Where are we going? We’re going to talk about seeing church as a city we build within the cities we live in or what we call Brave Cities. This is an organization co-directed by Hugh Halter which is a consulting firm committed to equip, coach, and connect apostolic leaders who are building kingdom ecosystems as a new way of being church.
A Kingdom Ecosystem is another way of describing an interconnected and interdependent network of missionary disciples, who band together to incubate good works in a specific local context. These good works include new businesses, justice works, and incarnationally focused homes that all work together so that a prospering economy and intentional community form.
We hope the content and the spirit of Brave Cities will be what you’ve been needing and looking for and that real hope for you, your family, and your leadership will emerge.
Listen to Episode 19 of the podcast and access the show notes below.
Future Church Insights:
1. Hugh shares what creates a “Brave City” church plant.
Comprised of three essential parts, a Brave City plant is a different type of Church Plant integrates a benevolent business or business design that helps the town and creates jobs to change the atmosphere in the city. The second is incarnational, neighborhood homes which are homes for people that live in certain parts of the neighborhood who seek to better the area and create lasting positive change. The third is justice works which are things that other people are not doing that the town desperately needs done, specifically people that are on the margins or don’t have the same access as everyone else.
2. How Brave Cities incubate good works through new businesses.
Hugh shares how they utilize their 501c (3) holding company to help people start businesses that strategically change the city. They provide a central administrative and legal covering for them as they seek to get started. However, good works don’t have to be Christians with an idea. They can come from non-Christians that have something they want to contribute.
3. The biggest obstacle facing Brave Cities right now.
The need to create jobs in this country has gone down over the last few years which unfortunately means job creation isn’t a top priority for a lot of businesses right now. With that being said, the most important goal right now for Brave Cities is to move people into the spiritual community who progress from business development to a community of family and friends. It is through this process that people can be discipled as we give witness to the LORD.
Goals and Desired Outcomes:
They seek to redefine the way you think about the future church and your future as you consider your true passions, dreams, and visions for blessing the cities you live in. Here are the changes they seek to change in churches:
- The Theology of Church as a City on a Hill
- Promoting the 6 elements required to build a Kingdom Ecosystem
- Moving from Pastoral Leadership to Apostolic Leadership
- How To Create Multiple Buckets of Income for yourself and the Ecosystem God Forms
- Firing Your Congregation and Framing a New Community
- Providing a New Template for creating Natural Evangelistic and Prophetic Influence in Your City
- Promoting Business Not FOR Mission or IN Mission, but AS Mission
Brave Cities would like to have 100 cities that are building Kingdom Ecosystems over the next decade.
Links
Quotes from Hugh Halter:
“The greatest strategy for giving young people a vision for leading their own friends spiritually to guide and disciple their own friends is to call them into their own homes.”
“Businesses are important in this process because it’s your financial sustainability and credibility with the city, but the real ministry still has to be individual people that feel confident to guide spiritual conversation, open up the Scriptures, and have talks about life and meaningful things with people.”
“God knows what He wants to do in our cities. Oftentimes, the real cool things that we do come out of the struggles that we have. God takes how we’re broken and uses that brokenness to help other people. Don’t try to think of how to build out a Kingdom Ecosystem, instead, try to figure out where people are suffering where you suffer and then ask God to do supernatural things.”
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