June 2024 Monthly Summary

In June, I chose to rest as my brother, sister-in-law, and nephews visited Seattle. I was delighted by how my 15-year-old nephew has become an outstanding young man, and how good he is with his brother (5).

A visiting friend and priest in the Episcopal Church described signs of new life in her context. We really enjoyed comparing notes!

And the Lord honored my obedience to rest. He sent fresh clarity and grace for Chapters 4 and 5 of my thesis. While chapters 1-3 carry the tone of a humanities paper, these chapters’ style is more similar to a psychological research paper. I’m grateful for the support my network provided this month, and nearly finished with Chapter 4. I’m hoping to have a first draft of everything submitted to my advisor by September 1st.

Seeing New Fruit at Work

This month, I was amazed by new signs of life at work (Matthew 11:5-6). I saw the Holy Spirit operating at the heart level to mobilize leaders, establish more just systems, and catalyze people towards generosity, hospitality, and steadfast love. In all these things, he deepened individuals’ awareness of Jesus’s embodied character. Simultaneously, multiple work friends described a greater desire to connect with a local church or read the bible. I was stunned.

In the past, I have been touched by how similar the policies of my retail work context are to Christian social ethics. In general, workers’ well-being appears to be truly valued, and individuals are supported to develop healthy lifestyle rhythms. The company culture promotes servant leadership and dignity. Generally, there is a sense of incorporating individuals’ strengths. Those strengths are enlisted to support the needs of the community. The majority of managers make room for individual flourishing.

As a result, it is an atmosphere where people who are trying to pursue flourishing may be more spiritually sensitive to perceiving Jesus as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The genuine love that exists in the relationships with some of my coworkers has been mutually nourishing. I believe that the influence of that genuine love is softening and stirring people’s hearts to the embodiment of Jesus and his gospel. My coworkers are aware that I am studying at seminary and that my faith is woven into my life rhythms. But the genuine love in our relationships is what God is actually using to mobilize people’s hearts.

It feels like I am watching a microcosm/precursor to a larger move of God here in Seattle. The people being added to the Church are moved by the heart. They have a hunger for authentic spirituality and wholeness, and intrinsically assume that God is powerful. They are beginning to see the need for authentic spiritual community, which feels different to them than depersonalized religious structures. I believe that in and through these people, God is giving Seattle a new Identity.

28Now one of the scribes had come up and heard their debate. Noticing how well Jesus had answered them, he asked Him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”

29Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. 30Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’g 31The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’h No other commandment is greater than these.”

32“Right, Teacher,” the scribe replied. “You have stated correctly that God is One and there is no other but Him, 33and to love Him with all your heart and with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself, which is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

34When Jesus saw that the man had answered wisely, He said, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

Mark 12:28-34

For the Church: Entering into a Season of Good Fruit

For many individuals who are already part of the Global Church, this season feels like a time of tying up loose ends.

The transition many communities are experiencing is like the crushing of a ripe strawberry. Some individuals will be released and cast into new contexts. There, they will refine previous seasons’ gifts and receive ones. Honoring the dissonance of the last season, God will gather them to others who are pursuing maturity and holiness. As they are woven with new places and people, they will weave together the new and the old.

He said to them, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.”

Matthew 13:52

Other people will be planted even more deeply into their regional and immediate contexts. These individuals will develop broader and stronger relational root systems. They will have the strength to build in diversity, depend on one another’s gifts, and develop distinct communal expressions of ministry.

To get people to their right places and timelines, God will continue to compare and contrast the presence of his Kingdom and the world. Across contexts, his light will expose unhealthy foundations and illuminate opportunities to receive new grace. As his Kingdom expands into unexpected places, he is intentionally undermining our preconceived, religious expectations. His goal isn’t to unsettle us but to align our bedrock to Heaven’s priorities. Each moment of dissonance is an opportunity to contend for spiritual humility and to catch a glimpse of his eternal perspective.

July for me Personally: Celebrated

In July, I felt God loudly celebrating where I’ve been and how far I’ve come. The progress I’ve made with school feels like one small glimpse of the amount of work the preparation process has taken. I felt him calling me to stillness, to fully enjoy the slow pace before he places me into a new work and/or church context.

I noticed him speaking through numbers about themes of completion and wrapping up loose ends. He also really drew my attention to inner healing ministry. He keeps growing my desire to outwork that ministry in Seattle.

Maintaining an Eternal Perspective

Lately, I have been increasingly connected to a prophetic ministry that has been outworking good fruit for *years*. Right now, they are taking greater steps to share direction and strategy for this next stage of the Prophetic movement. I am honored to be walking alongside them. I truly believe that their depth of character is appropriate for where the Church is headed and what the next generation needs of leaders. While others are only starting to be able to receive the harvest they’ve sown, it’s been satisfying to watch God celebrate them.

I still have so much room to receive from them. But watching their example has made me wonder whether, after 30+ years of ministry, I will continue to press into the “more.”

In times of greater visibility or external success, I hope that he will build my capacity to keep my eyes fixed on eternity. I hope that my life is a continual provocation to the next generation to keep going, keep digging, and desire more. I hope that we will receive even greater, not because we did anything to deserve it, but because we kept our gaze on Jesus. Yes, that we remained obedient. But more significantly, that God honors our deep engagement and pours out more.

Worship

Names of God

Each month, I give God a name that aligns with scripture and how he revealed himself to me that month. This month, I spent the majority of time knowing him as,

• “The Lord My Banner of Victory” (Exodus 17:15)

Verses

Warning Against Spiritual Pride

So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! ¹³ No temptation^[c] has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted^[d] beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted,^[e] he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

1 Corinthians 10, (10:12-13)

Endurance and Victory

11By faith Sarah, even though she was barren and beyond the proper age, was enabled to conceive a child, because she considered Him faithful who had promised. 12And so from one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

And what more shall I say? Time will not allow me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched the raging fire, and escaped the edge of the sword; who gained strength from weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight.

35Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused their release, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36Still others endured mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

37They were stoned, they were sawed in two,f they were put to death by the sword. They went around in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, oppressed, and mistreated. 38The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and hid in caves and holes in the ground.

39These were all commended for their faith, yet they did not receive what was promised. 40God had planned something better for us, so that together with us they would be made perfect.

Hebrews 11:11; 32-40

Life

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

James 1:12

Music

Questions

• What reflection questions can support my friends in discerning timings? How frequently do prophetic people struggle to recognize spiritual timings because their daily lifestyle rhythms are dysregulated?
• How do I tithe in ways that sow regional breakthrough? Where does Seattle need me to invest to see greater, city-wide identity changes?

Simple Pleasures

Books

This month, I kept re-reading the Wizard of Oz series. I realized that God had protected me through redirecting me to this series when this month, the Seattle Public Library announced that they’d been hacked. Had I been more invested in other books, the disruption in services would have felt jarring. After Oz, I’m hoping to find another book that has heartier plotlines and characters, but as I finish up Chapters 4 and 5, it’s been easy reading.

Prayer Requests

• Clarity, direction, and peace in transition
• To receive the blessings he is sending in awe with my close community. For the blessings to be not just for me as an individual, but to carry corporate communal ripple effects and encouragement.