Storying

Whew. My brain is mush, but I’m going to try to write a few thoughts right now to see if it will help me retain better.

The following is from a Church Planting seminar that I attended with Martin Jirku in Prague (Oct. 30-Nov 2) with Caesar Kalinowski, Todd Morr and many others.

Soma Communities are about 4 Identities and 6 rhythms. Those are:

IDENTITIES:
        1. Servant
        2. Learner
        3. Missionary
        4. Family

RHYTHMS:
        1. Story
        2. Listen
        3. Eat
        4. Celebrate
        5. Bless
        6. Recreate

Check out their web site - it’ll certainly make you think twice about how we “do church” and whether it’s really Biblically-based or not!

It’s an interesting approach to ministry - very fresh. I’m surprised how often I refer back to these identities and rhythms. For more information, check out their web sites: http://www.somacommunities.org

The Gospel

Here is one thought that came out of our training yesterday. I’m trying to catch my breath, ‘cause we’ve been hitting it hard and I’m only getting to bed by 1:00am or so and up at 6:25am. Guess I’ll be crashing on the train back home - but I did want to use that time for further prep for several things coming up in the next few weeks.


We need to keep a balance of the
        Power of the Gospel - (salvation) - Rom. 1:16
        Purpose of the Gospel - Eph. 2: 8-10 (to do the good works for which we have been created)

If there is an imbalance, these are the results:
        All power & no purpose - dead churches - saved & waiting for Heaven
        All purpose & no power - social gospel

Simple, no?

HIS Story

I am in Prague, Czech Republic. I am attending a “training event” for church planters lead by Todd Morr, who brought Caesar Kalinowski over from Soma Communities in Tacoma, WA. Yesterday, we spent all day going over God’s story as laid out in the Bible! Martin Jirku is with me - on purpose. He wants to plant a church in Zvolen (a town nearby Banska Bystrica) and I want to expose him to quality people who are already doing church planting so that he is challenged & encouraged in his vision to plant a multiplying church.

It was a lot of material, a lot of stories - 25 or so.

It is a narrative form of Bible teaching. The idea is to get the BIG idea of Scripture while at the same time building in key thoughts, doctrines, truths that are transferrable in the story form. I have to say that I believe that we are missing a big part of the believer’s relationship with Christ if we don’t have a good picture of His background, culture and the whole picture of Him as the Messiah.

If the whole Bible is about Christ, then it behooves us to understand very well how He is evident throughout the entire Bible.

I was also surprised how many times I thought, “Does the Bible really say that?” and, after further investigation and discussion, I would discover that it, indeed, did say what was in the narrative that we were hearing, repeating and discussing.

Today, we are going to be discussing & learning what it really means for a church to be “on mission” - to be missional. It is a popular word among churches & ministries right now, but the question is whether or not we are really doing it!

More later today - I hope! The schedule looks incredibly tight!