The Road Ahead

Road Ahead Meeting 3 Content

If you haven’t already, please subscribe to the Road Ahead text group by texting the word roadahead to the phone number 97000.

You will receive text messages from Heartland Church. No purchase necessary. Message & data rates may apply. Messages frequency varies. Reply STOP to stop, HELP for help. Terms: http://97000.co/t. Privacy policy: http://97000.co/p.

Thank You & Merry Christmas!

Thank you for participating in these relational apprenticeship exercises. The aim of these exercises is to facilitate an “on-ramp” for engaging our aspirational goals for shifting culture. Because the concept of biblical apprenticeship is foreign to the vast majority of us in both thinking and practice, this will require hard work. The rewards, however, are worth every effort we put forth. We are all learning and growing in this together. Remain steadfast with patience and grace.

In the month of January, a Heartland staff member will be contacting you as a follow-up to celebrate your victories and help navigate any challenges you may be facing.

Thank You & Merry Christmas!

We strongly recommend that you watch the School of Life workshop, “Brave Communication,” between now and the end of January. This video contains important information and tools that will set us up for success as we shift and establish our culture as an apostolic Kingdom family!

Culture of Apprenticeship, Part 3

Liberating Leaders

Patiently walking apprentices through life on life apprenticeship (sharing of both life and tasks) can move the other person from unconscious incompetence to conscious competence (making them aware and confident to live out who God made them to be).

-       Must live out our belief that investing in others is the greatest investment

-       Be willing to take risks and provide a safe environment where apprentices can fail, get back up and learn from their mistakes

-       Equip, empower and provide long-term encouragement for apprentices

·      Relationship creates a place for vulnerability.  Vulnerability gives space for the freedom to express individual gifts and creativity.

·      We must give tasks to grow each other, but liberation has no place for micromanagement or it’s not true growth in the individual.

·      As leaders/influencers, we must be okay with our apprentice’s personal expression, especially when it differs from our own.  In fact, we should celebrate it!

In order to liberate others, we must work with others just as Jesus did with His disciples. Leaders/influencers model well, include well, release well and are available for debriefing and recalibrating as needed. This is precisely what Jesus did before liberating His “apprentices” into the world. “All authority has been given unto Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples…” (Matthew 28:18b-19a NASB)

Goal - Raise up mature apprentices who pour into others, who pour into others… building what’s in God’s heart – an apostolic Kingdom family!

* Be sure you continue to stay passionately engaged with God and your apprentices in the week ahead. Please respond using the form below by December 19. Thanks!

Culture of Apprenticeship, Part 2

please opt in to the road ahead texting group by texting the word roadahead to 97000.

You will receive text messages from Heartland Church. No purchase necessary. Message & data rates may apply. Messages frequency varies. Reply STOP to stop, HELP for help. Terms: http://97000.co/t. Privacy policy: http://97000.co/p.

Thanks so much for staying engaged in the Road Ahead process. We don’t want you to feel like this is something you should have all figured out. It is a process we are all working through together. If you have questions or need additional support, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Affirmation- To assert positively; to tell with confidence; to declare the existence of something; to maintain as true.

“No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.” (Ephesians 4:14-16 MSG)

-       Affirmation is not false flattery

-       It’s calling out the “gold” we see in each other

-       Focus should be to “Call Up the good” instead of “Call Out mistakes”

-       “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.” (Ephesians 4:29 NASB)

-       Your words of affirmation release grace for others to walk in

-       Don’t shy away from challenges and conflicts, but use brave communication with a heart of grace that communicates, “How do we work through challenges together and move forward?”

-       Our apprentice should be secure in love and acceptance, so that challenges and conflicts can be faced openly and honestly with grace

-       Honestly/accurately assess strengths, weakness, and challenges and work out of this reality

1.    As you have relationally engaged your apprentices over the past couple weeks, what “gold” (admirable traits/skills/potentials/etc.) did you recognize in them?

2.    What creative ways can you begin “calling them up” in those areas?

3.    We all have different strengths and weaknesses. It is important to understand these areas in order to facilitate vulnerability and growth. What weaknesses or challenges have you identified within yourself and your apprentices? What steps can you take to begin reconciling the challenges you face after your honest and accurate assessment?

* Be sure you continue to stay passionately engaged with God and your apprentices in the week ahead. Please respond using the form below by December 12. Thanks!

Culture of Apprenticeship, Part 1

Relational Apprenticeship

Relationally Connected with Jesus and One Another

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent Me” (John 17:20-21 NIV)

-       Value relationships by valuing the person

-       Invest in those around you

-       Pursue Jesus and allow His nature (i.e. perichoresis and ekstasis) to flow through you to others

-       Genuinely enjoy spending time with your apprentices

-       Chemistry between each other builds the foundation for trust and confidence in one another

“Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.” (Acts 4:13 NASB)

-       Our relationship with Jesus will flow out to others 

Passionate Engagement

Opposite of passionate engagement: At the end of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus directed disciples to meet him at the mountain

“Then the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.” (Matthew 28:16-17 NIV)

-       Doubted: held back, not wanting to worship, not risking themselves completely

-       Jesus response: He did not hold back, but released the Great Commission and promised He would be with them till the end of the age

Passionate engagement is:

-       Being focused and determined

-       Passionate pursuit (being all in and not holding back) and follow through

-       When it comes to tasks, having the daily “can-do” spirit knowing that Jesus is with me and His life-source is flowing through me to others.

This requires us to be giving of ourselves to others. Though the efforts of engagement may be sacrificial at times, it comes with great joy because we are moving with God’s desires, pursing relationship, fellowship and community (see Heb. 12:2).

 Let’s not hold back in our relationship with Jesus and others but passionately engage in going after what’s on His heart relationships.  

*Note: Your continued assignment is to begin enacting upon your stated goal within the next two weeks. Please respond using the form below by December 5. Thanks!