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| The Tangible Kingdom Primer |
Apprenticeship:
moving beyond
knowledge-based discipleship
to action-oriented followership,
with the goal of living like Jesus lived;
comes through regular practice,
faith-oriented action, and
personal devotion to know
the ways of Christ
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 2 (Tuesday, March 11 — Monday, March 17, 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, March 15 in this case).
What Is Incarnational?
Day 1: Exploration
Incarnation means "to take on flesh." If missional means "to go," incarnational is about how you go and what people see as you go. It encompasses your posture, your tone, your motives, and your heart.
The Word became flesh and blood
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
+ John 1:14, The Message
Key Exploration Question
What do you think about Jesus being viewed as a friend of sinners?
Day 2: Meditation
Have you ever taken the time to recognize how many times God shows up "on the way"? That is, as an interruption to our normal schedules? In the Scriptures, not-yet-Christians saw the power of the early communities and encountered Christ around tables, while sitting on a hill listening to Him teach, walking with Him on a road, standing on a shore, or while getting some water at a well. Many of the most powerful stories happened "along the way." In most cases, Jesus and the people that followed Him met others in the context of their normal lives. God showed up in the middle of real life.
Read
Incarnation speaks to our posture, our timing, and how much of our time we give people before we ever share biblical truths with them. But incarnation also speaks to where the most important times of ministry will take place. To be incarnational, therefore, means that we must begin where Jesus began with us: out there, with people, along the way.
Day 3: Change
In John 8:1-11, Jesus became an advocate for a woman caught in adultery. He protected her, and this small revolutionary act set Jesus apart. An advocate focuses on winning a person's trust, friendship, and loyalty. Our posture is what wins a person's respect and heart and helps them be open to God's ways. While poor posture communicates judgment, Christ-like posture displays love.
Key Meditation Questions
Who have you been an advocate for?
Who in your life needs you to be an advocate for them now?
Who in your life needs you to be an advocate for them now?
Day 4: Action
Spend some time in a public place (park, school, YMCA, gym). Sit still and look at the faces. Imagine some of the things that make up their life stories. Pray for them.
Bless one person, without any strings attached and without trying to talk about God or getting any acknowledgment. Reflect on how your heart felt. What if you could live a life of blessing?
Day 5: Community
Do you feel that you could bring anyone to this community? Why or why not? What are ways your group can navigate the balance of "whimsical holiness," that is, holding to the values of following Christ while fostering an atmosphere of non-judgment and acceptance?
Day 6: Calibration
Most God-moments are unexpected and occur along the way to someplace else.
They will seem like interruptions,
but if you begin to look
for God's fingerprints in your day
and in every relationship,
in every coffee shop,
in every conversation
you have with your neighbor,
there's a good chance
you will begin to see
God's incarnational presence.
Key Calibration Question
Identify where God is most likely to show up along the way in your daily life.
Day 7: ReCreate
Rest and consider:
The work of the cross of Christ
completely paid the price for our sins,
allowing us to rest and believe
what the Father says of us now,
"You are forgiven!"
Key Week 2 Concept
Incarnational Community:
a group of people
with the posture, tone, motives, and
heart of Jesus;
those who physically represent
Him in a particular location
Next Post
TKP Wk 3: The Gospel
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
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