Made in the Streets

Charles Kiser —  January 7, 2010 — 1 Comment

In 2008, we started a Storyline Christmas tradition as part of the Advent Conspiracy: taking up an offering for a global service organization that serves the cause of justice. In 2008 we gave to Touch A Life, an organization that helps liberate children from slavery in Ghana, West Africa.

This Christmas we decided to continue the Advent Conspiracy tradition by making a donation to Made in the Streets. Made in the Streets serves streets kids in Nairobi, Kenya. They provide shelter, food and education to kids who would otherwise be left to roam the streets.

Watch this video to hear a story about Laurent, a young teenager whose life was changed by the ministry of Made in the Streets. Charles and Darlene Coulston, founders of the organization, tell the story.

A special connection is that South MacArthur Church of Christ, one of our partnering churches, is heavily involved in supporting Made in the Streets. It’s exciting to me the way Storyline is now able to come alongside South Mac in mission in this small way.

All are welcome to make a donation to help God’s work through Made in the Streets.

Storyline is accepting tax-deductible donations until Friday, January 8, here. If you’d like to make a donation directly to Made in the Streets after January 8, you can do so here.

We have the special opportunity to present Storyline’s gift to Charles and Darlene Coulton this weekend at our January worship gathering.

In Justice, Mission, South Mac, Videos, Worship Gathering
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Genesis: Recreating Missional Life

Charles Kiser —  December 22, 2009 — Leave a comment

I want to extend an invitation to all you readers out there in the blogosphere to participate in a conference hosted by Mission Alive, our church planting resource organization.

The conference is called Genesis: Recreating Missional Life. It takes place March 18-20 at the Richland Hills Church campus (one of our partnering churches).

The basic question of the conference is, “What does it look like to participate in God’s mission in our own contexts?”

This conference is for followers of Jesus who want to dive deeper into missional rhythms for life. It’s for church planters who want to embed such rhythms in their new churches. And it’s for established churches who want to revitalize their missional lives.

I’m excited about this conference for two reasons.

One – I’m not sure I’ve seen so many ministry resource people of such caliber together at any conference experience hosted within the Churches of Christ.

Here’s the keynote list: Hugh Halter (author of The Tangible Kingdom), Randy Harris (enough said), Alan Hirch (co-author of The Shaping of Things to Come), and George Hunsberger (co-author of Missional Church). You can see more about the presenters here.

The presenters are individuals who aren’t just talking about living on mission; they are themselves living on mission and helping to pave the way forward for the rest of us.

Two – The structure of this conference is unlike any other I’ve ever participated in.

Most conferences have large venue keynotes for the high caliber, internationally-known presenters (e.g., the Hirch’s of the world), then mid-sized venues (50-100) for presenters with local or regional influence.

One’s interaction with the Hirsch’s of the world at such conferences is usually limited to a big screen, bright lights and a seat about 100 rows away from the stage.

The Genesis Conference, on the other hand, is designed for deeper dialogue and personal interaction.

From the event brochure: “Genesis is a new kind of conference. It models learning in community….Participants develop practical paradigms for recreating missional life. It cannot be done by more listening, more speeches, more thinking! It can only be done in dialog.”

The conference models such community learning through conference, cluster and cohort groups.  Keynote presenters make presentations to the whole conference (limited to 400 people). Keynoters and other speakers then cycle through clusters (35-45 participants or 4 cohorts) to have deeper conversation about their material. Participants in cohorts (8-12 people, usually from the same church or with similar ministry roles) then gather together to talk about implementing what they’re learning in their own lives and ministries.

Can you imagine the benefit of sitting down with someone like Alan Hirsch and 30-40 other people to talk about living missionally in your own context?

I’m looking forward to journeying with a cohort and facilitating interaction for a cluster. This promises to be a powerful learning experience.

You should come! All are welcome. Spots are limited so sign up as soon as possible at TheGenesisConference.org. Early bird registration ($135) ends 12/31/09.

In Church Planting, Community, Mission, Mission Alive, Richland Hills
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Illuminate

Charles Kiser —  December 14, 2009 — 2 Comments

One component of Storyline’s structures for spiritual formation is the retreat setting. Who says youth groups are the only ones allowed to have powerful retreat experiences?

Retreats have powerful potential because they help us break away from our normal rhythms to look at our lives from the outside. They are helpful for evaluation, introspection and goal setting. We form special bonds with others as we grow together in retreat contexts.

To date, we’ve developed three retreat experiences in the Storyline Community.

The first is Marvelous Light, associated with the season of Lent (February), which seeks to facilitate spiritual cleansing, confession and the reception of grace.

The second is City on a Hill, associated with the season After Pentecost (May), which seeks to equip people to live on mission just as the church did after Pentecost.

The third, and most recently developed, is Illuminate. Illuminate is also connected to the latter part of the season After Pentecost (November – it’s a long season!).

My co-worker, Ryan Porche, spearheaded the development of Illuminate. In Ryan’s words, from the Storyline website:

Developing a personal worship life is crucial for a follower of Jesus. And yet, not everyone relates to God in the exact same way. Illuminate is designed to equip followers of Jesus with tools to grow in their personal relationship with God. The retreat introduces a number of spiritual disciplines, and also provides opportunities to experiment on your own. Illuminate is a rich time in the presence of God!

I participated in the first Illuminate retreat with about 20 other Storyliners on November 20-21. In the weeks that have followed the retreat, I’ve felt more connected to God than I have in a long time.

Here are a few personal highlights for me from the retreat experience:

  • Lectio (“lex-ee-oh”) divina (=”divine reading”): I learned a couple new approaches to praying Scripture that I’ve found helpful in the past few weeks. One was the one-step method, where you find a phrase in Scripture and chew on it; another was the four-step method of read, reflect, respond, rest.
  • Examen prayer: an ancient prayer rhythm that entails looking back on the last day in the video player of my memory and looking for places I saw God working as well as times where I might have disappointed God. Great times of praise and confession have emerged for me from this spiritual practice.
  • Breath prayer: another ancient prayer practice in which the pray-er repeats a prayer throughout the day that can be contained within one breath. I’ve found this prayer to be the most accessible way of beginning to “practice the presence of God” in my life. “Holy Father, fill me with your love” has been my personal breath prayer favorite in the last few weeks.
  • Vow of silence: on Friday night through Saturday morning we took a vow of silence. It had been a long time since I’d practiced such intentional silence. What a head clearing practice! It was a powerful experience and left me wanting to plan other times of silence.
  • Practice: I appreciated the way Porche emphasized practicing spiritual practices throughout the weekend, rather than talking about practicing spiritual practices. The lionshare of our time was spent experimenting with different spiritual practices and then processing our experiences with other people.
  • Relationship: Lectio, Examen and Breath prayer have all made personal relationship with God a much more tangible thing. I don’t know quite how to describe it, only to say that “spiritual disciplines” have often been a source of guilt for me – particularly because I didn’t feel like I was very good at them. I guess I’ve just been practicing the wrong ones, because I’ve found some that energize me and feel so natural rather than a task that I have to check off my list so that I can say I’m a spiritually disciplined person. That would miss the point, for sure.

Thank you, Ryan, for your hard work putting this retreat together. I can’t wait for the next one (November 5-6, 2010)!

In Dependence, Life Change, Spiritual Formation
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J. Withrow

Charles Kiser —  December 7, 2009 — 2 Comments

This is an awesome music video by Jairus Withrow, an intern with Storyline this past summer. Several Storyliners made cameo appearances in the video, including Mr. Ryan Porche.

From the J.Withrow website: “The ‘10,000 Words’ Music Video…[is] a modern day parable about a selfless rap artist, a confused world, and an evil liar.”

Watching the video reminded me of a metaphor Brian McLaren shares in his book More Ready than You Realize. The good news of the kingdom of God, he says, is like a good song. People hear the song – music of love, hope, peace and grace; it gets stuck in their heads; they begin to sing along with it; then they start to dance to it; before you know it, more and more people are moving in sync to the same song.

Bravo, Jairus, for singing the Song in a way that people can’t help but to listen.

I have a feeling we’ll be hearing more from Jairus in the future. In fact, he’s starting a new band called Bus Seven. If you like what you saw in the music video, stay tuned for more at his website!

In Videos
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Storylines: Chapter One

Charles Kiser —  December 2, 2009 — 3 Comments

We’ve begun a new series of videos we’re calling Storylines – personal stories of Storyline people who are discovering their place in God’s story.

The makings of the first Storylines video began with five people praying together about a year ago.

We – the Kisers – had just been sent out by the Riviera (now Tribeca) church with a small team to start the Trianon church.

I still remember our first gatherings with our teammates, Patrick and Lauren Cone. We concluded the end of our meetings, as we do to this day, with the “empty chair prayer” – a prayer that points to the symbolic empty chair in the room as a way of reminding us of our mission to connect with those who are disconnected from God and/or Christian community.

In those days, there were more empty chairs than filled chairs.

One night after the empty chair prayer, Patrick scanned our empty living room and said, “You know, not too long from now, this room is going to be full of people. They’ll be overflowing to the dining room table and hanging out in the kitchen. I can see it now.”

Over the course of the next several weeks we began to pray during our empty chair prayer for one of Patrick’s co-workers. Patrick mentioned having good conversations with her and that she was a bit hesitant about church.

Then he started inviting her to join us for a house church gathering. And after a while, Deborah came.

I remember having emotional conversations with Deborah when she first started participating. She was in the midst of some pretty big life transitions and was putting the pieces together again.

In the months that followed, I saw Deborah grow and blossom in ways only God was capable of facilitating.

Before we knew it she was coordinating justice initiatives for our house church. This summer she organized the Neighbors’ Cookout that Storyline hosted in partnership with SoupMobile that fed hundreds of our homeless friends.

I remember nights when Deborah came to house church gatherings tired and drained from a long work week. She would say, “I’m so tired, but I wouldn’t miss this for anything. This charges me up. This is my family.”

Last month, in a living room full of people, the Trianon Church sent Deborah with a team of people led by Patrick and Lauren Cone to start the fourth Storyline house church.

Deborah is hosting the new church’s gatherings at her huge antique house in old east Dallas.

Just a couple weeks ago, four people sat around the living room in that big house and prayed for God to fill the empty chair again with those who are disconnected from God.

This story shows Storyline’s values for dependence on God, mission, life change and genuine relationships in action.

I pray God repeats this story hundreds and thousands of times in the Storyline Community in the years to come.

Because the Storyline Community – the Church – exists for people like Deborah.

You can also view this video and others at the Storyline website.

In House Churches, Prayer, Reproduction, Videos
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