The Power of Praying Luke 10:2b

During the first few months of 2008 my family started praying Luke 102:b together as a family. I had first heard about the "Luke 10:2b Virus" from John White through DAWN Ministries a few years ago. For those who are not familiar with the "Luke 10:2b Virus", on October 2, 2002 John White and Kenny Moore were discussing Great Commission strategies over breakfast. In reading Luke chapter 10 the found that Luke 10:2a identified the first critical component, that is, the laborers. The harvest is not the problem. The critical missing component is an adequate number of harvest workers and Luke 10:2b says do one thing: ask the Lord of the harvest for them.

White, a former pastor who now humbly refers to himself as a "house church coach," and Moore, Southern Baptist Director of Church Planting for the State of Colorado, at that point covenanted with each other to pray the Luke 10:2b prayer together every day possible from that moment on. In the following 30 months, they followed through on this pledge about 700 or 800 times—and encouraged others to do the same, thus starting the "Luke 10:2b Virus".

I had prayed this prayer myself from time to time, but never made a commitment to really beg the Lord of the harvest for workers until the first few months of 2008 when my family made the commitment to pray this prayer together daily for our neighbors and for our city. We caught the "Luke 10:2b Virus" and here are what we can now see as the results:

Over the last 12 months I have come into contact with and have started networking with one of the pastors of a local "mega church" who has a passion and goal of planting millions of "simple churches" around the world. This is the same "mega church" that played a major role in helping produce two great online "simple church" videos for House2House Ministry.

The Lord spoke to me last Spring and told me I was going to the House2House National House Church Conference Labor Day weekend. I told him if He wanted me to go, then he would have to make it happen, because I knew I couldn't afford the airfare, hotel room, conference registration and other misc. expenses. He answered by putting everything in place in a way that He took care of 100% of all of the expenses.

Upon returning from the Conference I found another local pastor who had recently stepped down from his role as one of the pastors of a local church where he had been for the last 10 years. His reason for stepping down was because the Lord is calling him to start a "movement of missional communities in the Central Florida region". The area he is focusing on is right here in my town of Sanford, FL.

I have also been contacted by someone through SimpleChurch.com who has been learning about "house church" over the last year through the denomination he happened to be connected to. He contacted me because he wanted to meet to find out if other people are doing "house church" and if it's possible to do this without being attached to any denomination, especially one that has a lot of extra rules and requirements that are not based on the Bible.

I have also been reunited with one of the young men who was part of the youth group from my old place of worship from six years ago, where I served as the youth pastor for about five years. He is interested in hanging out more to learn more about "organic church" and "missional communities" and how "simple churches" can work to fulfill the Great Commission.

I am now working with all of the above mentioned and many others that the Lord has brought into my life over the last 12 months to plan an Organic Greenhouse with Neil Cole from CMA Resources, to be hosted at Northland June 11th-13th, 2010.

My wife and I have a new love for our neighbors and have been teaching our children how to love the Lord with all their heart, soul and mind and how to love their friends and neighbors. We are learning how to "be the church" where we are planted, instead of trying to "start a house church" with all of our Christian friends while ignoring those lost and dying around us. We are learning how to truly love and care about those around us and how to be among them, and we have learned as Greg Paul wrote in God in the Alley, that "being among people means being in their midst, not outside. It means being with them, not being over them."

I now have my cell phone alarm set to 10:02 a.m. and continue to pray the Luke 10:2b prayer where ever I am when the alarm goes off. I have encouraged others to do the same, as I have seen the real results of taking the time to commit to begging the Lord of the harvest for workers!

My request to you is to do the same, set your alarm to 10:02 a.m, catch the "Luke 10:2b Virus" if you haven't already and join me in begging the Lord of the harvest for workers daily. Let me know what results in your life from this virus!

Stages in the Journey of Simple/House Church

Roger Thoman has been reflecting, for some time, on the stages that he has seen and experienced in the simple/house church journey. I thought he did a great job identifying and explaining these stages that I myself have also seen and experienced in my own, now six year, simple/house church journey.

I have listed the stages here, but you will need to visit Roger's blog to read more about each stage and join in the discussion with the others who have commented on his blog.

1. Letting go of old paradigms of church life.
2. Exploring New Testament gatherings.
3. Re-boot to Jesus.
4. A new missional heart and longing.
5. Fresh discovery of our own passions, spiritual gifts, and calling.
6. Integration of an organic, fruitful lifestyle with organic gatherings that support it.
7. Our kingdom influence spreads and even becomes reproductive in its impact.

Read more on Roger's blog

House Church Action Plan

LEAVE your comfortable Christian activities, go outside your comfort zone, and take the time to build and invest in relationships with those around you like workmates, neighbours, and students.

FOCUS on living in such a way that Jesus’ message is clearly expressed through our lives. We can trust God to do the rest.

LIVE as a participant in the natural activities of culture while maintaining lines of clear conscience and non-compromise.

LOVE generously, genuinely, and with no sincere strings attached.

LISTEN in a way that demonstrates interest in others.

BRAINSTORM and pray for specific ideas about living on mission. For example ... Adopt a park. Adopt a family. Help a neighbour. Start a storytellers group. Donate to a food bank. Volunteer at a homeless shelter.

CHOOSE an activity you can do as a house church.

GO and just do it.

FOLLOW-UP the activity with a meeting as a group to prayerfully determine what worked and what did not.

READ Hugh Halter and Matt Smay’s book The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community.

Used with permission from @oikosministries. Taken from the latest edition of Starfish Files (Canada's house church magazine), now available for download from the Oikos Ministries Web site.

10 Marks of a Missional Community

1. It's members love and talk positively about the city/neighborhood/pocket of people they're sent to.
2. Members speak in language that is not filled with pious tribal or technical terms & phrases.
3. Members don't use disdainful and embattled language about their city/neighborhood /pocket of people.
4. They apply the gospel to the core concerns and stories of the people of the culture/city/neighborhood.
5. Engaged w/ the lit/art/thought of the culture & can discuss it both appreciatively & yet critically.
6. Deep concern for the poor and generosity with their money.
7. Purity and respect with regard to opposite sex.
8. They show humility toward people of other races and cultures.
9. They do not bash other Christians and churches.
10. Seekers/non-believing people will be invited & will come & will stay to explore spiritual issues

I got these 10 Marks of a Missional Community from a series of tweets posted by the Austin Stone Missional Community twitter account starting on September 28th. You can follow them on twitter at @AustinStoneMCs.

Connecting with your Tribe(s)

It's been over four months since my last blog update, I guess the handful of people who were reading my blog may wonder where I have been. For those of you who don't know, I guess I should explain.

Things at the office have been keeping me really busy as my responsibilities as the IT Director at Strang Communications increased when the IT Department increased in size, merging with the Digital Media Group which is responsible for all of our Internet projects including our Web sites, Email Newsletters, Social Networking, etc.

I started working at Strang in the Internet Department in 1998, but was promoted to IT Director in April of 2008, so the last year I have not been directly involved in any Internet related projects. These last four months have been very "stretching" but also have provided me a great opportunity to expand my responsibilities as a leader within the company.

In my personal time I have been doing a lot of reading of both some work related books like Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin, Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson, Monday Morning Leadership: 8 Mentoring Sessions You Can't Afford to Miss by David Cottrel & some non-work related books like He Loves Me! Learning to Live in the Father's Affection by Wayne Jacobsen, Like Your Neighbor?: Doing Everyday Evangelism On Common Ground by Stephen W. Sorenson, The Rabbit and the Elephant: Why Small Is the New Big for Today's Church by Tony Dale, Felicity Dale, and George Barna, Search & Rescue: Becoming a Disciple Who Makes a Difference by Neil Cole.

One thing I have learned by reading all of these books is that I am part of many different "Tribes", and it is my responsibility to learn how to connect with all of these different "Tribes" in many different ways. I guess that is what I have been doing over these last few months, is learning how to connect with these different "Tribes" both personally and professionally.

I can't promise that I will post many more blog updates in the coming months, but I can share with you where you will find me on-line, connecting with my "Tribes". You can keep up with me and everything that is going on in my world by "following" me on twitter here: http://twitter.com/jgrubbs or becoming my friend on Facebook here: http://facebook.com/jonathangrubbs. You never know, you may find out that you are also in some of my "Tribes".

New Blog Layout

After six years with the same blog layout, I thought I would try something new. Let me know what you think about the new layout. I will be adding some more widgets and tools in the coming days.

BoneMan's Daughter review by Jonathan Grubbs

I had the opportunity to read an Advance Reading Copy of BoneMan's Dauguters by Ted Dekker. I submitted the following review to Christian Retailing magazine. You can read the edited version the published on their Web site here: http://tinyurl.com/dybpgq

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BoneMan's Daughters, the first general market targeted release from popular fiction author Ted Dekker, is just as intense and suspenseful as Dekker's Christian market releases, including the best-seller Three. The book takes the reader on an emotional and spiritual journey, as the author puts the characters through hell on earth, tearing them down, stripping them of any pride or judgment of others, humbling them in a way that helps them understand that they are just as capable of the same evil that lurks within the villain that torments them.

After being taken by the serial killer Boneman, who breaks the bones of his victims without breaking their skin, Bethany is able to identify with her captor. She is very much aware of the shallowness of her mother's love, and is scarred by the abandonment of her father, Ryan Evans. After facing his own traumatic life-altering situation, her father would take on the whole world, even a serial killer if he got the chance, to save his daughter, but more than that, win her trust and her heart back to himself. Ryan seeks to rescue her while wondering if he will find her too late, after she has already been broken and killed. This father's devotion to his child, mirrors that of the Heavenly Father for His children. Dekker has such a great talent and ability to keep your adrenaline flowing, and your heart wrapped around his characters.

The overall theme deals with the issues of the pain of abandonment and rejection, and the ever increasing problem of Faithlessness that faces society today. It is a picture of the importance of a father in the lives of not only their children, but their children's mother as well. Without the father, we are broken. Longtime Dekker readers will once again be captivated by this book, although some Christian readers may find some of the language in the mainstream-targeted book questionable.

AndroidTapp.com will be giving away a New T-Mobile G1

AndroidTapp.com will be giving away a New T-Mobile G1 cell phone (a $450 value)! Plus Free shipping as well. The winner will be chosen at random. Promotion starts Monday 11:59pm CST December 22, 2008 and ends Monday 11:59pm CST January 19, 2009. There are several ways to enter the promotion and win, multiple entries are allowed based ONLY by the criteria at the following URL: http://www.androidtapp.com/androidtapp-tmobile-g1-cell-phone-giveaway-promotion/