Over the year or so I have posted numerous entries regarding our shift to a decentralized way of being the church. As we began to go through this shift, I often posted what we were discussing and thinking Kaleo Church would begin to look like. You may have noticed in the last 9 months my posts decreased. This is because I wanted to actually do what we were talking about.
ÄúTell him the one who puts on his battle gear should not boast like one who is taking it offÄù (1 Kings 20:11).
Now, as this transition (and much of what I wrote in theory) has begun to take shape (in ways we imagined and ways we did not imagine). In fact, the beginning of this year has been very difficult where we lost about 1/3 of our people due to varying circumstances. In contrast, the last 3 months have been more of a blessing to me than any period of Kaleo’s existence as much fruit has been seen in the live’s of people around me.
I am currently working on a shared document to re-communicate the ideas from these posts from what we learned through our own experience as well as from our interaction with communities we share values with. It should deal with the way we do church, eldership, community and develop people within these structures. I hope by posting it we are able to continue to learn from one-another and share the vision of how we plan to do what we believe it means to be a local church.
There are a couple things that are still in theory. For example, at the end of this year we will endeavor to begin the planting process as discussed in Organic Movement – Reverse Church Planting. So this will still be an area where we will need to learn as we go through this process next year. Secondly, we are actively re-thinking our discipleship process which we see as core to the future of the Kaleo Community. So this will be very much a work-in-progress.
If you missed much of the last year, here is a abbreviated listing of the transition at Kaleo:
- The Decline of the Western Church and the Call to renew your ChurchÄôs Ecclesiology
- Missional Eldership – Leading a Transformational Community
- Triperspectival Ecclesiology – Being the Church as Corporate, Intimate & Group
- Leading a Movement Not an Institution
- The Church as Movement Äì Organizing Decentralization
- Leadership Development in Community – Prophets
- Leadership Development in Community – Priests
- Leadership Development in Community – Kings
- Multiplying Missional Communities
- Organic Movement – Reverse Church Planting
- Shared Values of Missional Church Communities