Hugh Halter

Hugh, just spent two days in Nashville with Ed Stetzer and about 20 denominational leaders – your TK Primer was discussed and talk about favorably.  We are also preparing to take 22 people through it this fall at Pathway (I will be placing a order for about 30 here soon) and it made a huge impact on the pilot group that we took through it in the spring. As a matter of fact, it has made a big impact on our entire church – it was a catalyst to some great change!!!

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 had the privilege of being in Austin over this last weekend.  I was hosted by Brandon Hatmaker who started ANC, Austin New Church just under two years ago.  We met a few years ago after they got a hold of The Tangible Kingdom book, and we’ve enjoyed not only finding another church that has formed out of mission to culture, but we’re learning a lot from them.  Often I get asked if there are other “Adullam-like” churches out there.  I used to struggle to find other examples, but now I actually say, “Ya, there’s actually a lot better Adullam-like churches than Adullam.”  ANC is one of those. You should check out their story.  Brandon is now our Missio Hub leader and is playing a key role in encouraging the missional conversation and practices of many planters and pastors.

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

Hi Friends, got a great message from a well respected friend, Pastor Brandon Hatmaker down in Austin. He pastors Austin New Church, which is truly a fresh new church steeped in missionl work.  I deeply appreciate his take on the tk primer. Hope it helps those of you who have been asking about this new resource.

“I had the opportunity this Spring to sit in a living room condo with Alan Hirsch (The Forgotten Ways), Neil Cole (Organic Church), and Matt Smay & Hugh Halter (The Tangible Kingdom). Many consider these guys to be at the top of the list of the missional conversation, so I was wondering how I made it into the room. I’ve enjoyed my time observing from the outside what’s going on at Matt and Hugh’s church (Adullam) and getting to know them a little more on a personal level. In the same way, it’s been good to hang with Alan at a handful of meetings where the topic of the day was typically “where do we go from here”. It was the first time I met Neil, and as expected, he did not disappoint.

They were discussing the same realization that Ed Stetzer (Breaking the Missional Code) and Alan both acknowledged at a dinner gathering the following night. The claim that missional is not just another passing fad that will be here today and gone tomorrow. They all affirmed that although it’s quickly become a junk drawer word for many, it’s not just a trendy word to describe what’s going on in the church today. Instead, it’s a Biblical idea communicating well the sentness of the church, a label that’s worth hanging on to, and a concept worth pursuing.

I agree and am relieved to hear how convinced they were.

A key element in sustaining the sentness of a church is not only to establish a missional DNA, but to ensure its ideals are manifest in its formation of structure.  The key element is to form, organize, and seek new ways to discover incarnational community… and somehow keep it as organic as possible. The problem for most of us is that while there is a growing desire for this type of community, most of us don’t know where to start in creating it.

I think Hugh put it best on the Tangible Kingdom website, “Everyone’s talking about community. Everyone seems to want it, most complain if they don’t find it, but it’s harder to pull off than you’d think.”

So we’ve engaged culture and begun to form community. We may even gather for worship on the weekends (maybe you’ve done that for years). But how do we equip an entire church to strip away their preconceived ideas of what community looks like and replace it with gospel-centered relationships that emerge out of an intuitive lifestyle? How do we point our people outwards?

Enter the Tangible Kingdom Primer. I think Hugh and Matt describe it best:

“The Primer is about building life-long habits, with two primary purposes: first as a formation tool to prepare your heart for mission, and second as a field guide for starting mission together. So whether you’re a pastor hoping to reinvigorate your church, a planter needing to get your people on the same page, a small group leader wanting to push your friends into mission, or a regular guy (or gal) looking to start something new… get started with this eight-week guide to incarnational community.”

And it’s good. In fact, it’s the best I’ve seen.

Over the past 8 weeks at Austin New Church, we’ve sent each of our Restore Communities (Villages/Community Groups) through the TK Primer. I have several friends both at large churches as well as small churches doing the same. While at first it was a tough sell to get everyone excited about an 8 week study that required daily reading and action steps each week… there was quick buy-in once they realized how practical it was, that it spoke directly to some of their greatest sources of tension, and gave them a realistic plan for intuitively living out their faith.

It’s practical. It’s simple. It hits (and even creates) some tension head on. And it takes even the leader through a calculated and experienced journey. Yet still manages to leave enough unanswered questions to force each community to dig in and blaze their own trail.

Bottom line, we will be using the TK Primer as a critical step in our spiritual formation process and will continue to work through the study as a key part of our partnership (membership) requirements.

Whether you’re building a core team from scratch and wanting to insure a missional DNA, find yourself needing some help communicating missional theology, looking for a way to equip and lead others towards incarnational community, or even find yourself leading a church of thousands searching for a resource to help your people engage community, you should give the TK Primer a hard look.”

(To track ANC’s journey through the TK Primer, see posts from other pastors and churches doing the same, and to contribute to the conversation go to www.tkprimerblog.wordpress.com.)

A few days ago I was trudging up the mountain on my road bike. I had my head down, sweat was in my eyes, I was out of water and was fighting the urge to turn around and coast home, but this song from the great theologian Johnny Cash came on my ipod and it fired me up and got me to the top.  It’s a great ballad of how leaders should wear the color of their people and lead through identification.  Not quite as scary as “Ring of Fire” but still inspiring. Enjoy!

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there’s a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he’s a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you’d think He’s talking straight to you and me.

Well, we’re doin’ mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin’ cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought ‘a be a Man In Black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin’ for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believen’ that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believen’ that we all were on their side.

Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin’ everywhere you go,
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything’s OK,
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
‘Till things are brighter, I’m the Man In Black.

Over the last few months, I’ve been feeling the draw toward some larger vision aspects of what God may be wanting to do in Denver.  I suppose it’s natural for any pastor to keep our heads down and serve our own churches.  Yet, at times, you get the impression that God has His fingers under your chin, and is trying to get us to lift our heads and see something larger…something more “KINGDOM.”  When we hear the words, “kingdom,” any pastor knows what is being said.  We’re saying, “look, we need to get past our individual visions, our personal pressures, our denominational ties and do something that represents the real church.”  What strikes me in a sad way is that the only times I’ve used the word kingdom, is when I’m trying to get other pastors to join in something beyond their own…well…kingdoms.   Think about the profound challenge this is.  A “kingdom venture,” is usually blocked by “church” ventures.   Obviously our church ventures are a part of God’s kingdom plan, but strangly our own churches often represent the biggest fight against the larger kingdom works that we know need to be done.  The scripture that comes to mind is where God says, “If my people, who are called by my name will humble themselves and prayer, and turn from their ways….I will heal their land.”  Healing the land is what I would call a “Kingdom work.”  It’s BIG! It’s what the world really wants to see happen, and it deep down, is what we’d love to see happen.  The big IF, is about us, God’s people.  If we will make our kingdoms subservant to God’s kingdom; if we will be as concerned about our peer’s churches as much as we may be about our own; if we will make investments into things that don’t directly benefit us; if we will develop young leaders and get out of their way as soon as they can do our jobs; if we begin to prioritize the mission of the church over maintaining our churches; if we bless and care for people that may never enter our churches, build, or tithe to our churches; then we will see some cool stuff happen.  I look forward to a day when we don’t have to drag, coerse, or prod the church to be kingdom.