Working draft. Not reviewed by counsel, Sam, or Jeff. Do not circulate yet.

The Missional Program

For Pastors

We will not take them without you.

Why We Are Writing

And how are they to preach unless they are sent?Romans 10:15, ESV

A household in your congregation is considering moving into The Field's Edge Village to live for at least two years among neighbors coming out of chronic homelessness, as a Christian presence and as disciple-makers.

We ask for your involvement not because we need a form completed. A person sent by a church is accountable to a church. A household doing this work without a pastor is a household we will eventually have to carry ourselves, and we are not equipped to be anyone's church. We do not want to be.

What We Ask of You

Four things

1

An honest recommendation

Not a reference letter. Your actual read on their character, their marriage, their household, and whether this is a calling or an enthusiasm. Including your concern, because every household has one.
2

Commissioning

Set them apart before your congregation and send them. This matters more than anything else on this list.
3

Ongoing pastoral oversight

Keep them as members. Shepherd them. Tell us if something changes. You remain their spiritual authority, not us.
4

One named contact

Someone at your church we can reach, so that if there is ever a hard conversation, it does not start cold.

What We Are Not Asking

  • Money. This is not a funding request, now or later.
  • To vouch beyond what you know. Tell us the limits of your knowledge and we will work inside them.
  • To send anyone. If your honest answer is that this household is not ready, saying so is a service to them and to us.

Two Things Before You Answer

A no from us is common, and it is not a judgment on the family. We discern carefully and slowly. When we decline, we tell the household first and you second, and we frame it as timing and fit. We will not leave you to explain it.

This is costly, and we say so out loud. They will lose relational privacy. They will sit with people in relapse, in grief, and at the end of life. They pay a monthly program fee rather than receiving housing free, and we provide no salary. We tell them this plainly and we tell you the same, because a household that is romantic about this will not last, and the neighbors here have been left by enough people already.

What We Look For

The shape of 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, not perfection

When you write, speak to these if you can. A sentence each is plenty.

  • Above reproach in public and in private
  • Self-controlled, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money
  • Hospitable in practice, not in theory
  • Manages their own household well. The state of the marriage as you know it, and how the children are being raised
  • Well thought of by people outside the church
  • Teachable. How do they take correction?

And the question that matters most: would you send your own family into a village of formerly homeless neighbors alongside this household, and be glad they were there?

Commissioning

A suggested shape, about ten minutes

Your church's practice governs. We ask only that it be public, before the congregation, and specific about where they are going and what they are being sent to do. It comes after our interviews and immersion and before the agreement is signed, so by then everyone has said yes but your congregation.

  1. Call them forward. Name them, name where they are going, and say why.
  2. Read Scripture. Matthew 28:18-20, Acts 13:1-3, Romans 10:14-15, 1 Peter 2:11-12, or 2 Corinthians 5:18-20.
  3. Ask them to affirm: that they believe God has called them; that they go as servants of Christ seeking the good of their neighbors and the glory of God; and that they will remain under the care of this church and tell you honestly how they are.
  4. Ask the congregation to affirm: that they will pray for this household and for the neighbors they are going to, and that they will go and see them while they are there.
  5. Lay hands and pray.
  6. Send them.

Two things worth saying out loud that day

  • Name the cost, not just the adventure. If the congregation does not hear that this family is giving something up, the prayers will thin out when the news does.
  • Give the congregation something to do. A serve team at a Thursday cookout, a standing prayer slot, a visit. A commissioning with no follow-on becomes a memory in about six weeks.

Afterward, tell us the date so our staff can come. Keep them in your missions rhythm. And visit. The single best thing a sending church can do in year two is show up in the Village and be glad.

Come and Look

If it would help to walk the Village before you answer anything, call me. I would rather you came and saw it.

Email John-MarkBack to the program