Finding Life in the Middle of Nowhere

Every year, Sam Metcalf – the President of Church Resource Ministries - hosts a weeklong retreat for about 20 developing male leaders within CRM. Because CRM (NieuCommunities is just one the many ministries within CRM) has missionaries scattered all around the globe, these leaders come from a wide variety of ministries yet all end up on one houseboat in close to the middle of nowhere.

I had the honor of being invited on this year’s trip, which takes place on the boarder of Utah and Arizona at Lake Powell. Although a grueling drive, it was a week that refreshed my soul. There is something sacred about being completely removed from the realities of life/ministry/school, while being surrounded by a group of people who share common passion for Jesus and the mission he has called each of us into.

We played in the water, ate great food, challenged and encouraged each other as we shared stories and spent significant time in prayer. We submitted ourselves to the reign of Jesus and prayed for wisdom, healing, and vision in each of our lives and the ministries that each represents. It felt as though each moment was an opportunity to worship the Creator as we were surrounded by breathtaking scenery. At the end of the week, we sat on the end of the lake, shared in communion and Sam prayed a blessing over each one of us.

Instead of being the leader of a week of “summer camp,” I had the opportunity to simply be one of the students. Amazing!

In the end, the time was a divine affirmation that Janny, Ruby and I are living and serving in the exact ways God would want us to in this time of our lives. And it made clear that it is an extreme honor to serve within an organization like CRM and alongside the group of people that make it up.

Food, Neighbors and Common Mission

At our annual “Covenanting Retreat” down in Mexico a couple months ago, we committed to a variety of initiatives that would extend our influence as Kingdom representatives in our neighborhood, city and across the border in Mexico. One such initiative was to be more intentional in building rich relationships with the families and local churches in greater Golden Hill.

We recently hosted a neighborhood meal in the local park where we invited anyone we had met in the neighborhood; whether on the streets, at the park or in a local business. Ordering up some tamales from a nearby vendor, we were able to feast upon good food and conversation.

Another aspect of this initiative is to seek out ways to expand our influence and support of local church leadership. So often the leadership of our local churches find themselves leading endless worship services, but rarely have the opportunity to simply be a participant within a worship service. Because NieuCommunities’ ties cross denominational lines and because we meet in our homes, it gives us a unique opportunity to be a neutral support and advocate to the local Church. After our neighborhood meal, we hosted a worship service consisting of prayer, music and liturgy. The leadership from multiple local churches was represented and it was a beautiful picture of the Church moving forward as one unit on a common mission.

Making Community Real

This past weekend, NieuCommunities San Diego hosted a series of "conversations" that focused on building deep community as disciples of Jesus. While all NieuCommunities' staff and apprentices are required to go through this series of teachings, we were able to open them up to local churches, pastors and small group leaders. These are the titles and brief descriptions of each session:

“Towards Community,” we explored the stages of community and what it takes to move well through each stage.

“Myths of Community,” we looked at the myths (and realities) of community and talk about setting healthy, realistic expectations of community.

“Fellowship of the Mat,” we considered how to love each other well and create a sustainable, missional community.

Living in deep community can get messy and requires lots of communication and common commitment. It is being willing to release some personal ideals for the sake of the common ideals that God is calling us into. With that said, if we run from the hard stuff, we will never be around long enough to experience the richness of shared life and vocation.

Finally, we made clear that "deep community" is not the end goal. No, the end goal is a deeper communion with God and participation in his Kingdom. With that said, as disciples of Jesus, participating in deep community is a context that enables such communion and participation to take place.

It was a challenging, encouraging and hopeful time of learning alongside fellow Church leaders in San Diego.

Fall Kickoff

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As a community that exists to train and send missional Church leaders, we will spend the next two months of our study and practice in what we call Life Compass. During our Sunday night church gatherings, we are studying the early church as seen through the book of Acts. Tuesday night is our training time and takes a much more academic/practical application element. Throughout a variety of activities/study on our own during the week, we are able to come together, share and receive training in both of these gatherings.

Our Life Compass kickoff was held out in the hills of east San Diego as we did some orienteering. On teams of 4 or 5, we were only given a compass and some basic info to navigate through a course that had 10 check point stations. After two hours, a taranchula siting and lots of weeds in our socks, we were able to process the experience as it relates to the importance of ones vocation aligning with the values of God's Kingdom and our individual gifts/skills.

Each going through a variety of tests that offer insight in our personality, leadership, passion, relationships, etc. we spent last night creating personal time lines that highlight the most formational moments/interactions/experiences to who we are today. It was a profound activity that forces us to acknowledge that we must reflect/remember our past in order to develop a clear understanding of where we are headed.

We can see this being a great season of personal exploration and discovery, while at the same time being a rich context for growing deep relationships with those on mission along side of us.

Oh, and no, Baby H, STILL hasn't arrived:)

A Bit More About Nieucommunities

As we continue to invite you into our story as part of Nieucommunties, I thought it would be helpful to share a couple more aspects of Nieucommunties.

Road Trip: (I stole most of this "road trip" explanation from my friend Matt Chapman!)

While Nieucommunites is centered around a one year apprenticeship designed to develop Church leaders, they also host short term experiences that are designed to offer a "crash course" into what it means to be an apprentice with Nieucommunities. These short term trips are called "road trips" and our community here in San Diego hosted one this past week. Participants came from all over California and Washington to experience life with those of us that live in Golden Hill, receive training and consider whether a full year commitment may be something God is leading them towards.

One or our hopes for this trip was that this experience would change the trajectory of their lives or reaffirm existing convictions that God had put on their heart in regards to their calling. We also hoped to give them some tools so they might be more equipped to live a life of mission in their own neighborhoods.

Over the course of the 5 days, they experienced neighborhood picnics, an unknown side of Tijuana, and several learning sessions on topics such as submerging, the Kingdom of God, and culture. They also had a chance to make a timeline of their life in order that they might see how God has worked in the past and what he might be calling them too.

On the last day of this experience we began to see our hopes for this experience become reality as participants shared what God was stirring up in their hearts. Some shared that they want to pursue missions as a vocation, others shared they want to begin to multiply leaders as they continue to mentor others, and some shared that God is challenging them to give up pursuing a career that will make them wealthy in order to pursue a life of mission.

Picnic in the Park:

Everyone apart of Nieucommunities has made a commitment to live missional lives. Central to being missional is understanding that God's mission has been and continues to be one of redemption and healing. Living missionally assumes that we advance God's Mission by bringing redemption and healing to our community through our words and deeds. Like Jesus (the culmination of God's missional movement towards his people) taking residency among humanity, we hope to take residency in the lives/stories of our neighborhood as a way to invite others into the transforming and redemptive way of Jesus.

So, with partcipants of Nieucommunities living out mission in the local schools, half way homes, restaurants, homeless communities and refugee settlments there are all sorts of interesting people we are able to share life with. One of the ways we create a place for all these people to get to know each other is through a regular meal and gathering at the local park. It is called "Picnic in the Park." Janny and I were able to attend our first one this past weekend. From homeless friends to high schoolers, we all gathered to feast on locally made tamales, laugh, pray and enjoy the sunshine. It was the type of setting I picture when I think of Jesus' saying that all are invited to his banquet table.