My book Christianity Beyond Belief is now available. If you haven’t already placed your order, you can order one today!

In Christianity Beyond Belief, Todd Hunter concludes this formative work inviting readers into “A New Way to Live” through 3 is Enough Groups. Many have already begin practicing this new way to live through Todd’s 3 is Enough 30-Day Pilot Program.

The 3 is Enough 30-Day Pilot Program is nearing completion with over 40 groups following God in the way of Jesus, praying, growing and serving together in the normal rhythms and routines of their lives. As the Pilot Program concludes, we will be making some changes to 3isenough.org. Stay tuned as you will be seeing those changes taking place in the next couple of weeks.

Here are some highlights from the 3 is Enough Pilot Program:

We are growing in relationship and support of one another by getting out of our comfort zone and risking by sharing ourselves. We are growing by reading and studying and discussing such. We are growing by being open to what is happening around us and to what the Holy Spirit is leading (And trying to keep it simple!). We are growing by being relational with others. And we are growing through praying for others and serving.

We are reading 3 chapters of Acts each week and sharing our observations, discoveries and heart sense from the Scriptures. We seek together God’s best for His body and His wisdom as we look forward, pressing into God’s plans for His church in Friday Harbor. We all sense He is up to something, stirring hearts to be the church.

Serving in the natural flow and rhythms of life…wow, we are finding that we have been trained to see serving as something we do outside of normal life rhythms and patterns. I can’t thank all of you enough for this conversation, may it spread to more and more people. 3 is Enough is encouraging our triad to rethink some of our ways and beliefs. So good! My friend commented the other day that there is something different and special in gathering with just 3 people. It seems there is time for listening to God as well as sharing, maybe more of a focus on the one thing that God may be speaking into the life of each group member. We are loving the journey thus far.

Just want to second the idea of cultivating (and keeping and living out) a disposition of service rather than just doing service projects here and there, only to remain essentially ego-driven. I have certainly done service projects either motivated by ego from the get-go or later dropped a genuine disposition of service once I’m back home with my family or back to my job. In our TiE group, we’re definitely pursuing a disposition of service and discussing how that is playing itself out (or not) in our typical routines.

Stay tuned to learn more about starting your own 3 is Enough group!

Thank you to all of you who have signed up for the 3iE 30 Day Pilot Program. We now have 40+ groups who have signed up. At this point I need to bring signups to an end. — Todd

Ok, you’ve tried every kind of small group program there is.

But have you ever been part of a small group like this?

• Find 2-3 people
• Meet for 30-60 minutes
• Once a week
• Before work – at lunch or over dinner
• No one person has to lead all the time
• Read books you like
• Serve others in fun, doable and simple ways
• Pray with each other

The Campaign
I need 30 people to launch and lead 30 3 is Enough groups for 30 days.

All 30 groups will launch simultaneously the first week of January 2009.

I need to test this idea in real life and get the template set for a larger launch when my book comes out in February of 2009.

What’s Involved?

• Review 3 is Enough details here
• Recruit two other friends or colleagues
• Participate in one pre launch conference training call with Todd and other leaders(1/5)
• Meet 4 times in 30 days (weekly)
• Provide feedback in online blog
• Participate in weekly training conference calls during 30 day campaign (they will be available as podcasts for those unable to make the call)

With iTunes you can hear a presentation introducing 3isenough by me. If you do not have iTunes on your computer, you can download by clicking on the button below. Once it is installed, click the button on the right and listen away.

Spiritual transformation into Christlikeness has always been the true goal of Christianity. Re-creating or transforming humanity in this way—being “born again”–is what God was up to in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Some how this mega-idea got lost in favor of a small story about a sure and secure spot in heaven when one dies.

I understand how it happened, and I was guilty of perpetuating the wrong story. Thank God for all the women and men who have been writing, speaking and teaching to correct this reductionist view in the last decade. I think especially of Tom Wright, Dallas Willard, Eugene Peterson, the Gospel in our Culture Network, etc.

Christianity—following Jesus as his apprentice—was always supposed to be a whole-life, embodied and practiced reality. As long as we had a Christian consensus in the US, we could all just “wink” or “shrug our shoulders” when professed believers behaved with their “whole life” in ways the contradicted their profession. But now, in the post-Christian period, as Christianity is increasingly marginalized, those outside the faith no longer just wink. David Kinnaman’s research in his recent book Un-Christian, demonstrates the biggest barrier to young outsiders today is the un-Christian lives of Christians.

As I think about “re-practicing” Christianity to live authentic lives of faith, I am not thinking in merely moral terms. I don’t mean to say that we need to be perfect to be attractive to Christians—even Jesus did not attract everyone. But being “born again” must mean something in this life—right? What I do mean to say is this simple, but I think profound and powerful point for evangelism: authentic practice of our “religion”—following Jesus for the sake of others—is the best bridge to faith today.

Young outsiders want to know if our religion is real, if it makes a difference, etc. My first book is done—you can see it on the top right of the main page. My second book—again with IVP is going to focus on this notion of how we “re-practice” our faith in a way the opens doors to faith. I am looking forward to re-thinking and re-visioning all the common practices associated with Christianity.