Missional Communities, Part 4

I was privileged to be with the Test Pilot Missional Community for Families with Young Children. I looked around at each family and I was grateful that they understand that one of the greatest joys in life is helping our children form spiritually. I was moved by their desire to make memories with their children, rather than just drive them from activity to activity.

I think that in many ways we have made spiritual formation of our children a mysterious event that it takes an expert to accomplish. This is a lie. We know our children better than anyone else and as we take time to listen to God for our children we have the awesome privilege to help move them towards his path for their lives. We get to help discover those dreams that God has planted within them and to begin to point them towards exposure, training and development of them.

Our daughter Bonnie has 3 passions: mothers and babies, the poor and disenfranchised, and other cultures. She is currently in Guatemala training with YWAM. Her next step will be to go to Austrailia to be trained as a midwife for 3rd world countries.

When she was a baby, I was rocking her to sleep and I heard the Lord ask me to give her back to him. I naively said "of course Lord" without understanding what that question really meant. To give Bonnie back to the Lord means to intentionally help her walk in her passions which means that 99.9% she won't live next door to Bill and I through out her life. This is a sacrifice for us, but it will also be a joy as we watch her thrive in living out her God-given dreams.

My prayer for each family that takes the step to join a Family Community is that they will have the privilege of watching their children step into their dreams and fly with them, rather than watching them struggle because they are on a different path than God ever intended for them to live.

Experiencing "The Shack"

I've been told by a couple of people to read "The Shack." I bought it and put it on my nightstand to start reading when I was done with my current book. I had little expectation that this book would be anything beyond some of the more cheesy Christian books I'd been directed to read in the past few years.

I was wrong.

This book drew me in and wouldn't let me come back out until it was finished. It's a story, but it's the story of God given in a post-modern day setting. I kept thinking while I was reading it that it is a powerful tool for the 21st century. In the midst of the book, almost every theological idea is presented, but it is done in such a disarming way that anyone can read it and experience the power of the story within it.

Last night our neighbors came over for dinner. I had spent the better part of the afternoon reading it so I started talking about what was happening to me as I read it. She enthusastically said, "I want to read it."

I seriously want to buy a 100 copies and pass it out. It's this good.

So, take time and order your copy, and a couple of others because you will want to pass it on too. It's "The Shack: Where Tragedy Confronts Eternity" by William P. Young. Get it today!

Missio Lux Highlight

Becoming a Healing Prayer Minister with Missio Lux is a very big commitment. It involves 8 months of weekly training, along with 3 weekend trainings, weekly homework challenges and memorization of Scriptures, as well as weekly ongoing participation after the training is complete.

Yet, despite the challenge of the commitment, so many people want to be part of the Healing Prayer Team. They are drawn by a few things:
the community on the team
the specific mission to pray for people to become free
the amazing passion for the Lord that people on the HP team carry

Tuesday night we commissioned the second training class.

It was amazing. The existing team prayed over the new team, so everyone was prayed for 13 times!

I left that night feeling like a new Mom giving birth. The pain of the training (at times) was quickly forgotten by seeing the new baby: the Commissioned Healing Prayer Ministers.

When I was driving home, I sensed the Lord's celebration too. It seems he was saying, "We did it! Isn't it exciting to see what took place." I felt his smile of approval on me.

Now, we look ahead to see how God is going to use this team. We meet monthly on the 4th Tuesday of the month at Pine Lake Covenant at 7 p.m. We exist to serve our whole community; to be a community resource so that everyone on the Eastside of Seattle can experience the freedom and hope Jesus offers through being prayed for and receiving healing.

We are also ready to move out in anyway that we feel directed to go. I can't wait to see where we will be a year from today! Let's tell those stories along the way.

Sunday Morning 9:00 a.m.

I've been having the best times on Sunday mornings. After so many years of spending Sunday mornings in a church building, I am discovering how worshipful it can be outside the building. This week I was spending time with Jesus outside on my deck and a young man from Korea that ended up staying with us came outside and asked me an innocent question: "Aren't you a pastor? Shouldn't you be at church now?"

I was able to tell him about Missio Lux, but even greater I told him the Gospel story! He said that he had never heard it before. His openness was palpable. I had the sense when I was talking to him that he had fertile soil in his spirit and the seeds were just dropping right in.

I didn't lead him to follow Jesus that morning, but I knew that my greatest act of worship that day was to give him the good news that Jesus loves him, that he came to earth to know him, that he was willing to die so that he could have a relationship with him, and that he was pursuing knowing him.

I wonder what will happen next Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m!

Measurements

When I meet new people and tell them about Missio Lux, they always ask two questions. Can you guess what they are?
1. Where are you meeting?
2. How many people do you have?

These questions frustrate me because it seems that people want to put measurements on Missio Lux that don't fit. We consider Missio Lux a lifestyle: one that experiences and shares the freedom and hope of Jesus with everyone we meet. We choose to live by Jesus priorities.

Guess what? Jesus didn't have a place to meet. He met whereever people gathered and he lived in a way that made a huge impact whereever he was. He had compassion on people; he healed them, he taught them, he listened to them, he challenged them.

Jesus also didn't turn in number reports on Sunday mornings. He didn't count how people came to hear his teaching on the Sermon in the Mount. He didn't count how many turned up for the Palm Sunday parade into Jerusalem. The only thing he counted was his true followers; and that was because he was intentionally delegating Kingdom ministry to them.

Missio Lux will focus on this too. We will meet all over; in homes, parks, Starbucks, whereever we find a place of people gathered to know God, love each other and serve the world. We will meet in places of need so that we can offer hope. We will also look outward to the people in the world around us, rather than inward to count how many bodies walk through a door.

What matters, you see, is our lifestyle.
When we wake up, do we spend time with the one who created us to have a relationship with us?
When we move through our day, are we seeking to treat people with respect, honor and integrity?
When we come home to our families, do we look them in the eye and truly listen to them?

Let's tell stories of how God is teaching you to live the Missio Lux lifestyle. Because it's everywhere and growing as the fire catches on!

9:00 a.m. Sunday morning

I always felt uncomfortable driving out of my neighborhood on Sunday morning as I saw all my neighbors outside doing yardwork, talking to one another and basically experiencing neighborhood friendship. I always felt like I was missing the most prime opportunity to "join in" in the friendship.

Recently that changed. I met a woman that I am befriending at Starbucks at 9 a.m. Sunday morning. Our missional communities meet on Sunday afternoon so this is now a free hour in my life.

When our conversation ended, I felt like I had worshipped like never before. I was able to be with someone that Jesus misses desperately, listening to her, encouraging her and opening up to her about how following Jesus has changed my life.

She's still very leary of church. She's leary of Christians. She's been hurt before and so she stands on the outside looking in. But, now I can stand outside with her, and as we do that, I realize what a privilege it is.

Jesus chose to stand outside too. The very first miracle recorded after the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew is when Jesus healed the leper. He knew when he reached out and touched the leper that he was choosing to be on the outside. Jesus became unclean when he made that intentional decision to touch him. He had a huge ministry awaiting him, but he chose the path of the individual and compassion, rather than the fame and the big crowds.

I am really moved by that action. It seems the epitomy of the Gospel to me. Jesus reaching out to touch us in all our messiness, our pain, our suffering, our ugliness. He chose to live with us there instead of living the life of the religious establishment.

Missio Lux has the dream to first experience and then offer freedom and hope to everyone. Who is the person that Jesus is showing you to start with today? May your touch feel just like Jesus' touch~may it heal those that receive it.

Scot and Kim and the Apartment

Trying to find an apartment in Seattle has been a frustrating experience for Scot and Kim. They've been nomads for almsot 3 months now and Kim is really ready to get settled in one place.

So, after many false starts and lots of disappointments,Scot and Kim found an apartment they really liked but it it was expensive and didn't take pets (they have a 5 lb. dog that now plays with our 100 lb. Bernise Mtn. dog).

The woman that they applied to tried to get a hold of me as a reference but I didn't get the message so she googled me instead. When she googled me, the blog came up and guess what popped right up: Scot and Kim Come to Seattle!

She was able to read about them, research Missio Lux and find out more about their Aunt, me!

The amazing thing is the timing: I wrote that blog about Scot and Kim 30 minutes before she read it. Kim even came in and said, "Let's have dinner" and I replied, "I have one more thing to do first." It was to write the blog.

It turns out that the woman who had the apartment is a Christian, they do mission work in Africa, and she is very missional in her thinking.

God used this divine coincidence to reinforce to Scot and Kim that they are indeed meant to be in Seattle, that he has big plans for them with Missio Lux and that he is working all of it for his good and on their behalf.

This is a signpost that God put in their path. What sign posts do you have in your walk with Jesus? They can be the reminders when things get tough that all is well because Jesus has our backs covered.