The Tangible Kingdom Primer

Some time back I wrote about The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, an engaging and challenging book about creating incarnational community.  I love it.  If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, you can order it right here.

Couple weeks ago I received a copy of the new Tangible Kingdom Primer, designed as a “spiritual formation tool to prepare your heart for mission” and a “field guide for starting mission together.”  Take a look at the Table of Contents:

• What is Missional?  Even your group leaders have begun to hear this word.  What does it mean?  How does one live missionally?
• What is Incarnational?  Can you be missional and stay home?
• The Gospel: Is it just a “small set of beliefs or doctrines?”  Or is it something that should transform every area of our life?
• What is Community?  What do you need to have it?  Can you have it alone?
• Living Out is “the natural and deliberate process of living among, listening to, and loving people in culture, with the desire to connect them to our Christian community.”
• Inviting In is about “friends not targets.”
• Becoming an Apprentice isn’t about learning about discipleship.  It’s about the practice of becoming a disciple.
• The Intuitive Life is “important because life rarely happens in steps, programs, or logical sequences.”

Let me say, “I like the way this study is formatted!”  An 8 week experience developed to help groups establish some new patterns, this book is truly a primer (a book of elementary principles).

Each week implements a series of practices:

• Day 1: Exploration introduces the topic and helps establish an understanding of the concepts.
• Day 2: Meditation provides a scripture to soak in.
• Day 3: Change asks, “What does this idea mean in your life?”
• Day 4: Action is about putting the idea into practice.
• Day 5: Community is an opportunity to gather with friends who are putting these ideas into practice with you.
• Day 6: Calibration revisits the theme from a new angle.
• Day 7: Communion is intended as a day to be intentionally restful.

I think you’ll find the topics very engaging and the format very provacative.  Whether you have groups in your ministry that are ready for a next step or are dreaming of the day when your church is truly engaged in its community…this is a study you ought to check out.