157. Lifeshapes and Cultural Upheaval

We are currently receiving some excellent training by the 3DM folks on discipleship and missional communities. This is a short introduction to the context in which the Lifeshapes are meant to function. I think the metaphor of a compass rather than a map is quite instructive.

156. Modality and Sodality

Ralph Winter first introduced the terms "Modality and Sodality" into the missiological world way back in the early 1970's. The basic gist of modality and sodality are the need for two different kinds of organizational structures within the church to accomplish the mission. A modality is an organizational structure that is designed for long term stability. It establishes routines and typically stays in one place for an extended period of time. The local church is typically organized as a modality.

A sodality is a group structure that is designed for mobility and trans-local activity. Their goal is not permanent residency, but seasonal, itinerant residency, that is marked with transition and travel.

In a recent conversation with Sam Metcalf, I was given a valuable piece of advice. If you are apostolic, then you will most likely be functioning with a more sodal-ic heart. As such, when you arrive in a particular location and look to establish a new modality, it should be stated from the get-go that you will not have a permanent residence within the community. This will not only help the group understand what is going on when you and a few others decide to "leave" the new group and pioneer another modality, it will also help establish expectations about leadership within the community. It can also serve as a good accountability device for those apostolic type people who, because of their trans-local, entrepreneurial nature, do not need to cement themselves into the organizational structure and leadership of the new community.  In order to function as a sodality, you can not remain as an integral part of the modality.

I can attest to this wisdom as the original "founding group" of people who first started Ikon are now looking to move out from the existing house churches they are in and regroup to start-up another missional community within our city. This move by the original group has created some tension within our larger community that otherwise could have been avoided if the original folks involved in the church plant understood themselves, and communicated to the new community, that thwere are two different kinds of church structures. One is more local and has a more stable design for longevity, the other is more mobile and is designed for itinerant, pioneering forms of work. It does not mean the modality can not be missional, it just means that the local church will look different, organizationally, then say, an apostolic band of people who are looking to start new communities and then move on. The nature of the task requires a different kind of organization for each. The key is: both are legitimate expressions and forms of ekklesia......church.

We need to recover this bi-focal vision of the ekklesia because there is no way we can accomplish our missional mandate without these two kinds of structures. The local, more modalic structures are too clunky and not flexible enough to do trans-local mission. The sodalic, more itinerant structures can not provide the same level of stability and continuity that the modalities provide. The truth is, we need both, and both of them need each other to be a truly missional movement.

In some ways, our church could not have predicted that things would have unfolded the way they have in the past year. None of the original group could have imagined that we would start over again, on the same team, with a new church plant. In some sense we are like an apostolic band who is being called to another work together. However, it would have been great to have understood the differences between a modality and a sodality from the beginning so we could have built those two concepts into our understanding of how we will organize for mission.

So, the great thing about laying new foundations is that you can start fresh! We will definitely build this understanding of the church into the new foundations we lay this second time around.

155. MBTI and Ministry Part 2

In the last post I pointed out my MBTI categories. I am particularly interested in how the categories of "J" and "P" play themselves out in apostolic people. We should first start out by recognizing that there are, according to Galatians 2, at leats two functions of apostolic ministry: Petrine and Pauline.

1.) The focus of Petrine apostolic ministry is more to the people of God, which entails engaging organizational and institutional contexts with a higher degree of regularity (and efficiency) than the Pauline. Petrine apostles find it more appealing to work with people who already have a good stock of religious capital.

2.) The focus of Pauline apostolic ministry is more to the "Gentile," or in other words, those who do not have much religious capital. Pauline apostles have an affinity for the wide open spaces of unsettled territory, more regularly AWAY from the center of the organization.

If we allow for this distinction, then the categories of "J" and "P" from MBTI may be helpful in deciphering ones orientation towards a Pauline or Petrine model of apostleship. 

The Role of "J' in apostolic ministry

If you are apostolic and happen to be a "J" on the MBTI, then this might be an indicator that you are more of a Petrine apostle than a Pauline.The J's love order, planning and structure. They plan their work and work their plan. They will be highly focused and driven to execute the strategy, ideally with little deviation till the plan has been accomplished. As such, they either tend to keep their attention focused straight ahead on the goal, or keep their heads down to ensure the plan is being executed. As a result, they sometimes steamroll right past people. They typically only see the end goal, not the people around them. If they do see people, it is as a means to an end. They are resources that help the "J" to get from point A to point B. The slide show on the previous post uses this diagram to illustrate the streamlined way in which J's approach tasks and deadlines.

This kind of approach makes Petrine apostles highly valuable to the organization. They are excellent at mobilizing people towards a specific goal and making sure the organization stays on track. Because they crave order and succinct game plans, they are most effective when they are in an environment that accommodates this disposition. The center of the organization, or a mobile organization, provides this environment for apostolic J's.

The role of P's in apostolic ministry

P's on the other hand, are another story.  They are perfectly at home in a more chaotic environment and minimal amounts of structure. They like to keep their options open and actually enjoy deviating from the plan. If you are apostolic and happen to be a P on the MBTI, you are most likely a Pauline type of apostle. You will crave the openness and possibilities of doing ministry where there are all kinds of contingencies, complexity and lack of organization. This does not mean that a P will not reach the deadline or that they will not achieve any sort of structure or bring order out of chaos. What it does mean is that they will take a different route to get there. Consider this diagram form the previous slide show.

While this kind of approach literally bugs the hell out of a "J", the "P" brings a certain advantage to projects that are being executed out and away from the more controlled environment of the organization. The "P" will more readily notice people and is often really good at noticing the person of peace. They have their eye on the developing patterns and opportunities around them. They are quite adaptive to changing circumstances. This is the kind of capacity one needs while working on the edge, away from the more predictable environment at the center of the organization. Apostles with a P are typically going to have a stronger gifting of evangelist mixed in somewhere in their APEST profile.

Finding the sweet spot between order and chaos is what both the J and P apostles bring to the table. they will both create what Dee Hock calls a chaordic environment. The only difference is, P's will more readily linger in the chaotic phase before they tighten the ropes and formulate some kind of order. The J's will bring a strong sense of order into the chaos a lot more quickly. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches, depending on the environment. Either way, P's need J's to standardize their ministries for sustainability, while J's need P's to recognize the opportunities floating all around them.

None of this, of course, is intended to box people up. I think an introverted person could also be a P and still function primarily as a Petrine apostle. The introverted dynamic being the decisive factor that points them towards a more Petrine function. The only point I am making is that if you crave order and structure, you may be more aligned with a Petrine function than a Pauline function. It is something worth thinking about. If I am right, then the line between Pauline and Petrine is negotiated between the combination's of E and I, and P and J, with N being a constant throughout.

154. MBTI and Ministry

Following up on the MBTI discussion, I thought I would reveal what I am according to MBTI. Actually, I have tested out different several times on the last four letters. Sometimes I test out as T, sometimes as an F. Sometimes I test out as P, sometimes as a J. I am told you sometimes test out differently based on the position you are in within an organization. Your responsibilities and the choices you have been making create a pattern and point of reference for how you answer the questions on the MBTI test.

So, right now, I am an ENTP, which means my tag line is "Life's Entrepreneur." We are also labeled as "inventors" in the book Please Understand Me II. I recently came across this picture on the Internet as I was searching for material on MBTI and my own personality type.

As an "inventor", we like creating proto-types and get off into weird and eccentric ideas. But we are not just idea people. We are bricoleurs and entrepreneurs. Which means an idea has to be tested and put into practice. We like to tinker, and play around with stuff. We are quite inquisitive and love a good problem to solve. We want to know if the idea will work or not, and we take great satisfaction when it does work. The obverse is true as well. We take great pains and experience deep angst when it turns out wrong or we experience failure. But typically, it is only for a short period. The next idea is just around the corner and we cant wait to explore it and innovate our way into another reality.


If you are an ENTP, you can pretty much locate yourself within the pioneer categories of the APEST ministries mentioned in Ephesians 4 (Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, Teacher). The continuum looks something like this.

The pioneering modes of ministry mean you have an affinity for the edge, the frontier. You are looking to start or empower new things. Me myself, I am apostolic, so this explains my need to engage in entrepreneurial forms of ministry. In the next post, I will talk about how P's operate in leadership and how this shows up in the Pauline forms of apostolic ministry, making a few conjectures about the J's in contrast to P's when it comes to apostolic ministry.

153. Understanding Team Dynamics using MBTI

I have been getting back into MBTI lately. I was really into it about 10 years ago, but drifted away from it. The 3DM crew integrate MBTI into their discipleship and leadership strategies, so hanging out with them has put it back on the radar for me. Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Understanding Team Dynamics using MBTI

This is perhaps the most comprehensive, yet concise depiction of MBTI I have seen to date. The best part is towards the back where they make suggestions for teams and how to work with other teams and people who reflect a different orientation than yours. This is especially helpful when it comes to planting the gospel in team environments where most likely, people will be operating from different MBTI profiles.

152. Neighborhood Ministry

I recently came across this great article entitled The Good Guide to Better Neighborhoods: A Neighborhood Manifesto. The gist of the article is about how we need to reclaim our neighborhoods as a place where community can happen.

This article is particularly relevant to us as we are looking to move into another neighborhood across town with another family and somehow be a blessing to the people and organizations that live there. Some of the ideas in the article are great!.There are several links at the bottom of the articles that lead to entire articles on that one single idea. Short post for me, but great article(s) for anyone wanting to facilitate community in their neighborhoods.

151. Jay Lorenzen and The Language of Movement Building

I ran across this blog post on Jay Lorenzen's blog site and wanted to post in full here. His blog is entitled On Movements and is found here.

The Language of Movement Building: Think Pink!

by Jay Lorenzen on February 22, 2011

We spend several sessions discussing the “language of leadership” at our Gettysburg “If Properly Led” Conferences, arguing that the leader has a “palette” of words by which he paints visions in people’s minds. Our primary examples were Abraham Lincoln arguing for “new birth of freedom” at Gettysburg in 1863 and Martin Luther King, Jr arguing for “that dream of freedom was still unrealized” 100 years later. ”
Nancy Duartel, on her blog, analyzed MLK Jr’s “I have a dream” speech and found that the speech was “not only literarily brilliant, but its structure follows a presentation form perfectly.” A presentation form (as in the diagram below) traverses back and forth between what is and what could be, ending in MLK’s speech with an description of the new bliss of equality.

In a previous post, I commented on Lincoln’s similar eschatological flow:

Lincoln’s leadership (as well as his speeches) seemed structured by an historical/existential/eschatological flow. In other words, he led from a sense of “what was right and wrong” about the past, from “what could be true in the future” while retaining an unrelenting commitment to “act in the present.”
Perhaps as we cast vision for movements everywhere, we need to adopt a similar form. We cast an “above the line” vision by traversing back and forth between “what is” and “what could be.” If you look at the speeches of leaders who have brought real change thru their words, you’ll almost always see this tension of “what is” and “what could be.”
For example, here’s what I trying out.
Today there are over 1600 community colleges where 60% of all colleges students in the US begin their college education. Right now, there are very few “transformational” movements on these 2 year campuses. The rapid turnover of students is most often blamed. What if, however, we tapped into the natural leadership potential and student orientation of the faculty teaching at these schools? What would happen if we found and encouraged faculty at these CCs to become missional team leaders? It’s happening already. Take a look at facebook.com/cru@communitycolleges.
Nancy Duarte, also analyzed MLK Jr’s “I have a dream” speech in terms of rhetorical devices, coloring each block of text between the crests and peaks of “what is and what could be.” She color-coded the blocks of text to highlight these rhetorical devices: blue stands for repetition; pink for metaphors; orange for political references and green for familiar literature and songs, from Scripture to “America”



You can see that there’s lots of blue and green here, especially at the end as he is riffing on “America.” But what’s really fascinating is how much pink you’ve got everywhere. We know that MLK was an expert at using words as a paintbrush…but seeing this speech in graphic form, you can see how often he resorted to “visual language” to hammer home his point. Leaders, in other words, when they speak, they “think pink” — metaphorically speaking.
As we discussed at Gettysburg, Aristotle once reminded us: “the greatest thing of all is to be master of metaphor.”
Think pink.

150. Acts 1:8 and the Exponential Algorithm

I want to look at point number 2 now from the previous post. Jesus envisioned his movement in Acts 1:8 going from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria...to the ends of the earth. Is it just me or is there a massive geographical and cultural leap between phase three (Samaria) and phase four (ends of the earth) ???

If we look at the first three phases of missional extension, they are in relatively close proximity to each other, both geographically and culturally. Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria are all in the same region. Jesus then says it will go form this incremental extension from one locale to the next, to a full blown global movement....huh? 

How does this work, and why did Jesus skip the progressive phases that would come after Samaria. Or, more importantly, why did he map out the trajectory of the movement in such incremental, iterative terms for three phases, in relatively homogeneous places and cultures? Why the micro to micro, and the to ful blown macro? Why not micro, to meta, to macro, or some other idea. Why not Judea, Asia Minor, Rome, and The world? Jesus jumps from a three phase process that evolved all in the same regional and cultural proximity, to a full blown global phase. Quite a skip hop and a jump! Why was Jesus vision of missional extension so disproportionate?
 
The only way to explain this missional trajectory is to use the word exponential. Jesus was plotting the course of the movement out of an exponential algorithm, one that took into the account the concept of multiplication, not just addition. To go from local, to regional, to global is an exponential algorithm. To make that kind of jump from regional expansion to a global expansion requires an exponential kind of growth.

Just like his own movement that spent 3 1/2 years discipling and multiplying his life into other people, Jesus now envisions the extension of that movement taking a slow start, working its way into the various pockets of the surrounding region, then moving into other cultural groups (Samaria) and then, as a result of multiplication, it explodes into a full blown, exponential movement to the ends of the earth. The only way you can explain this trajectory of mission and expansion is to use the word exponential, which carries with it the idea of multiplication, nut just addition. Jesus was working off of an exponential algorithm of growth and expansion. It was at the very core of his vision for the church.


Here is a cool video about the exponential capacity of making disciples and multiplication.





 

149. The prophetic moment of missional expansion in the book of Acts

I have been studying the book of Acts lately and I keep coming back to Acts 1:8 where Jesus says "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” I keep thinking about this progression from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. Several things stick out to me.

1. It was a four phase process. It worked itself out progressively, from the center to the edge.

2. The first three phases are in close proximity to each other, both geographically and culturally. Then it jumps to a global mission focus. Big jump!

3. The Holy Spirit is the one who generates and empowers the church to move from one phase to the next. 

It is interesting to look at the transition points in the book of Acts when it begins to go from one phase of the process to the next. I want to focus on number one, specifically the transition from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria. 

The church stays in Jerusalem for 7 chapters of the book of Acts. Most people think it was persecution that caused them to leave. I would agree, but only partly. In chapters 4 and 5 they had already experienced persecution. So what was it that got them to breach the lines of Jerusalem and move out beyond the boundaries of the city? 

Well, it all points to Stephen on this one. Stephen presents a riveting interpretation of God's activity with most of Israel's heroes....and almost all of this activity happens outside the boundaries of the Holy Land. Even when they get to the Temple section of the their history, Stephen is quick to point out that God snuffed at the idea of being located in a Temple. The heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool." Stephen is deconstructing what some today call Temple Theology. The longest sermon in the book of Acts is, ironically, not about the "gospel" per se, but about how God does his most important work away from, and is "located" outside of, the Holy Land and the Temple.  Stephen has taken on the establishment and literally the "holy cows" of his day. 

It is important to notice something about the nature of Stephens critique here though. Stephen does not negate the temple here. He is not delegitimizing the place of the temple in history. What Stephen is doing in his sermon is neutralizing the Temple by pointing to places and people that God did amazing work through outside the boundaries of the Temple. Negating and neutralizing are two different things. He is not saying "remove yourself from the Temple," but rather to "re-map the Temple in relation to God's history and present mission."

It is not until Acts 7 that anyone makes it out of Jerusalem with the gospel. It is interesting to note here, also, that the same word Luke uses in Luke 10:2 to say "send out" workers into the harvest field  is the same word Luke uses in Acts 7 to describe Stephen being thrust out/sent out of the city of Jerusalem. The word is ekballow, which has a violent, disruptive flavor to it. Stephen is the first to break the boundaries of the city in the Acts narrative, but only by violently being "sent out" by the authorities that he pisses off in his sermon. 

Stephen is obviously playing a prophetic role here in Acts 7 by calling out the gap in their theology and calling for a re-mapping of space in light of God's previous activity, and ultimately the ascension. It is not surprising Luke uses a disruptive/disequilibrium word here for "send out" then. Being dis-located is often a disruptive experience, no matter who you are, and it often requires some outside forces to create movement. (This is one reason why Jesus says the Holy Spirit will bring you power to move you across these boundaries.)

So what we have here is a prophet stimulating, provoking, and activating the missional forces of the church! Through Stephens prophetic ministry, the church is "ekballowed" out of the city into the harvest field...Judea and Samaria. Unfortunately like most prophets, they are marginalized by the establishment, "outside the city," and do not necessarily enact the thing that they envision. Oddly enough, it is at the death of this prophet that we are not only introduced to a new chapter in the churches missional journey, we are also introduced to an apostle who will help the church make the transition from Judea and Samaria to the utter most parts of the earth...the apostle Paul. once again, we see a connection between the prophetic and the apostolic, both in individuals, and in vocations. No wonder Paul says apostles and prophets are foundational ministries in the church, they are at the very forefront of the church breaking out of its closed systems and transitioning into new territories and phases of missional expansion.

148. Missional Community Video for Ikon

Our network gathering was this past Sunday, a time when both of our house churches come together to worship, hang out, get all network-ey, and dabble in matters related to values and vision.

We presented this video to the larger community to introduce what is currently being labeled as The Cunningham Farms Missional Community (we will rename it with a more sexy title later). A group of at least 5 people will be living in this neighborhood and doing the incarnational ministry thing here. Basically, we are entering a second "church plant", but like some of the people on the team have said, we want it to be more than a "church" in the conventional sense of the term. We are starting a missional community, infused with a discipling culture, that will catalyze a movement of disciple making and missional communities, each with their own mission focus (neighborhood or network.)

147. Integrate then Innovate

There is a small group of people in our community right now who are looking to move out of their existing neighborhood and move into another neighborhood across town to take up residence and incarnate the gospel in that particular neighborhood.

We just got back from a retreat this weekend where we spent roughly two days scammin on how all of this should go down. It was a whiteboard, brain storm, strategizing session if you will, with some prayer and devotion mixed in through out. What we came away with was a 1 year plan  of how to proceed.

As we sat around and discussed what it would look lie for us to do incarnational ministry, we landed on a phrase which I think will become part of our discourse when it comes to neighborhood ministry. We basically said that incarnational ministry requires that you integrate before you innovate. In other words, you have to hang out with people, participate in the rhythms of that context, and get in touch with the needs of the community before you try to initiate programs, ministries or events to meet the needs of the neighborhood.

Choosing to immerse ourselves in the neighborhood before we start any new kind of ministry, do any kind of service project, or initiate any kind of programs will ensure that our innovations are on target and actually address a real need in that community.

Even more, it will allow us to respect the area, and avoid the stigma of outsiders coming in with their own plans to somehow "save" the neighborhood or the people who live in it. We want to listen to the people and the neighborhood before we develop intricate plans about how to impact the people and the neighborhood.

So how long should you integrate before you innovate? This is a good question. We asked this very thing. Our general impression, for our particular context, was to integrate for the first six months.  This would involve hanging out at the 3rd places, volunteering at local community center, riding the public bus that goes through that area etc. All the while, we will be intentionally observing and listening to the inner voice of the community.

At the end of 6 months, we are going to pull back as a team and share our observations, reflect on their meaning, and discuss what the implications are for entering into a phase of innovation where we look to initiate new ministries, events, or strategies to meet some tangible needs of the community. Approaching it this way will ensure the needs of the community set the agenda for how the process of innovation will take place, not our own premature assumptions about what needs to happen there.

I should say that this is not the only way to do innovative mission, but when moving into a neighborhood, it seems to us to be a good way to approach it.

146. A fitting poem to describe apostolic folks

I found this poem on Sam Metcalfs blog. (a great blog about the apostolic and missional issues.) Thought I would republish here. It is a nifty description of of the apostolic person and their experience in relation to institutional dynamics.

There’s a race of men that don’t fit in,
A race that can’t stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain’s crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don’t know how to rest. If they just went straight they might go far;
They are strong and brave and true;
But they’re always tired of the things that are,
And they want the strange and new.
They say: “Could I find my proper groove,
What a deep mark I would make!

Because apostolic people are intrinsically entrepreneurial, they often have a wanderlust of sorts. I have seen this very pattern in my own life, and in others. One of the people in scripture I relate to is Barnabas. As a Levite, he was tied to the Temple system, a system not so friendly to the entrepreneurial, pioneering types. It seems that Barnabas was an apostle in waiting. (Acts 14) and it took a genuine encounter with the gospel, and another apostle, Paul, to fully awaken this in him and legitimize it. Once this happened, it seemed that he was able to migrate away from the the institutional domain of the temple and venture out into the frontier.

I at one time was doing traditional ministry as a "pastor" and eventually discovered I was gifted apostolically. What a release! What an affirming experience to know you are not weird or a misfit. I was simply an apostle in a pastoral setting. Needless to say, it is not very conducive for a pioneer to be stuck at the settlement. It always makes me wonder how many apostolic folks out there think they some how do not fit in because they are stuck in a monolithic system that caters primarily to the settlers. Lets broaden the scope and recognize both pioneers and settlers. 

145. The Point of Leadership

This is a fabulous article by Tim Elmore on leadership. I am going to post it in full here. Enjoy!

Two Paradoxes Leaders Embrace
By Tim Elmore

Why do intelligent, emotionally healthy people need leaders? Wouldn’t you think that a group of fifteen people who are all reasonably smart could figure out the best direction to take without someone telling them?
On paper, this makes sense. It sounds great. It just doesn’t play out in life.
Think about leadership from a philosophical standpoint. People need leaders not because they are stupid. In fact, quite the opposite. It may be because all team members are brilliant that they need leaders. Historically, the primary need for leadership is to galvanize and steer. Leaders galvanize multiple minds and steer multiple gift sets into one, clear direction.
I remember being on a team several years ago. Everyone on the team was sharp; in fact, most of us had served in leadership roles in the past. We didn’t need a leader for information or inspiration. We all knew as much as our leader did. However, someone needed to step forward and furnish clarity. We needed one clear direction and we needed someone to determine how our talents best fit together. The team members didn’t lack ideas—our problem was we had too many of them. Our leader brought clarity and synthesis.
The first role a leader must embrace is to be the focal point for a season. This doesn’t mean that the cause is all about the leader. (It should never be about the leader.) It means this person must be alright being the point of focus at first to eradicate sideways energy. Someone has to help people say “no” to the many good things they could do, and “yes” to the one, best thing they could do. Even the most reserved, and quiet leaders must initially embrace this attention and prominence.
The journey doesn’t end there, however. If a person has led well, he or she arrives at a destination precisely opposite this initial role. Effective leaders eventually create momentum, then slip into the shadows. They stay out of the way of good talent and teamwork. To use a cliché, they work themselves out of a job. They eventually become unnecessary if they have done their job well. I think of Herb Brooks, the coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team. He had incredibly talented young players who desperately needed his strength and focus in the beginning. There was too much energy, and egos going too many directions. In the end, however, once the Americans had won the gold medal, he slipped into a hallway and sat on the floor. He said the moment was about the team, not him. In reality, it was about something even bigger than the team. That gold medal did something for the U.S. at the time. We defeated the invincible Soviet team. The cause was nationwide morale and hope. David had beaten Goliath. The cause should always be bigger than people.
So, leaders actually embrace two paradoxical ideas. First, they must be OK with being the prime focal point. Talent and intelligence need focus. In the end, they must embrace obscurity. They chuck their ego—and point everyone toward the bigger picture. This is a rare paradox—which makes it beautiful when it happens.
Tim

144. Launching Missional Communities: A Field Guide by Mike Breen and Alex Absalom

It was not too long ago I sat in a room with Mike Breen and Alan Hirsch for a weekend of discussion around things pertaining to mission. Needless to say, it was the beginning of a wonderful relationship with Mike and 3D Ministries.

Mike and Alex have recently come out with a book that, for all practical purposes, solves the riddle of what missional communities look like. It is not often I point to something and say "do it like that." I always have a certain suspicion of anyone trying to franchise or replicate a model that is obviously successful in one context, but has limited application in other contexts because of its contextual nature.

Yet this book, Launching Missional Communities: A Field Guide, is perhaps the first book I have seen on the missional front that has the potential to revolutionize the way we see missional communities in almost every Western context. This is no fad or buzz frenzy. Breen and Absalom have managed to package almost a lifetime of experimentation, learning and practice into a very accessible, "anyone can get it" kind of book about how to mobilize people for misisonal movement.

I will highlight three reasons why I think this book is a must read, and several points I think tag line the content of the book.

First, Breen is no rookie when it comes to missional communities. He has spent the last 20 years of his life experimenting, practicing, honing the art of missional communities. This book is the result of massive amounts of time, energy and collaboration centered around the practice of doing mission in and through community. The content in this book has been refined, over and over in real situations with real people, and culminating in real results.

Second, the content of this book has passed through the crucible of real churches, with real people, with real challenges to seeing missional communities take off. As such, the book has a real practicality to it. Theory is great to get the ball rolling, but eventually you need simple material from the front lines that is easy to understand by all. This book gives us exactly that.

Third, it is based on principles, not trendy fads and buzz frenzy rantings and ravings. The reason this book is such a jewel is that it is rooted in principles of discipleship and leadership, yet these principles were forged within a missional framework. Leading missional communities requires a certain kind of leadership and strategy, and thanks to Mike and Alex, they have formulated tried and true principles that are applicable no matter what your context.

Now, here are several jewels from the book that lead me to push this book on all the people I know.

1. Right expectations for the right size of community. They highlight the fact that different sized groups are designed to operate and produce different things. A lot of frustration in leadership comes from expecting a group of 12-15 to function and deliver results that only a group of 2-3 people, or 20-50 people can deliver. Knowing the different sizes and knowing how they contribute in their own unique way to the over all purposes of spiritual formation and mission helps bring synergy to the already existing group sizes in your community. 

2.  Small enough to have a shared vision, but bug enough to do something about it. This was extremely helpful for a lot of our people to catch on to the wisdom behind missional communities. The genius of having a group of 20-50 people who are all focused on the same network or neighborhood lies in the capacity to have enough human and even financial resources to make an impact in a certain people group or location. Yet those same communities have a small enough size of people that allows for focused passions to collaborate around a common vision. The challenge in mobilizing a larger community for mission is that the different giftings within the APEST typologies will all gravitate towards a different dimension and focus. Each gifting will end up going on mission in different ways. This is great! We do not need to fight this, but embrace it. By choosing to gather a smaller group of people around a particular mission focus, you are creating space for people to pursue specific, focused visions for mission, yet the vehicle used to pursue those specific mission focuses is large enough to create momentum and significant impact. With a group the size of 20-50 people, you get the best of both worlds.

3. Multiplication for the long haul. If you have ever been a part of a small group multiplying, you know how taxing it can be on all who are involved. Even if the first round is smooth, after the second multiplication, most people begin to shut down emotionally and relationally, questioning the rationale for building close relationships that will eventually get cut short by another multiplication. Breen and Absalom bring some needed wisdom here to the idea of multiplication. There experience, and mine too to be honest, is that after the third multiplication, people no longer buy in to the process of "splitting" the group up for the sake of mission. However, if the group being multiplied consists of 20-50 people, thinning the herd takes less of a toll on the entire group, allows momentum to stay in tact, and creates options for sending a new group out into another mission focus without arbitrarily shuffling people around based on clicks, or geography. Multiplication ends up taking place around a missional focus, not just logistical needs of gathering.

4. The book is extremely pragmatic, yet theologically grounded in the concepts of discipleship and mission. It walks you through the essential phases of launching a missional community in your church setting. Anyone wanting to go deeper into what it actually looks like to develop and mobilize missional communities is going to want to read this book. It will be a real breath of fresh air with tons of inspiration from other people who have already become practitioners of this approach to being on mission in and through community. This is not another program. It is a principles based strategy that easily applies across the board.

5. Lastly, if after reading it you are invigorated and want more, there is more!!!! 3D Ministries hosts what they call Tasters through out the year where you can bring a small group of people and spend time with Mike Breen and Steve Cockram to hear more about how to make missional communities work in your own setting. The cool thing about the Tasters are... THEY'RE FREE!!!! Go here to learn more about this amazing opportunity.

My only critique of the book is that it assumes your church is already a size of at least 70 people. Our group is about 20 people, with varying levels of participation and partnership through out. They do have a section on how to make it from a group of 12 to a group of twenty that was very helpful, but because of our situation here in Clarksville, I wish they would have devoted a little more space to groups like ours who are starting from scratch. That being said, the principles in the book apply across the board whether big or small. So it is still a win/win for anyone reading the book. Besides, you cant say everything and address every situation in a book. Thanks Mike and Alex for delivering this strategical text to the Western context!

143. Apostolic Ministry in the Urban Setting

As someone who spent over 5 years in the urban context doing church planting and prophetic/evangelistic ministry, I was so excited to hear about World Impact. The unique thing about World Impact is that they are suing the simple/organic model of disciple making and church planting in the urban context.

Not only are they pioneering this form of mission in the urban context here in the West, they are also pioneering a contextually based theological training school for people who can not afford to pay for the outrageous costs of a traditional theological education. Rock on!!!

Here is a short podcast from the Leadership Network interviewing one of World Impacts church planters, Bryan. He shares their success and some of their vision for World Impact. 

142. Terry Virgo talks about the difference between apostolic and missional.

Terry Virgo: "Apostolic" vs. "Missional" from Jubilee Church on Vimeo.

141. Prophets, Incarnational Ministry, and Bono

This interview between Bono and Bill Hybels is an excellent example of how someone gifted as a prophet gravitates towards incarnational forms of ministry. Prophets call out the gap and identify with the values and pathos of God. It is interesting to note what Bono's favorite verse is, along with hos language about being annoyed and feeling like it is his job to call attention to the deficiencies in the churches posture and actions towards the poor and aids victims. Bono is a high profile prophet, and while he would probably not describe himself as such, his prophetic gifting is running wild in his music, his ministry to the poor, and his voice to, and against, the church. 

140. Bricollage, Bricoleur's and apostolic ministry

I started a curbside recycling business about 3 years ago, and one of the items I collect on my routes is aluminum cans. It is the only item I am able to sell to a local vendor and make money from it. So, about every two weeks, I go to Jones Recycling, the local metal salvage shop and sell my aluminum. Well, there is a dude that works there named David, and he has this uncanny ability to make and craft new things out of used technology parts. He takes random electronics or computer parts and assembles them together to make something meaningful and useful. This is the latest work of art he has built. It is a "briefcase"  laptop/desktop computer.

There is a word that describes this kind of talent and mojo to work with whatever makes itself available and assemble seemingly unrelated components into meaningful expressions, tools, technology etc. The French call it bricollage, and it is where we get our word collage from. Some people have a knack for seeing unique combination's of existing materials within reach and make useful, valuable creations of them. Those who engage in this often undervalued practice of bricollage are called bricoleurs. It is somewhat similar to the concept of entrepreneur, but differs in that rather than exploiting and taking advantage of opportunities to make money, they exploit the inherent potential in existing objects and materials, and find new potential and value oin those objects by combining them with other materials. IT is so cool to know there is a word out there that describes something you are good at. David is a natural bricoleur, and if you are able to get in touch with him, he just might sell this elaborate, recycled piece of technology.

I cant help but make application here to apostolic ministry. When you start a new community form scratch, you are engaging in bricollage. The assembling of seemingly unrelated part into meaningful expressions is exactly what forming a new community around the gospel is about. Genuine apostolic ministry works with what is present, what makes itself available at the time and works towards helping those parts assemble and mobilize into meaningful expressions.

In order to engage in bricollage you have to see value in every part. It not only requires imagination, although this is essential to the art of bricollage. It also requires an eye for beauty and usefulness. Every person brings something to the table. A bricoleur is someone who is able to see that value and creatively merge it with other parts for collective meaning and action.

139. Michael Frost on what it means to be Missional

My good friend Nathan Capps sent this to me the other day and I just got around to watching it. It is quite motivational. Michael Frost unpacks what it means to be missional for him. I have to say though, as Michael has somewhat of a prophetic tone to his writings and gifting, his outlook on what it means to be missional is also flavored by a prophetic leaning. When I say prophetic, I mean that impulse that seeks to deepen our thoughts and actions in God, and thus leading us take on a very incarnational impulse. Either way, he hammers home the need for us to align ourselves with the missional God of scripture.

Here is his talk at Dallas Theological Seminary during the World Evangelization Conference.

138. Grading APEST Content

I have been doing some research on the topic of "vocabularies of organization" (an interesting topic, I highly recommend diving into it.). As usual, I ran across some related material that fascinated me. There is something called The Jaccard Metric that helps analyze similarities between data sets. Dats sets can include computer code, statistics, or...you guessed it....words and vocabularies. So for example, if you have a text, you can measure other texts by how similar or disimilar they are in terms of vocabulary, and even concepts. The Jaccard Metric helps you discover the "distance" between the documents. That is, it helps you gauge, or grade the semantic, linguistic or conceptual distance between the standard text and other chosen texts.

Well, as I was thinking the other day about the APEST ministry matrix, I was struck by the lack of literature available for the apostolic and prophetic functions. Then as I thought about it some more, I realized that the further you move back from the Teaching ministry, the less material you can find. In other words, there is a plethora of material out there about the teaching/preaching ministry, but when you move backwards from the Teacher gifting to the Shepherd/Pastor gifting, there seems to be a bit less. It gets even less when you move back to the evangelism category, and then it gets even worse with the prophetic and the apostolic. The apostolic is by far the most bankrupt of all the gifts when it comes to literature and material to explain it, train people, and explore the conceptual and pragmatic issues surrounding that kind of entrepreneurial, pioneering ministry. I diagram it like this.

The "distance", as Jaccard would phrase it, between the amount of literature available for the S-T vocations and the A-P functions is astounding. The deficit of material out there when it comes to the apostolic vocation is quite slim. How can we go for literally centuries and not have accumulated significant texts that dive into the apostolic function? It is really bizarre when you think about it. Any suggestions as to why this is the case? Let me hear from ya.