Core Practices
for congregational thriving
Radical Kinship
Neo-familial kinship in thick communities of Jesus followers is a foretaste of the coming reign of God, in which all humanity will be reconciled. The ekklesia of God described in the New Testament demonstrated Holy Spirit empowerment by participation in the divine life—the presence of Christ—which is itself a Trinitarian community of love.
When the Apostle Paul implored Philemon to welcome the runaway slave, Onesimus, as a beloved brother in the Lord (“as though he was me”), Paul demonstrated a radical new expectation within the ancient world. In the emerging family of Jesus followers, former divisions would be obsolete. “In this new humanity,” Paul explained to Philemon’s church in Colossae, “there is no question of ‘Greek or Jew,’ or ‘circumcised and uncircumcised,’ of ‘barbarian, Scythian,’ or ‘slave and free.’” Instead, “The king is everything and in everything.” (Col 3:11)
Paul demonstrated for Philemon the revolutionary implications of the new commandment that Jesus gave his disciples shortly before his crucifixion. “Love one another! Just as I have loved you, so you must love one another. This is how everybody will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for each other.” (John 13:35) Henceforth, self-giving love expressed by, and through, the Ekklesia of Jesus followers would be the mystical expression of God’s loving presence in, and to, the world.
Live the Word resources and trainings are designed to help Jesus followers find reconciliation in neo-familial thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”
“Radical kinship is the only thing that mattered to Jesus. . . . If kinship was our goal, we would no longer be promoting justice, we would be celebrating it.” Father Gregory Boyle, Jesuit Founder of Homeboy Industries.
According to the Way-of-Jesus, ordinary people bind themselves together in extraordinary ways via distinctive, open, and welcoming communities. These churches, assemblies and congregations (Ekklesiae) testify to the transformative power of the Way of Jesus as expressed on earth in the community of believers—described in Scripture as the beloved bride of Christ. In the partnership of diverse people, all in equal need of God’s healing mercy, the mystical presence of God is manifest for the ages.
Live the Word resources and trainings will point to historical examples and contemporary expressions of radical friendship between former enemies living in Biblically-inspired communities. In these, we “taste and see” how to transcend racial hatreds and separations. For example, in the history of Quakers and Moravians includes instances of inter-racial reconciliation even in times when slavery was rampant. The inter-racial Koinonia Farm community co-founded by Baptist preacher and Bible translator, Clarence Jordan, in 1942 in Americus, Georgia exemplified Christian radical kinship in America’s still segregated culture.
The Bible teaches that this radical walking “in the way of Jesus” makes real, vibrant and powerful the reconciling effect of the spiritual presence of Jesus. This is what Jesus and Paul refer to as “His Body” together “in Christ.” It is the realization of the visions of both the Garden of Eden and the Temple of Jerusalem: God dwelling with his people as an energizing power within their collective unity through the power of the “indwelling” of God’s Holy Spirit. This also is the biblical concept of the “Kingdom of Heaven/God”—the “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven” taught by Jesus.
Of course, Jesus warned his disciples that, beginning with Judas and Peter who would betray and disown him respectively, the Ekklesia of God would often fall short of its purpose on earth. Yet, he encouraged his followers to persevere in being transformed by and in the power of God’s spirit into deep communion and fellowship (Greek: Koinonia), hence being a ministry of reconciliation. “I am praying that they all may be one—just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they too may be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me.” (John 17:20)
Live the Word resources and trainings build communities of healing and reconciliation.
Table Fellowship
The principle central symbol and realization of the “Way of Jesus” has always been the shared community meal. Live the Word supports the development of new, simple and powerful ways to vivify the new identity of Jesus-following communities around a common table.
Jesus radicalized existing meal-sharing practices. Neo-familial table fellowship was one of the principal central practices of the new community that the Messiah inaugurated through his teaching, death, resurrection and ascension. The radical community-forming meal practices of Jesus and his followers transformed the ancient world. As the Jesus movement expanded in keeping with ancient Hebrew messianic prophesy, it joined Jews and Gentiles together in a transformative new identity as a common family. A common table represents a common life. A shared table means shared community. Meal fellowship was basic to such experiences of radical unity in the early days of the Jesus movement. Through sharing meals with his followers, Jesus set the agenda for the future of our world, transforming ordinary food, drink and energy into divine bread and wine and power.
“There is one thing that would dramatically change the world we live in and help return us to our rootedness in Christ: Bring back the table! If we were to make the table the most sacred object of furniture in every home, in every church, in every community, our faith would quickly regain its power, and our world would quickly become a better place. The table is the place where identity is born--the place where the story of our lives is retold, re-minded, and relived.” American theologian, Leonard Sweet
The shared community meal has always been the principle central symbol and realization of Jesus’ teaching.
The shared meal:
is at the heart of God’s ancient covenant to be together dwelling among us (Exodus 24 & the Passover tradition);
represents the most powerful ancient prophetic-Messianic hopes met in Divine promises (e.g., Isaiah 25);
remembers the life and death of Jesus 2000 years ago;
allows us to practice the grace of Jesus by welcome and inclusion of the poor, the weak, the vulnerable and the outcaste;
projects the ongoing life-in-power of Jesus into the future of the new reality he creates by means of a profoundly different means-of-power compared to ordinary means.
Participatory Worship
Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.” Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.” Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship.
Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”
“Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”
Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”
Empowered Disciple-Making
Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.” Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.” Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship.
Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”
“Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”
Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”Table with Christ, and energize smaller-scale worship and loving service in the context of thick communities of radical kinship “in Christ.”