We are exploring the mDNA component -disciple-making or discipleship from Alan Hirsch’s forthcoming book and how it applies to Northern Community. The other posts in the mDNA series are here

A new missional order

A key initiative that we are keen to implement is the development of our kaleo team into a kaleo missional order within Northern. We are planning that 2006 will be a year in which this is trialled with some members of our church. A reading of the gospels clearly shows Jesus inviting an initial 12 on a discipleship formation process. This process was high in commitment that meant a re-ordering of priorities of time and resources. Ashley Barker puts it this way:

Christ brought his disciples through an initiation process of “calling”, “chaos” and experiences of the “Paschal mystery” before they would have a lasting commission. Their formation was in the midst of Jesus’ ministry of proclaiming and living the Reign of God. Today we need this same formation.

Is it possible to imagine an established church that contains people who make this type of commitment? Is it too foolhardy to envisage that the same type of commitment that religious and missionary orders can be cultivated within an established setting? At Northern our challenge is to transform those already within the church from church goers into missionary people and to recruit more people to Jesus’ cause. It is our belief that creating a missional order that is a part of Northern will be a key strategy in helping this.

The established Protestant church context of Northern brings some particular challenges to implementing a missional order. Some people within Northern are used to an environment where attendance at the worship event is seen to be the mark of discipleship. While this culture is changing, there is nevertheless a continuing paradigm that will need to be challenged if we are to be successful in raising the bar of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

Our Protestant tradition and in particular our Churches of Christ heritage may also be a stumbling block in regard to the language of missional order, rules and vows. Yet if we are to raise the bar of discipleship, a new language will be helpful. Another benefit of the language is that there is a renewed interest in ancient future practices within the younger generations. Whatever the attitude towards the order language it is a language that communicates high commitment.

The shape of the order

The proposed kaleo missional order will have the following shape:

Purpose
To cultivate missionary people that will be the hands and feet of Jesus through many diverse congregations and missional teams.

Daily office
The daily office which is common in some church traditions today has its source in the monastic tradition. Members of monastic orders would perform a daily office that would include prater and scripture. Prayer and scripture will form the heart of the daily office for the kaleo order too. The daily office will contain examen, prayer and a scripture reading. It is intended that this will be provided by a weblog that will allow people to access it on their computers or pda’s. For those who do not have access to such technology we can provide the daily office in paper form. The advantage of the use of this technology is that although the daily office will be an individual component it can be discussed with other via the weblog.

Nodes
One of the strengths of our current kaleo structure has been the fortnightly lectio divinia team discussion times. However, the key problem with this is that it was reliant on people being available during the week and local to the church building mid-week. This of course was not possible for many people. Local nodes will be set up that will have no less than three and no more than five people which can be held at convenient places and times. For instance, one local node could meet in the city at a lunch time or before work. The nodes role will be to encourage accountability in the spiritual disciplines and to do lectio divina biblical reflection together.

Rules of the order
Historically, monastic orders have rules by which order members commit to live by. It is intended that in the kaleo order the rules will be the seven spiritual disciplines.

• Participating in church life
• Sharing our hospitality
• Entering the Biblical story
• Engaging the Spirit
• Discerning world issues
• Managing our money
• Serving other people

The benefit of the creation of an order and this way of doing discipleship is that it is ongoing and does not simply occur at the time of ones entry into the faith. It recognizes that all of people of faith are involved in a process of becoming better followers of Jesus. The hope is that the order will provide a structure to assist people to be reminded of this and to view discipleship and faith in a more holistic way. The very nature of the orders rules in the seven spiritual disciplines encourages us to see that our faith must connect with all elements of our life. It gives permission for others to keep us accountable for our discipleship process and creates an environment that people can grow.

Monasteries, abbeys, convents have the connotation of being separate from the world and evoke images of monks and nuns retreating from the world to be within the walls. This is far from the truth of most historical monastic orders which mostly were set up with a certain missional charisma. Monastic orders were often at the heart of reform and at the edge of new ways of Christian mission and service. Likewise in our new post-christendom context we need ways to increase expectations while at the same time nurturing and resourcing people in their discipleship.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 17th, 2006 at 11:57 am by phil and is filed under mDNA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.