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Each disciple commits to: Submit their lives to another leader or pastor for regular reflection, nurture, and goal based accountability (Up).  

Each disciple commits to: 2. Identify other like-minded disciples who feel called by God to express His love to those in a similar neighborhood or network. This desire is manifested in personal devotion, tangible care for others, and service in their relational networks (In).  

Each disciple commits to: Form a team committed to being a community on mission (Out). Leadership is shared, based on gifting, experience, availability and teach ability.

Each disciple commits to: 4. Set Regular Goals in the areas of faith (Up), community (In) and mission (Out). People are identified as they move along a continuum from observers, to participants, and then to partners in each of the three areas.  

Each disciple commits to: 5. Practice everyday life rhythms as a community on mission together (Eating, Listening, Sharing Stories, Blessing, Celebrating, Work and Sabbath).

Church @the Park

Which of these does your faith community do well? Submit their lives to another Identify other like-minded disciples Form a team Set Regular Goals in the areas of faith (Up), community (In) and mission (Out). Practice everyday life rhythms

As You Go: Discipleship happens in the rhythms of everyday life Eating  Listening  Sharing Stories Blessing Celebrating Work Sabbath  

Rhythm #1 Eating We commune with God as we give thanks three or more times a day for the “daily bread” He has provided (Up). Christ-followers might dedicate at least one meal a week to express their love and affection for those in the family of faith (In). They might also intentionally share another weekly meal with neighbors or friends who do not yet know Jesus (Out). (Leviticus 23; Matthew 6:11; 26:17-30; Acts 2:46-47)

Key Resource Hugh Halter is an author and co-founder of Missio Hugh lives in Denver with his wife Cheryl and is lead pastor of Adullam Communities. Hugh is the author of Sacrilege and co-author of AND and The Tangible Kingdom.   The Tangible Kingdom Prime is an 8 week, daily workbook/journal that helps an existing church, small group, or new community grasp new discipleship concepts, inspire the imagination, and practice mission together intentionally and spontaneously.

Rhythm #2 Listening  The first way we listen is to read Scripture and prayer to discern what God has said and done in the past and what he has promised in the future (Up). The second way is how we listen to each other in the family of God.  We listen to other followers of Jesus, how the Holy Spirit may be speaking through them to us (In).   The third way is how we take time to listen to the hurts, hopes and concerns of those who don’t yet know Jesus (Out) (Mark 1:35-37; John 16:7-15; Hebrews 1:1-3)

Key Resource Alan Hirch is a teacher and key mission strategist, and founding director of Forge Mission Training Network. The Forgotten Ways Handbook: A Practical Guide for Developing Missional Churches is a great resource for groups who want to begin listen in a fresh way to the Scriptures, their Church community and the people they engage with in culture.

Rhythm #3 Sharing Stories Sharing stories is part of being created in the image of God.   Disciples are shaped by their growing participation in the salvation story of God’s people.  Over time God’s story becomes the believer’s story through regular remembering (Up).   In the Old Testament, the people of Israel constantly reenacted God’s story through the weekly Sabbath and seasonal feasts and festivals (Up/In).     It is then the joy of the disciple to witness to the story of God in the language of their neighbors, co-workers and friends (Up/Out). (Genesis 1:1-2; John 1:1; Psalm 1; 2 Timothy 3:16-17)

Key Resource Caesar Kalinowski is a church planter, missional strategist and one of founding leaders of Soma Communities. He currently serves on the Missio team, an organization that helps catalyze missional community multiplication across North America.  Caesar helped author Story-Formed Way, designed to lead people through the basics of the Gospel and provide a foundation for the key doctrines of Christianity. 

Rhythm #4 Blessing God’s desires to bless us, His people, so that we will, in turn, become a blessing to the world.   We bless God by humbling ourselves in worship and obedience (Up).   We bless our faith community by loving and forgiving each other as Jesus has loved and forgiven us (In).   We bless the world through our words and tangible acts of service offered as unto Jesus himself (Out).   (Genesis 12:1-3; Ephesians 1:22-23; 2:8-10; 1 Peter 2:12)

Key Resource Brandon Hatmaker is an author, church planter, non-profit collaborator, and missional strategist. He currently serves as lead pastor of Austin New Church (www.austinnewchurch.com) a Free Methodist congregation in Austin, TX. Based on Hatmaker’s book Barefoot Church the Barefoot Church Primer is an 8-week study written with the Missional/Incarnational Community in mind. It is a guide to help a community of believers along the journey of learning to do right.

Rhythm #5 Celebration We celebrate together before the Lord every time we enjoy something God calls good (Up). We set aside regular times for celebrating with our faith community (In).   If given the opportunity, as Jesus did at the wedding banquet in Cana, we join the celebrations of unsaved friends, co-workers, and neighbors with an eye towards bringing the “best wine” as Jesus did to the wedding at Cana (Out). (John 2; Leviticus 23; Acts 2:42-47; Hebrews 10:24-25)

Key Resource Jay Pathak is the lead pastor of Mile High Vineyard Church, which has campuses in Arvada, Denver and Westminster, Colorado.  Jay is the co-author of the Art of Neighboring a book about sending disciples of Jesus into neighborhoods to develop healthy relationships.

Rhythm #6 Work The work required to steward our natural resources is act of obedience to God (Up). Jesus gave his disciples an explicit example to follow in taking opportunities to serve one another in the community of faith (In). Many times the relationships shared among co workers can be the best opportunities to express tangible love for those outside the community of faith (Up).

Key Resource Matthew Sleeth writes a great chapter on work in Serve God Save the Planet, a Christian Call to Action. He provides a scientific and theological background on the benefits of work to our bodies and our souls.

Rhythm #7 Sabbath  The rhythm of taking a Sabbath each week is a declaration of freedom and a reminder to weekly celebrate our relationship with God (Up).   We also dedicate this time to resting and recreation with our faith community (In).   The way we Sabbath is also our witness to the world of our freedom from striving, earning and consuming all we can (Out).    (Genesis 1-2:3; Deuteronomy 5:12; Mark 2:23-28; Hebrews 4)

Key Resource In his book, Saturate: Being Disciples of Jesus in the Everyday Stuff of Life, Jeff Vanderstelt draws on his experience as a pastor and church planter. He writes that there is so much more to the Christian life than sitting in a pew once a week.

How might you begin to emphasis everyday rhythms as a practice of Discipleship? Eating  Listening  Sharing Stories Blessing Celebrating Work Sabbath  

www.ddfmc.org/ www.facebook.com/disciple.deeply www.survey.safmc.me/resources.html www.3dmovements.com