La Familia Part 1: Yes, But How?

We know what to do…we don’t know how to do it.

The vision: Priscilla and Aquila, Lydia, Jesus and His disciples....spiritual movement across centuries: Moravians, Jesuits, Monastic orders, missionaries like the stories of the early days of campus crusade, Intervarsity, the Wesleyan movement, MAF, Dr Livingston and the London Missionary Society, Hudson Taylor and The China Inland mission

Our place as a part of the missional movement….all spriritual work is missionary work

Missio Dei, God’s nature…but that’s not the only part of God’s nature we want to emulate in the formulation of our communities…..

Trinitarian community

We are a missionary movement….not a church.

Because you cannot follow Christ or be a part of His family without joining the family business of proclaiming, living and working to bring the Kingdom of God to life right here.

-whole lives devoted to Christ and the mission of God....but how? The answer is in Oikos.

What is the problem we’re trying to solve?—-Mission is hard… and we’ve made it harder than we need to be.

Want to go fast go alone, want to go far, go together.

-We need to get really good at going together.

-help and friendship - we don’t have to be lonely…we have fought this from the beginning. We are a part of the team, not above it. (Church planters)

-encouragement - We get to celebrate and live each other’s wins and mourn each others losses.

-Shared Gifts - We need people who are different than us.....to make us better together APEST

-Context for EV and Disc - When we share our lives....the gospel and discipleship become necessary…otherwise we can’t stay around.

-critical mass (3 leaders, 12 disciples, 120 community....multiplying movement) (3000 at temple, meet in homes to feed and care for each other)

-We need to change the way we think about our identity

-What is family?

-Who are we?

-How we shape our sense of self.

OLD Worldly WAY:

-I am me and must construct my identity out of work and value and skill and connections that I create (I do what I Want) (You can be whatever you want to be.), cancel culture and toxic personalities.

-I am the value that I bring to the world. I am my economic contribution. I am how valuable I am to my family, my neighborhood etc.

-My connections are tenuous, simple and easy to break if they don’t serve me anymore.

-won’t commit to showing up

-so afraid of being pinned down to a community that I would rather not belong to one.

-I can recreate my identity to run away from my disappointment, fear or heartache

-Hair, clothes, shoes, makeup, exercise, music, career

-I can recreate my community to run away from my disappointment, fear or heartache.

-If I don’t really belong then I am free to leave

-Transfer Portal

-There’s always a new place…but will we ever really belong?

-The numbers would suggest otherwise (loneliest generation

KINGDOM WAY

-Belong

-God (child)- 1 John 3:1-2 “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is.”

-Family(tribe) -

Romans 9:25-26 “Concerning the Gentiles, God says in the prophecy of Hosea, “Those who were not my people, I will now call my people. And I will love those whom I did not love before.” And, “Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ ””

-Identity

-Bestowed through connection Rev 2:17 ““Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.”

-God is this…therefore I am that - we only do what we hear the Father tell us to do, just like Jesus…that means we only think of ourselves how God thinks of us.

-To hate yourself is blasphemy—because God would never treat his creation with such cruelty.

-shaped around service and connection rather than for self-actualization. WE are people who belong.

-Community:

-covenantal - God’s promise, His grace…we just walk in it. We can enter in and trust that God will provide for our safety.

-committed - Unless God speaks and sends us away, we stay, love and serve each other…and challenge each other

-Interrelated - not just trains on separate tracks. we share our lives together....

-necessary - When we don’t have it, we perish

-seedbed of transformation - You cannot grow without the friction of community (space and bones)

-seedbed of impact and meaningful contribution - You cannot make meaningful longterm impact on your own. It is always as a part of a community of people committed to a common cause

-I find my identity in our family accomplishments rather than my individual contribution - And this is where the rubber meets the road. Could you ever look at our collective win for the kingdom of God…take pride in it, celebrate it and say, this is who we are. God’s children who do the Father’s business.

Eastern way of thinking. We’re going to dive deep into each of these things over the next couple months.....but we have some heart work to do first:

Mark 3:31-35 “Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him. They stood outside and sent word for him to come out and talk with them. There was a crowd sitting around Jesus, and someone said, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.” Jesus replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” Then he looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.””

-Are you ready to give up the rat race of individualism?

-Are you ready to let your ego identity die to find something better?

-Are you ready to go before the Father and allow Him to give you your true identity?

-Are you ready to let go of all the ways you have cobbled together an identity and clean the slate so God can tell you who you really are?

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If you want to create or join a family, you have to set aside doing it your own way, if you want to be a part of what God is up to.

La Familia Part 2: The ancient, essential way.

god triune

adam and eve

broken with cain

noah’s fam

abrahams fam

this is a call back to the ancient way

covenants are central

individualism is the ancient way of darkness and evil

did Jesus do FOM? Stay tuned for week 2

Week 2 redefining family

jesus was rejected by family…..and transformed the meaning of the word

family reject him but that doesn’t mean the end of family on mission