 |
| The Tangible Kingdom Primer |
Living It Out:
the natural and deliberate process
of living among, listening to, and
loving people in culture with the desire
to connect them to
the Christian community
As Emmaus City Church steps into Spring 2025 with a focus on prayer, holiness, courage, and faith (i.e. good risk and trust), we're revisiting a map for a 2-month journey that helped shape us for our first decade as the first congregation of missional communities (MCs) in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The Tangible Kingdom Primer: An Eight-Week Guide to Incarnational Community helped our first City Group (MC) lean into apprenticeship with Jesus together. And the memories, lessons, and formative experiences have continued to shape people among Emmaus City in fruitful ways to this day. You can read more here:
TKP: Apprenticeship in Jesus' Way
TKP: Apprenticeship in Jesus' Way
While one brief post can never replace what day-by-day meditations, practices, steps of faith, and reflections provide, this adapted excerpt from Week 5 (Tuesday, April 1 — Monday, April 7, 2025) of The TK Primer is provided as a review of content to come back to and to provide food for thought for when City Groups connect for our Sabbath gathering on the 5th day (Saturday, April 5 in this case).
Living Out the Kingdom
Day 1: Exploration
Living out is where all this
meets the real world.
Living out is the natural and deliberate
process of living among, listening to, and
loving people in culture with the desire
to connect them to our Christian community.
As we learn to live the missional
and incarnational way,
we soon are faced with challenges
to our daily living.
As we learn to live out the Gospel,
we grapple with the bottom-line issue
of our willingness to take responsibility
for our relationships with others
and whether we'll let the mission of God
dictate the purpose and schedule of our lives.
" ... A church would be if we all decide
to go on mission for God together.
So far, we have been on mission for you.
We open up our home.
We buy food.
We throw cool parties.
We give our time to mentor you.
If you all decide to be a church,
you'll (get) to do that for everyone else.
You'll (get) to die to your own lives ... "
Key Exploration Question
How has your faith developed as you've allowed the mission of God to shape your relationship with others?
Day 2: Meditation
...
"Oh, Lord,
please send someone else to do it."
Read
Bonus Read
Key Meditation Questions
How do you relate with Moses when you think about your own calling? What are some excuses that you've used with God?
Day 3: Change
The story of Moses reveals that it's quite natural to skirt God's calling for our lives. Despite our desire to be used by God, we often get paralyzed by insecurity.
Sometimes it's due to lack of experience. Other times it's based on our own failures or personal issues or brokenness. God is not caught off guard by any of these.
As you read 2 Corinthians 4:1-12, notice that the mark of true ministry is not perfection or results. In fact, Paul, calls us "jars of clay," indicating that:
he knew that imperfect people
would be the ones
carrying the responsibility
of sharing, showing,
and inviting people into Kingdom life.
would be the ones
carrying the responsibility
of sharing, showing,
and inviting people into Kingdom life.
Key Change Consideration
What type of burning bush is God using to get your attention right now?
Day 4: Action
6 Rhythms of Life
(1)
Know the Story
Get more familiar with
the Bible as one big story —
God's story.
Get to know the stories
of the people in your community
and help each other see how
your stories intersect
and mirror God's story.
(2)
Listen
Set aside regular times
to just listen to God.
Listen 'backward' through
time in God's Word.
You can actively listen 'forward'
to hear what God is saying to you today
through His Spirit and
through your community.
(3)
Celebrate
Gather throughout the week
with your community to share stories
and celebrate all that God is
doing in and amongst you.
Invite others to these celebrations
as a way of displaying
God's extravagant blessings.
(4)
Bless
Intentionally bless others
through words, gifts, or actions.
God desires that all nations —
all people —
would be blessed through Jesus.
Seek God's direction
for who He would have you
tangibly bless each week.
(5)
Eat
Regularly eat meals with others
as a reminder of our common need
for God and His faithfulness
to provide both physically and spiritually.
Try and eat one meal each week
with at least one sojourner
enjoying the meal with you.
(6)
ReCreate
Take time each week
to rest, play, create and restore
beauty in ways that display the Gospel,
resting in Jesus' completed work
on our behalf.
Cultivate this Gospel rhythm of rest
and create — ReCreate — in your life.
Action Ideas
+ Spend time with a friend who
is having a rough week.
+ Help a neighbor with a project.
+ Use a hobby to make new relationships.
+ Respond willingly to an interruption.
Day 5: Community
What action idea resonates above?
Group Discussion:
Describe regular activities within each of these Rhythms that you are already doing as a community. Which of these activities could be done with greater Gospel intentionality?
Day 6: Calibration
The great theologian Sheryl Crow sings this line: "It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got." When it comes to consumerism, she's got it just about right. Consumerism is the belief that happiness comes from getting what we want or think we need. Instead of caring about the needs of others, this perspective causes us to focus primarily on our own happiness.
One of the main barriers to communion with Christ is our consumerism. Consumerism turns our focus back on ourselves and our own desires and reverses the flow toward mission. But ideally, as we enter into true communion with Christ, we are naturally drawn into mission.
Transformation in our own lives compels us to reach out to others. Following Christ into mission is a natural outgrowth of the Gospel, but it requires intentionally working against our own desires and selfish ambitions.
Key Calibration Questions
Think about the condition of your communion with Christ. Describe some of the areas in your life where consumerism might be getting in the way. Write down some practical changes you could make to help reduce the attitude of consumerism in your life.
What can you do to bless others?
Where can you serve?
What time can you give
to reach out to others?
Day 7: ReCreate
Rest and consider:
God asks us to give
our entire lives to Him.
He wants it all.
He modeled this for us
when He sent His own Son
to rescue us.
Jesus gave everything that He might
now live His life in and through us.
We are His most valuable possession
and He is ours.
Read
Living Out Worship Songs
Next Post
TKP Wk 6: Inviting In
Come, Lord, stir us up and call us back.
Kindle and seize us.
Be our fire and our sweetness.
Let us love. Let us run ...
Let us sing a new song,
Not with our lips but with our lives.
+ North African St. Augustine
May God's Kingdom come, His will be done.
Que le Royaume de Dieu vienne,
que sa volonté soit faite.
愿神的国降临，愿神的旨意成就。
Nguyện xin Nước Chúa đến, ý Ngài được nên.
Jesús nuestra Rey, venga Tu reino!
🙏💗🍞🍷👑🌅🌇
Rev. Mike "Sully" Sullivan
