danielim.com | awakened2change

Living as a Missional Community

Daniel Im — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:55:01 +0000

One of the things that fascinates me about Jesus was that he was a masterful communicator. One of the ways that he loved to communicate was via word pictures.

Jesus loved to paint word pictures.

He did this because he knew that, through word pictures, we would be able to intrinsically understand and connect the truths that he was teaching us with our real lives today.

Two of the most powerful word pictures that he used to describe you and I were salt and light.

Matt. 5:13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
Matt. 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

When we read these verses, we, in our western individualistic world views, think that he’s talking about you and I individually – that we are individually the salt of the earth and the light of the world. However, when you look at the original language, the word “you” is actually plural.

You (the community together) are the salt of the earth.

You (the community together) are the light of the world – a city on a hill.

You (the community together) are the body of Christ, and each of us is a part of it (1 Cor 12:27).

Jesus never intended any of us to journey through life alone. Faith is not a private thing, it’s a community thing. We each have our own relationship with God, but it is in the context of community that we live it out and grow.

We are a community that lives out and represents the Gospel. We are a community where you belong before you believe. We are a community that is not about whether you are in or out, but more about the direction that you are journeying in. In a sense, we are an extended family, with all of our own junk, but a family that accepts one another knowing and understanding that the relationships we are developing right now don’t just end when you move away, but actually extend into eternity.

In a sense, we are a fragmented group of individuals journeying toward wholeness in Christ Jesus because we realize that he is the one who heals us, restores us, and gives us meaning to life. He shows us the way to life.

So we are a community – not a set of meetings. We are community desiring to know each other and be known. Yes, we have our regular meetings every other week, and some meet in the off weeks for deeper study, but that’s beside the point. It’s not about the meetings, it’s about the relationships.

And one of the most powerful ways that we can develop our relationships is by serving one another. So I’m going to propose a challenge for each of us to take up.

As a family, choose something that you could do yourself, but that you are willing to have someone else come alongside you to do. Then get together and do it for each other within the next 2 months. Spend that time together intentionally serving one another and living life together. It’s less about the activity and more about the time spent together.

Remember, although we are going to practically help one another, it’s really less about that, and more about spending time with one another.

So what are you going to do?

Rhythms of Receptivity and Activity

Daniel Im — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:28:43 +0000

“Growing in faith is not just about disciplines of study and withdrawal, as vital as these are. Certainly there needs to be disciplines of passive receptivity to hear from God and to know him in prayerful stilness. But there must also be rhythms of activity if we are to be mature followers of the Messiah.”

- Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost

Loving and Destroying Community

Daniel Im — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 22:22:15 +0000

“People who love community always end up destroying community. People who love relationships always build community.”

- Ronald Rolheiser

Did you Deny the Resurrection Today?

Daniel Im — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:40:35 +0000

Watch this Peter Rollins clip to explore what it looks like when our every day actions deny the resurrection and affirm the resurrection.

Peter Rollins is a widely sought after writer, lecturer, storyteller and public speaker. Peter gained his higher education from Queens University, Belfast and has earned degrees (with distinction) in Scholastic Philosophy (BA Hons), Political Theory (MA) and Post-Structural thought (PhD). He is currently a research associate with the Irish School of Ecumenics in Trinity College, Dublin and is the author of the much talked about How (Not) to Speak of God.

Click here to see a list of the works he has published.

What are your thoughts on his rant?

Your Desert Experience in Ministry – Part 3/4

Daniel Im — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:08:05 +0000

Desert experiences are one of the hardest things about life and extremely difficult to navigate through. In fact, when we are in a desert experience, the only thing that many of us think about is how to get out of it – quickly and with as few scars as possible.

In part one, I described the rationale behind desert or isolation experiences in ministry. Click here to read about it.

In part two, I described the different types of desert experiences that one might experience in ministry. Click here to read about it.

Today, I’m going to explore why moving out of a desert experience prematurely is one of the worst decisions that you can do.

The whole process of moving back to Canada in 2010, after pastoring in Korea, was a defining desert experience in my life. We were displaced and without a home, ministry position, income, etc for about 5 months. Upon arriving back in Canada, the first thing I wanted to do was get a job and start providing again for my wife and newborn, but God had other plans. In fact, out of all the resumes that I handed out, absolutely no one called me back for the first couple of months. It was hard at the time, but in hindsight, I can see how God wanted to keep me in that desert experience.

Shelly Trebesch, in her book, Isolation: A Place of Transformation in the Life of a Leader, explains how God uses desert experiences to accomplish things through us that we could never accomplish apart from that desert experience. So much so that some of our ultimate contributions may actually come out of a desert time. Thus, it is important to be prepared for a desert season by deciding beforehand to embrace the whole process and what comes with it. And when one is going through a desert season, it is important to stay in it until God calls one out of it.

Understanding my past desert experiences through this lens has been extremely helpful as I consider how to share my past stories with others. I could easily share it with the framework of, “I’m glad that I’m not going through that anymore” and allow that desert experience to turn into a fact of history. Or, I could share my desert experiences through the lens of how God has transformed me and made me a better individual as a result of going through it.

How have you shared your past desert experiences to others?

Join me next time as I finish off this series with some powerful insights on desert experiences.

If you want to read more in depth on this topic, check out Shelly Trebesch’s Isolation: A Place of Transformation in the Life of a Leader.

danielim.com | awakened2change

Living as a Missional Community

Related Posts:

Rhythms of Receptivity and Activity

Related Posts:

Loving and Destroying Community

Related Posts:

Did you Deny the Resurrection Today?

Related Posts:

Your Desert Experience in Ministry – Part 3/4

Related Posts: