Hugh Halter

Hi Friends, quite a few folks ask us about our definition of “an incarnational community.”  In Adullam, we make sure people know that our goal is not to pump out IC’s or to get people to do IC’s.  The goal is that every person starts to grow toward being a more holistic IC, learning to integrate Inclusive Community, Meaningful Communion with God, and Pure mission to others.  Some start off as bible studies, some start off from a point of mission, and other groups start as simply a group of friends.  No matter where they begin, we coach them to become a fully functioning IC.   Here’s just an off the top of my head list of ways you can know you’re group is maturing.  Hope it helps. Feel free to add your own to my list and maybe we’ll come up with a good grid to help others with.

You know when you’re an incarnational community when:

* You have a group of friends who know they can come over, or call your cell phone without feeling like they’re bugging you.
* You look at your weekly calendar and can find at least one or two times that you’ll be seeing several of them.
* The question, “How’s it going?” is quickly followed by, “how can I help?”
* The same people you call for a movie night are the same ones you call for prayer, and the same ones that you find yourself helping others with.
* You can’t wait for your non-Christian friends to meet “your people.”
* You are as excited to throw a party together as you are about studying through the book of Romans…but you still like studying Romans.
* You watch each other’s kids and are on call for emergencies.
* You can think of a few people you’ve had to suggest they go “play church” somewhere else.
* You can’t find all your tools cuz they’ve been loaned out to people in your community.
* You find yourself taking a hike together on Sunday morning instead of just going to church.
* You meet together as a community to help serve the larger church gathering or network you’re a part of.   (If by chance you don’t think you should be a part of a larger congregational structure, you’ll probably heading for myopic land and you’ll be out of community all-together in a few months.)
* Everyone’s sniffed each others stinky socks (metaphor for knowing each others hidden secrets) and there’s now a freedom to just be yourself.
*Extroverts get to be extroverts and introverts can remain introverts.

*Your children feel like they are a part of the community instead of getting thrown into the basement to watch veggie tales until the big people are done talking.

*When needs come up within the sphere of your friends, your people quickly pool resources or commit time to help.

*When your house or the house of your community runs the social calendar for the neighborhood.

*When you can take a month off from meeting and pick up right where you left off.

As I keep adding or updating I’ll let you know.

I received an email from a pastor in Canada this week that I thought would be good to let you in on.

“This summer I became aware of “The Tangible Kingdom” community through Facebook. About four years ago I resigned from my established church and started a new church from scratch; no members, no money, no building. Our intent is to take a “friends first” approach to a relational-based model of creating a network of Christ communities. Until coming upon “The Tangible Kingdom,” I hadn’t found anyone exploring and experimenting in ways similar to what we’re pursuing. I’ve read a bit about “missional” and “incarnational” but often these terms come across to me as buzz words.

I am currently reading “The Tangible Kingdom” for the fourth time and I appreciate how your story articulates much of what we’re experiencing in our faith community. However, I’d like to learn more about how you promote financial expectations and giving in your faith networks. On page 174 you talk about “sacrificial giving.” Could you give me more detail of what that looks like in your community; in what tangible ways do you teach on and communicate an expectation for sacrificial giving of finances? Likewise we embrace a community of belonging where folks may ultimately believe. We enjoy some wonderful friendships and conversation circles. Yet any group of people needs some measure of structure. I’m not thinking in the strictest sense that I’m used to in pastoring previous churches, but how has Adullam worked through the issue of membership? Thanks for giving my questions your time and consideration. Larry

Hey Larry, let me address $ and membership separately and then pull them together.  As for money, Adullam has never taken offerings per se in our church gatherings, but we talk about money all the time.  I usually don’t address it in our main gatherings as people have come to trust that time to bring friends and we’ve tried to architect an environment that minimizes their expectations that church is about exploiting people for cash. But we address it on these three fronts.

First, when people come to the “Welcome to Adullam” talk that I refer to in the book, I always make a comment about how we do money. I explain how Adullam doesn’t have any full time staff or huge building expenses so we can operate pretty lean, but I encourage them to be counter-culture with us.  The greatest way to be counter-culture is to give sacrificially. I explain that I believe in the concept of a tithe and that from what I can gain from scripture and the words of Jesus, the tithe is God’s way of taking care of the world.  So I say, “I want every adullamite to work themselves toward tithing, but it’s like every other part of your faith walk and it comes in time.”   I then explain about the silent box that exists in our main gathering and ask them to be with us in giving.  At the same time, I also let them know that all their giving doesn’t have to go the general fund of adullam.  I suggest that they find ways to give spontaneously within the needs of their community or in their city or to initiatives they love in the world.

The second place it comes up is in a three week “soulace” experience that we do twice a year.  This is essentially our “membership” process where we talk about how discipleship happens in Adullam.  Too much to share here, but the just of it is to talk about “Observance, Participation, & Partnership” as the three phases people usually move through. Observance is a time we give people to just be with us without any expectations or constraints, participation is when they begin to take small initiatives toward the adullam way in participating relationally, in our communities, and in giving.  Partnership is where we suggest they come and die with us in and take ownership over Adullam with us. Here we call people to sacrificial giving instead of recreational that usually exists in the participation level.  At the end of the three weeks, we ask them to let us know where they feel they’re at. We offer financial counsel if they need it to get out of debt, etc.  The ones that say, “I’m ready to Partner,” get there names on a list for our private use and we consider that our membership idea.  We’ve found that doing more than that only sets up an unhealthy expectation between the leaders and the congregation.  I know many friends that have had good success with other membership processes, so I wouldn’t say ours is the best, but we started with a really jaded group and the Christians that now come are even more jaded and untrusting with their giving, so soulace gives us a way to let them know that we want to see there spiritual movement into partnership without the feel of membership.

Third, during our village training, we reiterate that we want each community to have the freedom to respond in sacrificial giving to needs that come up each month in their spheres of relationships. I remind them that we believe in giving but give them freedom not to just give to the main adullam. We hear many stories of generous giving toward their friends.

Where this has left us is “just enough” to keep the main ship afloat. We have about $10,000 a month that comes into the general fund giving and that covers basic operating expenses, rent, part-time staff stipends, food costs, and larger giving initiatives.

All our leaders have to get their income from other sources but we do receive small amounts that make it easier to survive.

My suggestion is that you don’t tie giving directly into membership.  Call everyone to giving as a counter-culture expression of their own discipleship and create a pathway where people can take greater ownership over the larger church needs.  Membership, or “partnership” should be as much or more about their relational buy-in to create incarnational community. I also speak privately to people about where their trust is at in regards to money.  This generally leads to  a dialogue about their trust in Adullam and whether or not they want to give to the larger vision.

As for pastoral survival, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a pastor making income from his service, but usually as incarnational church plants begin, it doesn’t take money to engage culture or form community. The time and money needs usually come up as the community begins to gather and grow, so find ways to make income outside as long as you can and then limp towards some sustainability later. Matt and I began by reimbursing our food expenses for all the parties, etc.  Then we covered cell phone bills, then medical insurance and now we do receive a small salary stipend.  Keeping as much of our income in expense reimbursement did help us maintain credibility with our folks and it took us about three years before people knew we were receiving some income.

It’s still hard to make ends meet, but God has been gracious to us and our community in this pattern of building respect and putting the focus on discipleship.  If I was outside the church, I still don’t think I’d trust a church to do the right thing with money, so if I feel that way, I give people some time to re-establish their trust in organized giving.

Hope that helps

Hi Friends, I don’t normally do this, but I thought I’d simply post a message I sent to our financial supporters of CRM.
Welcome to the new world!  I’m writing this just a few weeks after the national elections and while were all in the middle of the most uncertain economic times of my life.  As I try to lead Adullam, as I speak to many pastoral leaders, business people, and normal peasants, it is clear that the world as we know it must now change to fit the times.
Last week alone, I counted 13 pastors who mentioned either massive staff layoffs, or pondering for the first time, the potential of shutting their churches down, due to the inability to pay the rent.  I spoke with three of our own supporters who are on the verge of bankruptcy; and I know of 9 families within our church context who need help putting food on the table.  Even for the Halter clan, our personal support has dropped by almost half in the last three months.
As I ponder everything, you might find it strange that I am not upset or distraught about the new world.  I tend to look at everything from a point of challenge to find new ways to “get’r done” or new ways to trust God for strange provision.  Certainly, this has not caught God off guard, and if we let the scriptures guide us, we find that God often allows and even orchestrates epics of time that call people back to reality and the basics of life & God.
Within all these same contexts, our Adullam people are more vibrant spiritually, and more alert to our calling.  Many of these pastors are now looking for part time jobs which I know will help them connect with real people.  In some ways, this season may serve as another “Diaspora” pushing God’s people out of their God bubbles and easy believism, back into real life where faith must win out over nice and tidy theology of provision.
Never have I felt such focus and purpose, or seen such ministry movement, but strange it now must be accompanied by the twin brother of trial.  May our prayers truly be, “your will be done” during this time and may God’s church arise from the dust of despondency into a new day of stability and ministry to those who have no hope.

Please pray this month for:
1) Meetings with a national collegiate ministry in the Northwest, Dec. 14th
2) Prep for trainings in Dublin, Glasgow, Texas, Canada, and Florida in the next few months.
3) The stable expansion of new Missio Hubs in Los Angeles, Kelowna, Atlanta, Dallas, Austin, Virginia, & Fort Collins.
4) Revamping of the MCAP curriculum in preparation for a national roll out in April.
5) God’s leading with our second book, “The Sacrilegious Disciple” which is being shopped around this month.
6) Financial resources to come from really strange and fun places!

Thanks, and know that I am praying for you all: for wisdom, faith, creativity, simplicity and trust.

Hugh

Three weeks ago, I called together 12 vikings in Adullam to consider diving in at a deeper level of committment to shepherding our collective Adullam flock.  Because we have no full-time staff, we’ve run into quite a predicament helping all the rookies find a place in our mission.  Many come wanting what they read about in the TK, but fail to remember that our stories happened over a two year span and without any formal church environment.  Now, we’re playing catch up trying to figure out how to move people from observing to participating with us.

The meeting started well.  Beers were ordered, good hearted manly talk was loud, food started to roll out, and overall, it was just great to be with these men that had become dear friends.  The meeting quickly  turned colorful when a few of the dudes thought we were calling them to help the larger gathered church structures.  Most of these guys have been on staff at churches in the past, and were coming off a hard season of fighting through church deconstruction.  They all work normal jobs, struggle to pay the bills, and only come to our gatherings because their kids and wives dig it.  They usually stay outside and drink coffee while I talk, and you’d rarely see them enjoying the worship part of the service.  Yet, these guys love people. They party well and draw crowds of sojourners around them. It was a few of these mates that all of a sudden got a little edgy.

Looking back, we did say some things that opened the door, but our intentions were to draw them all back to the way we began.  INCARNATIONAL COMMUNITIES!  Despite my intent, some sharp words were shared, and in great Irish/Norsk fashion, we almost had a donnybrook ensure in the middle of an Irish pub called the Landsdowne Arms.

Proudly, I can say, there’s not a Yes-man in the crowd.  Each guy is fighting for his own heart and the integrity of our collective calling.  Tears were shed, and after a couple hours, and a few pitchers of Dublin’s finest, we realized God was up to something and what we were fighting over was worth fighting over.

I’ve often realized that we could take the easy way out.  Just call Adullam a church, put on a nice show and grow this the way many churches grow.  One problem, however, would be that most of these men would leave.  And therein lies the real issue.  Adullam isn’t about growing or not growing. Adullam is about being with the people that breath the same air I breath.  We were fighting over relationship and whether or not we could trust each other to play hard ball to keep God’s thumbprint on us pure.  They were subconsiously asking me if I was going to wimp out, and I was subconsciousy asking if they would fight for it as hard as I was.

Tonight we meet for round two. Can’t wait to be with these guys and get after it again. Church is finally fun again, it’s passionate, and scary, full of pitfalls and easy outs, but in the end, I love the challenge of staying true to Christ and true to these guys.

Bad Times ay??  Denver Post, two days ago, had the headline, “Worst Week Ever!”  The financial crisis is now not just a “could be” but a reality.  Life is now different. The global tidal wave is going to affect everyone, and no person will be able to live without feeling at least a ripple of changing economic times.
What does this mean for a US church that was already teetering on the edge of financial unsustainability?  What about all the denominations that have been feeling the pinch from a glut of declining or closing churches?  Where will their funding come from to keep the office open let alone give money away to courageous church planters?   What about the pastors who have been faithfully receiving generous salaries, or the missionaries who have been raising personal missionary support both here and overseas. For sure it’s all going to change.  I’ve personally noticed a 20% drop in my own missionary support and we just had to ask two people who were receiving modest stipends in Adullam to serve without any compensation.
I’m not a gloom and doom guy, but it’s time for a reality check.  It isn’t getting better anytime soon and the smart “called out” ones will pony up and get ahead of this painful curve.
In Adullam, we already fulfilled our biblical description of being a cave where the “distressed, downtrodden, and in debt came.”  Of our 300 people, most are in severe financial struggles. Most are young couples that are barely getting started and many haven’t ever developed in their understanding and faith of giving.
So is there an answer?  Well, maybe not to the financial crunch but it does beg a bigger question.  Is the church dependant upon money?  Does the church rise or fall based on resources?  If you’re a student of history, you’d have to say, “Heck No.”  In fact, history supports that the church actually does better under duress in almost every era and every situation.  Trial draws people to God and people to people.  It’s as reliable as a Toyota Corolla.
The only bugger with the whole situation is the leaders who have been paid for their services.  I actually believe that the scriptures teach that pastors are worthy of getting paid from their efforts, service, and sacrifice, but I temper that with the reality that it’s a privilege, not a right.  It’s a benny of a faithful people in affluent times, but it’s not normal to our collective Christian movement.
What’s normal is that leaders lead no matter what and whether or not payment is a part of the deal.  Paul modeled this and showed on several occasions that he knew it was better in certain circumstances to work a normal job “so as not to be a burden,” to the community.  He penned the great words in Philippians “I’ve learned to be content whether well fed or hungry, whether in plenty or in want.”
This is not a time for pastors to shrink back and cripple up in fear.  This is what we’ve all been praying for.  A season of time where materialistic Americans get a wake up call and face the centrality of Christ and the frailty of life and all we trust in.  But for leaders to lead they must face the big question.  Has God called me to pastor people?  If so, then we must find a way to do it come recession, depression, good days or bad.  The weak will look to reposition in order to maintain present financial stability. The true shepherds will just keep shepherding.
Let’s get’r done!!
hugh

Hey friends, every year Missio enjoys the opportunity of providing a place for like-minded leaders to gather and discuss around the ideas and practice of incarnational church.  Last year we had Mike Frost and Alan Hirsch. The last two years they’ve done an incredible job setting the Christilogical foundation for missionary church in the West.  Early on, we felt like we still had to prove that we better get onto something more than just doing church better or differently.  Now, we feel that most have bought in, swallowed the blue pill, and are ready to let the winds of God blow some new helium into our collective church sails.   So this year, we move on!!! We’re discussing, “How the Church can make the Kingdom Tangible.”  Nice play off the title of our book ay?!! Starving authors will do almost anything to get the word out!!

Actually, the book title, and the conference title relfect where our heart is at right now for the church.  We want to see the church regain the favor of the culture and be faithful to a much larger gospel than it has in the past.  We sense leaders are ready too, but HOW?  WHAT? WITH WHOM?  If you want to join us, we’d love to have you for two days of fun together.

You can get info on our missio site.  If my fabulous administrator KEVIN, reads this, he may even load up the latest email promo to make it easier for you.

Take care, and hope to see you.

hugh

Hi, ?I just wanted to email you because I started reading The Tangible Kingdom this summer as part of my internship in Youth Ministry. I’ve had an incredible Spiritual journey this summer; moving into God’s Kingdom. I’ve been rethinking ministry recently, and I love what I’ve been reading in The Tangible Kingdom. One of the things I’m trying to figure out though (as I am currently studying youth ministry) is the whole concept of how youth ministry fits the larger picture rather than being a separate entity within the church. I don’t know if that makes much sense. ?So I’m wondering how you minister to the 6th through 12th grade crowd at Adullam. Do you have many teens? The book doesn’t really address age specific ministry (although I am confident that the same concepts are essential for any youth ministry). Do you think there’s even a need to have age specific ministry? Any thoughts would be much appreciated

Hi Amanda, probably the most important adjustment to youth ministry would be to move from program/presentation- based to a more mentor-based community structure where the kids also learn to integrate the three circles in the back of the book. (Community/Communion/Mission) We’ve actually seen a mega-church turn their ministry toward this. At Adullam, we provide a normal children’s church structure up to 5th grade, but we prefer to call our Junior High and High School students toward more integration with our larger community. My two teen-age girls have grown up the last four years feeling very much a part of our adult community and they also have some mid-twenty something gals that personally mentor them. They are deeply connected relationally to our incarnational community structure and seem to enjoy it. Both of them have said, they’d never want to be a part of a youth group. (I swear I didn’t prompt that attitude!)

I’m a youth for christ guy and I do find that many youth para-church ministries operate pretty close to this incarnational structure. They just don’t call it church. Overall, I do think church youth groups tend to mirror the presentation, program based ministry that their parents endure, and most youth groups won’t be able to change until the adult community changes. If you provide consumer-oriented adult ministry, the parents will assume that they should look for the same ministry to their kids. If we train parents to get on mission, I find the kids happily follow.

Hope that helps.
What city are you in??
hugh

This last week I was in Beirut training group of pastors around Tangible Kingdom concepts. The only thing I knew about Beirut prior to this trip was that they’ve been sandwiched in between two pretty mean big brothers on each side of the country and as the middle child has had to take licks from both sides. The people of Lebanon are a beautiful people and there are many vibrant believers, but they’re often overshadowed by the Islamic infighting between Muslim factions, Israel, and Islamic fundamentalists. Hezbollah is a sleeping giant that can mobilize terror and destruction at a moments notice.
While there I learned that thousands of Christian Lebanese have exited the country recently. Add the to that the fact that most Christian families have 1-2 children and most Muslim families have 6-8 children, the future looks bleak for the church in this critical part of our world.
This reality of a declining church is not just 4000 miles away. While in London the week prior, I learned that there are more Muslims in mosques every week than those in the Church of England! In England. The Anglican Church that held massive national and global presence now is folding up like a broken lawn chair. They even have an office called, “The office of redundant churches” that is solely focused on selling their churches to keep their denomination funded as long as they can. Many churches are now pubs (which isn’t a bad thing to a guy like me), restaurants, health clubs or community centers.
Now back to the Beirut pastors. Imagine if you expected that your Christian movement could actually be merely a remnant in a few short years. How would you respond? Would you fight? Would you get radical and do all you could to extend the mission forward? OR would you veer toward fear, control and maintenance? My guess is that you may vacillate between the two. They have. There are those who are working tirelessly to extend the vibrant mission of God and there are those who have taken a more skeptical stance and are just trying to stay out of harms way.
Normally I would judge anyone not willing to do anything to extend the way of the kingdom, but after seeing what the church in Lebanon is up against, I am humbled at anyone’s willingness to pastor at any level there. It is tough! Tougher than almost anyplace I’ve been to to date. In addition to simply being massively outnumbered, the state requires that everyone hold a card that indicates whether they’re Muslim, Catholic or Christians, and specifically who they are affiliated with. To be married, divorced or get functional civil representation, you have to choose a side and there must be a sanctioned church or religious heritage over everyone or you won’t have anyone to bury you when you die, or marry your children.
Now imagine that a guy like me just came in and suggested they send out a decentralized movement of incarnational communities to engage the world. Nice idea, but you may be able to see that it’s not that simple. Unless the existing church figures out a way to sanction, support and affiliate decentralized mission from a centralized structure, the church may not survive. Yet, they are going to try and we’re going to do what we can to help.

I bring this up more as motivation for us in the states. Nothing holds us back. No one is threatening our existence. If the evangelical movement dies out in the next 25 years, which it is on pace to do, it’s going to be no one’s fault but our own.

We must stretch beyond our present ways of church. We must stop belly-aching about the cost of new exploits or the potential for failure. “Oh, we might not get paid…Oh, we might not get the respect of our peers…Oh we may have to work a normal job…Oh our denominational leaders may belittle us”…YOU’VE GOT TO BE FREAKING KIDDING ME!!! We still get to make a good living, our children live in peace, we can find plenty of friends who are living the same tension, and we don’t have to worry about exiling our country or leaving everything we know. The worst thing that will happen if we leave the institutional church to engage the world is that we may not reach anyone. That’s it, and that’s not even that bad. It’s just a blow to our pride.
Church planters, it’s time to stop trying to plant churches that give us personal credibility and simply be faithful to love the lost regardless if a church is established. It’s time to stop pandering to consumer Christians who want a cool church service to attend. Denominational leaders, it’s time to stop protecting your job at the expense of standing up for and advocating for the courageous young leaders God is giving you. Time to take the heat for them, and if possible to serve with them in the culture. You may even find ways to give back your denominationally funded salary and get a bi-vocational job with them. Oh..and to “normal Christians”…stop being normal. Instead be “Christ-followers.” The world isn’t inspired by our limp-wristed ways and you don’t even enjoy living that way. Time to step into the waters of financial faith, personal sacrifice, and time with people.
It’s time for everyone to dig in our heels, grab the rope and start pulling. Don’t worry, the rope is anchored to the Spirit of God and is tethered in heaven. It was lowered to the earth through Christ, and now is handed to us by Him. “As the Father has sent me, I now send you.”
If we fail in a land of comfort with all the resources at our fingertips, I believe it will be very hard to look Jesus in the eyes someday.
Hugh

Hey, I had a chance to hang out with some buds, Phil Graf (left) and Carle Raschke (camo) in Amsterdam and spend some time with Andrew Jones. You can read his blog on the whole thing at the Tall Skinny Kiwi blog.

I normally don’t do this, especially on a blog, but I’ve come to feel that this leg of the journey is shaping up to be a poignant God set up.  What I thought was an informal meeting with some pastors in Beirut seems to be moving into a two day intensive training with some dear leaders that have struggled to find a handle on which to hang their mission.  This war torn country is not only dealing with deep ethnic and religious fighting, but the church seems to be paralyzed in the midst of the chaos.  I sheepishly accepted this invite by our CRM president, mostly to be a fly on the wall, but with there response to the book, I need to see this as much more.  I’d ask for your prayers as you read Sam’s email to me tonight.

“Hugh:
Just talked to the coordinating leader, and he wants any and all extra books he can get his hands on.
The thing has mushroomed on us in Beirut …25-30 people.  Heads of several denominations, leading pastors, etc …  it is a rather remarkable crowd for this country.   He is ecstatic about the response he has been getting to the book.  One pastor just called him …had read the book twice and is requiring all his staff to attend.  Another one called and said “This is exactly what we need.  My church is rusting.”

To prime the pump, he also met with each of these people individually and hand delivered the book, asking them to read it and explaining why they were invited.  I think we’ll find pretty much everyone will have done it.  The major question he is getting is, “OK, how do we do this?”

Hope it’s going well in Amsterdam.  Looking forward to hearing how things went on Monday after I left.

Sam”
_______________
Dr. Sam Metcalf
President, CRM-US

Thanks