Surfing The Edge

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way.

See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves.Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house.

henever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them “The kingdom of God has come near to you.” But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, “Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near. I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.

Luke 10: 1-12

May 2012 update:
Our guiding team is wrapping up compiling all the groups' responses to the factors. Our next step will be a board retreat as the leadership of Midway Christian seeks to identify several specific challenges that have emerged from our listening process. Our guiding team will meet with the other guiding teams in Louisville on Saturday, May 12 where they will learn more about how to
lead our next step in the process.

March 2012 update:
The Guiding Team would like to thank everyone for their continued support for the Surfing the Edge process! Our gathering on Saturday February 11th was a great success! Thank you to everyone who brought items for lunch and thank you to Phil Burchell for the wonderful chicken noodle soup.

We continue with our process by beginning to meet with our Listening Groups. The purpose of our Listening Groups is to get beneath the surface of our 360 report and really dialogue with one another about what we think might be going on in our church and community. This will be a
couple of months' process.

The most important element of the listening process in the groups is to examine together
the report pages to identify differences, agreement or patterns. We want to create
dialogue for what all of this means for the readiness of Midway Christian to engage in
missional change.

If you would like to be a part of a listening group, please contact Sheri Adkins. She will get you connected to one of our groups.

February 2012 update:
In December 2011 and January 2012, Midway Christian Church members participated in the Surfing the Edge: Congregational 360 Survey. This tool was used to assess our congregation, missional readiness, and skills. This project of Surfing the Edge looks at what abilities, capacities and interests we have in the midst of this blossoming of our church.

In February, a Feedback Seminar was held to review and discuss the analysis of the Congregational 360. This discussion will continue through the end of the month.

View/Download the Congrgational 360 Report (pdf)

On Sunday, May 22, 2011, Midway Christian Church voted to participate in the regionally sponsored process of Surfing the Edge which is an 18-month process where we intentionally listen and look for what God is up to in our neighborhoods and communities. As part of this process, Midway Christian has selected a Guiding Team that will help direct this process in our church. This Guiding Team will get together every 3 months with other churches' guiding teams to share stories about what God is doing and work with the CCK staff as resources and coaches through this process. Along our journey, they will assess what we've learned and plan out our next steps. Sheri Adkins (leader), Shirley Eckels, Jim Leer, Etta Manor, Pat Wilson, and Anne Burford have agreed to serve as our guiding team. I ask that we all keep them in our thoughts and prayers along this journey.

For more information about what a missional church is, here are some great links.

The Missional Network (Alan Roxburgh's web site): www.roxburghmissionalnet.com

Dwelling in the Word (specific for Kentucky):http://vimeo.com/8607158
Why do we use the Luke 10 passage?: http://vimeo.com/8611527

Missional Church Simple: http://youtu.be/arxfLK_sd68
Missional Community Simple: http://youtu.be/KJP35eEKGls