A Foolswork Update for Late May

Last week I was invited to Dallas to attend a gathering at The Leadership Network on Church Planting.  I had no clue what to expect and I was simply blown away!!!!!

The big wow for the week, I now understand exactly what Foolswork is and have the vocabulary to describe it to others. 

Foolswork is an Apostolic  Multi-site Organic Church that primarily gathers in first and third places.  Our philosophy is a Missional church with the emphasis being on our community first.  Community is defined as our members/ attenders, our neighbors and their neighbors.  We have a desire to have an impact on those in our community and our neighbors through our community activism.  Our mission field is near and far and our desire is to connect with a specific people group in a far away place where we can return for years of continued shared learning.  we are not teachers we are life long learners and we choose to follow a carpenter named Jesus.  We are apostolic by design.  

Let's unpack these words:  Multi-site states that we have communities in different states and ultimately different countries.  Organic church is an idea of a small gathering that grows and lives and divides into other gatherings and moves without the structure of an Attraction Model church.  (Build a building and gather people to the building.) 

Missional Church is one that sees our neighborhood as a mission fiend.  Most Attraction Model churched are program or ministry based in their approach.  In other words we are not seeking to find believers and move them to our gathering we are actually seeking to find the un-churched and gather them into a meaningful community.  

Community defines three people groups in Foolswork: 1) The people that gather regularly, 2) The community in which we reside, and 3) The people outside our neighborhood to the ends of the world.  Wherever we start a mission our goal is to be there for an extended amount of time. 

We follow Jesus of Nazareth.  I am sure someone will come up with a reason to extend this statement however, we like it simple.  we choose to be seen as foolish to the world and wise to God's Kingdom.  (John 7:47, 1 Cor 4:10, 2 Samuel 6:11-21)

Apostolic is the idea that there is an order and system for Foolswork.  For example Morgan and Drew are launching groups this fall and they have both been directly trained and taught by us.  We know them.  Morgan and Drew will encourage leaders that do not know us to take the online training and launch their own groups in new places.  This is an Apostolic Model.  

We gather in first and third places.  A first place is where you live and a second place is where you work and a third place is in north america Starbucks.  The first College Station gathering is planning on a Laundry-mat.  The Katy gathering was originally in homes but moved out to restaurants and coffee shops.  

We will be utilizing a centralized training systems called Foolswork Universiy™.  This program is available in two methods: 1) in a mentorship relationship with a qualified trainer or 2) via the web.  All of our training will be available on the web.  Courses being developed include:  

- How to start a group.

- How to gather people.

- Where to meet and why?

- Planning and ideas for community events, Social Justice, and community involvement projects.

- Start a Cluster (aka Take the 30 day challenge)

- How to make the 30 Day Journal.

- Overview of THE365STUDY.

- VCL Training.

- Foolswork The Basics

- Multi-Ethnic Theology 

Foolswork is unique in that we have weekly content available to all groups in many forms.  The leaders of the group can login in to the website and attend a weekly Foolswork University course that will walk them through that weeks lesson and the research behind the content.  This training is in two sections: one for the teacher and one for the music leader.  They can also watch the weekly lesson on the site taught by one of our gatherings.  If they choose to use the video of the gathering instead of teaching the lesson live they have the ability to download a DVD version with high quality video.  Also available for download are the charts for the weekly music, the teachers notes, powerpoint, and handouts for the week and more.  

The complete weekly gathering is available online.  We anticipate that there are three potential viewers of the weekly gathering: 1) the teachers looking to learn, 2) the members of a gathering that missed the meeting and 3) internet only members of Foolswork.  

The new website is in early Alpha development and will hopefully be in Beta in the next few weeks.  Please review the site for all input once it is up and functional.  We also need a few dollars to get the ste programed once we have a working beta build.  

Attached is a picture of the Alpha Foolswork home page....

Icons for the new web site

So I am looking for four new icons that we can use on the new website to communicate our method of reaching others intentionally (Foolswork Clusters) - How we join in community (Foolwsork groups) - and  our movement (Mosaic Church.)  

We start with an image of the individual - You.  

Then we ask those individuals aka friends and their friends to join us on a 30 day experiment in community and spiritual journey.  This group gathers for up between 8 and 20 times in the span of 30 days.  There is a set reading material that all re

ad prior to gathering.  The gathering take place literally wherever the cluster wants to meet.  They have five things to accomplish in the 30 days: Read and talk about the readings, get a meal together, join a Foolswork Group in a community event (outreach,) Spend time making the booklets for the next group, Learn about the 365 Study.

Notice how the members of the Foolswork Group have their arms touching each other.  This is where real community begins.  The Clusters really don't get connected enough in 30 days to start a community.  This is where we do life together and life and laugh and worship in a home or coffee shop or in a Laundry Mat. 

 There is leadership and music and teams and very important community impact is not an event but a regular lifestyle.  

Now we see the idea of a large community forming of all people and groups.  This is when we have a weekly gathering in a central place.  The idea of the icon os that we are the same but different.  Regardless of our background we are connected.  This is Mosaic!  We are Mosaic.  We represent the rainbow of colors and that God has created in his people.  

Some websites I am thinking about right now...

www.6billionothers.org

pangeaday.org

www.noujaimfilms.com

Laughter Yoga

There is the guy in India that has developed Laughter Yoga... How cool is that? The idea seems simple enough to me... You gather a group of your friends to streatch and do some excercises (we all need that you know) and then when you are good a limber ... well... you just... LAUGH will all you got!

This is my kind of therapy!

http://www.laughteryoga.org/

Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars

So I'm watching this show today on the web and there is the band from a refugee camp in Sierra Leone. They have formed their instruments from what they have to bring music and hope back to their fellow refugees. In one scene a guy formed a cymbal from a car's hub cap.

This to me is a sign that Hope lives in all of us.

Some fancy promoter has them now with some equipment and they are on tour... http://www.sierraleonesrefugeeallstars.com/ If you get tickets you better bring me with you.

Hey - Isn't that what Matt V. call the band back at the Vineyard? I knew they looked familiar.

Current Summary of Foolswork et al

Here is a summary of the past 10 days or so of our ideas and work.  Not everyone has been in on all the conversations so I thought I should open the dialog up to all.  I have copied much of this from an email I sent to Kris at First Baptist Church in the Heights so if some of the sentences don't make complete sense then just chalk it up to me have the writing skills of a Panda.  

We have identified three areas that we will emphasize.  The Weekly Gathering - Small Group System and a Gathering system.

The Weekly Gathering will initially be on a weekday night like Thursday.  The elements will be based on our Celtic Knot diagram.  We have started gathering a list of artist and musicians for this gathering.  Also we have been talking with other teachers about joining us in this venture.  

Foolswork  It looks like we could have up to six locations starting by the end of the year.  (Including one in North Carolina, one in Dallas and two in Arkansas.)  

Our original idea for foolswork of being a web-based church gathering that had cells literally world wide is growing.  The guys in Dallas as considering joining us to make this a reality.  The North Carolina (Drewboy) and one of the Arkansas sites will be at college campuses.  Morgan is considering attending TAMU in the spring of 2009 and she plans to open a Foolswork there. 

And the Gathering system - we are calling these groups Clusters and they are a 30 day experiment in community and shared spirituality.  This group commits to a 30 day group reading schedule and a set of meetings.  When they gather they discuss the readings.  They also complete two projects in that time.  Our exit for the members of these groups is two fold: 1) they start a group of their own and 2) they join an existing foolswork gathering.

The one Year Reading Program - This is the system that a Cluster uses for their start and then encourages the others to continue individually or with a cluster they start for the next year.  This program is Monday - Saturday with Sunday as a rest day.  M W F - we read a OT passage and a NT passage with an optional reading that is extra Biblical like the Chicken Soup stories but more relevant to our audience.  T Th SAT we have a Psalm and a Gospel Message with an optional non biblical reading as  well.  

The six weeks prior to Easter as well as the six weeks following Easter there is a going deeper set of optional readings.  These double up the readings for the day so instead of 5 minutes it will be 10 minutes of reading.  

Also we are working on both a printed and electronic journal system.  Morgan has created a mock up for the paper based system.  She says it is really cool but tells me I can't see it until next weeks meeting.  For the electronic system we started talking to the guys that wrote the Kindle Joy website (www.kindlejoy.com) about making a site out of our yearly reading system.  

Putting the Word Out - I hope you are all starting to recruit your friends and neighbors and people you meet on the street.  I have been on the phone this week with several people at College of Biblical Studies talking about this new venture and they are all going to start talking about it to their friends and students.  We have a need for additional leadership: a leader for our artisan community and a group of pastoral teachers for a culturally diverse background.  (Please keep in mind they need to share our DNA of a heart for the misplaced - outcast and rejects form the church as well as those who have never considered the case for Christ.  We are not building a church we are building a community.) 

Some small additional things - 1) I exchanged emails with a pastor of a church in Hawaii this past week about us.  He was amazingly kind and generous.  2) has anyone made contact with Loc Tran about the Vietnam trip? 

Thank you for being a part of this venture.  

Crashing Forward,

Richard

One more thing... 

Relationship with Mosaic Church in Little Rock - Guys I hope you are reading the book we presented last week by Mark Deymaz.  Mark and I have spent several hours on the phone the past few days and I am really excited about the possibility of us being in relationship with his church.  Among many things discussed if we join with them they want to integrate Foolswork into their entire system of associated churches.  They will probably adopt our Cluster system as well.  So please read the book so we can have an open discussion about the possibilities of joining with Mosaic.  (FYI: This is not the Mosaic in California.)  

Jammie Breakfast and now intorducing Jammie Church

We have a tradition in the Hunt house called Jammie Breakfast. The was it works is everyone in the house including any guest must go out to eat breakfast in their pajamas together. This has been a source of fun and a unique bond has formed with our family... Ask our friends that have run into us at McDonald's in our PJ's or better jet ask Morgan she got to go one Saturday morning.

Jammie Church rocks! First you all gather around the warm inviting little computer screen and surf on over to lifechurch.tv and join the internet campus. It is so cool. They ask you questions and you can click a button to raise your hand and say yes... or go out into the lobby to talk to people... Or lay on the floor of you own comfy room and all worship as a family and get some really good bible learnin'. Coolest church I have ever been to... But then we did have the air conditioner set to ice cream.

Umbrellas and other silly things

So I'm reading this book and there is an illustration by this woman that goes something like - 

Why is is that Bankers like to give you umbrellas when there is no rain?  They are more than willing to offer their help and assistance when we don't need it.  Then the weather changes radically and the rain comes ... and what happens - those same kind benevolent banks get nervous and ask for their umbrellas back.  

Then it hit me - Is this how we treat the people around us?  You know those others that live next to us and park out in front of our mailbox and...   We are happy to be involved in their lives until it becomes uncomfortable.  

There is this ancient book written by a guy named John.  John wrote about his friends and how they got mixed up in a revolution.   There is the story in there where their leader allowed a woman to clean his feet with a very expensive perfume.  (this could have cost as much as three years of a middle class salary - like $180,000 or more!)  This all happens while the relative poor group of friends are just jaw dropped in amazement.  This is one of those circumstances where there are several perspectives to understand prior to a complete grasp of the situation:  

1) This leader, Jesus, may have stinky feet.  He had been walking in sandals for some time, and even with the cultural greeting of a ceremonial front door foot washing his feet may have still been in an interesting condition :(  

This makes me think of that movie with Adam Sandler where Adam's character ask the teacher if he was "raising the stinky kid?"  Panic sets in and the next scene we see Adam scrubbing the kid.  We have this need to make the stinky people go away or we choose to be somewhere else other than where they are.  

So thinking about this woman again, she chose to become close to a stinky smelly Jesus in order to anoint Him with her love.  He was worth her most prized possession that she had saved for for years.  He was worth everything he had at that moment and She had to let him know.

Have you ever visited a homeless shelter?  Have you feed the poor?  No matter the finances of your family there are always those less fortunate than you.  Have you stopped to help them in their plight?  These "stinky people" are in desperate need and we are responsible to help them.  (They need an umbrella but we wont even consider giving them one of our old spares.) 

  

2) Jesus had recently raised his friend Lazareth from the dead.  So here we are in a room with his closest friends and a former dead guy.  I wonder if they were still asking Lazareth what death was like?  Something like "So Z, was there a bright light?  I heard there was..."  You know he was getting tired of this!  

I would assume there may have been a little tension by Martha still about the whole think about Jesus being late to save Lazareth in the first place.  And in the middle of this battle of philosophical (death) questions and fractured friendships here we find Mary maybe the only one in the room the "got it!"  God bless her as she loved on the "stinky one."  

3) Judas was there counting the money in his head.  All he can see in this moment is Mary wasting money he could have gotten his hands on.  He is greedy and selfish and driven but he own personal hedonism!  This self indulgence is evident in many of our lives.  Some of us must control all things around us - Others need to be the center of attention - while still others are wrapped up in self indulgences - and so many of us are trapped by our addictions to people, places and or things.  Judas embodies all of humanities personal "self worth" in this brief glimpse of his values and life.  

Where are you in this?  Is you personal hedonistic desires causing you to not see the beauty of a moment?  Are you lost in yourself?  There is a way out!  

4) And Jesus sitting there... the mounting stress of the events to come in the next few days.  We think we know stress.  Actually as Americans we think we own the rights to understanding stress.  We are sorely wrong and downright arrogant on this point.  I wonder what was going through His mind.  What could the scent have conjured his imagination to wander about?  Where did this moment fit in his mind?  Was the stress so much that he was not participating in the now but worried about the future?  I choose to think not, I choose to believe that he was capable of setting aside the worries and stress of the pending events and living in the moment.  I choose to believe!

Back to my first point.  What do we do when we encounter the stinky people of life?  I think we should extend empathy first.  This is the ability to see the issues and circumstances the person is going through without condemnation or judgment, without praise or emotion.  Christ was empathetic with Mary, Judas, the Disciples, Lazareth and even Himself!  He may have even been sympathetic to Mary and her tears.  

This may seem long and disconnected but let connect the big dots.  Mary chose to give this friend of hers a blessing of an umbrella when he may not have actually needed it.  And she gave that umbrella knowing it was a one time use item.  She gave everything to love her friend while the rest of her close friends sat by and watched.  They didn't offer to help - They did choose to judge and condemn her.  She was in the business of handing out umbrellas with no return policy.  

So my goal from here forward to is to hand out Umbrellas to anyone who will allow me to offer one.  Umbrellas of Hope and Love.  And then pray that they may never have the need to use them.  And if they do and the Umbrella becomes torn or tattered, well I know where we can get some more.  

Anyone up for handing out umbrellas on the street corner?  That's where you'll find me - right next to the guy with the "Free Hugs" sign.

Free Hugs

Richard's Strength Finders Results

Well the results are in and I have to deal with the Doctors instructions.... Not really just so you may want to know here re my strength finders 2.0 results....

Strategic

The Strategic theme enables you to sort through the clutter and find the
best route. It is not a skill that can be taught. It is a distinct way of
thinking, a special perspective on the world at large. This perspective
allows you to see patterns where others simply see complexity. Mindful of
these patterns, you play out alternative scenarios, always asking, "What if
this happened? Okay, well what if this happened?" This recurring question
helps you see around the next corner. There you can evaluate accurately the
potential obstacles. Guided by where you see each path leading, you start to
make selections. You discard the paths that lead nowhere. You discard the
paths that lead straight into resistance. You discard the paths that lead
into a fog of confusion. You cull and make selections until you arrive at
the chosen path-your strategy. Armed with your strategy, you strike forward.
This is your Strategic theme at work: "What if?" Select. Strike.



Activator

"When can we start?" This is a recurring question in your life. You are
impatient for action. You may concede that analysis has its uses or that
debate and discussion can occasionally yield some valuable insights, but
deep down you know that only action is real. Only action can make things
happen. Only action leads to performance. Once a decision is made, you
cannot not act. Others may worry that "there are still some things we don't
know," but this doesn't seem to slow you. If the decision has been made to
go across town, you know that the fastest way to get there is to go
stoplight to stoplight. You are not going to sit around waiting until all
the lights have turned green. Besides, in your view, action and thinking are
not opposites. In fact, guided by your Activator theme, you believe that
action is the best device for learning. You make a decision, you take
action, you look at the result, and you learn. This learning informs your
next action and your next. How can you grow if you have nothing to react to?
Well, you believe you can't. You must put yourself out there. You must take
the next step. It is the only way to keep your thinking fresh and informed.
The bottom line is this: You know you will be judged not by what you say,
not by what you think, but by what you get done. This does not frighten you.
It pleases you.



Developer

You see the potential in others. Very often, in fact, potential is all you
see. In your view no individual is fully formed. On the contrary, each
individual is a work in progress, alive with possibilities. And you are
drawn toward people for this very reason. When you interact with others,
your goal is to help them experience success. You look for ways to challenge
them. You devise interesting experiences that can stretch them and help them
grow. And all the while you are on the lookout for the signs of growth-a new
behavior learned or modified, a slight improvement in a skill, a glimpse of
excellence or of "flow" where previously there were only halting steps. For
you these small increments-invisible to some-are clear signs of potential
being realized. These signs of growth in others are your fuel. They bring
you strength and satisfaction. Over time many will seek you out for help and
encouragement because on some level they know that your helpfulness is both
genuine and fulfilling to you.



Ideation

You are fascinated by ideas. What is an idea? An idea is a concept, the best
explanation of the most events. You are delighted when you discover beneath
the complex surface an elegantly simple concept to explain why things are
the way they are. An idea is a connection. Yours is the kind of mind that is
always looking for connections, and so you are intrigued when seemingly
disparate phenomena can be linked by an obscure connection. An idea is a new
perspective on familiar challenges. You revel in taking the world we all
know and turning it around so we can view it from a strange but strangely
enlightening angle. You love all these ideas because they are profound,
because they are novel, because they are clarifying, because they are
contrary, because they are bizarre. For all these reasons you derive a jolt
of energy whenever a new idea occurs to you. Others may label you creative
or original or conceptual or even smart. Perhaps you are all of these. Who
can be sure? What you are sure of is that ideas are thrilling. And on most
days this is enough.



Empathy

You can sense the emotions of those around you. You can feel what they are
feeling as though their feelings are your own. Intuitively, you are able to
see the world through their eyes and share their perspective. You do not
necessarily agree with each person's perspective. You do not necessarily
feel pity for each person's predicament-this would be sympathy, not Empathy.
You do not necessarily condone the choices each person makes, but you do
understand. This instinctive ability to understand is powerful. You hear the
unvoiced questions. You anticipate the need. Where others grapple for words,
you seem to find the right words and the right tone. You help people find
the right phrases to express their feelings-to themselves as well as to
others. You help them give voice to their emotional life. For all these
reasons other people are drawn to you.