Missional Community Practices?

A couple of years ago, when Mike Frost was in the UK, there was a big trend towards using community practices amongst those who were part of or leading missional communities. A few different communities, including The Lab, tried out a routine of simple weekly practices that were designed to encourage an everyday, intentional mission lifestyle.

I was wondering what your experience with community practices has been? Do you think they are a good idea? And how much is an overload of different things to do in a week?

With the Lab, I think mostly because of the student/young adult lifestyle, our attempt at integrating community practices into our community rhythm didn’t really work. Our intention was to slide them in over a period of time, building up one by one – but we never made it pass the first practice (to intentionally do something to bless someone else each week).

It did though – for the short period we gave them a go – give us an awareness of a lot of the stuff we were doing already to bless others and each other, and to challenge us to intentionally do things to bless others. For a busy young adult community, though, I think the rigidity of the practices was just too much and too restricting.

The planned nature of the practices didn’t really fit in with the spontaneous way most young adults live.

Or maybe we should have tried harder?

Here are some different examples of practices from other communities that I know have attempted them:

Mike Frost / Small Boat Big Sea

BELLS:

Seeking to BLESS 3 people each week. One from the community one from beyond and one from either. This might take the form of an encouraging note or email, a phone call, a gift, an act of kindness, …

Seeking to EAT with 3 people each week we don’t live with. One from the community one from beyond and one from either. This might be a full meal, meeting for a coffee, …

Seeking to LISTEN to God. Developing a practice of listening so that we take time, at least once each week, to listen to God’s voice. This might take the form of a prayer walk along a beach, mediation, …

Seeking to LEARN Jesus each week. Developing a discipline of studying the Scriptures or reading other literature to gain insights into the nature of God. A priority being given to the Gospel stories and to learning Jesus.

Seeing their life vocation as being SENT by God. Looking for ways in which daily routines are expressions of God’s calling on our lives and recognising the ways in which we have been SENT to do his work.

A couple of years ago these were the practices that Mike Frost’s Small Boat Big Sea community used, and that are covered in his book Exiles. Since then, though, their practices have become a rhythm – more fluid and less specific:

We encourage one another to live by a simple rhythm – Look, Listen, Learn, Live. So we regularly think:

Look – How can I be attentive to God and to others this week? What have I seen or heard of God’s work in my world?

Listen – To whom can I make myself vulnerable this week & in what ways have I opened myself others?

Learn – What have I learned from God’s Word this week & in what ways am I seeking to embody that learning?

Live – How can I make myself available to God for his purposes this week?

It’s interesting that they’ve made this move to something much more fluid and less prescriptive – perhaps something more like this is more useful?

Tim Chester and Mark Berry also have examples of rhythms they use in their communities.