The past three months have been a whirlwind! I graduated from Asbury at the end of May, we moved houses twice in June, Lucy was born in July, and we have been learning the ins and outs of the Inspire Movement. On top of all that we helped serve at a conference in Nashville the past week. Though it's been hectic we couldn't be more excited to be serving alongside Inspire. I want to explain to everyone what exactly we're doing on a week to week basis with Inspire! Feel free to comment below if you have any further questions.
Multiplying Fellowship Bands / House Churches
Inspire's main goal is to cultivate the spiritual lives of mission-shaped disciples. This vision is based on discipleship being a "way of life". Our main responsibility is to help promote this vision in Wilmore, particularly at Asbury Theological Seminary. Inspires vision isn't simply tied down to the seminary. It is, however, our hope to see Asbury become a sending place of mission-shape disciples. We believe the primary means to cultivate mission-shape disciples is through fellowship bands and house churches.
A fellowship band is when 3-4 people gather together to help one another live into their vocational as an everyday disciple. It's in a band where people help one another see what God is doing in their life. It's a place where people can come to know the love of the Father, and speak words of life into other band members. There are endless ways the Spirit can work within a band meeting. The most important thing I've learned in band is that the Spirit is actually speaking. So the question is whether I can hear and see the Spirit in the day-to-day. Our house church gatherings have the same Spirit-led charism and would typically be another rhythm for those involved with Inspire. I could say a lot more about bands and house churches, but I'll spare you!!
My primary role with Inspire is to help mentor and develop bands and house church gatherings. Right now we host a house church on Thursday night and participate in multiple bands. There are multiple bands on the mend and I will help mentor those, with the hopes of pulling out once they get going on their own. Kylie and I also hope to start another house church in the coming weeks, with the goal to also grown and train leaders who can start and lead their own house churches. It has been amazing to see God work through bands and our house church communities. In a lot of ways it's like the early church movement in Acts!
On top of bands and house churches we have started a Sunday gathering every other week. This gathering is similar to our house church, however, on Sunday's we spend more time singing and praying. There is also an element of teaching involved. In the coming three months we will also be apart of a learning community with people who want to dive deeper into the "way of life" of Inspire. As you can see our calendar has filled up! I hope this gives you a small glimpse of the work we'll be doing alongside Inspire this year.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support!
-Anthony and Kylie
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