Missio Lux goes to 3dm Learning Community

We always start the journey early: we left our homes before 4:00 a.m. on Sunday morning to make the long trek to South Carolina where 3dm is located in St. Pawley's Island, north of Charleston.

What is 3dm? It's a ministry that invests in church leaders to help us become faithful Jesus followers who pattern our lives after his life. They do this a variety of ways: first, by forming Learning Communities which come together four times over 2 years to build friendships and to learn from one another how to be the Church of Jesus to our world.

The four topics of learning over the two years are: discipleship, leadership, community, and mission.

The model for discipling leaders that 3dm advocates for is huddle. Huddle is an intentional discipling time where people who are serious about following Jesus are invited into a relationship with a leader. The leader commits themself to pour into those in their huddle and to teach them a language of discipleship through Lifeshapes. Lifeshapes is a simple process of using shapes to help us to learn and follow important discipleship concepts that Jesus taught.

Why do we need shapes to learn? We live in a visual culture. Jesus used everyday practical teaching methods in his oral cultures, we need to use visual concepts to help grasp Jesus' teaching for today.

You can learn a lot more about 3dm by visiting their website: http://www.weare3dm.com/

You may be asking why the relationship between Missio Lux and 3dm is so important. It's a great question!

Missio Lux is seeking to carve a new path in how we live out our faith in the 21st century in hopes of reaching people who do not yet know and follow Jesus, those that are burned out and tired of traditional church, and those that are suffering under the heavy burdens of life.

We need a strong foundation and we need a common language which will unite us wherever a missio community might land. Right now we have missio communities on the Eastside of Seattle and Denver and South Korea. All very different cultures, but with the common language of lifeshapes we can continue to communicate with one another!

We also need relationships with those who have similar vision of building missio communities to help us to go beyond a Sunday morning hello in both depth of friendship and breadth of mission. We need to remember that there are those that have gone before us who have seen great things happen for the kingdom of God as they have lived out missio community.

We envision an ever-expanding network of people connected in relationship, living by Jesus' priorities, so that our neighbors near and far can experience his unconditional love.

We value Missio Lux as a faith community focused on following Jesus' priorities for a lifestyle committed to knowing God, loving one another and serving the world. Where all three values intersect, God's heart beats in us bringing us to the sweet spot of life.

Our vehicle for developing an ever expanding network of people connected in relationship is the missio community which brings communities of people together for deep authentic friendship and meaningful ministry to the world.

Our vocabulary for developing Missio Lux is through huddle and lifeshapes. The Learning Circle is the core lifeshape and it helps us to observe and reflect on how God is seeking to get our attention through a kairos moment. We are then able to discuss with others how we are seeking to change our mind about our kairos moment, eventually leading us to a transformed life in the process of learning.

I can't wait to see all the ways that God will use 3dm to help Missio Lux be faithful to our call to experience and share the freedom and hope Jesus offers everyone. Stay tuned for more stories....they are fun to share.