Travelling over to Cambridgeshire today for the weekend (will be staying with Chris Jeffries) to meet with people involved in the emerging simple/organic/house church movement in the UK.
There will be a Regional Meeting Sunday 7th Feb for those interested in meeting others in the area, sharing stories and life, and hearing more about church multiplication movements
Toby (my true son in the faith) is travelling with me to Scotland (from Tues 26th-Sun 31st Jan 2010)
Follow our journey HERE!
Let’s go Back to the Garden!
It all began in a garden (Genesis) and will end in a garden city (Revelation)
Let’s become gardeners in this next season (2010+beyond), cultivating the soil that God has placed us in. Planting and nurturing the ground with the culture of the Kingdom.
Let’s see the desert places become fertile gardens, wherever our feet tread! Whether your sphere is family, social, economic, political, arts+cultural, educational or media-related? Wherever you are, you are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, a city on a hill. You have been planted in your field as citizens of heaven on earth!
You represent a different realm, the Kingdom of Heaven, you spread the aroma of Christ wherever you go, let Christ dwell richly in you by faith as you permeate the area’s you inhabit.
Be intentional! Plough the ground in prayer, plant seeds, water them, reap the harvest. Let the Kingdom spread through your garden like yeast through dough. Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, uproot the weeds of the enemy and sow righteousness, peace and kindness, be transformed by the renewing of your mind!
Let’s become Kingdom Gardeners along with our King who is the Master Gardener.
This Nation has become a desert, a waste place, filled with jackals.
It’s time to call out the horticulturalists, the organic farmers, the environmentalists…the nomads…the wanderers, those who have the courage to take possession of the land
‘He blessed them and commanded them to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it’ (Gen 1:28)
‘Going back to the garden will be significant this season too. A rediscovery of what it means to know God as the Gardener. The garden is a place of creativity. It is a place of origins and firsts. It is a place of rediscovering our true image and identity. It is a place of dominion. It is a place of fruitfulness and creativity. It is a place of filling the earth. It is a place of good food. It is where man becomes a living being. It is a place of relationship and communion with God and one another. It is a place of wild wandering in the cool of the day. It is time for the garden to be revisited.’ (Prophetic Word)
A friend of mine sent me this link to a Prophetic Word concerning 2010
What do you think?
(found this recently and thought it might be useful to share this with others)
Berkana’s Four Stages for Developing Leadership-in-Community
Berkana works with pioneering leaders and communities using a four-stage approach. This has evolved out of our understanding of how living systems grow and change, and years of practice and experimentation.
I. Name
Pioneering leaders act in isolation, unaware that their work has broader value. They are too busy to think about extending their work, and too humble to think that others would benefit. Berkana’s first act is to recognize them as pioneers with experiences that are of value to others.
II. Connect
Life grows and changes through the strength of its connections and relationships. (In nature, if a system lacks health, the solution is to connect it to more of itself.) Berkana creates connections in many different ways. We design and facilitate community gatherings. We host networks where people can exchange ideas and resources. Our collaborative technology supports communities of practice through dedicated websites, online conferences, asynchronous conversations and cocreated knowledge products.
III. Nourish
Communities of practice need many different resources: ideas, mentors, processes, technology, equipment, money. Each is important, but foremost among these is learning and knowledge: knowing what techniques and processes work well, and learning from experience as people do the work.
Berkana provides many of these sources of nourishment but, increasingly, we find that the most significant nourishment comes from the interactions and exchanges among pioneering leaders themselves. They need and want to share their practices, experiences and dreams. Creating opportunities for people to learn together has become our primary way of nourishing their efforts.
IV. Illuminate
It is difficult for anybody to see work based on a different paradigm. If people do notice such work, it is often characterized as inspiring deviations from the norm. It takes time and attention for people to see different approaches for what they are: examples of what the new world could be. The Berkana community publishes articles, tells our stories at conferences, and host learning journeys where people visit pioneering efforts, learn from them directly, and develop lasting relationships.
(To find out more about The Berkana Institute CLICK HERE!)
‘Despite current ads and slogans, the world doesn’t change one person at a time. It changes as networks of relationships form among people who discover they share a common cause and vision of what’s possible.’
‘We don’t need to convince large numbers of people to change; instead, we need to connect with kindred spirits.’
The Lifecycle of Emergence:
Stage One: Networks
These networks are essential for people finding likeminded others. It’s important to note that networks are only the beginning. They are based on self-interest- people usually network together for their own benefit and to develop their own work. Networks tend to have fluid membership; people move in and out of them based on how much they personally benefit from participating.
Stage Two: Communities of Practice
Networks make it possible for people to find others engaged in similar work. The second stage of emergence is the development of communities of practice (CoPs). Many such smaller, individuated communities can spring from a robust network. CoPs are also self-organized. People share a common work and realize there is great benefit to being in relationship. They use this community to share what they know, to support one another, and to intentionally create new knowledge for their field of practice. These CoPs differ from networks in significant ways. They are communities, which means that people make a commitment to be there for each other; they participate not only for their needs, but to serve the needs of others
Stage Three: Systems of Influence
The third stage in emergence can never be predicted.
It is the sudden appearance of a system that has real power and influence. Pioneering efforts that hovered at the periphery suddenly become the norm. The practices developed by courageous communities become the accepted standard. People no longer hesitate about adopting these approaches and methods and they learn them easily. Policy and funding debates now include the perspectives and experiences of these pioneers. They become leaders in the field and are acknowledged as the wisdom keepers for their particular issue. And critics who said it could never be done suddenly become chief supporters (often saying they knew it all along.)
(These notes are taken from ‘Lifecycle of Emergence’ by Margaret Wheatley and Deborah Freize 2006)
To read the full article CLICK HERE!
Through the initiation of John Wesley (Apostle), Charles Wesley (Prophet) and George Whitefield (Evangelist) the methodist movement spread all over Britain and beyond within a generation.
John Wesley was an organizational genius and understood the social dynamics of various size groupings and mobilised these to great effect.
this was a fluid system that adopted and adapted various forms
Here is some of the infrastructure of the movement:
This was a national network of networks (all of the classes, societies, districts, circuits and circuit riders and local preachers met together once a year to make strategic decisions).
usually between 1-3 counties were organized into district administration
City/County-Wide circuit riders travelled from preaching spot to preaching spot adding new people to the movement
All the societies in a city would meet together from time to time for mutual encouragement and corporate worship
All the classes in an area/town would gather together weekly
12 people met together weekly (usually in homes) to pray and study the word. this was the real strength of the movement
5 or less people of the same sex would meet to confess sins. Wesley hoped that all Methodists would meet in bands (but not all did!)
Effective Communication is essential for providing cohesion to a decentralized movement.
Here are some of the channels frequently used to increase momentum, spread ideas and build relationships:
These take place annually or quarterly. There is ample time to connect with others who have a shared interest to share food, share stories and perhaps exchange ideas and practices.
Produced weekly, monthly or quarterly. These publish stories and spread the values and ideas of the movement far and wide
New publishers and distributers emerge that promote books read by those in the movement. They publish new ideas, those that are often rejected by older publishers who are still wedded to old ideas, models, authors and practices
New forms of worship develop, new worship tools, new music distributers. New songs are sung by the movement. Every generation has a new sound that carries the DNA of the time
Shared distinctives, principles and values spread through language that defines a movement
Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers circulate, travelling from place to place and from house to house encouraging, strengthening and bringing cohesion to the movement. They are like bees, carrying ideas from one area and spreading it to another
New technology is used effectively as a key communication tool. Contact details of various hubs, networks and people in the movement helps to bring people together to work on common shared interests and to share community practices
I am setting off this morning to the South East and then onto London. You can follow my journey HERE!
Had a wonderful conversation with Chris Jeffries recently.
We shared our discoveries (both personal and from others) about micro-forms of church made up of 2-3 people.
He shared his discoveries of CO2 (more on Church of Two or Three in the CO2 brochure, the CO2 blog, and LK10 Resources. If you want to read the blog I suggest you begin with the oldest post and work forwards, if you begin it that way you’ll see why I suggest it. There’s an ‘Newer Post’ link at the bottom of each article that will take you through the sequence.)
and I shared my discoveries of Pilgrims based on Neil Coles LTG’s
We are also developing Pioneers (2’s going out to practice the Pioneer Pattern found in Matt 10/Luke 10)
As Neil Cole says: ‘The basic unit of Kingdom life is a follower of Christ in relationship with another follower of Christ. The micro form of church life is a unit of 2 or 3 believers in relationship. This is where we must begin to see multiplication occur. Let’s face it: if we can’t multiply a group of 2 or 3, then we should forget about multiplying a group of 15-20′
Mission Britain
