One of the main goals of the World Race is that the 50-or-so people God throws together in a Squad would begin to explore what it means to be the Church. We’ve been doing that for a few years now and have begun to see a few things that seem to mark communities that are intentional about doing Church.
Honor
We have to present people through God’s eyes. We have to speak out their identity as God sees it. We are all in the process of sanctification, walking toward our Kingdom Self. We get to speak out the truth of who our friends are in the Kingdom, the truth of their identity that they are in the process of becoming.
One time we had a couple teams spend time with a ministry contact we had worked with before. We knew he had done good work, but our teams experienced some miscommunication. They didn’t understand the culture or the context of the man’s life. In a few different interactions he came off as greedy and disingenuous. Still our teams had to honor. They get to speak out who the man is in God’s eyes. He is a man who truly loves the Lord and has planted five churches in two years. We don’t ignore the fact that he may at times come across as greedy, but we declare in faith that greed is not a part of his Kingdom identity.
Feedback
In feedback we do not allow anyone to be any less than who God says they are. Once we have begun to identify someone’s kingdom identity, and we have created a safe community environment, we can bring them feedback to regularly call them back to the truth of who God says they are.
Our teams practice intentional feedback on a weekly basis. They sit together, look each other in the eye, and recap how they have or have not been the people God has called them to be in that week. This may sound like “when we interacted that day, you did this thing that hurt me, and in that moment I saw you being less than the person we know you to be”. Or it could sound like “When I saw you playing with those kids the other day I saw you come alive. It was apparent you were active in your God-given identity, I would ask the Lord what he has for you there”.
Prophetic Activation
If we are going to give quality feedback that truly calls people into the fullness of their Kingdom identities, we will have to speak words more powerful than our own. Ultimately we will have to ask the Lord to reveal to us who the people are that we are spending time with day in and day out.
A good working definition of prophecy is “God speaks. Life happens.” When we see life happening we know God has spoken truth into the situation. The question is whether our words are bringing life. In our World Race communities we are seeking to see people experience God in new ways. As World Racers are seeking to honor their teammates in feedback, they get to ask the question “What needs to be said to bring more life to this relationship.” In doing so they are asking the Lord to give them words to say. They hear what God is saying for the situation and they speak it out to the team. They become prophetically activated.
Since I finished my World Race experience in September 2009, I’ve been wondering how these principles fit into the real world. How can we be communicating these concepts to our churches at home? What do you think? Is this stuff applicable at home? Is your church living life this way? How do we begin to communicate this in our churches?
