December 2014

December was a fun month.  Because the holiday season was in full swing, our regular rhythms were put on hold.  We still had an intentional time of Out with our MC and an intentional time of rest and Up-In with our huddle.

For our Out, we did Christmas caroling.  We teamed up with the School of Kingdom Ministry (SoKM) from Hope.  We had about 40 people show up outside of our huddle, half of them from SoKM, another third were people who came because someone from our MC invited them and about 2-3 had actually been to our family dinners before.

We split up into two groups and went two different directions on Katy and Jon’s block.  We had a list of four songs and at each door we would sing one or two of them.  SoKM was with us to offer to pray for people after we finished singing.  We had a slow start but eventually people started coming out and listening.  Several families stayed out while we went to their neighbors’ houses.  One woman watched all the way down the block and was so overcome that she was crying the whole time.  One man, Don, recognized us from the yard sales and he came along and sang with us for a few houses.  When a SoKM student would ask people what they wanted prayer for, many people said pray for our city.  The Mike Brown case was fresh on our memories and it was impactful to us that so many people in our neighborhood wanted peace and reconciliation just like we did.

Between Christmas and New Year’s, our huddle went on a three day retreat.  We drove out to Kansas City to a retreat center called Precious Blood.  We spent the time casting vision for our MC and the movement we wanted to do at large.  We also spent a lot of time in prayer and seeking out the Lord’s love and direction for our own lives.  We ate breakfasts and dinners together and spent some time playing games and relaxing together too.  

Our Family Mission Statement that came from that time is as follows:

We are committed to:

Focusing our lives on Jesus

Serving others in love

Acting with humility

Seeking the Holy Spirit

to the best of our abilities.  We let God strengthen us in our weak areas and grow us in character as children of the Father.

This is the statement that guides us in our family decisions.  Multiplication is one of our goals and we believe one of God’s desires.  Through as many generations as our family grows, we want this to be their commitment as well.

First family photo. 

As always, we would love to hear about what you are doing with missional communities in your context. Please feel free to share in a comment below. Also, if you have questions about anything we are doing, feel free to ask and we will get back to you as quickly as possible! Thanks for following along. 

Love, 

The Irby's