Vision and Values

Vision Statement

At InVia we exist to facilitate a journey of transformation through dialogue and contemplative practice.

These will empower each one to make four life giving moves …

• read the world arising within and around, 
• recognize the image of God within,
• resonate with the pain of the world,
• retell their story to others.

Facilitate - literally means "to make easier." We want to create circles and spaces of trust were the truth can be shared and experience...and ultimately truth is a person named Jesus.

Transformation - spirituality is quite simply seeing, a new way of seeing and meaning-making of God, ourselves others and the world

Dialogue - from two Greek words dia-through, logos words..."coming to shared meaning through words." we need places were people can tell and name their own truth and perspective without the pressure of the 'expert' who dominates with 'objective' insight. 

Contemplative practice - Con means 'with' and templum means 'temple'. The idea was to watch and see God from the temple or His presence. Contemplation without practice is impossible. 'We behave our way into believing and do not believe our way into behaving.' R Rohr

Values

These four R’s capture not only the essence of the InVia distinctives and the InVia experience but articulate the four core values that are center of how we are doing the journey together.

Read – is our awareness value.  We want people to realize that reading the currents of their hearts and interior life as well as the signs of the times, the cultural cues, and what is arising around them moment by moment, is the context into which we have all been invited to live and breath.  Life is lived in real time.

We have assumed that reading means characters on a page that compose narratives and texts.  And that is certainly one form of reading.  But the there is another type of reading as well. 

Reading the signs and movements of God around me and the promptings within me.  The goal in “reading” is to re-discover my story in God’s unfolding Story with the world.

‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times…” Matthew 16.3

Reading of this sort will first require an eye-opening, an awakening.  “May the eyes of your heart be en-light-ened.” Eph 1.15. “Wake up oh sleeper.” Eph 5.13. 

Jesus was inviting people to become attentive to politics, weather patterns, social contexts, people groups, power structures, to begin “reading” what these signpost along the way of life, because Jesus is the Way, tell us about where we are in these times and “how” are we to be in these contexts.  Reading requires sight then…and new way of seeing.

Reading requires a new spirituality.  A spirituality that moves from reading texts to actually doing what has been observed in the text, namely reading the signs of the times, the promptings, the movements the   In other words a spirituality of seeing in order to discern. “…that you may discern…” Phil 1:9.

Reading invites us to reference another reality.  Trying to discern, see, become aware of the inbreaking, intruding, incoming kingdom of God.  ….Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”  John 5.19

Key Reflections – Can you See?  Can you see the reframing of your story in THE Story?

Recognize – is our new starting point value.  Before anything happened on the planet earth God created humanity “imago dei,” in the image of God.  Recognizing this as a starting point of the journey with God is critical to healthy spirituality. The spiritual journey is getting back were you have started.

Reading is to help us recognize.  This is the essence of contemplation, sensing the movements and presence of God.

Thomas Aquinas  on contemplation, "a simple, unimpeded and penetrating gaze on the truth."

The recognition that we are made in the image of God is a new starting point for some and the essential starting point for all of our journeys.   

Jesus said, “the kingdom is within you...” Luke 17.20

Made in the image of God means there is a core within us we seek to align with, tune into, and live from.  Staying aware of God in us through reflection, insights prompted by the Holy Spirit and silence is the primary goal of our journey with God. 

The rhythm of Jesus’ life seems to be that of “withness” and then “aloneness.”  Those alone times he heads into the desert or the mountains and apparently is entering solitude and silent space to engage the Father and connect deeply with who he is and what is going on inside himself.

“Be still and know that I am God.” Psalm 46.10.  This isn’t an invitation to sit still as much as to come to inner stillness where we are quiet enough in our interior space to begin to sense, connect and experience the God that is already present within.

This is a new starting point for many because in our Western Protestant Christianity, God has always been perceived as “second person;” a being out there somewhere that we connect to like we would any other person.  Of course it is true we can experience God as second person.  And at the same time we affirm that God is omnipresent, everywhere all at once.

The Eastern Christian tradition however, the speaks of theosis, and divine union, and sees the journey inward toward God just as valuable and important.  This strand of our Christian history can help us better understand that recognizing God within is what allows us to live from our true deep self.

“I said, ‘You are “gods” you are all sons of the Most High.’ Psalm 82.6

“(God) said that we were ‘gods’ and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him-for we can prevent Him if we choose—He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for.”  C.S. Lewis

“Morality is indispensable: but the Divine Life, which gives itself to us and which calls us to be gods, intends for us something in which morality will be swallowed up. We are to be remade. . . . we shall find underneath it all a thing we have never yet imagined: a real man, an ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful, and drenched in joy.”  C.S. Lewis

“…Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Col 1.27

Resonate – this is our touch the hurting value.  This starts with resonance.  We want to be transformed by the pain of the world and help of those in pain be transformed as well.  We can’t help the world without being resonant with it’s pain.

Retelling – this is our story value. We live stored lives.  In fact we live in several stories simultaneously, the “me,” “we,” and “The” story.  All three of these need to be told and retold as we growth with “other.”

The Preferred Future

InVia is a collection of "Active Contemplative Tribes."  These exist for the purpose of bringing together people that want to explore and live the interface between the awareness Jesus invites and the action that he models. We have become convinced the best way to do that is to engage contemplative practice and to "come to know" together through dialogue

In the next 5 years we hope to see at least five ACTS communities planted throughout the Western Cape and then stretching into other parts of South Africa.  Tribe collaboration will happen through creative service planning across locations, speaking team rotations to various tribes, ACTS wide leadership development events and quarterly immersive worship experiences allowing the uniqueness of each tribe to be expressed in these larger periodic gatherings. 

Dialogue will be an earmark of these tribes.  Dialogue, a coming to know together, will highlight the value of learning from each other and the value of each person’s story. By definition, this will mean a move away from the Stage on Sage so prominent in the modern age of education and a move toward learning communities of practice.