Friday, December 11, 2009

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!

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

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