For the past three years, Vicky, myself and over 30 people have been taking an experimental journey in spiritual living and community. Re/New evolved out of the four years of work that Sally Miller and I did with the Youth Leadership Institute. Many of our leadership team moved to Idaho when we did...and we decided to keep our relationships unique in that we added a deliberate spiritual component to our already growing sense of brotherhood/sisterhood in the Lord.
I've documented our journey many times on this blog...the joys of doing "church" in small, missional, home settings...the dynamics of spiritual formation in intentional relationships...the fun of experimentation in actually living the Kingdom without a building, budget or staff...in addition to the gut-wrenching challenges of doing life together. It hasn't always been fun, pretty OR glorious..but each of us has learned and grown in new ways.
Many of our community have gone to and still attend other "normal" churches...others have moved on from our community experience for a variety of reasons. We've worshiped together, learned new Kingdom praxis, cried, prayed, laughed, eaten, and served side by side.
Well...after these years, times are a changin...I'm returning to the local church. After completing the Colloquy process with the Lutheran Church, I'll be available for pastoral call in the short term. So, after much prayer, I'll be sharing with the remnants of our community that the Re/New Movement is going to continue...but not in a formal manner that has epitomized the last years. The great thing about this is that I've always believed that movements come and go...in other words, Re/New was good for the moments that the Spirit enabled us to live it. Now, the wind is blowing in new ways.
So, I've disabled the Re/New Ministry website and directed everyone HERE to my blog. I'll be posting articles and presentations as well as the normal blog postings for everyone to see.
For those of you who have any questions, email me, OK? rdugall@apu.edu. I would love to discuss with you what we've learned and why these steps are necessary. In the meantime, join me in a prayer of thanks to God for journeys of faith that continue to surprise, shape and stretch us into being all we can be for the Lord Jesus.
Robin I am excited to see how God uses the Re/New Movement. Even though I was not able to follow you to Idaho I have felt in a very small way connected to you and the group there. Keep me informed (you can email) on the specifics, I am very interested!
Posted by: Rick Ellis | March 06, 2009 at 05:30 PM
I'm excited to see where God takes you next.
Blessings, friend.
Posted by: Wes Ellis | March 07, 2009 at 01:21 PM