Missio is pleased to announce that we have a new website committed to resource the church.  Whether you are a church planter, small group leader or pastor hoping to grab some friends and engage the culture with the gospel, we want to help you begin and make the kingdom tangible for yourself and those you care about the most.

If you’ve been reading The Tangible Kingdom or AND you may not yet know about the TK Primer.

This resource is unique in that it combines a spiritual formation process that is deeply integrated with community and missional/incarnational living practices.  The resources has been available for 18 months and over 18,000 have been used and we’re hearing great stories.

The TK Primer is the bridge between the two books, but now we’re also providing a system of videos and other tools that will help you explain the WHY, WHAT, and HOW of incarnational community.  Everything is FREE!  In addition, we’re also providing a special video for pastor to help you think through how to begin a movement of incarnational communities in your church as well as how to transition small groups into a more missionary-like community.

Simply go to www.missio.us register, and click on “training” and you’ll find all you need.

TWO other ways, Missio hopes to serve God’s missional movement.

First, is what we call the MCAP.  (Missional Community Apprenticship Practicum) which is geared for church planters who want to start churches from the culture.  All MCAP planters will be coached by Hugh, Matt, and other Missio team members who have modeled true missional church planting pratices.

Secondly, Missio is going back to face-to face training for pastors called Missio Intensives. These two-day trainings will be based around the concepts of AND which is designed to help any church, of any size or form, find a balance between the gathered and scattered church. Use the Missio Intensives as your once a year “recalibration” with your key leaders or as a strategic initiative to reform your church from program-based to incarnational community based.  Missio Intensives will be limited in size to that each church can be coached as a team.  We’ll offer Intensives throughout the year and in different locations and the first one is in Denver, September 28-29.

As an apprenticing network for the missional movement. Missio shapes and trains practitioners who are developing people and churches of community and mission.

Hugh & Matt and the entire Missio Team

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I travel all over the world teaching and training this as if it were rocket science, but here’s my profound answer as to where to start.

THROW A  PARTY!  And good stuff will happen.

Here’s a little pic from the halter back yard.

The Primer seems to be picking up a head of steam and we get reports daily of grass roots movement of incarnational communities as well as existing churches finally finding hope that God’s mission is on the move for their people. 

If any of you need help with the primer go to www.tangiblekingdom.com and if you’re in Canada and need a little coaching, email Gary at garyswabey@gmail.com.  Missio is here to serve God’s missional movement wherever we can.

Thanks Gary,

Hugh

Ed: Tell us briefly how you came to the work with Adullam and what all fills your days?

Hugh: Adullam happened by accident. We share the story in The Tangible Kingdom but essentially, we showed up in Denver as a small missionary team, began engaging culture and trying to model some dna of the kingdom (inclusive community/communion with God/blessing) and we found that the kingdom started to become tangible to people.  Eventually, the house was full of a lot of spiritually disoriented God seekers, some coming to faith and some just coming with us in community and we had to figure out how to hold a growing network of incarnational communities together.  That’s what we call Adullam, a ‘congregational network of incarnational communities.

I don’t really have a typical day anymore. Since our story came out, I do spend a few days a week traveling and training leaders, but when home, I still try to give my time either to leaders or people trying to find our story both Christian and non-christian.  Adullam is about 300 people but we don’t have any full time staff so we’ve learned to centralize a few things, but mostly we’re all out with people during the week. I do oversee our villages (our communities) and do a lot of coaching, and I also spend a few hours preparing for our weekly gathering.

Ed: What do you see in the church that is giving you hope that we are doing better at engaging in God’s mission?

Hugh: The biggest hope is in the conversations that are going on. It used to be a fight to ask people to consider moving away from purely attractional forms of church, but a much greater percentage want to move forward.  What’s most exciting is how the existing church is not only in the conversation, but is asking for help and now innovating some really cool movements of incarnational community.   For instance, I was blessed to train 300 of Austin Stone’s small group leaders through our TK primer and we’re hearing some great stories of moving small groups into missional/ incarnational communities.

Ed: You recently published “Tangible Kingdom.” Tell us about the book.

Hugh: Like I said, it’s just our story.  We do try to unpack words like “missional” “kingdom” by giving stories so that leaders and Christians can actually see themselves living our story.  We don’t bash attractional church, but we do try to encourage a ‘sub-structure’ of church we call an incarnational community and we show that it has a much greater ability to dive deep into culture, deliver the gospel, and make disciples than the existing church structures.    The new book AND…the gathered and scattered church, which Ed has written the forward for, will be out in April with Zondervan/Leadership Network/Exponential and will help both church plant and existing churches find a balance of scattering their people into incarnational communities while retaining functional gathered structures that don’t pandor to consumers.

Ed: Obviously, the word “missional” is spoken of, used by, and claimed by many groups. Instead of giving another definition for the word, can you tell the readers an example of where you and your wife are seeking to live missionally?

Hugh: Sure, missionality for us is just giving up our home, our time, our kids, and our own schedules so that sojourners have access to us all the time.  My son has severe epilepsy so we’ve always had to center ministry out of our home.  We’re open for business three to four times a week, and the house always seems like grand central station.  For instance tonight is the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics so Cheryl sent out an Evite to many friends and many sojourners.  We’re tired, but we allow God to “send” us as a family for God’s mission.

Ed: In terms of missionSHIFT and the Missional Manifesto, what would be a great end-game in your mind for this event and process?

Hugh: I think if we can continue to unite both mega and micro into some similar DNA and processes then we’ll be on good footing together.

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Observations on Adullam Community Gathering

Bob Ewell, bob@ewell.com,

Introduction

Adullam Community is a group of Christians in Denver who come together to serve the people of Denver. Their story is in Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, who are the leaders of the community. I read Tangible Kingdom and another church book at the same time. The other recommended a simple approach to church and touted as a main example something like, “You connect with God in worship; you connect with each other in small groups; you then go out to serve.” I remember the stark contrast to Tangible Kingdom which told stories of believers living with and around “sojourners”—people not yet believers. These sojourners would join the believers in some task, sometimes a short-term mission abroad. In the process of serving together, they would form deeper relationships with the believers. Then they would come to faith. It was the exact opposite order of the traditional approach. So the emphasis of Adullam is well-away from the Sunday gathering. In fact, when I told Hugh we might be coming up to visit, he said, “You can visit, but you won’t get the full flavor of Adullam that way.” Again, this is a stark contrast to what most churches would say—“Come on Sunday and check us out!”

So the question is, how does a community like Adullam do Sunday mornings?

Arrive and Mill-around (9:45 – 10:15)

The advertised start time was 9:45a. Hugh told me that if we arrived then, we would be among the first. We arrived at 9:55. Hugh was greeting people at the door, and folks were arriving. We came in and made our way to the coffee area, then just milled around with others. There were no official “greeters,” but we did not feel like outsiders. I don’t know why that was. The operation had the appearance of a large Sunday School class in a mega-church, but when one enters a Sunday School class, in the words of a pastor friend, it feels like a high school reunion—not yours. Again, at Adullam we did not feel like outsiders. There were 8-seat round tables and 4-seat round tables, and a few rows of chairs at the back. We selected a table with open seats and engaged in conversation with the couple seated there. Just before about 10:15, Hugh spoke into the stand-up mike and said we would start in a minute. At 10:15, he welcomed us and said a little something about the theme for the year—being part of the people of God. I did not see anyone come in after 10:15.

Singing/communion meditation/communion (10:15 – 10:45)

Singing was led by one man with a guitar, using the stand-up mike. Songs were singable, meaningful, and there was no attempt to be “edgy” or hype us up. I surveyed the equipment: one stand-up mike (Hugh later used a wireless), one soundboard, computer, projector, screen. Very simple. Then Matt Smay (apparently—no one introduced himself) shared some observations from Hebrews 13 and invited people to the communion table. The table was set up off to one side with two loaves of bread with bowls of juice. People went by families and after they took the bread and juice (by intinction), most went off to one side to pray together. No big deal was made about the elements being “consecrated;” they were just there. The informal approach also solved the problem of what if someone doesn’t want to partake. If you want to partake, go. If not, stay at your table—no one will know the difference either way.

Lecture (10:45 – 11:15)

The sermon consisted of Hugh’s reading all of Ephesians 2 (handouts with complete text were at the tables) and making comments every few verses. All comments were in everyday language, theologically accurate without sounding so. Sensitive to “sojourners” while providing plenty of “meat” for the mature. Lots of specific application. Like “Sin is not just doing stuff you shouldn’t do. It’s not doing stuff you should do. For example, after this gathering, you could go serve someone in some way—or, you could go home and watch football.”

Group processing and benediction (11:15 – 11:45)

After the sermon, Hugh put up a white board on a table (held by a volunteer!) and led a discussion on what it meant that Jesus came “that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” People suggested concepts, and Hugh wrote them on the board. In most cases, he expounded on each one, usually tying it to some scripture. In a subtle way, he demonstrated that the scripture really is our guide for life and that he knew it well. He said he went a little long.

Mill-around and depart (11:45 – 12:15 or longer)

Few seemed in hurry to leave.

Other Observations

Folks were encouraged to come back over the next few weeks, and they would talk about some issues around the structure of their community. Hugh also referred to structure earlier. The impression I got was something like, “We have a structure and a way of doing business, and we want you to know what that is.” I don’t know if there are members of the leadership team other than Hugh and Matt. I got the impression, however, that there was less emphasis on supposedly “lay leadership” than on, “Your leaders have a plan. Here it is.” [I strongly agree with this approach. I don’t like pastors who talk about lay leadership while manipulating people to do what they’ve already decided. And if we let unqualified lay leaders set the direction for the church, it’s likely to go in the wrong direction.]

I’m reflecting now on the fact that I didn’t feel like an outsider even though there was no real overt accommodation to visitors. For example, there was no explanation of communion (that I recall) and no one at the mike introduced themselves. It’s like, “This is a gathering of our community, and you’re welcome to sit in on it.”

Overall, it’s hard to capture in words what we experienced at the Adullam gathering. It was certainly the best Sunday morning experience we’ve had recently, maybe ever. It felt real. There wasn’t an overt attempt to load up the time with too many “elements” of a “service.” The word “service” does not seem to be used. It’s a gathering that includes an informal time and a more formal time. The formal time was not a production, and that lack of “production” felt good. As I recall, in Tangible Kingdom, Hugh says he gives about two hours’ thought to the Sunday gathering. Why not? Why would it need more than that?

As we close out this rather rough year of 2009, finding this cross in the back of an old whiskey room in the new Colorado Whiskey Pub was the best day of my year.  Sadly, it came on the very last day of 2009, but this treasured discover has given me hope for my 2010 year!!  Blessings to you all and may you all be as excited to carry the cross of Christ this year as I am.

I hope Cheryl lets me put this in our house!

You are making significant difference for the Kingdom!!!  May God continue to strengthen and encourage you through His Spirit, may you hear him saying “well done good and faithful servant!”

Blessings

Kev

Kevin Schutte
Pastor, Pathway Community Church

I also had the privilege of speaking at Auston Stone.  Stone has the same passion as ANC, same missional push, same commitment not to settle for church.  The one difference is that they have 6,000 people!  As I was with their community leaders, I continued to learn that missional church isn’t equal with being small.  It’s the call of every church and any church of any form or size will struggle to move people into mission and finding the balance of how to gather people and how to scatter them.  Thanks to ANC and Austin Stone for not only modeling God’s design for the church, but for working together to help other pastors in Austin find their stride.

If you’re interested in the balance of gathering and scattering, we’ll have a book coming out this next spring with Zondervan, Leadership Network, and the Exponential crowd.  We’ll keep you posted, but in the meantime, I think it’s time to stop belly-aching about which type of church is better, and get onto the real business of being the missional church whether you have 8 people in your living room or 6,000 meeting in a local gym.

Peace out

hugh