The last thing I want to mention about the Frost conference I attended was a brief synopsis of something he called missional rhythms. Michael is one of the founding members of Small Boat Big Sea. There were core values that the founding group wanted to pass on to it’s new members, something they wanted to be a part of the DNA of the church. But they also knew that just teaching values wouldn’t work, especially with new followers and not-yet followers.
So, Michael and his group came up with the following (with the corresponding value in parenthesis):
If you are a part of SBBS you will -
- Bless 3 people a week - 1 from the faith community, a believer, 1 from the community, and 1 from either group. (generosity)
- Eat with 3 people a week - same breakdown as above. (hospitality)
- Listen to God. (spirit filled life)
- Learn the Bible, especially the Gospels. (Christ like life)
- Sentness - journal ways in which you sense that you are being sent out. (missional)
Frost reasons that if you give the values, people won’t work out the practices. But if you give the practices, the values become part of the individual and therefore part of the faith community. Some might argue that this seems a little too “catholic”…that it’s a list of things to do, instead of a way to live. The argument would follow that if we’re dealing with new believers why would we want to put on them a list of things they have to do. It’s a decent argument, but one that I don’t adhere to.
As Frost said, I think people have a hard time taking a set of values or a mission statement and coming up with tangible ways to live it out. This seems to help in that process.
By the way, these rhythms spell out BELLS. Michael said this happened by chance, and wasn’t planned. He also made a point to say that these are the missional rhythms for SBBS, and don’t have to be the rhythms for your group. The challenge should be to come up with tangible ways to live out the values that are a part of the DNA of your church.
You can read more about BELLS at SBBS here.
-shorty
Leave a Reply