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Incarnational Training Framework Incarnational Training Framework A TRAINING GUIDE FOR DEVELOPING INCARNATIONAL LEADERS ENGAGED IN CITY TRANSFORMATION Second Edition WRITTEN BY KRIS ROCKE & JOEL VAN DYKE Incarnational Training Framework © 2017 by Street Psalms. All rights reserved. Urban Training Collaborative Hub Map And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth… From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. JOHN 1:14-16 Table of Contents Acknowledgments ....................................................................................6 Incarnational Training Framework Overview .......................................8 Introduction .............................................................................................9 SECTION 1 Prolegomena CHAPTER 1 Urban Context .........................................................................19 CHAPTER 2 Incarnation .............................................................................31 CHAPTER 3 Transforming Assumptions ....................................................42 SECTION 2 Incarnational Framework CHAPTER 4 Message: A Way of Seeing ......................................................56 CHAPTER 5 Method: A Way of Doing .........................................................67 CHAPTER 6 Manner: A Way of Being .........................................................77 CHAPTER 7 Messengers: Called Out of Fear Into Freedom ......................91 SECTION 3 Postlegomena CHAPTER 8 A Great Beauty ........................................................................99 CHAPTER 9 Case Study: From Crisis to Community .................................104 CHAPTER 10 Twelve Questions for Incarnational Leaders ......................111 APPENDIX A City Mapping Exercise ..........................................................................118 B Letter to Diognetus ................................................................................120 C Girard’s Anthropology ..........................................................................122 D Last Words: An Ecumenical Spirituality of the Cross .........................125 E Manners of Mission ...............................................................................126 F Prayer of Discernment (Examen) .........................................................127 G Prayer of Vocation ................................................................................129 ENDNOTES ENDNOTES ..................................................................................................131 Acknowledgments The second edition of this training guide is the fruit of the ongoing project of Street Psalms (SP) since its inception in 1999 when we first trained urban youth workers in Philadelphia. In 2002 we expanded our training to 9 U.S. cities through our partnership with World Vision. Between 2005 and 2013 we offered what we called the Street Psalms Intensives in 35 cities and 23 coun- tries worldwide. In April of 2014 Leadership Foundations hosted 17 leaders in Memphis from across our net- work at a training summit where we formally established the Urban Training Collaborative (UTC). The Urban Training Collaborative is now an initiative of Street Psalms serving the net- works of Leadership Foundations (LF) and Resonate Global Mission (RGM) as well as others. The combined networks of LF, RGM and SP represent nearly 100 cities around the world. Our dream is to develop incarnational leaders throughout the UTC who are formed and shaped by the incarnational vision of this training guide. We are establishing training hubs in cities throughout the collaborative that develop incarnational leaders who love their cities and seek their peace. These hubs function like ecumenical urban monasteries that develop leaders for holistic mission. The Incarnational Training Framework is the internal operating system that helps these hubs form and shape training, curricula and incarnational programs for the city. The Incarnational Training Framework condenses more than 20 years of creative learning into a small space. Street Psalms’ books, Geography of Grace: Doing Theology From Below and Meal From Below: A Five Course Feast with Jesus, are companion resources that explore the themes of the ITF in greater depth. Many dozens of leaders throughout the network have their fingerprints all over this training guide. We want to express our sincere appreciation to those have been vital in creating this resource. The principal authors and practitioners of this training guide are the Street Psalms Senior Fel- lows many of whom serve as training hub directors of the UTC and have been field testing this resource for more than 20 years in some of the world’s most challenging urban communities. Street Psalms Senior Fellows include: Lina Thompson (White Center), Tim Merrill (Camden), Joel Aguilar (Guatemala City), Gideon Ochieng & Esau Oreso (Nairobi), Mike Ribbens (Johan- nesburg), Mario Matos (Santo Domingo), Jean Valéry Vital-Herne (Port-au-Prince), Ron Ruthruff (Seattle), Joel Kiekinveld (Anchorage), Justin Beene (Grand Rapids), Hultner Estrada (Managua), D.J. Vincent (Salem), Abhishek Gier (New Delhi), Ken Sikes (Tacoma), Joel Van Dyke (Guatemala STREET PSALMS INCARNATIONAL TRAINING FRAMEWORK 6 City), Kris Rocke (Tacoma). We also want to thank Justin Mootz and his team at Matt Jensen Marketing, including designer Kirstie Wollman, without whose expertise the IFT would have remained scraps of paper littered over our desks. Cody Lail has added his creative touch to this edition. A special thanks to Caleb Seeling from the Samizdat Group for his masterful editing as well as Chris Williams and his de- tailed editorial work on this edition. To Leadership Foundations, we are greatly indebted for the profoundly significant contribu- tions and support of LF President Dave Hillis and LF Board Chair Jack Fortin, along with LF staff Melissa Monroe and Kerri Feider (Tacoma) as well as Larry Lloyd (Memphis), H Spees and Gloria Meyers (Fresno), Art Erickson (Minneapolis), Stephan & Wilna DeBeer (Pretoria), and Eric Geary (Lexington). To Resonate Global Mission, we are so very thankful for the blessing it has been to work with Joel Huyser, Mission Innovation Leader of Holistic Missional Networks. Other Resonate team members whose voices have been instrumental in helping to chisel out this current form of the ITF include: Jeff Bos (Bangladesh), Gil and Joyce Suh (Phnom Penh), Mike Ribbens (Johannes- burg), Pablo Canche (Mexico City), Steve Holtrop (Managua), Rachel Beveridge (San Salvador), Mark Wallace (Toronto) and Kevin Schutte (Kansas City). To James Alison (OP), Dale Irvin, president of New York Theological Seminary, and Steve Lantry (SJ), we are grateful for their wisdom and work on the case study presented in chapter 9, which began as a conversation hosted by Leadership Foundations to explore how to keep people at the table when confronted by divisive issues. Most of all we thank the vulnerable in cities throughout our network, who have been our pri- mary teachers and who are the face and grace of Jesus, returning us to ourselves, clothed and in our right minds, at least some of the time. Kris Rocke & Joel Van Dyke 7 Incarnational Training Framework Overview 1. MESSAGE: A WAY OF SEEING What is our Transforming Perspective? KEY INDICATOR Does our message call people from scarcity to abundance? PATHWAYS TO PERCEPTION • City as Classroom • City as Parish • City as Playground 2. METHOD: A WAY OF DOING What is our Transforming Practice? KEY INDICATOR Does our method call people from theory to practice? PATHWAYS TO PRACTICE • Nurturing Relationships • Stewarding Power • Engaging Systems 3. MANNER: A WAY OF BEING What is our Transforming Presence? KEY INDICATOR Does our manner call people from rivalry to peacemaking? PATHWAYS TO PRESENCE • Contemplative Activists • Ecumenical Discerners • Eucharistic Community STREET PSALMS INCARNATIONAL TRAINING FRAMEWORK 8 Introduction Imagine a circle of compassion. Now imagine that no one is standing outside that circle. Imag- ine going to the edge of that circle and standing with those who have been demonized until the demonizing stops.1 This is the imaginative exercise of Father Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries and au- thor of Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion. We begin here because it beautifully names the essence of what this resource is all about – developing incarnational lead- ers who build just communities of compassion for all, especially the most vulnerable. We believe that the most powerful resource in under-resourced urban communities is the lead- ers themselves. Unfortunately many faith leaders are not equipped to face the challenges of an urbanizing world. Even fewer have an incarnational vision of mission to ground them. As a result many well meaning faith leaders are doing more harm than good, and many more walk away burned out and bitter. The data is clear. We are witnessing the largest human migration in the history of the world. Currently more than half the world’s population lives in cities, and in 2050 it’s expected to reach 66%. The fastest urban growth is happening in Africa, Asia and Latin America where there are currently 1 billion people living in slums.2 The implications are immense, especially for the most vulnerable. It will take the best of human ingenuity, courage and wise stewardship of re- sources for our cities to become places of flourishing for all people, especially the most vulnera-
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