We (Kaleo) and several other communities continue to develop a tighter relationship. Recently the leaders of these communities collaborated on a list of shared values, led by The Crowded House. If these interest you, I’d encourage you to register for the Total Church Conference our collective communities are holding. Here is the current state:

The Crowded House is a family of church planting networks. Our congregations are committed to working together within, and between, networks around the following shared aspirations. They are a statement of our distinctives and are not intended to be a judgment on those with gospel commitment who do things differently.

1. the priority of the gospel
We are committed to filling ordinary life with gospel intentionality, pastoring one another with the gospel and sharing the gospel with unbelievers. We challenge one another to be sacrificial, servant-hearted, risk-taking and flexible because the gospel has priority over our comfort, preferences, security and traditions. We will not let Christian activity be just one part of our lives.

2. mission through community
We are committed to communicating the gospel message in the context of a gospel community. As we build relationships with people and share the gospel message, we want to introduce them to Christian community. We want people to experience church as a network of relationships rather than a meeting you attend or a place you enter. We will not put on evangelistic missions outside the context of a Christian community.

3. home as the primary location of church
We want a reproducible model of church without any trappings that might impede freedom and flexibility. We are committed to homes as a context for all or most of church life with home shaping the ethos of church. When congregations use other buildings, those buildings will not be viewed as the main focus of mission.

4. sharing our lives as extended family
We are committed to sharing our lives in Christian community, caring for one another, discipling one another and resolving conflict. We expect one another to make decisions with regard to the implications for the church and to make significant decisions in consultation with the church. We will not let conflict continue unresolved, nor view church simply as a meeting you attend.

5. inclusive communities
We are committed to welcoming broken people and making church accessible to unbelievers. We want to offer a sense of belonging, and be communities of grace in which people can be open and vulnerable. We will not let our welcome be dependent on adherence to any cultural norms not demanded by the gospel.

6. working for city renewal
We are committed to working for neighborhood and city renewal – redressing injustice, pursuing reconciliation and welcoming the marginalized. We celebrate the diversity of cultures in our local contexts while recognizing the need for gospel renewal. We encourage one another to glorify God and serve others through the workplace, business, community projects, government and artistic endeavor. We will not make a division between spiritual and non-spiritual activities.

7. growing by starting churches and church planting networks
We are committed to starting new congregations. We will work together within, between and beyond our networks of missionary congregations. Our vision is to collaborate in a wider church planting movement to litter the world with communities of light. We will not develop into single, large congregations, nor become insular congregations.

8. prayer as a missionary activity
Recognizing that God is the primary agent and orchestrator of mission, we view prayer as a missionary activity. We will offer prayer to unbelievers, witnessing to a living and personal relationship with our sovereign Father. We want prayer to be both a regular community discipline, and an impromptu response to needs and opportunities. We will not assume we are in control of mission, nor rob God of his glory by boasting of our achievements.

9. everyone exercising gospel ministry
We are committed to every Christian seeing themselves as a missionary and exercising gospel ministry in every aspect of life. We shape activities around gospel opportunities we have with unbelievers, and the gifts and passions of church members. We believe leadership is important, seeing leaders as facilitators of gospel ministry rather than those who exercise control. We will not make distinctions between full-time and nonfull-time ministers.

10. shaped by the Bible story
We want our lives and our life together to be formed and shaped by the Bible’s story of redemption. We believe the Bible to be the reliable, authoritative and sufficient word of God, and are therefore committed to good Bible learning. We will not act on the basis of tradition, habit or pragmatism without reflection on the Bible. We will not see Bible teaching as an end in itself, but as that which must shape our thinking and action.

The sessions are available from when David Fairchild & I spoke at Vintage 21. There are two sessions on Triperspectival Leadership:

Session 1: Foundations of Triperspectivalism & Leadership (Prophet, Priest & King) - This session is a theological introduction to triperspectivalism done by David Fairchild.
Session 2: Applications of Triperspectival Leadership & the Church - A session of how triperspectivalism effects the church, case studies and application done by David Fairchild & Drew Goodmanson.

Monk Development seeks a dynamic sales executive that can demonstrate building a business plan to engage with target accounts at decision making level. The primary focus is to expand sales revenue as well as drive new market share by hunting for new business. Candidate needs to have a track record of calling into large accounts and reaching key decision makers. You will be leading our strategic & large account development for Ekklesia 360 into ministries, churches, denominations and non-profits. This is an excellent opportunity to work at a start-up company that has over doubled in sales for the last three years.

The role requires:

* 3 + years of experience selling into Fortune 1000 accounts or equivalent.
* Experience in selling to Ministries, Churches and Denominations.
* Knowledge of Content Management Systems, website and custom application development.
* A solutions-oriented consultative sales approach.
* Experience and ability in the full proposal development cycle.
* Solid writing and communication/presentation skills
* Bachelor’s degree
* A passion for churches and helping ministries see beyond a website, to doing real ministry online.
* Full-time role that requires a total commitment to the vision of Monk.

If you are interested in a career at Monk go to Jobs @ Monk.

PHP developer wanted for development of a niche community building and social networking product that tightly integration into Monk Development’s existing Content Management Framework. This product provides developers with an opportunity to shine on a cutting edge product aimed at a large user base. Product development is fast paced with rapid prototyping preceding larger scale implementations. We need motivated developers who are comfortable with flow charting ideas, contributing in brain storming sessions and correcting course if need be.

Developers will work closely with an existing team in our Old Town corporate offices in San Diego. This position will require the candidate to live and work in San Diego. We are a young company with fresh ideas and seek developers who are ready to work hard, play hard and enjoy
great success in their career development path.

Skills Required:

* PHP 5 (OOP required)
* MySQL 4.x, 5.x
* HTML/XHTML (4+ years)
* AJAX, JavaScript
* C programming experience a plus (Unix Socket Programming)

Additionally:

* A willingness to work on bug fixes, timely and untimely
* An excitement and drive to do it right the first time but also be willing
to get code out the door
* Be a team player

Education:

* BS Degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering
* Demonstration of existing successful web development projects

If you are interested in a career at Monk go to Jobs @ Monk.

Last day of the discounted early rate for Total Church North America Conference 2008 in San Diego, CA this August 12-14. After July 12th the rates go up, so register today!

The purpose of the Total Church Conference is to train and equip church planters to create a community centered on the gospel, equipped to do the work of the ministry by being the church on mission through ordinary life with gospel intentionality. Registrants will have the opportunity to dialogue with missional church leaders from across the world, and learn from seasoned practitioners how to form missional communities and transition traditional churches toward mission. Main session speakers are Steve Timmis and Tim Chester, authors of The Total Church – A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community, which will be released in the United States in the fall of 2008.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Leah Hardwick at 619.741.8153 or leah@kaleochurch.com.

Monk Development is looking for a full-time person to work in our San Diego office (Old Town) with churches and ministries using Ekklesia 360 by conducting online training, answering questions, overseeing the implementation process and providing support and assistance. This position will require customer service, project management and end-user support (limited technical know how).

The role requires:
1. A passion for churches and ministries helping them use their website to do real ministry online.
2. Organization and attention to detail to provide project oversight and direction to see projects through to completion.
3. Great communication skills and the ability to support and educate clients on the use of Ekklesia 360 system.

Bonuses:
1. Previous project management and customer support experience.
2. Church planting, church or ministry experience.
3. Knowledge and use of Content Management Systems or blogging software (e.g. WordPress).

Learn More: Jobs @ Monk

It’s been too long so I finally upgraded my Wordpress to Version 2.5.1.

Read today's paper and saw a quote from an article stemmed from the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey:

Another finding almost defies explanation: 21 percent of self-identified atheists said they believe in God or a universal spirit, with 8 percent “absolutely certain” of it.

“I find it quite preposterous that an atheist believes in God,” Archer said. “The only qualification to be an atheist is a nonbelief in God. When you take that away, then they're not an atheist.”

One last reminder prior to tomorrow for you to join us on Shapevine June 24 at 4 PM EST (1pm PST) for an interview on Missional Communities, Total Church, Triperspectivalism & the Renovo Network. 

There will be a time to ask questions and interact with David & I regarding what we've learned, where we've failed and what we see God doing at Kaleo as we've transitioned to missional communities.

Almost a year ago I posted an intro to the Renovo Network concept, entitled: Transforming Cities - The Church beyond the Spiritual Box.   Since this post we've incorporated the Renovo Group, the Tentmaker Group and Imagine City Group.  We continue to work on the the organization but first we realized it needed a funding mechanism up and running, which we launched as the Tentmaker Group.  To date we've trained over 40 people on Tentmaker Group roles and I believe by the end of this year we will have established a sustainable mechanism to help missional leaders and churches seek city renewal.  If this is the case, our prayer is that through external funding we can roll this into 25 cities by next year.  Here is a little bit about Renovo: 

The Renovo Network is a collection of local communities of believers (churches) that seek to bring gospel renewal to our cities in the 7 pillars of society Business, Education, Healthcare, Government, Media, Social Services [including other churches] & Marginalized.  The Renovo Network seeks to re-capture a broader scope of being the church in our city.  We believe the gospel informs all of life and this good news helps shape how we view the world and our involvement in it.  We want to equip Christians to see how the gospel shapes life, science, politics, art, culture, business, economics, education, local concerns, mercy ministries, social justice, environmentalism, law, media, social concerns and spirituality.   Let's be a foretaste of what's to come…

A couple years ago, after the success of The Passion of the Christ, several film makers tried to tap into the Christian word-of-mouth marketing.  I cringed (see: Hollywood: Turning the Christian Faith into a Marketing Gimmick) when I saw Rocky's newest film use a faith-based marketing approach.  Marketing for Rocky included sermon resources at RockyResources where you could show clips of Rocky respecting Adrian and tie it into a sermon on Esther.  After my posts, I was subsequently interviewed on NPR and labeled the 'Pastor who takes issue with Rocky'.

….but it looks like the bubble has burst.  As Hollywood looks at the struggle of the latest Narnia film  (which I haven't seen yet, but clearly this is more appropriate to connect to Christians than Rocky.)  The Hollywood Reporter writes

Indeed, Adamson's first "Narnia" came on the heels of 2004's "The Passion of the Christ," which grossed $370 million domestically and tipped studios to a potentially untapped audience of faithful moviegoers.

But in the years since, studios that have waged extensive faith-based campaigns have garnered mixed results, leading some in Hollywood to lose faith in the practice.

Read The Hollywood Reporter's How effective is marketing to faith-based audiences? 

I'd encourage all church planters to attend one of the most important church planting conferences to come. This one is a must attend for church planters who are thinking about planting missional churches to reach our culture. The Total Church North America Conference 2008

REGISTER EARLY BENEFITS!

1. Registering prior to July 12th and receive a discounted rate.
2. Immersion program.  Lodging for out-of-town registrants will be provided by members of Kaleo Church on a first-come first-served basis as long as we have lodging available.  Space is limited.  This will save on hotel costs for the conference and give visitors an opportunity to see the life of the community at Kaleo.

Be the Church

Total church is a way of thinking about church and mission in the 21st century which sees the local Christian community as integral to Christian living and Christian mission. The Christian life is 'total church' - our identity is communal.

Why Attend?

- Create a community centered on the gospel, equipped to do the work of the ministry.
- Make your community a community of church planters.
- See what it means to be the church on mission through ordinary life with gospel intentionality.
- Dialog with missional church leaders from across the world.
- Learn from seasoned practitioners how to form missional communities and transition traditional churches toward mission.
- Did we mention its in San Diego?

Dates: August 12-14, 2008

Location: San Diego, CA

Main Sesssion Speakers: Steve Timmis and Tim Chester are the authors of Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community (Crossway). They lead The Crowded House, a family of church planting networks that started in Sheffield, England. They have also started The Porterbrook Network to train people for mission and church planting in the context of ministry.

Break-out Sessions will be led by church planters/practitioners from The Crowded House, Kaleo Church, Soma Community & Providence Community.  Break-out sessions will be added but will include:

• Beyond Total Church – Sowing the Seeds of a Movement
• Moving from Traditional to Missional - “What do I do next?”
• Engaging the Domains of Society - From Business to Media and Beyond
• Communicating in a Post-Christian Culture
• Evangelising the Urban Poor
• New ways of funding a plant & planter in a missional movement.

Stay-tuned as more break-out sessions are added.  There will be several tracks for people being introduced to a missional mindset all the way to those who have formed missional communities to learn from others around the world leading missional movements.

The first Total Church was held in Sheffield, UK, in 2007 at the end of October, hosted by the Crowded House. The conference is named for the book, Total Church -A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community which will be released in the Fall in the US.

Learn more: Total Church North America Conference 2008

Check out the conversation at Jeremy Pryor's blog regarding how to form Missional Communities and the potential challenges: Five Questions for my “Missional Community” Friends

If you have a chance I'd encourage you to attend the Dwell Conference in London.  Many of you already know Mark Driscoll & Scott Thomas, but maybe some of you haven't been exposed to Steve Timmis.  I've had the opportunity to visit Steve in England and I strongly encourage you to learn from him.  At the Total Church conference in England, his sessions were provocative, a bit edgy (in a good way) and caused many of us to go home re-thinking what we are doing.  Keller fans- Redeemer is bringing Steve & Tim Chester to NY in '09 to train all their leaders on being the church formed around the gospel, on mission in community. 

For those of you in the US, Steve and Tim will be joining Soma Community, Providence Community & Kaleo Church at the Total Church North American Conference.  Space is limited!

On June 24th at 4pm EST (1pm PST for locals) join David Fairchild as we are interviewed on Shapevine.   From Shapevine, they requested to "dialog about your leadership models (Priest, king, prophet, etc.) I think you are helping form a new language, and practical way of doing MC's that many people have struggled to find in their practices."  So the topics include:

• Triperspectivalism (Prophet/Priest/King) and how this shapes a local churchs ministry philosophy.
• Our transition from a more traditional church to missional movement.
• Practical Missional Community structure and decentralizing.

If you have questions you'd like us to discuss, post them here.