Matt Smay

I was recently downloading a new update to a program on my computer (won’t mention the culprit), but after about 5 minutes of downloading the following message appeared,
 

Installing – This may take a while…

Have you ever wondered why anything worth doing seems to come with that message? I’ve been reflecting lately on the past few years of ministry and I’m struck by the consistent theme – most of the best stuff has taken a long time to develop. Whether a book, a new training, a new community, or ministry strategy – it often takes years to accomplish something new and innovative. This is not just an idea or concept relegated to the ministry world. I’ve had two girls, and in the midst of each of my wife’s pregnancies, I remember the hurdles – pregnancy test, first heart beats, ultrasound (it’s a girl!), and the long awaited delivery.

You know the deal, whether it’s starting a relationship, finding the perfect job, landing a big opportunity, or starting a new church…it all takes time – usually too much time in my book!

As I look at this year, I’ve been wrestling with a theme. I think it’s going to be centered on ‘love’. Strange theme for a guy like me. Afterall, I like to hunt – with a bow, I never cry, love to rough-it when I camp, I’m the big brother type, the kind of guy that rarely, if ever, shows emotion…But since I take this yearly theme pretty serious, I’ve spent a few months listening to God, keeping attentive to the unique coincidences, and the obvious connections in the day-to-day. Even though I’d rather focus on some attribute like courage, love is the theme I’ve been dealt.

Unfortunately for me, when my mind wanders for even a second, I jump to that familiar scripture, ‘Love is patient…” hope you know the rest because this is as far as I’ve gotten. Seems to me that everything that matters most in my life has been developed over time and has taken a great deal of patience. For me, it has always involved a thorough process of learning and adapting, which has also included some failure and the occasional big success.  Part of my job is to train church planters and coach existing church leaders, and I’m sure the ones reaching their goals would all agree that sticking with it was the hardest struggle. Just a little fair warning, I think starting a missional community or moving an existing church to be more incarnational is one of the hardest things to do, but it’s also one of the most rewarding. I’ve noticed that it’s the front-end investment of time and energy that discourages most in the long journey of  change. For what it’s worth,  I laughed out loud, as  I read, “This may take a while…”

I’m often asked, “What does a Village (an Adullam Community) really look like? While this is a big question that we attempt to answer in the Tangible Kingdom by describing how we integrate communion, community, and mission – Below are a few things that we’ve experienced lately:

• Our Village is the people we can call in the middle of the night, and relied on to watch our daughter for two days while my wife was in the hospital delivering our second baby.
• Our Village makes decisions about where to buy their homes based on proximity to each other.
• Our Village is the people we ask to give advice when we’re making our biggest life decisions.
• Our Village spends time with each other beyond our normal meeting times.
• Our Village is the people we party with during holidays, vacations, and special occasions (Super Bowl, BCS, and World Series).
• Our kids can’t wait for our Village so they can see their friends, and our 2 year old knows all the adults by name.
• When people in our Village call – we always pick up.
• Our Village blends conversations about everyday life and God naturally.
• Our Village is basically our extended family in Colorado.

I thought I’d share some thoughts related to my Summer calendar. As I attempt to move into the summertime season of rest, relaxation, and fun – I’d like to take a minute to describe some of my dreams of a perfect summer.

Like many of you, I’m ready for a break and a time of intentional R&R. But I’m also aware that the summer can quickly fill up with things that were never part of the plan. So, when I imagine my perfect summer it involves several vital components:

• Focused time with the family – with Maegan turning two in July, and Maren due in November with our second kiddo, I’m realizing how fast time flies. So, I want to get a few special times away with the family this summer, which will include a week in Montana!
• Intentional community building with our village – I’d like to have more consistent and meaningful times with our village, which includes growing deeper in relationships, engaging our neighborhoods (we’ve already got 2 big block parties setup), and expanding the depth of our spiritual development.
• Rest – I just need to slow down a bit this summer. The pace that Hugh and I have been on the past few years has been overwhelming. Primarily, related to the ongoing growth of Adullam & Missio and getting the book ready for release. So, I’m planning to take seriously making up some much needed Sabbath times.
• Fun – I intend on scheduling some time that is purely devoted to having fun with friends and our community. This will include BBQ’s, some day-trips to state parks to let the kids play and parents relax, as much golf as possible, regular mountain bike rides, a few fly-fishing days on the Dream stream, Green River, or Frying Pan, and maybe even a few overnight trips into the mountains.

This may not be your dream summer, but I hope you begin to be intentional with how you’ll spend your limited amount of free-time. At Adullam we’re planning a number of park services, a few big State Park gatherings, and we’ll be focusing a lot of energy on getting our communities moving forward in the areas of:

Community~Communion~Mission

The past two weeks have been busy – we kicked off a new MCAP cohort and have been traveling a bunch, which for me included stops in San Francisco, Orange County, and Phoenix. It seems I don’t go more than a day without having an incredible conversation or exchanging an email with a leader that is applying missional/incarnational principles in an existing church or church plant, but is looking to connect with others that are doing the same.

Since the book describes our journey in Denver, it has created a natural opportunity to be an encouragement to leaders that have been on a parallel course and are resonating with our story. One of the most common questions that continues to come up is, “Have you heard of anyone else that is doing…?” Which is followed by a description of their unique ministry context and the challenges they face. Fortunately, I’m meeting more and more leaders with stories of success that I’m able to pass along. These stories include mega churches in Southern California and Arizona that are moving people into mission and community, church plants from coast-to-coast that are making it past the first two years and seeing incarnational communities form around their mission, and church leaders that are making significant changes in order to move their congregation out of an attractional paradigm. So, if you’re one of those leaders that feels “out there, all alone, or under renovation,” whether it’s in the board room or on the streets in a new city, I can honestly say there are more of us out there than you may realize.

By The Way – The common threads I’m finding among those that are experiencing success are a determination and commitment to the vision, coupled with a plan for developing leaders while creating a structure that provides some sustainability.