him and together they serve as the Grapefruit Gospel core team that leads volunteers each Sunday afternoon out to break bread with new and old friends.  The team now invites the individual who set the meal’s menu to join the team in shopping for ingredients and helping prepare the meal alongside them, adding even more relational interaction and dignity to the experience.

The weekly meal has led to new jobs for some residents, placement in local housing assistance programs, and deep discussions about the how they see God working in their lives amidst the struggles of their situations.  Volunteers often stop by the encampment on their own during the week to check in with their new friends and drop off a pair of boots a young man needs for a job interview or a used bike to help another get to their new job site.

As for Jason, he now serves as the Safety and Security Manager at WET Designs, the premier designer of epic, outdoor commercial fountains like the one at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.  He initiated a volunteer program at WET and often brings colleagues who are not yet followers of Jesus with him to serve on Sundays.  This Thanksgiving, Jason coordinated an effort to distribute 300 meals donated by In ‘N Out Burgers to those living on the streets of Hollywood.  But in typical healthy living fashion, Jason worked with a local food bank to supplement the burgers and cokes with healthy side dishes.  He also serves as Ecclesia’s coordinator for the annual Winter Refuge, a six week winter shelter in which local churches cook and share 2 meals a day with  it’s 30-50 residents.

If you are ever passing through Hollywood by on a Sunday afternoon and see a community sitting together on the sidewalk sharing a meal together, stop and say Hello to Jason.  You can’t miss him, he still carries a grapefruit with him wherever he goes.

Purgatory Sessions: Church Caught between Heaven and Hell

Hi Friends, today I’m (Hugh Halter) announcing a 2018 “Purgatory Sessions… Church Caught between Heaven and Hell."

As many of you know I’ve been on the road the last 15 years speaking and training on the missional nature of God and the church.  To date, I’ve clocked 1.8 million air miles, worked with 60 denominations at the top leadership level, and have watched personally hundreds of churches ‘try’ the missional thing…whatever that is.

I’m often asked if the missional conversation is over? I’ve seen countless pastors, planters and denominational leaders, who with full heart, run strong into the headwinds of consumeristic, non-missional church, but are now shrinking back to same ol’ blown out wineskin, because they’ve run out of steam or run into a brick wall.  

The Missional Conversation is NOT over but I do believe God is over our conversation.  He’s over us talking about it and not doing it.  I  believe we are at a crossroads and the faithful missional church will move into the future. I’m seeing amazing, inspiring stories of people persevering and  I hope to have a day together with leaders  who are ready to get to the second quarter of missional.  The part where it takes, and works, and yields fruit.

We serve a Missionary God who never changes and who is always at work and so we know there is a future for The Church.  So lets talk about it and get on to doing it.

If you would like to host a 6-hour “Purgatory Session” in your city simply contact me at hughhalter@gmail.com.  All we need is a 1) host church or site, 2)  a small team to facilitate an event up to 90 people.  Forge will set up a registration site and link so everything else is taken care of. Cost for the day is $39 per head. If you can secure underwriting to make it more affordable we encourage that as we don’t want anyone left outside because of money.

Each one-day session will cover these topics and will be applicable for pastors, church planters, denominational leaders and key lay leaders.

*Look Into the Future.  7 FOR SURE’s that you must adjust ministry around

*Best Practices. Unearthing the best church stories I’ve seen to date

*Dead Bones. The Structure of mission.  Family Tree vs. Old Boys Club

*The Art of Suffering…Leaders living above cynicism.

*The New Mammon: Money in a pure mission field

*The Discipleship Myth: Defining it & Doing it

The Purgatory Sessions are sponsored by Forge America

Supporting the Movement

For those of you new to Forge America, we as an organization, long to see the reign of God revealed in the everyday places of life. We hope for justice, love, beauty, reconciliation, celebration, hospitality and all things that reflect the reign of God to be fully revealed.  For these things to happen, we must empower and equip the everyday people of God to join Him in His redemptive mission right where they live, work, and play. For this reason, we train men and women locally and contextually (through what we call Forge Hubs) to think and act like one who is on mission, a missionary, in the places they have already been sent. As a result, communities, neighborhoods, workplaces, urban centers, schools, youth sport teams, and other places we frequent will begin to resemble the Kingdom of God and those who may not ever walk through the doors of a church building will be able to smell fragrances of the Kingdom and Jesus, the King.

Here in the Unites States, we have been at this work now for about seven years. In this time we have heard and seen many stories of life change, community transformation, missional communities formed, churches renewed, new initiatives started all as a result of God’s grace and the efforts of Forge. In fact, this spring we are publishing a magazine of stories of everyday people who have been impacted by Forge. We cannot wait to share this resource with you. We believe it will be stories like these, the stories of everyday people courageously joining Jesus that will inspire others to do the same and it will catalyze a movement.

As we look to 2018 we not only want to continue in our current endeavors but we hope to train and equip more men and women who inhabit neighborhoods and networks all across this country. We desperately long for more people to catch a glimpse of the Kingdom and the love of the King. However, we cannot do this apart from the prayers, encouragement, and financial support of others. We need you.

As we come to the end of 2017 and look towards the future, would you prayerfully consider making a regular monthly gift or a year-end gift to Forge America? 

You can send you tax-deductible contributions to:

Forge America

PO Box 708

Frisco, TX 75034

Or visit: http://www.forgeamerica.com/get-involved

(you may use PayPal / Credit / Debit)

You can also set up your giving through your personal online banking account.

We thank you in advance for your consideration and generosity. We love each of you and look forward to all God has in store for us in the months and years ahead!

Blessings to you and your family!

The  Forge America Team

Leading With Your Life

It’s commonly understood that an extreme situation can call forth either cowardice or heroism from the very people you would least expect it. There’s nothing like a good crisis to reveal the character of the soul or an organization. When one is leading because one’s life, and the lives of others, depends on it, then perhaps the best qualities of leadership shine through. This is particularly true when it comes to the issue of leadership and leadership development—strategic areas of focus for the missional church.

Clearly, leading in a life-or-death situation is different from managing in more routine, or even in crisis, circumstances. US Marine Colonel Thomas Kolditz did a unique, long-term study on the nature of leadership in precisely such conditions. In spite of the extreme nature of the research, we believe that his findings on what he calls in extremis leaders has clear relevance for those of us who are involved in leading the church through times of massive upheaval and change. His insights are important affirmations as we factor adventure and liminality in the equation of leadership in the church. They include among others, that

• In extremis leaders are inherently motivated because of the danger of the situations in which they’re working; therefore, leaders don’t need to use conventional motivational methods or cheerleading. ...

• In extremis leaders embrace continuous learning, typically because they and their followers need to rapidly scan their environments to determine the level of threat and danger they’re facing. . . .

• In extremis leaders share the risk their followers face. This isn’t just grandstanding; leaders truly share—and even take on greater— risks in in extremis situations. Leaders in other environments should keep this in mind: don’t ask your followers to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself.

• In extremis leaders share a common lifestyle with their followers. . . . all leaders should consider how much they truly have in common with the rest of their organization. [For instance, the issue of highly unequal pay scales does say something about the nature of leadership.] . . .

• Dangerous situations demand a high level of mutual trust. In extremis leaders trust their team, and they themselves can be trusted. And even if someone’s life isn’t at stake in an organization, his or her livelihood may be, so do everything you can to be trustworthy and to trust your team to do what [they are chosen] to do.

• High-risk environments demand mutual loyalty between leader and followers. . . . Leaders should do everything they can to foster a culture of mutual loyalty.

Extrapolating from this, we can say that in situations when our lives (or organizations or careers) are at risk, general principles from standard management practice need to be sharpened and their relative degree of importance modified. First, for Kolditz, the most crucial factor for the in extremis leader is to concentrate on the external environment and learn from it what action to take, rather than focus on motivating his/her team. 

From Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost, The Faith of Leap (Baker) 41. 

The Valuable Commodity of Time

We live in a fast world. Everything has become streamlined and works towards ultimate efficiency so that not a moment of our precious time is wasted. Thoughtful meal preparation has turned into fast food. Using long conversations and words as means to acquire the answer to a curious question is a dying art, killed by the ease of the touch of a button. Transportation, communication, and technology circulates in constant motion around us at all times. And with this efficiency, this saving of time, we seize the opportunity to squeeze, push, and stuff more and more into 24 hours until it spills over and out. 

I find more often than not when someone asks me, "How are you?", I respond with something to the tune of, "I am good, just really, really busy. We're just in a really busy season right now." I name it as a "season", bringing with that statement the idea that it will pass, that it will somehow transition into something else. But it never does. In fact, I can't think of any time in the past several years that I wouldn't label as "busy". 

As I look around and see the growing noise and speed of our modern lives, this thought hits me: Time is beginning to be one of the most valuable commodities we have. To invest your time in someone or something is a very precious thing. Time is something you can never get back, once you've given it away, it's gone. As I have realized this more deeply, it's lead me to towards two realizations that have much to do with the missional conversation and what it means to engage those in your context. 

1. Investing Time in People is Imperative to Missional Engagement

Amidst this rapid pace that our world operates at, among this swirl of humans passing each other on sidewalks and freeways and supermarkets, it's rare to find someone who is willing to spend their time on you. Just you. Because they find value in who you are as a person. It's so rare in fact, that it often causes people to stop in their tracks, it incites curiosity and questions. Why did they take time to look me in the eyes? Why did they ask about my life and sit and listen, like they really cared? Why are they willing to stop the motion of their own schedule, their own plans, attending to their own needs and just be in this moment with me? It's often the first step in showing people a different kind of love, the love of God. 

People are so used to others being "too busy". We've all become accustomed to being surrounded by a society drugged by the effects of being on this speeding train that is life. So when someone dares to step off for just a moment, to be still while the world whizzes past in a blur, it is a meaningful and powerful occurrence. I believe that investing the commodity of your time is even more valuable than your money. When you chose to spend time with someone - unhurried, quality time - it changes everything. You will find honest connection. You will see people willing to share their story, willing to go past that surface level, willing to contemplate the deeper questions of life and meaning. 

1. Don't Wait for Free Time

I have learned that in order to say yes to something, you also have to say no to something else. If you feel a pulling inside as you read this, a tugging desire to invest more of your time in your context, you're going to have to say no. In this world, free time never spontaneously shows up. You have to make it, you have to fight for it. If you feel that prodding in your soul to start investing more time in your context, it's time to take a hard look at what you're spending your time on currently and it's time to set some boundaries and say no to a few things. For some people, that's simply reducing all the tiny, needless time wasters like mindless social media, television, and constantly keeping up with the current events of the world when you don't even know the current events of your neighborhood. For others, it means stepping back from being involved in things that are good, even worthy, time investments - but simply not where you are supposed to give your time. Things in this category can range from church duties, to programs and causes that keep you busy but also keep you from actually investing in people. Investing time in people, where your eyes meet, you breathe the same air, you sit in close proximity, you share food and drink... That moves far beyond just giving time to a program or cause. 

Who is someone you care about? Who is someone you feel sent to? Have you made a consistent investment of your time to them? Truly giving your time to someone or something you care about requires you to slow the motion of your own life. It requires you to hold this moment and the next and the next, without trying to get anything out of it. No pushing conversation towards a destination, no watching the clock, no allowing your mind to run in a thousand directions. Just being there. It could be talking, helping them carry out a vision, complete a goal, or take a first step in a dream that is dear to them, an investment of time where you don't seek to get anything in return. This communicates loudly that you find value in them, you see them as worth investing yourself and your time in. 

A King's Well In Middletown Ohio

An unlikely town. A passionate group of people. One heart to make a lasting difference in a dying community. 

In 2010, Forbes magazine came out with an article entitled "Fastest Dying Cities in America". On that list was Middletown Ohio, the childhood home of Scott Lewis. The article cited many reasons for Middletown making this list, such as the increasing level of poverty in the city. For most, this article would simply have been an interesting read for a subway ride or over a cup of coffee. But this article came as a calling of sorts to Scott. A call to live a life that would be an answer to this article that projected the death of the city that he loved. 

Scott dreamed of starting a seminary institution, knowing that the life changing presence of Jesus would be the only thing that would bring lasting change in the area. But when he finally found a location that would be perfect to house the seminary institution that they had been working to develop for sometime, Scott says that God began to pull at his heart and stir unsettling questions inside him as he looked at the growing needs in the community around him. He said he began to ask himself, "Why are we pouring all of our time, resources, and assets into this church plant in northern Cincinnati while our own community is suffering?" The infrastructures downtown were dilapidated. The streets were in disarray. A large portion of the population had lost their sense of belonging and community. Scott said he knew it was time to roll up his sleeves and do something about it. 

Scott and his father, Larry, along with several willing others, decided to buy buildings downtown and renovate them in order to help reinvigorate the area and encourage businesses to come downtown. Scott and his wife, Jeri, are also establishing Kingswell in one of these buildings, a ministry designed to be a conduit and pipeline to supply strong, Christian leaders to the declining church and reinvigorate it to have a more missional imagination, in order to make true and lasting impact in the city and area communities.

Kingswell's mission is to nurture and cultivate missional leaders and community in the areas between Cincinnati and Dayton. They execute this mission by training leaders through learning communities, then offering these leaders the opportunity to experiment by cultivating missional communities in unchartered contexts (i.e., their neighborhoods, local coffee shops, pubs, community centers, new church plants - you name it - a place in their context).  

When asked where the name Kingswell originated from, they answered, "Our dream is for Kingswell to exhibit the refreshing presence of the Holy Spirit for his people (c.f., Jn 4:10-14; 7:38) for the empowerment of being sent on mission to make disciples. We view our learning and missional communities to be like 'wells' where the refreshing presence of the King is experienced and where people are sent forward in mission as a result.  This imagery of the King's well offers our learning community a promising identity that conveys a vision of our servant-leaders being conditioned by God's presence for the purpose of quenching the thirst of the broken." 

Scott says, "We live in a time of accelerated change in North America, evidenced by increased immigration, rapid technological advances, globalization, and the decline of Christian influence in culture. These changes are causing the Church in North America to re-evaluate its mission to the world. In our opinion, God is simply waking His people to the realization that we do not exist for the purpose of only maintaining our church structures, but we exist to partner with God on a mission of reconciling our neighborhoods, cities, and communities to Christ. With this purpose, Kingswell seeks to breathe life into a difficult situation today. Statistics show that 80-85% of churches are plateauing or in decline. With this concern, we help followers of Jesus develop the skills, knowledge, and spiritual formation necessary to lead missionally by making disciples within one’s context of leadership." 

With this heart, Kingswell, in partnership with Forge Middletown has pressed forward, looking to see true change in their city, community, and context.

And they have seen just that. 

Scott's wife, Jeri, began a "Ladies Night Out" event that has grown tremendously, bringing community and empowerment to a diverse group of local women.

Kingswell has raised up a passionate group of leaders, who daily live and operate in different contexts, bringing about change in the places to which they are called. Parks are being restored. The streets are being cleaned. Businesses are opening. Drug dealers and church members are coming together. And most of all, people are experiencing the transformative power of Jesus Christ. 

So maybe Forbes only sees a dying city when they look at Middletown Ohio. But Scott and Jeri see so much more. Maybe Middletown was dying. But through willing hands and open hearts, new life is being breathed into this city. 

Middletown has a heartbeat after all.

Scott and Jeri Lewis are the directors of Forge Middletown. They serve the local community and seek to raise up strong, Christian leaders to the declining church and reinvigorate it to have a more missional imagination, in order to make true and lasting impact in the city and community through their ministry Kingswell. 

The Upside Of Down

All this talk about adventure, risk, and in extremis leadership sounds pretty exhausting. But these are the necessary elements of liminality—that neither-here-nor-there place to which the church is called. The church can neither retreat to safe institutionalization nor abandon its faith altogether. It is called out—out beyond itself into the liminal place of mission. Such a neither-here-nor-there space calls forth a capacity for relentless change. It forces us to be a constantly learning community, with agility and a propensity for risk-taking and movement. And shouldn’t anyone related to the Holy God that we worship be in a continual state of change? To know God is to change. Besides, human maturity is predicated on our continued willingness to learn and to grow. But we don’t want to give the false impression that change, journey, and liminality always involve death-defying deeds to qualify for a genuine gospel adventure. Acts of love and mercy themselves embody courage and advance the cause of Jesus in our world.

For all the insecurity that an adventurous Christianity-of-the- Road brings, the benefits far outweigh the costs. Conversely, in the non-adventurous, supposedly more secure life, the costs far outweigh the advantages. The loss of pathos, authenticity, and living reality to our faith and experience of Jesus’s church is a high price to pay for comfort and convenience. A life lived in fear is a life half lived. Likewise, a church addicted to security and safety is not the church of Jesus Christ; it is in reality something else.

- From Hirsch and Frost, The Faith of Leap, (Baker) 

I Have a Name - And It's Not Residential Customer

Easter season has arrived. How do I know? Mixed in with the usual pile of recyclable junk mail came my first snazzy church invitation to an Easter service (and in this case their new building). The postcard had my address on it, however was addressed to “Residential Customer”.

I have a name. A first and last name. And it is not Residential Customer. 

OK true confession, I’m not a big fan of the telemarketer call, the surprise knock at the door by a religious cult, the cleverly placed Gospel tract on the men’s urinal, or the slickly produced junk mail piece meant to entice me to buy a product or service. I call them the one percenters. Marketing folks will tell you this shotgunned approach, blitz the zip code with a mass marketing mail piece only produces a one percent return. It’s costly and ineffective. (not to mention environmentally unfriendly)

I gave up mass mailings for Lent (that’s a joke)! But no really let’s be honest. Am I alone in my disdain for being merely a “Residential Customer” on a marketing mailing list? I don’t think so. 

I have a name. A first name and a last name. And it isn’t Residential Customer. My neighbors have names as well. And I believe the Jesus model of the Gospels (the good news) is built upon actually doing life with my neighbors. Knowing their names, their stories, their hopes and dreams.  A mass mailing generically addressed to Residential Customer falls woefully short.

In Eugene Peterson’s The Message, he writes, “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood, We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish.” ~ John 1:14

How do you get to know people’s names and stories? You move into the neighborhood! You become a literal neighbor. And this is far more than merely purchasing a building in which to do ministry from. That’s why this particular (well intentioned I’m sure) postcard caught my ire. The raised font and all caps money line said — “WE’VE MOVED INTO THE NEIGHBORHOOD”.

Respectfully, I don’t think so. I live in the neighborhood. And unless I’ve missed something, I’ve not seen you out walking your dog. Not at our community picnic, or the neighborhood pool. You may have been masked in costume as your kids rang our door bell at trick or treat. I could’ve been in the dessert line, you in the salad line at our neighborhood Thanksgiving meal. Different volunteering schedules I presume, at our local elementary school. 

So have YOU really moved into the neighborhood?

In his book The Road to Missional, Michael Frost writes that proximity matters. We must truly “move into” the neighborhood and daily rub shoulders with our literal neighbors in the places we play, shop, go to school, and well, do life! IF NOT, the church runs the great risk of merely becoming “an impersonal center for the delivery of Christian services, not a collective of incarnational neighbors". 

May it not be so! 

So this is awkward. I’ve kinda called you out. Where do we go from here? What about in the spirit of Christian love and Easter, we hit the reset button and start our introduction over. My name is Jim. Jim Mustain and I’d like to welcome you to the neighborhood.

Loving Community,

Jim

John 1:14

You Can't Throw Stones While Embracing

By: Lauren Mickler

It was easier to throw stones when I was at an arm's length.

As I sat back in my seat and observed the world over the picket fence of my little yard, everything seemed so clear, so cut and dry. Why didn't everyone simply work hard, get a good education, make wise choices, go to church and enjoy a nice little happy life? Why people chose to live their lives so differently than me was beyond my understanding. It was easy to talk about politics, it was easy assess situations, it was easy to know what "they" should do. "They" just didn't work hard enough, "They" just needed to know that their lifestyle choices were wrong, "They" just needed to stop playing the victim. 

It was easy to throw stones when I was at an arm's length. 

But then came the realization that the opinions I threw out with such confidence were not based in any real life experience of actually knowing and living life next to the ones that I so quickly assessed. 

So I moved in closer. 

I began to develop relationships. I stepped out of my fences. I touched lives and skin and hearts that looked different than mine. I listened. I heard stories. I shared meals and laughter and tears. I soaked in a new perspective. 

I found myself moved with feeling for the injustice that my friends had endured. I found myself understanding the chain of events that can transpire to push a person toward the desperation that fuels the choices that I had once looked down upon with exasperation. 

Suddenly, the women in the dirty hoodie asking for help had a name and a story. Suddenly, the young man who was involved in selling drugs was sitting at my table and making me laugh uncontrollably. Suddenly, I realized that just because I had never been victim to racial injustice didn't mean that it wasn't a frequent occurrence... I witnessed it happening to people I loved dearly. 

My perspective had changed drastically. I couldn't lobby judgement and harsh opinions over my nice little fence. I couldn't roll my eyes and wonder why people couldn't get it together. 

Because those that I had once deemed as "they" and "them" became part of me. And I found myself the learner. I found myself the one who's perspective needed to change. I found myself braiding my life and heart with others who's lives and upbringing looked nothing like mine. And it was beautiful. 

It's hard to wind up and throw stones when you're that close to someone. 

There's nothing wrong with right and wrong. There's nothing wrong with convictions and opinions. But before you give them out liberally, with an air of disbelief that anyone could see an issue from any other perspective than your own, I have a challenge for you.

If you're quick to give your opinion on a subject such as racial issues, women's rights, sexual preference, refugees, under-resourced families, the homeless, government policies that might not affect you but might greatly affect someone else, I challenge you to ask yourself this first: 

Do you have intimately close friends who've been directly wounded by racial issues? Are you closely connected to a women who's been treated unfairly? Do you have close friends who's sexual identity is different than your own? Have you invested in learning the stories of those desperately seeking refuge in our country? Do you have a close relationships with the families that live in poor neighborhoods or are homeless? 

Do you regularly share meals and cups of coffee and laughter and stories with the people who are inseparable from the issues you're so quick to post on social media about? 

If the answer is no, I ask you to move in closer. I ask you to breath the same air, to let your skin touch theirs, let their stories and life become part of your own, I ask you to embrace. Because maybe, just maybe, you might see a different perspective. You might move with more compassion. You might approach it all differently. You might be less inclined to generously douse your social media accounts with your staunch positions and unbendable opinions. Maybe your position will change, maybe it won't. But I am willing to bet that your posture towards these subjects will change drastically. 

So often the people that liberally dole out sentiments that sound something like: Get it together or stop whining and playing the victim are the ones who've never walked the road before. Never had first hand experience with the issues that they see so black and white. 

How would your opinions change if it was a close family member or loved one involved in the issues you take a passionate and harsh position on? What if it was your father who'd been treated unfairly because of his skin color? What if your mother had worked her fingers to the bone only to receive significantly lower pay than her male co-worker while being sexually harassed in the work place? What if your sister sits down over coffee to tell you that she identifies as homosexual? What if it was your wife and young children seeking refuge in a safe country because of the peril and danger they faced at home? What if you it was your daughter left homeless on the street, begging for food and shelter? 

What if it was your loved one? 

So make them your loved ones. Make the ones that you see as "them" and "they" your brothers, sisters, daughters, friends, and family. Share meals. Share laughter. Share dreams. Share hopes. Share stories. And then see what you have to say. 

You can't throw stones when you're embracing someone. 

Dear Forge Family...

Dear Forge Family, December 2016

As we near the end of 2016, we have much to be thankful for in our Tribe of Forge America! Our Hubs are going strong! We have grown this year and now stand at 15 Hubs! Our Family is expanding!! We gathered for a cruise in April to build relationships and dream together for our future. We participated at Exponential ’16 in Orlando offering both a pre-conference opportunity and breakouts throughout the event. We participated in numerous One-Day Events around the US and came together at Hub Intensives. We are a Family on the go!

God has blessed us in so many ways as we have endeavored to participate in His Kingdom as Missionaries where we have been sent! Our National Leaders have given much time, effort and prayer to building our Team to both grow our presence as well as facilitate and support our Hub families.

All of this takes more than time, effort and prayer. There is financial expense to continuing to provide the support that is necessary to both continue our current support and to grow us to new horizons. Our Hub contributions help offset some of our expenses, but falls short of what is needed for the daily workings of our Tribe. We have only two National Team Leaders that receive a very small stipend for the many hours they contribute to Forge America each week. All other monies are provided by personal support. There is a need for travel among the National Team from time to time that is not covered by Hub financial support received.

We are blessed that several folks within our Tribe and a small few from outside contribute monthly or regularly to Forge America. This is keeping us afloat - but the waves are visible!

Would you please consider becoming a regular contributor to Forge America? Please know, we are a very frugal bunch! But there are necessary expenses to keep us going and growing!

Please prayerfully consider a monthly gift to Forge America - or perhaps a Year-End gift.

Send your tax-deductible contribution to: Forge America PO Box 708 Frisco, TX 75034

Or visit: http://www.forgeamerica.com/get-involved (you may use PayPal / Credit / Debit) You can also set up your giving through your personal online banking account.

Thank you so much for your consideration and generosity. We love each and all of our tribe and so look forward to all God has in store for us in the months and years ahead! Blessings to you, your family and Hub family! 

On behalf of our Forge America National Team, 

John Taylor (Forge America Finance Team)

• Forge America • PO Box 708, Frisco, TX 75034 • www.forgeamerica.com •

Missional Wind

By: Matthew Chapman, Forge Tyler Hub Director

Living on mission with Jesus is as “real time” as it gets. Each day begins as a blank canvass, and our walking with Him into life and engaging the people and circumstances before us can be as the paintbrush that The Artist uses to define and color a unique daily portrait of what is in His heart.

And so the adventure begins.

Who will we see and run into? What new people will we meet? What needs will present themselves in conversations? How will we answer heartfelt questions that are put to us? What wisdom will be required to convey His good news and grace in a way that truly imparts life and gives real help? In what way do we manage this day’s relationships and responsibilities? How do we fit in spontaneous opportunities with what we already have scheduled & planned? What will we do with the unforeseen curve balls that will inevitably get thrown our way?

Let’s be honest—we have no idea! Yet these are all aspects of being an active and alert follower of Jesus. It’s a lot to juggle and can feel overwhelming, and truthfully, in our own strength, it is. Thankfully, He has a beautiful way in which to walk this out that allows us to handle the outward stress with incredible inward peace and see His kingdom come. The answer?

Flow. Flow with Him.

How many of us think of ourselves as “wind”? For all of the countless sermons, books, seminars, and blog posts that exhort us in the glorious truths about who we are in Christ, this one, unfortunately, seldom ever gets even a blip on the radar screen. But what did Jesus say? “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; SO IS EVERYONE WHO IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT” (John 3:8). Did you get that? Wind is what He is saying we are like! Wind moves and flows. You can’t box it up or package it, and it’s completely now. And as the power behind the movement, we seldom fully know where He is coming from or where this is all going, but we’re made to be there in/with Him, in the moment, flowing with what He has. Do you identify with this reality?

Flowing is exactly what Jesus modeled as an example for us as He walked the earth and encountered the people and circumstances of His daily life. He repeatedly said that He “did nothing on His own initiative, but He only did the things He saw, and only spoke the things He heard, from the Father.” How did He know who to approach, how to answer, where to go, when to withdraw, in what way to heal, or what words of life to speak? He “saw” and “heard” these things from the Father. And just where exactly did He hear and see these things? In the kingdom of God—the glorious domain of God in the Spirit that He abided in and spoke of unceasingly as He also walked the earth in a body of flesh.

Look at His approach to the woman caught in adultery, the centurion who came to Him about his sick servant, Zacchaeus, the “rich young ruler,” Mary & Martha, Pontius Pilate, the woman who touched His garment, the man possessed by Legion, the Samaritan woman at the well, and the man born blind, just to name a few. He brought good news and demonstration of the kingdom of God to all of them, but in such amazingly different ways that were perfectly tailored to each of them. How did He know? He flowed with the Father’s leading in the moment.

How does it work for us? The same way! It’s gloriously profound and yet quite simple. Let’s explore “the wind” metaphor in its context…

In a conversation Jesus was having, He said, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God,” and then He reiterated, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you are born of water and of the Spirit, you cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:1-12). Now most of us, because of what we’ve been taught, read these words with our Protestant/Evangelical glasses on and this is what we immediately hear in our brain: “unless you’re born again, you won’t go to heaven when you die.”

While there’s certainly truth to that, this is not specifically what Jesus was talking about here. Read it again. There’s no talk of dying or the afterlife here. He was saying that, unless you’re born of the Spirit, you cannot “see” or “enter into” something—namely, the kingdom of God—and it’s something to be seen and entered into here and now, in this life. If you have any doubt on this point, look at verses 9-12 where Jesus said “we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen,” and He referred to this reality as an “earthly thing,” contrasting it with “heavenly things.”

Right now, as I write this, the United States is in the middle of a presidential election season. If we were having a conversation and I said, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you are a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years of age, and registered to vote, you cannot see a voting booth,” and then I said again, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you are a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years of age, and registered to vote, you cannot enter intoa voting booth,” there is absolutely no way you would interpret this as me saying that unless you are a U.S. citizen, at least 18 years of age, and registered to vote, you will not go to a voting booth when you die. Rather, you would clearly understand that I was communicating what makes you eligible to participate in the election.

It’s no different here. Being born of the Spirit is the prerequisite for seeing and entering into—actively participating in—the kingdom of God. And why is that? Because the new birth fundamentally transforms us, making us “alive together with Christ,” and gives us these innate abilities to see and enter into what He’s doing and move fluidly with the King in the here and now. This is why Jesus immediately goes on to say, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; SO IS EVERYONE WHO IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT” (John 3:8). In Him, we’re made to flow with His Spirit. It’s who we already are. And like everything else, in terms of walking it out, we just have to learn to use what we’ve already been given and develop this capacity over time through real life situations and experiences.

So close is this wind metaphor to the reality we are called to live, the word in the original Greek translated “wind” in this John 3:8 passage—pneuma—is the exact same word that is translated “Spirit” in the very same verse (and the rest of the New Testament for that matter)! The only way you know which way to translate it is by context. With that in mind, consider afresh that “the one who joins himself to the Lord is one Spirit with him” (1 Cor. 6:17). You could translate that as “one wind with Him” but we know by context that Paul was meaning “Spirit,” and yet the reality and the metaphor are still shouting at us, inviting us into movement with Him!

Most of us would prefer to think of ourselves as an inanimate object, like a ship that sits dead in the water until we put up our sails, and then, as the Spirit blows we catch the wind and have movement. But this is not what Jesus said. He said, “The wind blows… so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” We are not separate and inert, we are one with Him!

How did Jesus, who did nothing on His own initiative, model this? He flowed. He “saw” what the Father was doing and He “entered into” it by doing likewise. The same with the things He said and what He shared with people. And this is still His very way He now lives incarnationally in/thru us by the Spirit. Remember, this life that we now live in the flesh, as members of His body… “it’s no longer I who lives, but [this same] Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). He doesn’t even want us to worry about or prepare beforehand what we’re going to say or how we’re going to answer because “it will be given [to us] in that hour what [we] are to say, for it is not [us] who speaks, but the Spirit of [our] Father who speaks in [us]” (Matt. 10:16-20, Luke 21:13-15). In other words, we flow with His Spirit by faith in the moment. As we do, He, in turn, flows through our experience, revelation, knowledge of scripture, personality, resources, weaknesses, etc., in whatever ways He wants. It’s a beautiful dance!

Real Jesus, through real people, in real time! This is the point at which we see His kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. This is the power of His life at work in real time to impact those stuck in death with not only the good news of the kingdom but a living demonstration of it. This is where heaven and earth intersect and prisoners get set free, captives released, the blind receive sight, revelation is spawned, hearts are encouraged, fellow believers are built up, enemies are confounded, and the gates of hell cannot withstand the forward motion. We simply have to be willing to learn to walk into life emptied, vulnerable, and available to Him for these customized, unique masterpieces to be sculpted into the conversations and situations that present themselves each day.

So wherever you are, start, or continue as the case may be. As you go about doing daily life, watch for His leading, His impetus, His nudging, His directive, and when you “see” it, “enter into” it by stepping into the flow and acting upon it. Discern His approach and timing. Listen for His words of life, wisdom, and specific things He will give you to share, and as you hear them, speak them in love. Don’t hold back and don’t add to it. Just convey His heart, His truth, His life. This is the reign of the King in motion. This is His kingdom advancing. The “territory” of the hearts and lives that are affected is His kingdom enlarging.

Will you make mistakes? Yes. Will you miss it at times? Yep. Might that cause you embarrassment and messes to clean up? Uh huh. Yet look at the learning experiences of the twelve men Jesus discipled and take comfort, keep at it, and develop the capacity. And consider the outcome—“as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the [mature] sons of God”—and the impact on eternity!

We “enter the kingdom as children,” Jesus said. So have fun, enjoy the adventure, and savor the glory of Jesus being Himself through you, and collectively, through us!

Paradigm Shift... Libby's Story

In Forge, we refer to the “ah­ha” moments of life as paradigm shifts. A few years ago, I began a rather large paradigm shift and it all started with a simple prayer, “God, please set me free.” I’m not even sure what I wanted freedom from...my circumstances, the pain of loss, broken dreams, endless stress at work, all the demands of church, family and ministry. I spent years building a life that was not what I wanted; instead I was building what I thought I should want, and doing the “right” things. In 2014, I took a job at a Christian boarding school in India to pursue a lifelong dream to be a missionary. When that fell through last minute, I found myself homeless, jobless and sleeping on a hide­a­bed loveseat at my sister’s home in San Antonio. I felt like a failure.

During that time of transition and upheaval, I found Forge Austin and started their 9 month residency on missional living. It was a critical point in my spiritual formation. God took me away from what I knew, but gave me friends in Forge who understood my journey. Since I was already in transition and missed home, I headed back to Colorado to work seasonally at one of the resorts in the mountains west of Denver ­ a great context for mission. In my new job, I earned less than I had in almost 20 years. It seemed absolutely crazy at the time, and yet it was fun to be able to let go of what I should do as a responsible, middle ­class, evangelical, and to instead pursue something adventurous and life­ giving again with God. At the end of my work agreement, I took a year round position in Human Resources and stayed.

While the past year has been very rich, it has not been easy. I am both single and introverted. The transitional nature of the workforce coupled with the independence and non­committal attitude of the average person make it incredibly hard to build friendships and authentic community here. However, God brings Christian community to me in unorthodox ways. Chaplains Ben and Steve are great friends and leaders and have encouraged me to grow and flourish in my God­given abilities. We partner in several ways on campus. After years of being told I could not do certain things in the church as a woman and serving under controlling, narcissistic ministry leaders, that blesses me.

My co­worker Mary is my prayer partner and tends to my heart when I am hurting. Those relationships are crucial to the sustainability of my life here. There are definitely days I want to give up and go back to a more comfortable life, but Paul tells us that “Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance” (1 Cor 13:7 NLT). I have a deep love and affection for the community in this county. God may ask me to take on new circumstances at some point, but, for now, my heart is here.

My simple life of missional living isn’t very glamorous, but it is certainly never boring. Each day I join God in the work he is already doing rather than trying to come up with my own plans to achieve success. The result is more fruit in 18 months than I saw in 12 years of full­ time work in traditional ministry. Those small victories for the kingdom bring me so much joy. It feels odd to say I gave up a life of ministry and mission in order to really learn how to minister and live missionally, but that is exactly what happened. Missional living is a crucial part of becoming like Christ. This critical paradigm shift has changed my story, and my relationship to Christ will never be the same.

The Glorification of Busyness

“As the founder of a public charity, I visit the large offices of wealthy donors, the crowded rooms of social service agencies, and the small houses of the poorest families. Remarkably, within this mosaic there is a universal refrain: I am so busy.”

— Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives — Wayne Muller

I resonate with the words of Wayne Muller, for this too is my experience. We must stop the glorification of busy.

Brene Brown writes, “We wear busyness as a badge of honor. We’d be afraid of what people would say if we weren’t busy.”Rob Bell says, “Busy is a drug that a lot of people are addicted to.”

Now to clarify most, but not all. A single mom shares a window into her world:

“I find statements like this dismissive of many people’s stressful lives…trying to feed, clothe, house and educate our families. As a single mom, providing for 3 children and myself and trying to better my education and income prospects, so we aren’t living the stressful existence of hand to mouth, means I am busy. I don’t glorify it. I don’t like it. But in a capitalist world, it costs to live and raise kids.” 

If that’s your story, you have my admiration and support. I pray as a society we might recognize and assist in your journey.

Now for the rest of us (myself chiefly), I am soberly reminded by David Steindl-Rast that the Chinese pictograph for “busy” is composed of two characters: heart and killing.

This week I begin what has become an annual pilgrimage for me back to the sanity found in rest. For the next two weeks I will sleep, eat all my favorite foods, share in conversation with family and friends, sleep some more, practice slowing, think, write, dream, and walk in the woods. For if I do not, my busyness will make an assault on my heart.

As I am continuing in my apprenticeship of learning to live and love like Jesus, he too spoke of the vital need of rest. “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27-28) Jesus frequently withdrew to quiet places to meditate, pray and be renewed.

So for the coming days my prayer and intentionality is to reclaim the freedom found in practicing rest and allowing the sun to rise and set without my work and constant creative energy. To create a space in my life to play and rest, to eat delicious foods, to pray, and to connect with the people I love.

For today, I am choosing to walk away from my addiction to busyness.

Growing older and hopefully wiser,

Jim Mustain: Founder & Executive Director at The Communitatus Group, Inc.; Loving Community

Jeebus Or Jesus?

In a hilarious episode of The Simpsons called “Missionary Impossible,” Homer pledges ten thousand dollars to PBS and is generally credited for saving the television network. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Homer does not have the money, prompting a mob of characters and personalities from various PBS shows to chase him through the streets.

He hides out in the First Church of Springfield and bargains with Reverend Lovejoy who, despite Homer’s obvious lack of Christian faith or understanding, packs him off as a missionary to the South Pacific. Just as the plane is about to take off, Homer shows his utter ignorance when he anxiously exclaims, “Jeebus? Jeebus? But I don’t know Jeebus! Helllp me Jeebus!” Homer arrives on the island where he meets the natives. At first he is so fearful that he’s about to be eaten for dinner, he drops to the ground crying “Oh God!” repeatedly. The natives take him for a religious mystic and so they too fall to the ground crying out to God.

Emboldened by his new status as spiritual guru, Homer begins trying to teach them about religion, but realizing that he knows nothing about it, he tries something new. While the natives were noble savages ignorant of and unspoiled by civilization, Homer decides to build a casino on the island, which he names “The Lucky Savage.” This introduces alcohol, gambling, and violence to the island and totally ruins the natives’ previously virtuous way of life. We start with this story because it highlights the impact of how ignorance of Jesus by those who claim his name is toxic to both the believer as well as those around him or her. Following “Jeebus,” Homer wreaked utter havoc on the population, and we are left wondering if this does not describe large tracts of Christian history equally well.

Now we of all people do not want to say that God doesn’t use the odd Homers of this world (we think the church should be a freak collection and that God does use weirdos of all sorts), but it does highlight the fact that the missional disciple must know God in a real way or else bear false witness. And given our previously mentioned commitment to a distinctly missional form of Christianity, this will highlight some of the ways ignorance of Jesus (willful or otherwise) creates a toxic religion that is not only not worth spreading, but detrimental to the cause of Christ. God Is Like Jesus The first and absolutely most foundational thing we can say about missional discipleship is that it must be based squarely on the founder of the Christian faith—Jesus the Messiah.

And while this might seem obvious, one can easily be excused for not being able to recognize anything approximating Jesus in some of the people who claim his name. This discontinuity between Jesus and the religion that claims his name, what Jacques Ellul calls the “subversion of Christianity,” has led countless people to say with political humorist Bill Maher, “I don’t know anyone less Jesus-like than most Christians.” It also prompted researchers David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons to write a book called unChristian , which is based on what most non-Christian twenty-somethings said about so-called Christians. 1 Jesus is the key not only because Christian discipleship is about becoming more like Jesus but also because it is only in and through Jesus that we can get the proper, truly Christ an understanding of God. In other words, Jesus gets defining rights in relation to life, discipleship, theology, and everything in between.

Not only is he the mediator between God and humanity (1 Tim. 2:5), he is the prism through which we can and must understand God (Col. 1:9–21, Heb. 1:1–3). New Testament scholar Albert Nolan is quite right when he states, By his words and practice, Jesus himself changed the content of the word “God.” If we do not allow him to change our image of God, we will not be able to say that he is our Lord and our God. To choose him as our God is to make him the source of our information about divinity and to refuse to superimpose upon him our own ideas of divinity.

This is the meaning of the traditional assertion that Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus reveals God to us; God does not reveal Jesus to us. . . . We cannot deduce anything about Jesus from what we think we know about God; we must deduce everything about God from what we do know about Jesus. . . . To say that Jesus is divine does not change our understanding of Jesus; it changes our understanding of divinity. Reclaiming the centrality of Jesus will help us avoid the perennial mistake of superimposing upon the life and personality of Jesus our preconceived ideas of what God is supposed to be like.

N. T. Wright affirms this when he says, "My proposal is not that we know what the word “god” means, and manage somehow to fit Jesus into that. Instead, I suggest that we think historically about a young Jew, possessed of a desperately risky, indeed apparently crazy, vocation, riding into Jerusalem in tears, denouncing the Temple, and dying on a Roman cross—and we somehow allow our meaning for the word “god” to be recentered around that point."

Jesus is, and must be, the central reference point for the Christian because God looks like Jesus and Jesus does what God wants to do! (See John 10:38, 12:49–50.) We love Greg Boyd’s wonderful description of this: Jesus spent his ministry freeing people from evil and misery. This is what God seeks to do . Jesus wars against spiritual forces that oppress people and resist God’s good purposes.

This is what God does . Jesus loved people others rejected—even people who rejected him. This is how God loves . Jesus had nothing but compassion for people who were afflicted by sin, disease, and tragedy. This is how God feels . And Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, suffering in the place of sinful humanity, defeating sin and the devil, because he passionately loves people and wants to reconcile them to God. This is how God saves . It is true that Jesus is like God, but the greater truth, one closer to the revelation of God that Jesus ushers in, is that God is like Jesus!

As Michael Ramsey, the former Anglican archbishop, noted, “God is Christlike and in him is no un-Christlikeness at all.” Or as Jesus says when asked to show his credentials, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” and “I and the Father are one” (John 14:9; 10:30). We Become What We Worship Focusing our discipleship on Jesus forces us to take seriously the implications of following him, of becoming like him . . . like God. The spiritual agenda for discipleship is thus set: Jesus is our primary model, teacher, guide, savior, and Lord. He is the standard by which we assess discipleship and spirituality. And we must become living versions of him—little Jesuses. So, if we want to know what God is like, we need to look no further than the person of Jesus Christ.

Now while this may seem like an incredibly obvious thing to say, it is staggering how few of us really integrate this most fundamental of truths into our lives. Recently one of us was reminded of this reality when attending a local Bible study. The group was studying a book on the character and attributes of God. The leader of the group was asking whether God was knowable, and if so, how we can really know him. The participants were caught up by the “otherness” and “awesomeness” of God experienced in worship, and seemed to sit more comfortably talking about this.

When the leader pushed for more specifics, one person mentioned creation and then another the Scriptures, but no one seemed to be able to go further. It wasn’t until the study leader stated that it was Jesus who shows us who God is, and that we know God in and through him, that the people seemed to make the connection. What is interesting is that these highly intelligent, mature men and women had been going to church most of their lives, and yet they missed this primary fact—the Jesus factor. That there is a radical disconnect between God and Jesus for many believers, as illustrated in the story above, shouldn’t surprise us. For most people it is far easier to sit with the “otherness” of God—we prefer our divinity at a safe distance.

But while God’s transcendence does, and should, instill feelings of awe and a desire to worship within us, it does not immediately show us a way to follow . We see God or read about him and stand in awe. But what then are we supposed to do besides worship and adore him? When confronted with the reality of God in Jesus, God in human flesh, God is no longer beyond and unfathomable, but immediate and present. He has come close to us, and his claim on our lives becomes somewhat more unavoidable.

And that.... was the whole point of the incarnation.

- Excerpt from Untamed by Alan and Debra Hirsch

The Box or The Basilica?

I rounded the corner and caught my breath. I knew that it was going to be big, but I didn't know that it was going to be this gargantuan. My eyes hardly knew where to look first, the extensive grandeur and ornate intricacies pulled my attention one way and then another, up and then down. 

St. Peter's Basilica. 

I don't know exactly what I had expected, but all pre-existing notions of what it would be like were blown out of the water. I walked through the doors and beheld the massive expanse all around me - decorated lavishly, no corner left untouched by deep color, ornate pattern and curve, and elaborate carvings. 

I wound through the crowds, my eyes catching candlelight and glimpses of statues as I approached the statue of Jesus. And suddenly there it was. So beautiful, so pale, so sad, so ethereal. 

Here I stood in what many consider the perfect place to feel the presence of God, a breathtakingly beautiful church, surrounded by statues and depictions of The Christ and those considered heroes of our faith. But the thing that struck me the most was how far removed I felt from any hint real, gritty life in that moment. In the place God seemed majestic but unreachable, untouchable, and miles away from the daily life of our humanity. It was overwhelming and beautiful, but I left with an empty ache. 

A few weeks later after returning from Italy, I again walked through the entrance of a building. It wasn't beautiful and nothing about it looked noteworthy or majestic. Simple walls, a couch, an air hockey table, and a desk greeted me. I walked through the hallway into the main entrance. My eyes took in the tall ceilings, still open like a warehouse. Rough, thick ropes hung from the ceiling and black mats covered the floor. The air was warm and left untouched by an air conditioner. 

Our CrossFit Box. 

Here is a place where everything of what it means to be human is alive. The weakness, the strength, the effort of movement, the lifting, pulling, pushing, squatting, and the sweat. CrossFit is all about functional fitness… So everything is based on the movements that people have been doing throughout time that we have somehow lost in our modern society. 

The sound of barbells thudding on the turf, loud music, and heavy breathing surrounded me. 

It seemed that this moment could not be more unlike and opposite in every way to the moment that I stood in St. Peter's Basilica. Far from the pristine statues, shining surfaces, and ornate moldings. Far from the grandeur. 

But then I saw the face of man in his young twenties who grew up in a part of town that I have rarely been to, who's mother was a prostitute, and who's father left without warning one day is his teens. The one who we sat down beside when he began to weep one day, after class, pouring sweat and tears on the black gym floor as he confessed that he was struggling to make money and had turned to selling drugs. He was the one we prayed over, who went to the authorities ready to face whatever came his way to get his life on track and who was met with great mercy. He's the one who lived with one of our trainers through transition, who was baptized, and who now has a job and loves my Jesus. He still says that he's never felt so much love, and he'd never felt God's presence like he did when he came through these doors. 

I saw the face of the woman who's wedding I recently attended, an event that some of my friends might not have "baked the cake" for who says that she didn't know Christians could actually be so loving. 

Then I saw the face of the woman who you might never guess spent fifteen years dealing with multiple addictions, who latched onto CrossFit as a lifeline to put herself back together. Through the community, the structure, and the exercise she found her way and has never been the same. She asked questions about God and heaven and wondered if it would be okay to go to church with us one day. 

Then I see the youth pastor and the faithful baptist church member who say that they've learned more about discipleship on these floors than inside the walls of their church. 

Mingling together….  The wealthy, the successful, and even the famous sweating next to a struggling single mom and the young man who's home would hardly be considered suitable to live in. The leader of Vacation Bible School and a pastor laying on the floor doing push-ups next to the former exotic dancer, the hardened military man who's seen more than any of us can imagine, and a young woman who's choices in lifestyle and sexuality drastically differ, but who's hunger for Jesus is tangible. 

Equalized by nylon shorts, tank-tops, athletic shirts, and tennis shoes, the first thing that people find is not their differences in status, occupation, lifestyle, race, or religion. You simply know them as the person who shouted out when you stood up the heavy squat, the person who kept telling you that you are stronger than you believe and pushed you to get a few more reps before time was called, the person who ran back outside after they had completed their own workout just to run that last 200 meters with you. Brought close and united, finding community and camaraderie. 

Common place and interest. Love. Community. 

And then after hours, there's dinners out on the huge patio of the restaurant nearby, there's the birthday parties, there's the competitions where everyone piles in vehicles and caravans to watch and cheer on fellow members. And then we talk about life, about relationships, about spiritually. About God. And He's real, tangible, touchable, and present in that context. 

So as I stood there taking it all in… The diaphragms rising and falling heavily with the exertion of exercise, the weight-lifting chalk peppering the floor and smearing on the legs of those working out, the high-fives, the smiles, and the community I was struck… 

… Suddenly I felt more of Jesus in that place than when I stood on the gleaming floors of St. Peter's Basilica. 

This is what it means to live in a incarnational, missional way. To embrace the idea of sentness, to love humanity like Jesus did. 

And you may think I'm crazy, but somehow I think if Jesus walked the earth today, he might just spend the afternoon in the CrossFit gym working out, listening, and talking to people rather than admiring a shiny white statue of himself in a great cathedral. 

Just maybe.