Living a rhythm helps us shift from being church consumers or spiritual tourists, into being pilgrims, adventurers, and partakers in the body of Christ. Simplicity is key. The rhythms of life that have worked, and continue to work are those that are easily understood and grasped. Each rhythm must be identified and born out of the unique person that God has created you to ‘be.’ The best and most productive rhythms should include:
1. The rhythm for your life (what you do) flows out of your identity (who you are).
2. The rhythm of your life is formed by the way your family behaves and the things that are important to you.
3. Your identity needs to be found in who Jesus is rather than what you “DO” for the Gospel.
VALUES of “Breathe Life” – MIG Communities:
presence
We commit to journeying together with God and each other, by meeting together as a community, in prayer, in worship, friendship, grief, and happiness. We live and breathe life in community. We define the church as the presence of Jesus among His people called out as a spiritual family to pursue His mission on this planet.
acceptance
We desire to accept both ourselves and other people wherever they are in their spiritual journey, and to allow people to say what they believe without fear of judgment. We want to err on the side of inclusion rather than exclusion. We want to love God and people completely.
creativity
We want to have an open approach to how we learn, live and encounter God as Missional, Incarnational Gateways in the community and world in which God has allowed us to live. We wish to be creative in our worship, in prayer, in learning by balancing christian tradition, theology and culture using the Bible as our sole foundation for Truth.
balance
We aspire to live with integrity in community, striving for balance in our passion for God and compassion for people and in private purity and public charity. James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
accountability and relationship
We desire to be accountable to one another, to grow and journey together, listening to the Spirit of God, each other and the wider Christian community for wisdom rather than trusting only ourselves. We want to have a willingness to share life, rather than to privatize it and we seek to walk together in a deep way rather than as strangers who only know the surface of each other.
mystery and adventure
We wish to step into the mysterious journey of pursueing Jesus by embracing courage, danger, adventure, mission and risk. We strongly adhere to a process of disciple making rather than discipleship. That process includes:
- Relationship – multiplication does not happen apart from relationship
- Discernment – discerning where someone is spiritually and determining where they need to go.
- A Commitment to Prayer: “Holy Spirit, please give me discernment into the heart and life of my new friend. Give me Your wisdom and insight so that I may know how to love them right where they are and encourage them for where You want them to go as we walk on this mutual journey with You.”
- Release – We will structure to keep our Biblical Community from becoming busy ‘at’ church and release them to ‘be’ the church and GO and make disciples.
I am looking forward to a new ‘rhythm of life’. I so want the Lord to Breathe Life into His Church so that a true ‘movement’ of the Spirit of God is experienced and the desecrated spaces of our world are redeemed and turned into sacred space.
There is much to learn about – the MIG Church Will you join me?
