In this episode, Pastors Damein Schitter and Benjamin Kandt give our May update to NewCity Next. You can find the resources mentioned and the slides from the presentation at this link.
In this episode, Pastors Damein Schitter and Benjamin Kandt give our May update to NewCity Next. You can find the resources mentioned and the slides from the presentation at this link.
Hello, new City. This is Pastor Ben. I'm here with Pastor Damien hey, and we are going to do an equal parts New City Next recap and all of Life Guide intro. And so we're going to look back at new city next on May 19th and recap some of the things we talked about there for anybody who was not able to make it or just wants a good refresher. And then we're going to talk about the all of life guide, which releases released yesterday and we'll be using through the June and July months here.
Speaker 1:So just to give you a heads up in the show notes, we're going to have three different things. The first thing is we're going to have the slides for New City Next and so if you want to follow along while you're listening here, you'll be able to track with the slides that we use to illustrate different things that we're talking about. That was a core part of our New City Next presentation. And then we're also going to have a link to a place where you can put questions. We're going to have a live Q&A where we take the questions that people had and we're going to answer those over Zoom, and that's because we think vision is best cast through dialogue, because we want to hear from you, we want to talk to you, we want to hear feedback and pushback and questions and curiosities and places of resonance and resistance for you, and so that would be really helpful.
Speaker 1:Put the questions you have in that link and then the third thing is we'll link the PDF to the All of Life Guide so that you have access to the thing that we're going to be talking about for the last half of this conversation. So with that, we regularly do these New City Next updates, damian. What's the context for that? Why do we do this? What would be helpful for people to know?
Speaker 2:this, what would be helpful for people to know. Yeah, I think the most succinct way to say it is that back in March 2022, we came out of a several month eight or nine month season of prayer and planning as a session that's, the elders of the church and we said we're entering as a congregation into a new chapter and we said this is the third chapter New City has been in, the first one being we were a church that was planted and then we went through a season where we were rooted, and now we believe we're entering into the season of reproducing, and we said it would take several years to carry out this plan, and we just named this whole season New City Next. That's the name of this, and so I can imagine at some point these updates will no longer be called New City Next, they'll be called New City Next. They'll be called New City Something Else, but until we've completed what we set out to do, they're New City Next and essentially, we've settled into a rhythm of two times a year now that's our plan where we'll give an update, and this one happens here in May, right before the summer months of June and July, which, in the ministry calendar, mean rest.
Speaker 2:So what we wanted to do really was give a snapshot of where we are currently as a church as it relates to our vision and New City Next, and then prepare people to rest. Well, and we're going to get to that on the second half of this podcast ways that we want to lead people into resting because, as we all know, the inertia of our life doesn't lead to reflection or rest, and so we want to lead you all that way. So the point is is that this time, on May 19th, our desire was to give a snapshot and then a little bit about Horizons.
Speaker 1:That's great, and one of the things that is important is to kind of orient ourselves in time, which is what the ministry calendar is helpful for, and also to orient ourselves with priorities. What really matters to us and we've stated our vision is that we want to see the Father answer the Lord's prayer. And when you think about the Lord's prayer, it's Jesus's recipe to capture your holy imagination for what God might do in the world. And so when we're praying our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. On and on, this prayer really is to ask for the order of heaven to come and shape the chaos of earth. And so, if you ask what would be out of order in heaven, that's a good question. So in heaven, everyone knows and honors and ascribes to God His true worth, and so we would want that on planet earth, and so it happens in heaven. So let it be done on earth as above so below. Another thing is the heaven is the realm where God's will is done, and we want that on earth as well, whether it's in your workplace or your neighborhood or your home or in the places that God has sent you to recreate and play all of those places. What would it look like if God's will was done in those places? And then you know, another thing is is that in heaven there's always enough to go around, nobody lacks, nobody goes without, and so there's enough food and enough forgiveness. And we want that on earth too. And so those are just examples of what it will look like for the father to answer the Lord's prayer. So how does that happen? It happens as we call for him and send disciple makers.
Speaker 1:Now you might think that this is not very original. Come on, new City. Like you can think more out of the box than that. And the answer? You're right, and that's intentional. We wanted to come with a vision and mission, with what we could call fresh fidelity. It's a faithfulness to what thousands of years worth of Christian reflection the Bible has come up with for a vision and mission for the church. The kingdom come is our vision, and the Great Commission is our mission in some ways, but the freshness is our own way of talking about it. We call form and send disciple makers, because how else is the will of God going to be done on earth as it is in heaven, unless people are growing in wholly yielding their lives over to God, and how does that happen? Through this process of discipleship. And so, as we call for and send disciples who can make disciples, we expect to see God increasingly answer the Lord's prayer in our midst and through our work.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, and the reality is too. There's a sense in which, in all of life, we want to pursue healthy rhythms and pattern, and so if you've been around New City, you know that we believe in that. That common rhythm is something core to what we're engaging as a community and as a part of New City. Next, we also decided we wanted to put a pattern and a cadence into our year as a church together, and so you will want to check out if it's been a while since you've seen the ministry calendar and you can't think of it. As Ben said, it's going to be in the show notes, but if you remember, it's a diamond looking thing.
Speaker 2:And then December and January we have our rest months, and June and July we have rest months as well. And so this is us reminding everyone what season we're in and where we are going, and I think it's important because it's sort of like a mall map. We need to know where we are now so that we also know best where we're going. And the whole point or, yeah, I think the whole orientation we have in this update, it really matters that we're leading you into this season of rest, as I mentioned earlier. So we think that's important and we want to invite you to truly lean in in this season. What we want for everyone is that we come back together in the fall after these summer months, and we can look back and say you know, I was intentional about perspective before planning, I was intentional about rest before I start running again in the fall, and we really want that for everyone.
Speaker 1:That's great. And when we say we call for and send disciple makers, we really have these environments where we do that in. And when we say we call, form and send disciple makers, we really have these environments where we do that in. And so we call people into these environments, we form them in these environments and we send them out of these environments. And so our three environments are not new. We've been around for a little while, which is congregations, communities and circles, and the language that we describe this with is that we've spent time forming them, and now we're really emphasizing filling them, and that language comes from Genesis 1. God, in three days, formed the earth and then, in three days, filled the earth with things, and so that is. We're just trying to be biblical here. Y'all. That's all we can do.
Speaker 1:And so when we talk about congregations, what we mean is people that are gathered together with Jesus for scripture and sacrament, prayer and praise. There's things that happen on Sunday morning as we gather for worship as the church, that cannot happen anywhere else, and so we want to emphasize those aspects of the congregational environment. When we talk about communities, we mean a people that are following Jesus together with a common purpose, pattern and practices, and so one of the distinctives of communities is that there's an ability to have male and female in that space, and also to meet in larger groups 15 to 50 people in that space but really purpose-oriented. If people are going to gather together in that space, they have to have a reason for it, and it needs to be a good enough reason for people to be willing to show up every other week and to give their really precious time to it. And so, then, the final environment here is circles, which are three to six men or women following Jesus together in transparent trust to love God with all of themselves, love their neighbors as themselves and make disciples by giving themselves, and circles really are the environment that we want every single person at New City able to lead in. Why is that? Well, because all these environments matter.
Speaker 1:Circles are the primary vehicle where disciple-making occurs, though, and so if we're calling, forming and sending disciple-makers, that, in our context, means can you lead a circle properly? If you can lead a circle in a way that helps people love God with all themselves, love their neighbors as themselves and make disciples by giving themselves, then you are, then we've completed our mission in one sense, and so because that's what a disciple maker is able to do. And so in the congregational space, those are upward gatherings where we're worshiping God In a community space. We ideally just function with an outward aspect, where they help you be more missional, engage with your neighbors. And then the circle space really is an inward or formational space where you're experiencing deep knowing and loving and community, but also real formation into Christ-likeness in that space. Now, all of these have upward, inward and outward aspects to them, but those are emphasized kind of uniquely in each of those spaces. And so one of the things that we've said and I think this is true is we want people to engage in all three environments. So that's weekly gathering for worship on Sunday mornings. It's every other week gathering in communities. It's weekly gathering in circles with three to five other men or three to five other women in those spaces to really call you, form you and send you as a disciple maker.
Speaker 1:Now that might seem like a lot, and some of you have been engaging those spaces, all three of them, and some of you haven't been for various reasons. Some of you aren't able, some of you aren't willing, and so here's a phrase that I've found really helpful from Alcoholics Anonymous. Basically, the point is that if you, if you work the 12 steps this is the phrase it works. If you work it, so work it, you're worth it. And basically what they're saying is if you want to not be an alcoholic, do these 12 steps, it works, we promise you.
Speaker 1:It's got a proven track record. Now, our track record isn't quite as good as making disciple makers, as AA's is, as making non-alcoholics, but we've got some track record here. We've got data from conversations and feedback from people that are in all three environments, damien and myself included, that it really does work. It really does work if you work it. And so, to shift the metaphor to a CrossFit, if you do this, rx or as prescribed, it really will train you in Christ likeness in meaningful ways. And so that's the invitation, that's the call to engage in these different environments.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so one of the things that we thought would be helpful as we go into the summer is to give people a snapshot, in terms of numbers, of how many people are in each one of our environments, because one of the things we said is, now that we've formed them, we want to fill them. So on Sunday morning, the average attendance we have with men, women and children is 560. So obviously we rounded up there I think it was an odd number and I wanted an even number. So 560 is the average Sunday. If you come to New City on a Sunday morning, that's what you're going to find. The reality is is that New City is a little bit better than what the national average seems to be on regular church attenders and how often they go to church, because a couple different studies have shown that it's about 1.9 Sundays a month for the average person, and so our total number is just over 800 people would call New City their home, and that's a pretty close number. We've been keeping a close eye on that, and so what that means is, for our average is a little bit above two times per month. So the question then is, if 560 men, women and children are coming on an average week how many of those people have been gathering in communities, and that number is 254. So that comes from weekly attendance. There were about 300 people who signed up at the beginning, but people who were engaged the entire semester is 254. In case you're interested, that's 45% of that 560 number.
Speaker 2:So then the final environment of circles. We have 113 people in circles, or about 20% of those who are there on a Sunday, that is to say, the number are in circles. So one you might find this interesting. The other thing is, what would be interesting to us is to know what lands with you when you hear this. I talked to some people who saw these numbers and they were encouraged, especially about circles. Oh wow, I didn't realize we had over 100 people in circles. That's amazing For others. I'm sure you exist I didn't talk to you yet, but you might be thinking that's it and I would imagine there are people in between.
Speaker 2:But one thing I want you to know that this says to us is that there's some friction that we need to remove to help people move from Sunday morning into communities and from communities into circles, and that's really important to us. So, really, if you hear one thing, some of you might be thinking none of this is new, yet. This is just you guys reminding us, and I would say, even if that's it, this is worth it. But here's one thing I want you to take away is that where are we now?
Speaker 2:What we mean by forming and filling is a big part of filling these environments is reducing the friction for people to get into them, and so a metaphor that might be helpful is what we really long for is that if a person steps into the community truly wherever they would enter in, however they would enter in if they've stepped into New City and are a part of our mission that they would find themselves in a current that would carry them from congregations to communities, to circles. It would just be natural. If you're a part of New City, of course you're a part of all three environments, and if you weren't except for extraordinary circumstances, you would experience yourself swimming against the current, because the current is so obviously taking people, moving them from congregations, communities and circles, and that's really what we desire, and the reason is, as Ben said, is because we think that all three of these environments are integral to a person growing in Christlikeness and being equipped to be able to multiply their life into others.
Speaker 1:Damien, you said something super helpful on Sunday that was maybe more for our OG New City people, which was the role that communities, or what we used to call community groups, played in our kind of our architecture, our strategy, compared with the way that we're talking about circles today. How did you articulate that?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So if you've been around New City for a while, you knew that community groups were central to our architecture and the way that I said it was.
Speaker 2:If you've been here before New City, next, what you know is that community groups were central to our architecture and the way that I said it was. If you've been here before New City, next, what you know is that community groups were both the thing and everything. So what that means is that the thing that you needed to be engaged in at New City was a community group, and the role of the community group really was everything. In a sense, we did shepherding through community group, we did leadership development through community groups, we did basically everything besides Sunday morning through community groups, and that was really challenging. And so the new move is actually circles are now the thing, but they're not everything, which is also why we have communities. We think that there is a unique role that communities play in our mission, and so, to repeat it again, while community groups used to be the thing and everything, now circles are the thing, but they're not everything.
Speaker 1:So helpful. So if you're listening to this and you're wondering, okay, what are some next steps? What does this look like for me? From here, back to our ministry calendar, what we've said is that we are heading into June and July, which are rest months for us Communities don't gather, circles gather, if that's the nature of your circle, that's discerned by each circle and their leader.
Speaker 1:But two real next steps. The first one is that we have a circle training coming up in June, and so if you fill out the circle connect form, which you can find on the app, you can also find it in the all of life guide. Um, the circle connect form will get your information essentially into a space where we can follow up with you and invite you to that training. Uh, the training is not just for leaders, it's for all people in circles, because we want to be able to equip them to be in that space fruitfully. So circle connect form would be one of those next steps. The second one, which we'll spend the remainder of our time in this podcast talking about, is the all of life guide, and so, as we transition from recapping new city next to the all of life guide, is there anything else that you want to kind of close out the new city. Next portion of this on Damien, and then we'll turn our attention towards the All of Life Guide.
Speaker 2:The last thing I'll say is that the plan is in August that we would have another one of these updates with New City Next. But rather than capturing the end of a season, we'll be casting a vision for the beginning of a new season going into the fall. So be tuned, or stay tuned, for that Super helpful.
Speaker 1:Okay, the all of life guide. Now, this is a a rhythm that we have. It's a semi-annual kind of keystone habit we get that language from. Is it James Clear, or was it Charles? Okay, charles Duhigg's book on habits, which is, um, you know, a keystone habit, is one of those things that, if you do this, all your other habits and behaviors that you want to do are a little bit easier. So for many of us, a keystone habit is exercise. If you exercise, it's more likely you'll eat more healthily, it's more likely you'll go to bed earlier, wake up earlier, all those kinds of things that we want to do, and so a seasonal time of reflection and planning is actually a really important keystone habit to a flourishing life. And so we thought, hey, let's equip you, let's give you a tool, and then let's do this congregationally, all together as a people, and so in walked the all of life guide.
Speaker 1:And so we described this as a semi-annual keystone habit of reflection and planning the life of our church to practice a shared way of life. I'm reading from page three the ethos of this guy this is really important is gracious, abiding, slow down spirituality through joy-filled communion with the Trinity. No big deal, just you know, low bar. But really we mean that we want you to experience this as rest, reflection, rejuvenation, and so as we try to invite you into this rhythm, this keystone habit, we want you to know a few things. And so we're going to spend some time kind of overviewing the all of life guide and what that, what that looks like in our rhythm together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 1:So here's the on page one, the table of contents there's. I kind of want to just walk through the things that are happening here. There's a grand examen, and the purpose of the grand examen if you've never done one before is really to get perspective on where you are. Where am I right now? And the best way to do that is to kind of look at where you've been. And so the grand examen is meant to look back at the last three, six, nine, 12 months even, and take stock. What's happened in my life?
Speaker 1:As somebody has said, all introspection is retrospection, in other words, all understanding of yourself that can come from the self-awareness of introspection. All of that has to come from looking back. Soren Kierkegaard said life must be lived forward, but you have to face backwards something like that and so we want to help you do that with the grand examen, and part of that is paying attention to God's movements in your life, through your life. What's he up to? Taking real stock as to what's going on in your life. Damien, as you've done the Grand Examen multiple times, because we've done it together multiple times what's been some of the fruit of it? What's your experience with that been like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so one of the beauties of the grand examine is that you can examine the past in smaller or larger time increments, so it can be three months, six months, one month, and even when I do my weekly planning and review it's not quite a grand examine, but so much. If you look back, it reveals itself even over a week Meetings and things that I have to be grateful for or, of course, tasks that I have to follow up on. But the rhythm of looking back, especially yielding to God, in the presence of God, inviting the Holy Spirit in, is a powerful exercise and I think that for me, what it's done is that oftentimes I think and this is true, but I'll say I need more clarity, I want more clarity and yet, looking back, I see how much clarity the Lord has provided as I reflect with Him in a grand examine. So I think that would be the simplest way to say it from my own experience.
Speaker 1:Super helpful. So we move on from the grand examine into the rhythm inventory. So if grand examine is getting perspective on where you are, the rhythm inventory is getting perspective on what you do. You know, there's this quote from Carl Jung. He says until we make the unconscious conscious, it will rule our lives and we'll call it fate. And Damien hears me say that quote all the time because I love it.
Speaker 1:But that's also true of our habits. Until we make these unconscious things we do more conscious, bring them up into our awareness, they will shape, form, mold us into types of people, and we don't even realize that we have really low willpower. We are not the kind of person we wanted to become. In a variety of different ways we're disgruntled and agitated and hurried and harried and all these things, and we don't realize that a lot of it has to do with the way in which we give consent to our will to do all these little micro habits and routines throughout our life. And so the rhythm inventory is meant to bring your attention there, because where your attention goes, your awareness grows, and so we pay attention to our morning, our afternoon, our evening, various things we do in routine, and then we reflect on that. And so some of the ways that I think about the rhythm inventory there's this question that you know in the best way. Just it's like smelling salts.
Speaker 1:And it's if I repeated the last 24 hours, which includes your thoughts, your emotions, your actions. If you did that the last 24 hours, you repeated it every day for 10 years, what kind of person would I become? And that's a diagnostic question, the kind of question that helps surface some things when you do a rhythm inventory. Yes, and so Andy Dillard says how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives, and a rhythm inventory is trying to help us get an idea of how do we spend our days.
Speaker 2:So, as you, damian, similar, as you've engaged with the rhythm inventory, what have you been surprised by?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you know, something that I've been surprised by is a fresh is the power of environment.
Speaker 2:So, in other words, like when I walk home, whenever I come home normally, when I come home, it is at the end of the day, right before dinner, and so I'm hungry.
Speaker 2:But what I've recognized, even in the last couple of weeks, actually is when I there have been times I've come home and it hasn't been dinner time, and the first thing that I think to do is to go eat when it's not time to eat and I'm not hungry, and it has to do with that's a recognition of oh. So I've habituated myself that when I walk in the house, whenever it is at the end of the day, it's time to eat, and that's not always true, right, and so of course, other things would be phone usage We've talked about that in the past, and so, and maybe the final thing I would say is that not only reflection but also fasting, which is part of the practice of the common rhythm, has really helped me, in various seasons, understand and uncover habits that I was unaware of, because it's almost as though I have someone following me saying have you ever noticed that, except it's the fact that I'm restraining, I'm resisting something? And that's when I realized all the natural things that I would do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so helpful. And one of the things that, um, when I do the rhythm inventory, I realize, oh wow, I had aspirations of ways I'd spend my time and my energy that are still just aspirations, not reality. Um, and so grand examine gets perspective on where you are. Rhythm inventory gets perspective on what you do. The third one is relational stewardship is really getting perspective on who you're with, because the people and practices in your life are two of the most formative components in anybody's daily existence. And so relational stewardship really is just that we're trying to take stock of the people that are in our life.
Speaker 1:And we all know we've used this illustration before of, like some of us are like Legos, where you've got like eight connector points or one of those big Legos, or some of us only have two connector points, and so you don't. Relationships go through seasons. Relationships experience seasons of closeness and distance, and now some of those relationships are covenantally not allowed to go through seasons of distance and they still do, but we have to attend to that, like our spouses and things like that. And so really, relational stewardship is helping us say who we are, as a result of whose we are, who we belong to, the people that we have relationship with. It's really shaping us.
Speaker 1:So we want to reflect on not just our relationships but our roles in those relationships, the way in which we are called to show up in those relationships and get some real ideas of where do we find ourselves.
Speaker 1:And in this context is where we have the circles, and the reason for that is we expect that everybody at New City needs three to five other people in their life that know them deeply, that they can kind of show their life to in meaningful ways, people that can reflect back to them things that they can't even see in themselves. Right, the two things that we all know is it's you don't know this when you're, when you have bad breath, until somebody else tells you right and one philosopher said it's philosophically relevant that you can't see the back of your own head. In other words, we are utterly dependent on other people in real ways, and so a circle environment is really being intentional about who am I going to invite into my life in order to walk this path of discipleship to Jesus with those people in intentional ways, and so we're trying to help you really get clarity on who those people might be for this upcoming season.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and one thing I would mention there is that when we look back in order to move forward, there can be seasons of discouragement in general, like, for example, ben said.
Speaker 2:When he engages this, he recognizes the aspirations he had for his time are still aspirations. I would say I've come to a place and I would invite you to consider coming to a place to know that that's actually normal. What isn't normal, and we're inviting all of us to, is to recognize that and then go through this regular rhythm of perspective gathering so that we can redirect the future. And it's going to happen again, and I just think that that is not only normal. I think it's, yeah, it's normal and we want to normalize it in that sense. But what's not normal is to have these regular rhythms together where we look around. So, in this case, relationships. I think that if I just think about coming of a certain months or certain weeks, of of a full week, we all understand relationally the stress that that can put on the people that we're closest to, and so the the most important thing is having these regular rhythms of of taking stock and stewarding and redirecting.
Speaker 1:So helpful. So this whole thing has been mostly getting perspective before planning, and that's a principle in taking stock of your life is to get perspective before planning. And now comes the actual planning part of things. Now it's worth saying if you did the rhythm, the all life guide in January of this year, it was about 20 pages longer than this one. Some of that was font size, some of that was we intentionally reduced and try to clarify and simplify around things that really matter. And somebody gave me this really helpful feedback, which was their experience of the. The all life guide was almost like an hourglass, like it was. It was bringing me focused over time towards something. They were talking about the grand examen, the rhythm, inventory, the relational stewardship. That was bringing them, focusing them down towards something. And then, when they got to the crafting a way of life, it was almost like it expanded back again and that was not a compliment. They were saying, hey it, it would be helpful if it really was like a like an upside down triangle, like really focusing me towards a decision point. And so we try to edit it a little bit to do that well, because crafting a way of life, which is the second half of this is really where the rubber meets the road. This is where you're being intentional, you're planning A way of life is something that Christians have done for thousands of years, even stemming back into the Hebrew Bible.
Speaker 1:You think about? Daniel had three times of set times of prayer where he would go out pray facing the temple and be out in the window, and people used it. He was so committed to his way of life that people used it to try to get him killed for a capital offense and because it was predictable he had a way of life. This was one of the ways in which he engaged with communion with his God, and so a way of life is very biblical, very historical. Christians have done this for a long time, and so it's an intentional plan to simplify your life around scheduled practices and relational rhythms, to become more like Jesus in every area of your life. That's essentially what a way of life is, and so what we've been doing up to this point has basically been trying to grow in self-awareness as to where we are, what we need, what season our soul is in, what's God been saying to us, how's the spirit been moving in our life, those kinds of things, and so the crafting, a way of life walks you through the rhythm, or, I'm sorry, the common rhythm our eight practices that help us to have a common life for a common love our eight practices that help us to have a common life for a common love and then has some simple steps to begin to work this into clarifying the real practices and getting them into your schedule.
Speaker 1:Now I want to say something here it's important to say we, we really only want people to focus on two common rhythm practices every semester, and the part of the reason why that is there's just wisdom in habit acquisition that if you try to take on all eight common rhythm practices, you'll probably do none of them. But if you say, hey, in this season, what I discern as I'm paying attention to God's presence in my life, as I'm receiving and responding to God's activity in my life, I realized the two things I really need is a practice of rest, where I have 24 hours that I do nothing, that I know to be work, and I need a practice of listening, where I put away screens and I allow myself to open up to God's self and others and to listen to them. Well, that's great, so glad. Now we want to help you kind of walk through what that can look like. There's a practice index where we talk about ways you can plan and review those particular practices to kind of improve and increase your practicing of them.
Speaker 1:And then there's an actual schedule, kind of a little calendar of, hey, if I'm going to listen on the daily, what's that going to look like? So for me that looks like coming home from work 4.30, I put my phone somewhere andI take my kids out and for about an hour and a half it's just me and my two kiddos with no devices, so I can listen to them and listen to God and reflect on my day and that's part of my listen practice and so that's how it fits into my schedule. And so on page 30 and 31, there's a way of life worksheet and a way of life schedule that help you get an idea of where that's actually going to fit into your life. And then the remaining pages really are us trying to help resource you with. How do you actually implement those specific practices? What does it look like to put those into practice in your everyday life? And, damian, I'll let you speak to the way of life and then we'll close with the discernment guide.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think one of the things that is really important coming out of page 30 and 31 is this idea of making sure that you're putting something on your calendar.
Speaker 2:I think that's super helpful, this idea of a way of life.
Speaker 2:I think one of the realities and we've said this in various ways throughout the years is that the only option we have is bringing our current way of life more in line with how we want it to be aligned with our values. We don't get to choose if we have a way of life or not, which is why we start with the rhythm inventory and those types of things. We don't get to choose if we have a way of life or not, which is why we start with the rhythm inventory and those types of things. And so there are lots of ways of life that we could have, and there are very few that actually connect us to the heart of God and connect us to the people that God's put in our life. And so what we're really inviting all of us to is this regular reassessment of the way of life I'm on. Is it taking me to a destination that connects me more deeply to myself, to God and to others, or not? And we actually get the opportunity to reassess and redirect.
Speaker 1:So helpful. The last thing here is this discernment guide. Now it's an appendix. In other words, if you're in a season of life where you've got questions about something in your life, you've got a situation you're trying to make sense of, you're trying to really discern what is the will of God. That's direct quote from Romans 12. This is a. This is a kind of a project.
Speaker 1:I spent some time studying this deeply Christian practice of discernment and I kind of distilled and consolidated and synthesized everything I learned about it into this discernment guide and basically boiled it down to discernment really is two questions. Now they're really, you know, in one sense simple on the surface, but they're very profound. And the two questions are what is God saying and doing in my life and, given who I am, what will I do? Those are questions of receiving and responding receiving God's active presence in your life and responding, given who you are. And so the discernment guide is there for that purpose. I know that I've used it in seasons with discerning, going back to school and discerning decisions Alana and I were making and discerning various ways in which I could spend my very limited and, you know, as Mary Oliver says, your one wild and precious life, and so discernment is a core practice in discipleship to Jesus, and so we wanted to basically just give you a tool for that. You don't have to do that if that's not something relevant in what you're going through in this current moment. But where I want to end is with two questions on page 23 of the guide that we predict Now it's not entirely prediction, we're not prophets but really we've had enough conversations with people that these questions we know are relevant and those questions are first, isn't this legalistic, like all this way of life and practices and discipline, spiritual disciplines and, you know, calendar, and I mean, isn't this just like subtle legalism? I think it's a legitimate question and I think a few ways I want to go about asking and answering. I find it helpful to think about legalism less as something that you do and more as a posture of the heart.
Speaker 1:It blew my mind when I read that Jesus said look at the Pharisees and do what they tell you, but don't do what they do. That blew my mind. We all think Pharisees are the arch legalists. They're like the, you know, the Vader of legalists. They're just the worst that there is. And Jesus says if they tell you to do it. You should do it. In other words, you should listen to those legalists. Why? Why, would he say that it blows my mind? Well, I think it's because Jesus knows that a legalist and a lover might look somewhat similar on the surface, their actions might be similar, but it's a profoundly different. The difference is a heart orientation. You see, a legalist does, does, does in order to get, get, get. A lover has been given everything, and so they just do everything out of response.
Speaker 1:Another way to say that Justin Whitmell early says it like this God's love for us really can change the way we live, but the way we live will never change God's love for us. And so lovers are always responding to the first love of God. Christopher West I heard him say we can never say I love you to God, we can only say I love you too. And so the all of life guide is a guide for lovers. It's not a guide for legalists. It's a guide for people who say, oh, god is so good to me in the grace of Jesus Christ. His life, death and resurrection has given me far more than I could ever ask or imagine. And they say well, what does it look like for me to become more like Jesus. I want to become like the one who loved me, and this is us, just trying to come alongside you and help you.
Speaker 1:And so if your concern is isn't this legalistic or works righteousness? The answer is maybe, maybe for you. Depends on your posture of heart, depends on the way in which you're responding, depends on the way you receive this, the ways in which you experience God moving towards you. And so our concern, or our question for you would be Jesus makes it really clear that it was for freedom that he came to set us free, and so, if that's true, does a way of life create more freedom in your life? That's probably a good litmus test, but before you run on and answer, there's no way this would be more constrictive and constraining.
Speaker 1:Let me also ask you does your current way of life because we all have a way of life, just like we have a budget and a diet, even if we're not intentional about it does your current way of life lead to more freedom? And so you know, a fish is not free when it's on the dock. It's only free when it's in the water, when you're swimming and doing the things that God designed you to do, the way he designed you to do it. That's where real freedom is found.
Speaker 1:It's not in losing constraints, but in finding the right constraints, and so that's what we're hoping for with this, is that this is the response of a lover to the first love of God in Christ for us, and so that's our encouragement as you take up the all of life guide. But, damian, a question that we also get is this sounds like it's going to be a lot, like it's going to take a lot. How does all of this actually help my already busy life? Is this just adding more to my to-do list? Am I just crowding out an already busy life? What does that mean, and how does the All of Life Guide help us with that?
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I would say, when done as designed, the All of Life Guide will actually include more subtraction from your life rather than addition to your life.
Speaker 2:I think that's the principle is that when we say it's easy to drift from our designs and desires and we need these regular times of reflecting back, I think one of the things we find is actually that we're doing lots of things and maybe too many things, maybe some distracting things, and so it's kind of like cleaning your closet.
Speaker 2:You know you clean your closet and imagine cleaning your closet at the beginning of the day and coming back and someone had put more things back in your closet. I think we try to tend to move into planning in our life, as though everything will go as planned, and it's sort of like cleaning out your closet Okay, I made the decisions, I got rid of some stuff, and so I just won't put out of things then. But the reality is is that it's almost like someone's putting things in your closet. That's that's our life. It just keeps filling up most naturally, and so really, what we would say is that a big part of moving toward a way of life in a process like we have in the all of life guide is regular times of getting perspective and then recognizing what can I remove. What can I remove, not what can I add.
Speaker 1:So helpful. The thing that we want you to hear in all of this is we love New City, we're so grateful to be able to pastor this people and we are those who, as Hebrews says, are called to give an account for the people of New City. And the author of Hebrews talks about make it so that your leaders can do that joyfully. And that's so true to our experience here at New City is that the people of New City make our jobs a joyful. I often will tell people I'm joyfully bound to this people. It's such a gift to be in and among this congregation and to be able to lead here, and so this is just us trying to lead well in the ways in which we believe the Spirit is at work in our midst and we're trying to discern that and try to lead you well, and so we love you. We're grateful for you. If there's any questions that you might have, you're welcome to reach out to us. Use the link in the show notes here, and we look forward to talking to you soon.