Deep Community Experience
Four Phases
DCE
Phase One
Identity
The most important and foundational community is the one between an individual and God. Living out of who God says we are is our only hope of real change and deep community. Our security, our ability to love others, and our actions all flow from our understanding of who we are in Christ.
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In this first phase, we interact with the unchanging truths of who God says we are as individuals and as a community. In the intensive we utilize story-based teaching, collaborative experience, group discussion, and personal reflection.
“Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.”
Abba's Child
DCE
Phase Two
Awakening the Heart
Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
Proverbs 4:23
Awakened hearts are key to engaging God-designed energy in Kingdom expansion. Satan’s strategy, therefore, is to keep the hearts of believers numb or asleep..
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In this phase we focus on the thinking, feeling, desires and choices of the heart through teaching, coaching, personal and community engagement; within the context of reflection on the Word of God.
Remember that according to the Bible, the heart is not primarily
the emotions but rather the seat of our fundamental commitments
and trusts, and therefore it is the control center of the whole life.
So to preach to the heart means to go right for the commanding
commitments of people’s lives that drive their desires, thinking,
feeling and action.
Tim Keller
DCE
Phase Three
Redemption of our Stories
God has been at work all along, shaping each of our lives for a unique and ultimate contribution in His kingdom. God is the author of our stories, and it is his intention that each story become part of His Redemptive Story.
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Working from the foundation of our identity in Christ and our awakened hearts, we will discover the depths and significance of our stories and the glory God has designed each of us to reveal. We utilize a variety of tools, individual work and small group interaction.
Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe, those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west,
from north and south.
Psalm 107:2-3
“Your story has power in your own life, and it has power and meaning to bring to others.”
Dan Allender
DCE
Phase Four
Kingdom Engagement
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33
We are convinced that vision and organizational clarity come as we find individual clarity. The gifts of a secure identity in Christ, an awakened heart and a redeemed story are not given for our benefit alone. These, in a context of a community of grace, enable us to reveal God’s glory and to advance His kingdom..
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Effectiveness in Kingdom work is accomplished as authentic, whole-hearted workers engage the world around them. In this phase we explore and define how to engage our context with all that God has designed us to be.
“God’s goal for each of us is never simply healing or safety or rest or even receiving love, as astounding as those gifts may be. His goal is that we’d be released into the sense of purpose we haven’t been able to shake all of our lives.”
The Cure Thrall, McNicol, Lynch