New Date

Thank you guys for being so patient and understanding with our having to reschedule last Friday night. It was a huge encouragement to the family to be able to have their friends around them over the weekend. So thanks for allowing us that space to go and minister.

The good news is we’ve rescheduled. Our next gathering is going to be 2 weeks from now. The time and place are below.

Tad and Kimberly Thompson’s
February 10th
7:00 pm

On that night we’ll give you guys the dates/locations for next few months so that you can more properly plan for these nights. And hopefully, it will allow us to get a little momentum. This thing is still really alive and fresh in mine and Anna’s heart. And as we continue to talk to our friends around us, we are getting more and more excited about what this could be and turn into. But just know that we hate not being able to get together as much as you do. But our vision for this ministry is growing sharper and clearer by the day. And we look forward to 2 weeks from now so that we can share about all the things that God is doing and doors that he’s opening up.

So dream big. Email or call us if you have any questions. And keep hope that there is a “higher” way of doing, thinking, living, and being.

Postponing

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are going to be postponing our gathering on Friday night. Art Nelson, passed away early this morning from a heart attack. Art is married to Marilynn and have 2 sons, Matt and Ross and is a pastor at North Lanier. Matt and his wife Renee and son Trevor are members of Cross Pointe and are in Kathy and Howard and Tad and Kimberly's class. So please remember them in your prayers in the coming days.

We will be in touch in the next couple of days to let you know when we will reschedule. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Movement Two

I just wanted to remind everyone about this Friday night. We’re going to meet at 7:00 and we’ve changed our location for this week. We’ll be gathering at Tad and Kimberly Thompson’s house. Directions are attached.

I’m also attaching a 1 page excerpt from the book that I mentioned previously. If you would please take the time to read over this (its only one page) before we get together that would be huge. This will be our first “official” gathering so it’s going to look like whatever we, as a collective, want it to look like. The night will be driven by our thoughts and conversations regarding the topic. So please come prepared to discuss and think and share.

We’re going to be discussing the idea of belonging before believing and how that was a central aspect of Jesus’ ministry and how we can move towards that same perspective. We’ll also talk a little about how important it is to maintain a generous and loving spirit when disagreements do arise within those who differ from us.

So just be thinking along those lines and come prepared to share whatever thoughts, struggles, hope, frustrations, or fears you have about that topic. If you have any questions or need better directions, call me or Anna at 404.376.5068.

Below is the article that I sent out in the email. If you're not getting the emails and you want to, please let me know.

______________________________________________________________________
Excerpts were taken from The Celtic Way of Evangelism by George G. Hunter III

Excerpted from pages 53-44
Bluntly stated, the Roman model for reaching people (who are “civilized” enough) is: (1) Present the Christian message; (2) Invite them to decide to believe in Christ and become Christians; and (3) If they decide positively, welcome them into the church and its fellowship. The Roman model seems very logical to us because most American evangelicals are scripted by it! We explain the gospel, they accept Christ, we welcome them into the church! Presentation, Decision, Assimilation. What could be more logical than that?

But you already know enough to infer the (contrasting) Celtic model for reaching people: (1) You first establish community with people, or bring them into the fellowship of your community of faith. (2) Within fellowship, you engage in conversation, ministry, prayer, and worship. (3) In time, as they discover that they now believe, you invite them to commit.

We can contrast the two models on a chart:

Roman Model
Presentation
Decision
Fellowship

Celtic Model
Fellowship
Ministry and Conversations
Belief, Invitation to Commitment

The Celtic model reflects the adage that, for most people, “Christianity is more caught than taught!” For most people, “belonging comes before believing.”

Excerpted from page 97
* Hunter is making the point that those who are on the outside of a particular culture are often thought of as barbaric, in the same way that those outside of Roman civilization and culture were considered to be barbaric. His point is not that those who aren’t “churched” are barbaric but that the church often treats this group that way because they don’t fit the walls of our current church culture.

Most churches assume (though this is seldom verbalized) that the postmodern “New Barbarians”* are unreachable, because they are not “civilized” enough to become “real” Christians. Remarkably, most churches assume this in a time when the “New Barbarians” are often the most receptive people in our communities; many are searching “in all the wrong places” for the kind of life they yearn for. The typical church ignores two populations, year after year: the people who aren’t “refined” enough to feel comfortable with us, and the people who are too “out of control” for us to feel comfortable with them!

movement two: towards hope

I just wanted to issue you guys another invitation. We’re going to be gathering again Friday, January 27th at 7:00 pm. Tad and Kimberly Thompson have graciously offered us their home for the evening. They live between the Mall of Georgia and Lawrenceville on Hwy. 20. I’ll email directions out next week.

We’ve also bumped the time back about 30 minutes to allow everyone time to get home from work and to make that transition. And we’ve added another wrinkle to the food situation. Instead of doing a full-fledged dinner, we’re going to do some “heavy” appetizers, like cheese sticks or something along those lines. And we’ll still have coffee and hot chocolate.

For this gathering, we’re going to be discussing movement two: towards hope. This conversation will have a couple of aspects. The first will be on how do we engage with those that disagree with us. On what levels should we engage? How should we engage? Why should we engage? As we discuss this, we’ll take a look at the idea of “belonging before believing” and how that differs from the philosophy of many churches and Christians where their mantra is believe “rightly” before you belong.

The second side of our conversation will focus on what happens when our engagement with those that are different than us begins to turn to opposition or disagreement. We’ll ask ourselves the question of how should we remain positive in the midst of negativity.

So hopefully, that should get your thoughts going. I’m probably going to send out a 2 or 3 page excerpt from the book, The Celtic Way of Evangelism, by George Hunter, in the next couple of days. This excerpt should give you a little bit of background about what we mean when we say “belong before you believe”. And hopefully, it will spark some thoughts and conversation next Friday.

And as always, invite any one who you think might be interested in a conversation like this. And if you have any questions, give me a call, email, or post a comment. Look forward to hearing from you.

Kavod.

Next Gathering

I'm going to send out more information Monday. But I wanted to go ahead and let you know that our next gathering will be Friday, January 27th at Tad and Kimberly Thompson's house.

We're still trying to decide on a time and whether or not we will do dinner or just dessert. But I'll update you on Monday.

Plotting Kindness (I stole that from Brian McLaren and liked it so there),
Josh

An Invitation

Thank you guys so much for coming and listening to our hearts Friday night. I think we had between 25 and 30 of our closest friends around us as we shared with you our dream of what a new kind of faith community can and should look like. I'll be sending out an email later in the week with an update on where our next gathering will be and what the topic of discussion will be. So stay tuned to the blog.

Also the name of the book that I recommended was Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. Borders has been carrying them for a while. But Amazon is a little cheaper.

Below is kind of a recap of what I shared from our heart on Friday night to the best of my recollection. I hope you enjoyed it and pass it on to anyone who you think might be interested.

This is how it started for us, everything that had been on our hearts as we had been sharing during our engagement and all the things that were opening up to us as we creatively dreamed, kind of started taking shape for us on our honeymoon. We met a great couple from Wisconsin, Mike & Jill, (hey Schwenzen’s if you’re reading). And while on our honeymoon of all places, we began to have some really stimulating and inspiring conversations with total strangers, about life, marriage, God, culture, church, Packers football. As we walked away from that week with our new friends, we began to realize that what we had just experienced was something along the lines of authentic community. And what saddened me and Anna was that it was one of the few times that we had ever experienced something so genuine and deep. Something that transcended normal modes and levels of relationship.

On top of that, I had recently had an experience with a couple of dental hygienists. When they found out what church I went to and that I was a Christian, they told me a story about a member of our church who had come in there and made them feel really uncomfortable. This member went in there and attacked them and made them feel condemned. So their conversation with me was how they were surprised that I would go to a church with people like that, and secondly, they were surprised that I was “normal”. I then proceeded to have a great conversation with them about God and how despite how some Christians and churches can come off at times, does not mean that God is all bad or can automatically be equated with Christians, who at times mess up.

As I left, I began to realize that there was no way that these two hygienists would ever come with me to my church. And on top of that, I realized that Mike and Jill, and me and Anna would never be able to have the types of conversations we had were we in a typical church setting.

So we had that aspect of things kind of stirring in us. And then we had this personal side to the story, where naturally for us, this things is really, really personal. Because we’re always serving or because of various other reasons, Anna and I very rarely have a chance to get encouraged and hang out with “normal” Christians (oxymoron I know). On top of that there is no forum that gives us the space to think and rethink about what it means to be a Christian in our current context.

Over the last few months, we had been having these same types of conversations with friends. With Nick and Leslie, we met another young couple who was wrestling and dealing with the same types of tension that we were. With Tad and Kimberly, we would sit in a Krispy Kreme parking lot, freezing in the cold, just to dream and talk. With Ashley and Kelly, we sat in front of the fireplace talking about homosexuality and how to define and embrace those who are different than us.

After all of these conversations we left feeling hopeful, encouraged, and inspired. Three emotions that Anna and I very rarely felt in our current context. So we decided to do something about it. To no longer not feel those things. But to experience them in the midst of authentic community, or at least our best attempt at it.

We wanted a place where we could be real and honest. We wanted a place where we could engage with deeper questions instead of sugar coated points. And we wanted a place where we cared more about being good, faithful, and kind than being right.

So we’re starting this thing for 2 reasons: for the people who aren’t “connected” with God like we “think” they should be and who would never step foot in most churches. And secondly, for ourselves.

So as we started thinking about how best to do this, I ran across 3 questions that a church in Michigan continually is asking itself.

Three Questions

1.) Who is Jesus among us?
- What does His “flesh among us” look like? When people think of Jesus, what pictures comes to mind?

2.) Why did He come to town?
- What is His agenda for our context, for our lives, for our money, for our time?

3.) How do we organize ourselves in response?

In response to QUESTION ONE, we realized that the “Jesus” among us, is oftentimes a highly distorted picture of the real Jesus. The church and Christians have said Jesus is condemning, judgmental, Republican, hates gays, enjoys sending people to hell, likes to say no, etc. This distorted picture leads them to see church as irrelevant or even worse. They may believe in God or are spiritual, but they just don’t see how church fits into the equation.

So to counteract those negative pictures of Jesus, we want this environment to be one that creates a “Jesus” among us that is hopeful, encouraging, loving, patient, serving, etc.

In response to QUESTION TWO, Christians usually think that Jesus came to town in order to promote politics, individualism, consumerism, a lack of justice, to “evangelize”, etc. And like a snowman that has to much dirt and straw and leaves in it to be able to be a true snowman, we now have a gospel that is getting pretty close to be completely foreign to the message of Jesus. That’s a big statement that really needs to be considered.

Anna and I have decided that this year we will have a faith that is characterized by risk and revolution. Too often we feel safe, like we’re just going through the motions. Never really do anything that is upside-down, or paradigm shifting. We feel more like we’re a part of a country club than a counter-cultural, life changing movement.

This is born out of a calling for us. Not out of pragmatics. Again, it’s highly personal. And tonight we simply wanted to get some of our closest friends together, who we think might be going through some of the same types of frustrations that we are. And we wanted to invite you to be a part of our calling.

Everything gets framed with hope. Nick’s blog alluded to this the other day. We’re not starting something for the sake of starting something. We’re creating something that better helps us translate God to the world, something that helps us better reflect. That helps us give a more accurate picture. And to find a faith that we can feel authentic with. Like we’re not selling out and becoming and condoning things we are not comfortable becoming or condoning.

So this my friends is your invitation.

Friday Night

(click on images to make them bigger and half-way readable)

Hey guys. I hate to bother you again but I wanted to remind you all about this Friday night.

Anna and I are somewhat impatiently anticipating the first Phoenix Project, and we're eager to get together. We’ve been talking to a lot of people and it’s really cool to see what is stirring in all of our hearts. And to see how we’re all finding ourselves on the same page.

We really hope you can all still make it, as well as any guests, friends, neighbors, or people on the street you'd like to invite. We thought it best to send out a little "reminder" e-mail. Attached is a set of directions to our house. Its going to be a really tight fit (from what we hear) for our small house, so we’re asking that you discover (or rediscover as the case may be) some of your redneck roots and bring a camp chair or a folding chair. You can even bring a recliner if you want. We don’t care.

We’re meeting around 6:30 for dessert and then we’ll have some conversation centered around movement one: dream.

So please bring a chair and either a dessert or a drink. We’ll provide the coffee, the cramped space, and the white board (oh yeah, we’re having a white board).

Call us if you need better directions than the ones attached. Better yet, call Anna. I tend to screen calls. Anna's cell is 404.376.5068.