Huddle help

We recognize it can sometimes be difficult to describe what a Huddle is (a discipleship vehicle we created) when talking to people in your church communities or friends in other churches. Well, here is a Wikipedia article on Huddles that will hopefully make that process a little easier for you.

 

You can follow that link by clicking here.

a Missional Community story

Ben Sternke is part of one of our 3DM Learning Communities, a 2 year track where churches journey together with 10-15 other churches and learn to put Mission and Discipleship at the heart of everything they do (that’s oversimplifying it, but you get the point). Ben is planting a church in Fort Wayne, IN, and recently did a really cool thing to help people get a taste for what Missional Community life could look like as they are all learning what MCs are all about. I asked him if he’d share with us and he has graciously done so.

Here it is. Also, Ben has a great blog and you can follow him here.

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Over the past seven months, our church plant has been shifting toward becoming a decentralized network of mid-sized missional communities (MCs). Because no one in our community had ever led, been part of, or even heard of MCs, one of the first steps in our process has been simply modeling what a MC looks/tastes/feels like.

We’ve done this by shifting from a weekly worship service to a more balanced “UP-IN-OUT” rhythm of gathering. We have two worship gatherings a month now, with a monthly community meal (with testimonies) and a monthly “Day OUT” where we seek to serve and bless people in a practical way.

Our first few Days OUT were fairly standard “service projects”: helping a single woman get some work done on her garage, hosting an ice cream social for a low-income apartment complex, handing out hotdogs at a park, etc. These were great for getting people outside their comfort zones and begin confronting some of their fears, hopefully getting the “mission juices” flowing, but I knew there was a lot more to MCs than simply doing a monthly service project. I knew there needed to be a kind of “social space” dynamic going on at a MC gathering, but I wasn’t really sure how to begin modeling something like that.

I was talking to a friend about this, and casually mentioned that for my birthday this year I had started a charity:water fundraising campaign, asking people to give $35 to charity:water to build wells in developing nations instead of buying gifts for me. He suggested I host a birthday party/fundraising event, and use it to model what a MC gathering could look like.

Ideas started percolating and plans grew from there. We told our community about the plan and asked them to invite friends who might be interested in a party and supporting a great cause. We booked a local singer/songwriter to do some live music in our living room. We made sure there was plenty of food and created a relaxed “social space” atmosphere.

We asked our community to come 30 minutes before the party officially started. We sang a song, read the Scriptures together, prayed for one another and took communion together. Then people started coming in for the party. There were probably 60 people in our house. Kids were running all over the place. People were everywhere, eating together and engaging in conversations in every room in the house (and the backyard).

We heard some great live music and gave people an opportunity to give to the campaign (which ended up raising over $1,500 for clean water projects). Christians and Non-Christians mingled, rubbed shoulders, and conversed for hours. We even had people stick around to help clean up (that’s when you know community is starting to take root!).

It was a great introduction to MC life for our community, and a great experience for me learning to facilitate these kinds of gatherings, where we learn to be “spiritual but not religious” about our faith in Jesus. People are slowly starting to get a picture of what a MC can look/taste/feel like.

 

Missional Communities book…it’s here!

Over 20 years ago I started working on a vehicle for discipleship and mission that has morphed, changed, been tweaked and now is being used in 6 continents…and we have finally published a book on all things Missional Communities.

I could not be more excited.

We wanted this book to be special. We wanted it to have theory and good theology, but also all of the practice and nuts-and-bolts information crucial for getting MCs off the ground. Theory. Theology. A launch guide. The ins-and-the-outs of MC life. Case Studies. An incredibly helpful appendix. This is about giving people something practical.

We wanted it to be substantive, but beautiful. So rather than a normal book layout, it’s the size and layout of a magazine. Yet it’s hard to call something a magazine that is 228 pages and 100,000 words. You can see the pictures below (and definitely click on each picture to get a closer look!)

All this to say…we are incredibly proud of what we accomplished in putting this together. And we think you will love it. You can pick up your copy here.

success in Huddles

In case you missed it in the last post, we have some free extra chapters in the book Building a Discipling Culture that will go in all future print runs that walk through what a Huddle is, why it works, advice on starting one and using it to disciple people, how it’s different than a small group and some sample Huddle outlines. You can download that here.

Earlier today we got this email from one of the pastors at a church we are working with. The email is from a seminary grad who attends the church and is reflecting on his Huddle experience:

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I’ve discovered that my identity in Christ is that of a shepherd.

God has continually confirmed my path as a shepherd. He has also revealed the simple truth that I can be a disciple, I am a disciple, and that He wants me to be a disciple. Why I ever thought this was just something for the original twelve I’ll never know. Through simple shapes like triangles, squares, and a pentagon that illustrates biblical concepts, I’ve learned more about discipleship in the last couple of months than my entire life combined, including the grueling time I’ve spent at Asbury Seminary.

I was hesitant about another new model and diagram but Lifeshapes have turned out to be just the opposite. There is nothing new or fancy about them. They’re simple biblical concepts illustrated by simple shapes.
These are my LifeShape takeaways. I’ve learned to…
1.   be fruitful and rest through a semi-circle.
2.   make sense of significant events in my life through a full circle.
3.   balance my relationship with God and people through a triangle
4.   journey in discipleship with others through a square
5.   discover who I am in Christ through a pentagon
6.   pray effectively through a hexagon
7.   grow with the church through a heptagon
8.   and practice a missional life through an octagon

Huddles, Huddles, Huddles

In future print runs of Building a Discipling Culture, we will be including a few extra chapters on what Huddles are, how they are different from small groups, why Huddles work, how to start Huddles and use them to disciple people, how Huddles spiritually form people, as well as some sample Huddle outlines. (see an excerpt below)

Basically, we want to do everything we can to help people put discipleship at the center of everything they do and have the best resources available for making this happen.

So here’s what we are doing: If you click on this link, it will take you to our website and you can download a PDF of these extra chapters FOR FREE.

That’s right. For a short time, we’re giving you the PDF free of charge. You will need to go through the checkout process on the website, but you won’t have to give any credit card information or anything like that.

Here’s a quick excerpt from these extra chapters on how Huddles are different than Small Groups.

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How is it different than a Small Group?

Huddles do have a few similarities to Small Groups, most notably, they are similar insize (4-10 people), meet regularly and at the same location. However, there are some key differences as well.

Differences:

· Huddles are not open to “the public.” They are a group of people who are committed to attending each Huddle and are invited to be a part of the group by the leader. Huddles donʼt grow by adding more people to an existing Huddle. Huddles grow when current members start a Huddle of their own.

· Huddle leaders act as the primary disciplers of the members of the group, not as facilitators. They are giving their lives as something worth imitating, giving their members access to all parts of their lives. Huddle leaders are inviting the members of the Huddle to imitate the parts of their lives that look like the life and ministry of Jesus.

· In Small Groups, creating a warm, friendly environment with few-to-no challenges is the most important thing as new people might be attending. In contrast, the job of the Huddle leader ultimately isnʼt to create the warmest, most comfortable environment. It is to create an environment that is a safe place to be honest, but one of accountability, learning, encouragement and challenge. It is not uncommon for a Huddle leader to say something that might be difficult for someone to hear, but it is said in love for the sake of transformation.

· People miss Small Groups if things come up or perhaps they may not feel like attending that night. In Huddles, the expectation is that you never miss a Huddle unless it is absolutely unavoidable. Huddle leaders hold their members accountable to this.

· Small Groups often revolve around particular curriculums, DVDs or a very specific Bible study theme/topic often decided by the group as a whole. The direction and trajectory of Huddles are guided by where the Huddle leader feels the Holy Spirit is leading the group and by the particular Kairos moments the people within the group are experiencing.

and the winner is…

We had TONS of responses to our “pick a caption” contest for a free copy of the newly released Covenant and Kingdom book, but here is our winner (with two honorable mentions also, who get a sturdy pat on the back).

Our winner?

Ted Doering, with his caption: Each night before he retreats into slumber, Jedidiah Beauregard Jackson III, self proclaimed chieftain of West Bracken County, KY, surveys his lands from his ivory tower.

Ted, we’ll be in touch!

Honorable Mentions:

Mark Maloney-I think this situation could be perfectly represented by a dodecahedron.

Ben Kesselring-Redneck treehouse.

my co-author for LMC

As many of you know, we’re getting ready to release what we hope will be one of the definitive books on MCs: Launching Missional Communities–a field guide.

I’ve co-authored this book with Alex Absalom who has worked with MCs extensively, both in the UK and here in the United States. A little while ago Alex started a blog on all things Missional Communities and wanted you guys to have access to his wealth of knowledge. Here’s his blog!

free Covenant + Kingdom giveaway

As I’ve said before, C+K is now available for purchase and they are flying off the shelves. You can pick it up here.

We’re also happy to announce that we will be helping out churches who want to do sermon series for their churches w/ Covenant and Kingdom. For churches that would like to do a 6 week series, we are going to provide sermon/teaching notes, a weekly reading schedule for the people in the church, powerpoint slides and Small Group/Huddle discussion guides. Basically, everyone in your congregation purchases the book and reads along in it as the sermon series goes along. We’ve found the best way to set a foundation of theology in communities with C+K is the interplay between teaching, discussion and personal reading. If you’d like more info, email us at info@weare3dm.com.

But for a blog special, we are giving a copy of C+K away this week, and here’s all you have to do: Below is a pretty random picture that’s missing a caption. Whoever leaves the funniest caption for this picture in the comment section gets a free copy of C+K.

Let the games begin!

having fun with Alan Hirsch at Catalyst

stop by at Catalyst

The 3DM team (including me) are going to be at Catalyst for the week. If you’re there,
feel free to stop by our booth!