1. What if they say no?

    How reframing invitations and welcome can build life giving community relationships

    You know what it’s like. You walk into a room and everyone is already huddled into little groups, chatting and laughing together. You feel your palms get sweaty, you clear your throat and swiftly look around the room hoping to see someone you know. 

    We’ve all been there – new environments, new people, blood curdling fear. 

    That’s how most of us feel when we enter new places, and probably even more so when we enter a room where everyone else seems to know each other. Whilst we love to invite people to our missional community events, our church services and our homes we need to remind ourselves that invitation is more than just asking the question.

    That’s how most of us feel when we enter new places, and probably even more so when we enter a room where everyone else seems to know each other. Whilst we love to invite people to our MC events, our church services and our homes we need to remind ourselves that invitation is more than just asking the question.

    The Power of Invitation

    I used to hate inviting people to church things. It brought out the most insecure part of me. What if they say no? What if they think I’m weird? What if they say yes! 😱

    But really, the person receiving the invitation is the person on the spot. Do you know what they are thinking? Wow, they must really like me to want to spend time with me outside of work… I’m busy that night, I hope they’re not offended if I say no… This is great! I never get invited anywhere!

    Whilst we are busy worrying about what they think of us, the reality is that the person you invite doesn’t want to upset you. People like to get invitations, it lets you know that someone was thinking of you, that they think you are with their time and energy. It reminds us that we are worth getting to know.

    A Good Welcome

    Once you’ve started inviting people to your missional community social, out for a walk, or maybe to a church service, some of them are going to say yes. That’s a good thing. This is where people get to experience the beautiful expressive family of God as we introduce them to our wider community. How we welcome people matters, when we feel welcomed, accepted and heard, we want to spend more time with those people.

    Our missional community has been talking about a good welcome recently. Some of our youth have started secondary school and we have people who have moved to the UK from other countries join, so the topic has been on our minds. You’d be surprised at the super simple things that have made them feel welcome: 

    • When someone remembers my name 
    • Sharing phone numbers and messaging me in the week 
    • Inviting me out for a coffee or for lunch 
    • Taking time to show me around the city 
    • Sitting with me during lunch so I wasn’t on my own

    Let’s be clear, whilst all of these things made people feel welcome, they were not all done by one person. When we are part of a community, everyone has a part to play and can bring their best contributions. 

    Maybe you love having people over and feeding them, the students in your community will definitely thank you for that! Perhaps your best contribution is to help someone move some furniture, to recommend a plumber or let them borrow your lawn mower. Or maybe you’re the king of funny gifs. 

    Whatever it is, bring your best contribution as you welcome new people into God’s family.  

    Authenticity is Attractive

    If there is one thing that you can do to help people feel welcome, it’s to be yourself. Authenticity has always been and will always be attractive. When we are willing to show up as ourselves, faults and all, we open the door for others to do the same. 

    Authenticity allows us to have conversations that go beyond the surface and gives opportunities for Holy Spirit to step in and bring transformation. When we are authentic we give others the permission to do the same.

    People were drawn to Jesus not just because he had compassion for those in need, not just because he was a great teacher with wisdom and knowledge or even because he was a radical troublemaker! Jesus was authentic. He didn’t pretend to be someone else to impress people, he was honest, loving, challenging and gentle.

    Imagine what our communities would be like if each person who interacted with us was invited in and welcomed both into community and relationship. This week, find an opportunity to invite and welcome someone into what you are doing and join in with Holy Spirit on the greatest adventure.

  2. Modular Training Taster Afternoon – Coventry

    Reimagine Church – The ways of Jesus in mission and discipleship.

    Are you grappling with busyness, struggling budgets and  high demand projects, but don’t feel they are being particularly effective in seeing lost people come to faith or in raising healthy and motivated disciples? Is the idea of growing communities of believers where discipleship is the air they breathe, mission the thing that gets them out of bed in the morning, and community the place where they find important extended family relationships a mere dream?

    What if there was a way to equip your whole church to be effective in mission, discipleship, community and growing leaders?  We don’t have all the answers, but we’d love to share the principles and practices that we’ve learnt and that have blessed hundreds and hundreds of leaders across the UK.

    Join us for a taster afternoon exploring our new whole church, easy access, quick win and low cost modular training starting in Coventry this autumn. Church leaders and their teams are welcome.

    To book a place for your team click here

  3. Discipling the Generations: 12th November, Sheffield

    Our annual Leaders Day this November is going to be focusing on the theme of ‘Discipling the Generations’. 

    Monday 12th November, 9.30am-4pm at St Thomas’ Church Philadelphia, part of Network Church Sheffield

    We are excited that we have Matt Summerfield (Urban Saints), John and Joanne O’Connor, (Junction 42), Rich Atkinson (Rebuild) and Lynn Alexander (Children Families and God) joining us to help us think through how we both disciple different generations of people, as well as how we disciple all-generations of people together as one church.

    This event is open to anyone and we have space for plenty of people so come along with your colleagues, teams and friends!  Tickets are now available at www.buytickets.at/kx and we hope to see you there.

  6. Nic Writes: #1in1000

    Reaching a whole town or city with the gospel. Saturating a place with good news. Completing the great commission where I live. If any of these thoughts excite you then you’ll be pleased to know that a number of places are beginning to ask the questions ‘what might that look like round here?’

    As I’ve had the opportunity to explore and experiment with some of these ideas in the Liverpool city region in recent years, I’ve been asked to input to a number of other places – specifically Chester, Ipswich, Newcastle and Basingstoke this term.

    What would it look like if in 10 years in your place everyone knew someone whose life had been transformed by Jesus? What if every neighbourhood had a small group of Christians living out life together, praying for their streets, practically blessing their neighbours, finding the people of peace, creating pathways to faith, and producing disciple-makers?

    What if we did this so that everyone knew where to get spiritual bread, to get practical help, and to find Jesus? What if we multiplied these groups so that there was one missional expression of church (an MC in our language) for every 1000 people (#1in1000)?

    This is our dream for seeing people and places transformed by the gospel.

    Here’s a bunch of 15+ of those kind of Christians in Liverpool who are praying and plotting to do just that for their neighbourhood. Current plans for the next couple of months include:

    • helping a neighbour with an overgrown garden.
    • continuing to befriend the night-time security guard who watches a particular footballer’s mum’s house in our street.
    • serving and blessing the local catholic primary school in our street (flapjacks for the receptionist so far).
    • taking round bunches of daffodils for the women in our street over the mother’s day weekend and inviting their families to the Easter service.

    What could it look like round your way? 

  7. Launching in 2018: Kx Training Webinars

    In partnership with Elim training we are pleased to announce the launch of a series of three training webinars across 2018 for church leaders wanting to develop missional discipleship in their church.

    These webinars have been designed to help church leaders to train their key leaders and teams in developing the missional, discipleship and leadership culture in their churches.  Participants are invited to gather a team in their local setting on these 3 Saturday mornings in 2018 to watch and participate in the webinar.  Included in the cost is a place for the Senior Leader in an 8 session online Coaching Huddle with an experienced Kx practitioner, which will help you to embed the principles you learn into your local setting.

    Church leaders are encouraged to then work out how to to apply and process the training content in a way that makes best sense for your local context.

    Places are limited and are at a cost of £310* per church for the full 12 months.  If you would like to find out more email [email protected]

    The Webinars will take place over Zoom (free to download and use) and will run from 9:30am – 12:30pm on Saturdays 20th January, 19th May and 29th September on the following 3 themes.

    1 ‘Missional culture’ 20th January

    Learn how to use the disciple-makers journey tool to help your members identify people of peace and invite them on a journey of discipleship. Gain understanding of how to help your small groups identity their missional focus and vision and find tools to sharpen your own practice as a missionary.

    2 ‘Discipleship culture’ 19th May

    You will learn how to help all your members become learners, disciples. You will discover the four discipleship spaces and how to apply them to your small groups.

    3 ‘Leadership culture’ 29th September

    You will grow in experience of the most effective leadership disciple making tools. You will begin to grow your leadership pipeline.

     

    We highly recommend the training takes place in a location which has a reliable internet connection, and where participants can comfortably see the screen.

    To register your interest please email us on [email protected]


    *Cost breakdown:
    Webinars – £50 per church team (one screen) per webinar = total of £150 for the year
    Coaching – £20 per coaching session per senior leader (or per screen if couple leading together). 8 sessions planned excluding August = total of £160
    Grand total of £310 per year per church or £300 if all paid in advance.
    Can be paid in lump sum or in monthly instalments

  8. Kx Annual Family Community of Practice: Exploring Movement Dynamics with Alan Hirsch

    Hosted by Kx & Grow Central at Westwood Church Coventry

    What is it?

    A 2-day Community of Practice for experienced practitioners and church leaders with teaching, dialogue and reflections from Alan Hirsch, Rich Robinson and the Kairos Connexion team. We will be exploring the dynamics of building a movement of mission in our churches and other arenas of influence. As we embark on our 2018 Community of Practice we’ll be exploring together the 6 strands of missional DNA as we journey through what is, what could be and what will be. We’ll be thinking about what it means for us to be both missional and movemental in our local contexts, our wider regions and our nation. Using 3DM language we’ll be trying to unpack what it means for us to be red hot centres of mission so that we can see increasing missional expressions of church in our towns and cities. Bring your team and come and explore with us.

    Who is invited?
    • Kairos Connexion family churches
    • Church leadership teams who have been part of a 3DM or Kx Learning Community/Community of Practice.
    • Experienced practitioners who are leading out of the values of missional discipleship within the UK
    MEET OUR SPEAKERS
    Alan Hirsch

    Alan Hirsch is the founder of 100Movements, Forge Mission Training Network, and Future Travelers.  Alan is also founder of 5Q Collective and resident coach and consultant with the team. Known for his innovative approach to mission, Alan is widely considered to be a thought-leader and key missions strategist for churches across the Western world. Hirsch is the author of 5Q: Reactivating the Original Intelligence and Capacity of the Body of Christ, The Forgotten Ways; co-author of The Shaping of Things to Come, ReJesus and The Faith of Leap (with Michael Frost); Untamed (with Debra Hirsch); Right Here, Right Now (with Lance Ford): On the Verge (with Dave Ferguson); The Permanent Revolution (with Tim Catchim).

    Rich Robinson

    Rich is the Director of 5Q Collective, the training arm of 5Q, which is part of the 100M family. He also leads Catalyse Change, which provides training & coaching for church leaders and other organizations to equip and enable them around discipleship, leadership, mission and multiplication. Over the past 10 years he has led pioneering work using 3DM tools & training across Europe, Australasia and Canada. Locally, he lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he works for Cairn, a ministry working with churches in the Celtic lands, training them to recapture discipleship & mission at the heart of their culture and practice.

    What are the timings of the event?

    We’ll start at 9:30am on Wednesday 7th February and finish by 4pm on Thursday 8th February.  There will be an evening social event on the Wednesday evening from 8pm.

    How can I book in my team?

    Follow this link to our Eventbrite page and book in your team. Early bird tickets with a 10% discount are on sale until 31st December so don’t miss out.

  9. Discipleship That Works – Workshop in Harrogate

    The Kx North Yorkshire hub are hosting another discipleship and mission workshop this September and they’d love you to join them.

    We’re convinced that all Christians are invited to live as a disciple in every part of their lives, not just on Sundays in a church service. We will explore ideas about how to live as disciples in our neighbourhoods, schools, workplaces, families and communities.

    We’re called to live one whole life where Jesus is Lord of every part, being people who are good news to those around us. There’s an adventure to be had and a story to be part of and we want to share that with you too!

    More details on speakers and workshops coming soon. Lunch is included.

    Please register your place on www.discipleshipthatworks.eventbrite.co.uk.  Payment will be taken on the door.

     

  10. Kx Story: Rupert and Sally

    At the last Launch Learning Community we asked Kx family members Rupert and Sally Martin to tell us what they had gained from joining Kx.  You can find out more about becoming a member church here.

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