Forge Hubs
Motown/Detroit | Michiana | Ann Arbor
OUR MISSION::
Forge Hubs exists to equip ordinary people to live as missionaries where they live, work and play.
OUR VISION::
We long to see the rule and reign of God revealed in the everyday spaces of life all throughout Metro Detroit.
OUR APPROACH::
We train, network and coach missional leaders and churches throughout our regions. We accomplish this through two primary offerings:
Forge Missionary Formation Residency:
The residency is a 6-month action-reflection experience that will enable a pastor or layperson to develop a missionary posture and lifestyle – where they live, work, and play. The residency is designed around overarching goals: helping the individual shift paradigms and shape practices for mission.
The components of the residency are:
Church: Residents are required to remain faithful to their local church by continuing to gather and grow with other believers. Forge is not a church-planting network, but exists to help you follow and serve Jesus in your current setting.
Cohort: Residents will meet monthly in a larger group for training and discussion. Training will come through assigned readings, videos, and live workshops featuring established and accredited scholars, missional leaders, pastors, and practitioners.
Coaching: In addition to the monthly cohort, residents will be paired with a coach throughout the Residency. Residents will meet once a month with 2-3 other residents and a coach in a smaller huddle for mentoring, group reflection, and encouragement.
Context: The heart of transformational learning takes place within a resident’s unique context, the place and the people to which God has uniquely called them. The resident will discover where he/she has already been sent to live on mission and will learn to discern and appreciate the unique culture, narratives, obstacles, and opportunities that come with that context in order to effectively help people find their life in Jesus
Forge Partnerships:
Churches and organizations can partner with Forge Hubs to use the Forge Residency to train their own leaders in their context. The benefits of partnership are:
Relationship to a greater tribe personally, regionally and nationally. This includes 10-12 coaching sessions a year, connection to other like-minded churches in the area and access to national leaders and trainers
Resources for training and mobilizing the church. This includes partnership training and the Forge online residency.
Re-aligning the local church for mission. This includes helping leaders and churches develop a common language and practices that will help shape a culture of discipleship, mission and multiplication in the local church.
The Missionary Formation Curriculum
Module 1: Shifting Paradigms
SECTION 1-1: THE CRISIS OF OUR TIME
Introduction: Forge was birthed out of a cultural crisis. What has happened in Europe and Australia is now happening in America. More and more individuals are disconnected and disinterested in church as we know it. There are many significant cultural barriers to effectively communicating the gospel and we must rethink whether or not our current methods are as effective as they once were. Understan-ding the cultural crisis is essential if we hope to have a lasting paradigm shift and a new lens for living out our faith.
SECTION 1-2: IDENTITY CRISIS; UNDERSTANDING A MISSIONARY GOD & A MISSIONARY CHURCH
Introduction: Not only has there been a cultural crisis in the West, but there has also been an identity crisis. The identity crisis we have is with how we see God and with how we see the church. If we desire to faithfully live out God’s call on our lives, we must understand and recognize that God and His church are intrinsically missionary in nature. Who we are and what we do as the church is derived from the very nature of a sending, missionary God, who in turn compels it to be sent as a missionary people.
SECTION 1-3: OUR MISSION
Summary: We have been sent on mission to the places where we are already doing life. For many of us, mission has been something that happens across borders, while here at home we do evangelism. For others, mission is feeding the poor or working with the homeless. While neither of these are bad things, they do not give a complete picture of what God’s mission is and what it looks like for us to join Him in it. In this two-week section, we will learn about the mission of God and what it might look like to join Him in His redeeming work in this world.
SECTION 1-4: PARTICIPATING IN THE MISSION
Summary: As we begin to see God & His mission differently, it will deeply affect the way we live. We have been sent into the world by Jesus to join in His mission. We are no longer living under our rule but under the rule and reign of God. We are participants in His Kingdom.
SECTION 1-5 & 1-6: FOLLOWING JESUS INTO MISSION, 2 Parts
Summary: Jesus Christ is the centerpiece of our faith and the way we view Him will impact the way we see life and mission. Often times our view of Jesus gets distorted and we end up making Jesus look more like us than us like Him. In our formation process as sent people, we must re-Jesus ourselves and we must allow the Jesus of the Gospels to become the paradigm (or lens) through which we see our life and mission. He must be our guide as we engage the world we live in.
Module 2: Shaping Practices
SECTION 2-1: PERSONAL DISCIPLESHIP
Summary: If “missional” refers to our “going out” or “sentness,” then incarnational refers to our “embedding” or “going deep.” This is the very thing that Jesus Christ did when He came to earth. For the 1st 30 years of His life He shared life with those in His local community. He experienced the community’s life, its rhythms, and its people from the inside and not as an outsider. His 1st 30 years as well as His last three years must be our example for how we carry out discipleship. 1 John 2:6 says, “Whoever claims to live in Him, must live as Jesus did.” Jesus must be our example and our guide in faith, life, mission, and discipleship. Before we focus on our discipleship of others we must spend time focusing on our own discipleship - - our transformation into the image of Christ. In this section we will focus on the intentionality, space, & rhythms required for own discipleship.
SECTION 2-2: MISSIONAL DISCIPLESHIP
Summary: If discipleship involves our life in Christ and His life in and through us, many problems in discipleship can be traced to the breakdowns in this connection. Our lives should be looking more and more like Jesus and when this is not happening it will affect our discipleship of others. In the next two two-week section we will continue discuss barriers to our own discipleship and how we then disciple those in the places we have been sent.
SECTION 2-3: DISCIPLESHIP PRACTICES
Summary: Discipleship is the process of becoming more like Jesus. As this transformation happens the priorities of God’s Kingdom become our priorities and the hope is that they will in fact rub off on those we share life with. We are convinced that this transformation does not happen through information and information alone. For far to long the church has had an abundance of information, yet it has missed the mark in discipleship.
When we look at the life of Jesus we see that he consistently invited people to come alongside him and practice the Kingdom life far before their transformation happened. In fact this invitation to practice the Kingdom life and participate in the life of Christ aided in the transformation of people. In our discipleship and in our discipleship of others we must cultivate practices or habits that help aid in our own transformation and in the transformation of those we share life with. In this section we will look at a set of practices that we can practice and invite others to practice alongside us.
SECTION 2-4: SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH SPIRITUALITY
Summary: Just as Jesus modeled radical discipleship, He also gave us a model for sustainability in the midst of discipleship. In the next few sections, we will learn from Jesus on how we are to sustain through the means of spirituality and shared life. In this section we will primarily focus on sustaining mission through spirituality.
SECTION 2-5: SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH SHARED LIFE - THE NECESSITY OF OTHERS
Summary: Jesus did not just model sustainability through spirituality but also sustainability through shared life. The missionary life is not one that we do alone; we need others. In the next few sessions we will focus on this need for others, shared life, family on mission, and missional community.
SECTION 2-6: SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH SHARED LIFE - MISSIONAL COMMUNITY
Summary: Jesus did not just model sustainability through spirituality but also sustainability through shared life. One of the best environments for shared life and community to happen is in missional communities. Think of missional community not as a form or a model but rather a group of people (small or large) who are committed to going on mission with one another. In this section we are going to look at thinking behind missional community and practical next steps to developing missional community.
UPCOMING FORGE COHORTS
FORGE MICHIANA is offering a Missional Formation Cohort, beginning September 21, 2023. The cohort will meet virtually and be offered as a daytime or evening group. Groups meet twice a month on Thursdays for two-hour sessions from September 21-May 22. You are invited to journey with a small group of committed Christ-followers who long to see the mission of Jesus lived out in their lives and local church.
FORGE MOTOWN plans to offer a Missional Formation Cohort this fall. Contact Mark VanValin for more information.