Thank you for your prayers! I have been so encouraged by the conversations I've been able to have!

Last weekend I spent a few days at a family reunion. I also have good conversations with cousins and uncles and aunts, many of whom are in the faith. But this time I was especially encouraged to find faith where I hadn't before. Two conversations stand out which I tell about in this week's YouTube teaching. I'll just let you watch that here.

Harrisonburg, VA
After the reunion, I had wonderful conversations in the Harrisonburg area, some of which were started last year, and others that were new this year.

I met with three couples who are interested in planting, and are discerning the next steps. One of the couples already has a weekly meeting in their home where university students (mostly foreign and Muslim) come to learn about the Christian faith. They don't see this gathering as a church, but maybe God wants to do something there. Or maybe he wants to start two or three microchurches. The interest is there. But there are also some barriers. So please pray for clear direction.

I had dinner last Tuesday with an adult Sunday School class that has been together for over thirty years. They have connected with some of my teachings, and our X242 way of doing things, so I wanted to learn more about them. It was a rich conversation. So much to celebrate there. The love each other. And they love the Lord. They also have some starkly different views about some of the things that split churches and nations. But they have remained loving in their dialog. We were able to discuss some of those topics directly, speaking the truth in love, and listening to each other with gentleness and patience that doesn't betray conviction. I was especially encouraged to hear how one of the men said that, when he has taught a book study, he has just wanted to throw the book out and open the bible. That's what we do at X242! So I'm encouraging them to try that. I think they will. And I feel like they'll probably continue to connect with us. 

I also had coffee with the pastor of an older conventional church who loves what we're doing. He also has great affection for this church. We simply encouraged each other.

Lancaster, PA
It was a quick stay in the Lancaster area. It was our first time visiting missionally. We will plan to spend more time there the next time we visit. I believe there is an open door for effective ministry. 

I met with a man who heads up a network of sixteen house churches, scattered through the U.S. and even a few international locations. Their network is part of a larger network of churches, including conventional and even mega churches. I asked him lots of questions about what they do, and how. And I was greatly encouraged by the conversation. 

Spring Valley Bruderhof // Farmington, PA 
I had never heard of the Bruderhof until last year when Jorge Enciso mentioned it to me on a leadership Zoom. The Bruderhof is a Christian fellowship that lives communally with a common purse, meaning no one has their own possessions. They share all things. And it's a lifetime membership, meaning you pledge yourself to the community for life. Like you, I have SO many questions, and I've been asking them. They are very, very hospitable. But we just pulled in last night (Saturday), and will be here till Tuesday morning, so I'm sure I'll have more to say later about my conversations.

Our mission is to plant and encourage microchurches wherever God opens a door, and to encourage and strengthen faith wherever we find it.  This means lots of conversations! And that takes lots of energy. 

Please pray for health and wellness for Wendy and me. It seems we keep getting hit with various health problems, from an injured back (which is better now! Praise God!) to recurring respiratory illnesses and the like. As you know, I'm not quick to claim "spiritual attack" over every hard thing in life, but I do believe the enemy would like to rob us of the energy and life needed to carry out this mission well. I know God is faithful, and I believe he will provide in accordance with your prayers.

Also, pray for the following:

• Pray for the establishment of a new microchurch in Harrisonburg, and that we can encourage the Sunday School class that connected with us.
• Pray blessing over the microchurch network based out of Lancaster, PA. 
• Pray for conversations here at the Bruderhof.
• Pray for upcoming conversations in Berlin and St Marys, OH, and then in the Goshen, IN area.

Thank you for your prayers. And thank you to those who support X242. My heart is to pay my own way in living out this mission, and God has given Wendy and me a business which helps with that, and allows us to do some work from the road. But being gone from the business is expensive, as is travel itself. Your support really does make up the difference for us, and we are humbled and filled with gratitude. God bless you, and this X242 ministry, that we would all be fruitful in life, and in helping others enter the Kingdom.

​I pray for you every day.  ​

When you read the prayers of Paul, which populate his letters to the churches, you get a sense of his affection for those he's writing to. And, in the overflow of that love, he prays for them with joy and hope and delight, which probably increases the love and affection all the more.

Anyone who commits themselves to praying for another person, also opens their hearts to increased love and affection. Such is my experience when I pray for you, the people who have connected with X242.

Often, of late, my prayers have included Philippians 1:4. "I pray that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best, so that you will be found pure and blameless on the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness which is yours through Jesus Christ, to God's glory and praise."

There are other prayers that we can pray for an increase in faith, or strength, or stamina. Those are good prayers too. But this prayer has captured my attention and imagination.

What does it mean for love to "abound more and more"? Without giving it much thought, we might imagine it as an increase in good feelings about God or about others. That's wonderful when that happens. But Paul prays (and I've been praying) that it would abound "in knowledge and depth of insight." That's different. It's more mature than feelings. 

What would it mean for your love to abound more and more in knowledge? 
What would it look like for your love to keep on increasing in depth of insight? 

To increase in knowledge is to apply yourself to adding information you don't yet have. That can be information about love itself, as a quality you're trying to embody, that you don't yet do as well as you want. And it can be about whoever it is you're trying to love, be it God, or your neighbor, or your enemy.

Do you relate to God as someone you're still getting to know? Are you still learning who he is, what he's like, how he sees things, and why he does what he does? To continue to seek his face, to seek his heart, to seek his mind about things, is to apply yourself to a love that is abounding more and more in knowledge. And this will deepen your insight about who he is, and how you can best love him.

​The same is true for people you're trying to love.  And I don't mean just people who are hard to love. The people who are easy to love. Are you applying yourself to knowing them, like who they are, what they like, how they see things, and why they do what they do? I'm not saying we should try to read them like a text book, but learn to see them, to feel what they feel, and think what they think -- not to model yourself after them, or to manipulate them in any way, but to simply know them, so you can love them well. And then learn to do that with the people who are hard to love. To do this will deepen your insight about who they are, and how best you can love them.

Finally, to increase in love about love itself, memorize that part of the love chapter people read at weddings. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." 

When you're tempted by impatience, remember that "love is patient." When you catch yourself being unkind, remind yourself that "love is kind." And in doing this, your love will abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. And as you keep on doing that, the Holy Spirit will be inspiring in you the answer to my prayers.

"I pray that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best, so that you will be found pure and blameless on the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness which is yours through Jesus Christ, to God's glory and praise."

(For another application of this thought, check out this week's teaching.)

Amen.

We left Sarasota yesterday morning. Our travels have been uneventful, but I threw my back out, so am laying low for a day. Tomorrow we head north, stopping in Charlotte and then to our campground for a week in the Shenandoah Valley. Please pray specifically for the following:

• June 24-25. Harrisonburg, VA. I have several meetings with microchurch planters, pastors, and people who are utilizing our simpler church methods in their conventional small group setting. Please join me in asking God to bring encouragement and challenge wherever it's needed, and to impart spiritual gifts as he deems helpful. 
• June 27-28. Lancaster, PA. I will be sharing a meal with the head of a microchurch network that is connected to another larger network. My heart is to learn what they have learned, as might apply to our X242 network. And of course to give a blessing. Please join me in asking God for wisdom and discernment, and good fellowship. 
• June 29-July 2. Farmington, PA. We're spending a few days at a Christian commune south of Pittsburgh. My heart is to watch and observe how they have chosen to radically live out Acts 4:32. We will get to participate in their communal work, which I look forward to. Please pray for strength and stamina to be a blessing, and specifically that my back would be healed which I recently threw out. They have also asked me to speak at their Sunday morning gathering. My prayer is that I would understand God's word for them, and that I would be able to "proclaim it clearly, as I should." (Colossians 4:4) 

The map above is how our mission travels are shaping up for this summer. It's still tentative in many regards, but is starting to settle in. We plan to be gone four months, maybe five, depending on things back here at home. Our plans are very much, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” (James 4:15)

Several destinations orient our travels because of existing churches or ongoing conversations that we believe will be fruitful: Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. But there's a lot in between! And different ways to get to the different places. So we are praying and looking for open doors.

Like I wrote last week, the goal is to plant and encourage microchurches. But that doesn't preclude conventional church ministry, it just means we're looking to connect with people who are drawn to the beauty of the simpler church model. I am planning to connect with a couple other house church networks, as well as a Bruderhof community which lives communally. I look forward to those conversations, not that we are looking to join them, but that I want to learn from them.

Would you spend some time praying over this map? And if you know any people in these areas that we should try to connect with, please email me and let me know, and pray for that to happen. Also pray for the chance conversations we'll have along the way, as this mode of travel and living is filled with conversations.

The actual destinations (as of today) are below.

1. Harrisonburg, VA
2. Lancaster, PA
3. Farmington, PA
4. Berlin, OH
5. St Mary's, OH
6. Shipshewana/Goshen/Elkhart, IN
7. Easton, IN
8. Hazelton, ID
9. Yakima/Selah, WA
10. Portland/Canby/Estacada/Camas (WA)/Corvallis, OR
11. The Woodlands, TX

And here's the prayer. It's from Colossians 4. "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ... Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should."

Thank you!