Today marks about 2 1/2 weeks our students have been in Long Beach, CA. From the beginning our desire was to communicate this is a different mission project than maybe they expected. Then we rolled out the schedule of events, or the lack there of. We started the summer with some key vision, mission, values and tactics and then trained them in the how's to plant spiritual movements. Our desire is that students will learn to grow faith where life happens. Not grow ministry where life happens or grow a Christian club where life happens but grow faith, trust and a belief in God where our lives happen. We intentionally stripped away from the project many of the good and beneficial Christian events that attempt to help develop this. We don't have a men's or women's time. We don't have a weekly teaching, worship and fellowship time. We don't have weekly socials. We don't even have a time set aside for prayer or special outreach. That alone freaked out some students as we all have become accustomed to the filling of our weeks with Christian events to help us grow and reach out to others.
Our biggest desire was to go after the heart change and tension to trust God moment by moment as we live, work, play and attempt to plant spiritual movements all over Long Beach. For some this was a freeing word and they immediately jumped into the city and made friends and connections. They are learning to live with the tension and ambiguity of what is ministry and what is personal time. We desire that they would see every moment as a moment where God is moving and could use them. We can't plan and categorize our days for ministry, growth and personal time and really live by faith. We want students to feel the struggle deep in their hearts that it is hard to walk moment by moment by faith in God. It could be as simple as saying all day long, "God what do you have for me at this time?" Yesterday I asked our students what have been some barriers to living this way and not just wanting to fill their days with Christian activities. One guy answered and said it was hard and that his heart was just plain hard and he didn't really love those around him. This is exactly what we want our students to surface. You can't learn that in a book, classroom or a retreat. You can only learn that when you strip away all that you're used to or comfortable with and are left with living by faith in God to grow you, speak to you, move around you and use you. At this point God then lights a fire in your life and begins to speak to you and move like never before. That is when spiritual movements are planted.
Today I was reading from the House Church Blog and I noticed this comparison. The following list is exactly what we desire to be going on in our students.
- FROM CONSUMER/SPECTATOR TO PLAYER/PARTICIPANT
- FROM INVOLVEMENT IN WEEKLY OR BI-WEEKLY SACRED EVENTS TO LIVING A SACRED LIFESTYLE (HIS PRESENCE EVERYWHERE I GO)
- FROM DRINKING MILK PREPARED BY OTHERS TO LEARNING TO FEED FROM HIS WORD FOR OUR SELF
- FROM RELIGIOUS ROUTINES TO SPIRITUAL ADVENTURE
- FROM RELIANCE ON EXTERNAL PROGRAMS FOR OUR SPIRITUAL GROWTH TO DEVELOPING AN INNER DISCIPLINE
- FROM CONFORMITY TO OTHERS TO DISCOVERING A NEW CREATIVITY BASED ON OUR OWN UNIQUE CALLING, PASSION, AND GIFTS
- FROM "MY CHURCH" TO "WE THE CHURCH"
- FROM HANGING OUT IN THE CHRISTIAN GHETTO TO SHARING HIS LIFE OUT IN THE WORLD
- FROM MISSIONAL PROJECTS TO MISSIONAL LIVING
- FROM PROJECT PLANNING TO PRAYER MOVEMENTS
- FROM FINDING MY IDENTITY IN "MY" CHURCH, "MY" MINISTRY, OR "MY" MOVEMENT TO FINDING MY FULL IDENTITY IN SIMPLY BEING HIS--HIS CHILD--HIS BELOVED
The differences are simple. We mostly want students to live a life that is about living by faith in God. You can continue to pray that our students will stay in the growing process. My fear is that they are just resorting to what is comfortable; socials, hanging out in Christian packs and ministry events and miss the great joy of hearing from God and responding. My fear as a leader is that I will resort to controlling them and not leading them to this point. I don't want to get to a point where I fill their days with ministry so they are doing something. Pray that I am comfortable with the success of this project is that students are struggling with the deeper heart issues of following Christ.
Categories: LongBeach, Leadership, Coaching, SimpleChurch
2 comments:
Man, that was a sweet entry. Thanks for being so open; it's inspiring.
How is it going? How are the students sorting out: the difference between programed growth and discipline growth, the tension between free time and ministry time, etc.?
-Ethan Wiekamp
The students are doing well. There are frustrations, anger, confusion, blaming, the victim mentality b/c they are saying they are not getting teaching, being fed, etc. The great thing is that as we have told them from the beginning this is about them hearing from the Lord, owning the mission and asking God, "what do you have for me today?" So all in all they are growing and learning not to depend on the Christian culture or professionals but to really fall on their knees before God and seek Him for mercy. They are also realizing they need to step up and lead much earlier than just when the staff leave. So, I'm pleased by what has been surfaced. I don't think all the programs, activities and staff ownership would have surfaced these tensions. We tend to use those as band aids for deeper issues. Pleased, learning, growing and trusting God is where I'm trying to live.
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