We (Sandy and I) have signed the contract on a new house - actually the old plantation with the land. So the retreat center journey begins. It is exciting. Here is a prayer that I heard at the conference we went to - I think that it is appropriate -

Disturb us, Lord, when We are too pleased with ourselves, When our dreams have come true Because we dreamed too little, When we arrived safely Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
with the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord, to dare more boldly,
To venture on wilder seas
Where storms will show Your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.

We ask you to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push back the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.

This we ask in the name of our Captain,
Who is Jesus Christ.

- Sir Francis Drake (1577)

"When we have no impressive buildings and no swollen budgets to sustain our work, often then do we realize the best we have to offer this post-Christendom world is the quality of our relationships, the power of our trustworthiness, and the wonder of our generosity. " - Mike Frost, Exiles

+Take my poor heart, and let it be
Forever closed to all but thee;
Seal thou my breast, and let me wear
That pledge of love forever there. Amen

-Prayers of John Wesley

I received this book - Permission Granted to Do Church Differently today I have read a little - it is a great book - from a prophetic guy named Graham Cooke - he has been sensing from God the things that the Vineyard (our church) have been sensing. It would be a great book for people to read that do not have an understanding of missional church and where we are going (as the universal church) - we are encountering nothing less than a third reformation of the church... it is incredible what the Holy Spirit is doing.

Those of you who received this as an email - I put you on a notification list when I post on my blog so you can kinda keep up with my thoughts..

I have been doing school this semester and I have been taking a pretty full load. It has been challenging and stretching - but I am enjoying it.

Sandy and I have a great deal going on in our lives which has a tendency to stress us both out. But I see good things coming in the future. I am looking forward to the retreat center - but getting there can be a real pain sometimes.

Interestingly - in the Bible there are three day cycles. Jesus, - three days and then the resurrection , Jonah- three days in the fish, Esther - three days before going before the king, three days all over the place (HT Graham Cooke)

I think that as we leave the first day - which is death - and journey into the three day which is resurrection - there is hell in the middle so to speak. The 2nd day. The apostle's creed says as much:

"He descended into hell." - Apostle's creed.

So I guess that was the second day. Catholic saint St. John of the Cross called it the "dark night of the soul" - so maybe as a great deal of people I know are in this "day" maybe that is what is going on?

Alan Hirsch of Shaping of Things to Come and future release The Forgotten Ways is blogging now. It is great to be able to read such great minds on the internet.

Michael Frost at the Mission conference that we attended discussed Missional rhythms that his community embraced. He advocated that each respective community pray about what could be some missional rhythms in their body. Here are the rhythms - they are pretty profound.

Find a Third place to infiltrate with a group of people. i.e. a pub, a cafe, PTA, club etc.

then begin to practice these things.
Blessings - bless three people a week - 1) a unbeliever 2) a believer 3) either of the first two
E- Eat - eat like crazy with people - unbelievers, believers etc.
L- Listen to the Spirit - discern - what is God saying to you?
L- Learning - he encouraged us to saturate our selves in the gospels - learning Jesus - watching him in the gospels - how he acted/what he did - what he said/ how he loved/ how he did mission - where he went.. etc.
S- Sentness - the need to engage in mission - going where Jesus would go.

we are beginning to pray and think about what our missional rhythms would be in our community. I think that several of these are good -but we need to add or adapt some of these to our context.

The conference that we went to this past weekend - was an incredible experience. It was almost like getting "saved" again (actually I was - from my misplaced understanding of "church")

Basic concepts -

Our Christology (doctrine of Christ) informs our missiology (doctrine of mission) which informs our ecclesiology(our doctrine of the church.) In simple terms being like Christ informs our ways of being in the world which informs our way of doing church. So often in our "church world (Christendom for short) our doctrine of the church informs how we do evangelism.

Also from a book that I am reading by one of the guys at the conference (Michael Frost - Exiles ) this interesting comparison...
Evangelistic - monologue, presentation with doctrinal points, formulaic
Incarnational - Dialogue, exchange of ideas, communicated through various conversations and experiences

Also the whole concept of third places and missional rhythms... I will blog more on these later with more detail.

Wrote a paper the past few weeks that was due today on a sythesis between healing prayer and spiritual direction. It does not go into great detail but covers the compatiblity of the two. It was a fun paper to write (as fun as a paper can be.)

This weekend my friend Joe and I went to Pasadena, Calif. for a conference on the missional church and also to check out Fuller Seminary. I really had a good time. The conference itself was awesome and actually stretched Joe and I further than we had been stretched before. I hope over the next few days to post some of the notes and also to post some of my thoughts about the conference and missional thinking in general.

here are some pics of pasadena...

Unfortunately I am not picture taker. I also took some pictures at the seminary as well. I really need to learn to take more pictures. Oh those pictures are from our hotel room - you can faintly see the mountains in the background.