WHY STAYING MUST BECOME THE NEW GOING

My friend Alan Briggs recently released a new booked titled Staying is the New Going. In it he reflects on what a rooted life of connection looks like - on our street, in our neighborhood and in our cities. If we choose to live this kind of life, we just might find ourselves building the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, right in our own backyard.

Here's Alan ...

It was early on a Tuesday morning, and I pounded away on my MacBook in the coffee shop. The song “Rivers and Roads” played in the background.A year from now we'll all be goneAll our friends will move awayAnd they're goin' to better placesUnfortunately these words ring true in our culture. I live these words over and over again in Colorado. It’s a great place for the restless to come. Turns out it’s also a great place for the restless to leave. This was my story. I came here on the Colorado dream - less of a committed marriage to this place and more like friends with benefits.Restlessness is a prevailing problem today. Many of us exist somewhere, but never make it our home. Our soul drifts to places where life seems more ideal. As we daydream we miss opportunities right in front of our faces. We live in a culture of disembodiment.The ancient words of Jeremiah 29 are relevant to us today. The prophet Jeremiah pens these words to a dejected and exiled Judah. Living in Babylon wasn’t exactly their dream. I can’t imagine how abandoned and pushed aside they felt.Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare (Jeremiah 29:4-8).Recently I spoke on this text. After reading this passage I asked, “Who feels like an exile in this place?” Several people raised their hands. It was a powerful time as we gathered around and asked God to show us contentment and purpose right here.Most people don’t view followers of Jesus as an asset to their place. We aren’t viewed as advocates and blessings in our cities. God used Jeremiah to show me I wasn’t working for the welfare of my city; I compiled the reasons I should flee; I made my escape plan.I had to make some changes. I began to walk new sectors of my city with church planters as they helped me understand the realities. My wife and I saw parties as new opportunities to fold people into our lives. We moved our grill from the back porch to the front yard. I reengaged friendships with those far from the church who I had drifted away from. We committed Friday mornings to drinking coffee with neighbors on the corner. I stopped imagining ministry was easier or more fruitful “over there” and taking our parish seriously. My family began paying a spiritual mortgage instead of spiritual rent. Here are a few ways you can start sinking roots into the ground.To church leaders: Don’t just commit to a strategy or a vision statement; commit to your place. Don’t just look to get over the self-sustaining hump or push for church growth; become a long-term presence in your community. When you commit to your place you are also committing to stay engaged in the lives of those people. Love and serve the part of town you are in, not the one you wish you were in.To neighbors: Realize God has placed you where you are. Perhaps the greatest change you can make immediately rests in who you party with. Before inviting Christian friends over to watch the big game, celebrating your child’s birthday or throwing your Halloween bash think about who you could invite who doesn’t know Jesus.To anyone living anywhere: Live out the gospel faithfully and winsomely right where you are. The grass isn’t greener in that Instagram photo. Choose engagement over disconnection. Take a few risks to include new people around you. Choose to believe you can be the salty and luminous people Jesus charged us to be.______________________________________Alan Briggs is the Director of Frontline Church Planting, a network and equipping hub in Colorado. He is also the Multiplying Pastor at Vanguard Church in Colorado Springs where he makes disciples and trains leaders to multiply. His speaking and writing focus on equipping and unlocking the saints for effective ministry inside and outside the family of God. His book Staying is the New Going released this fall, and Cultivators will release Fall 2016. He and his wife, Julie, have four kids, two adopted and two biological.