Embracing Vulnerability in Creativity
Written by Allie Sampson
Photography by Sydnee Mela
Painting by Alexander Arbuthnot
A little over two months ago, we welcomed twelve 18 Inch Journey alumni back onto the land for a six month season of creativity, discipleship and servant leadership. Since then, the Phase Two students have been led by our staff in weekly rhythms of art, music, book club and collectives. They have been challenged by creative avenues that are new to them and have been given the opportunity to both fail and succeed in the safety of family.
This year, our Phase Two students had the opportunity to choose between five different collectives: Darkroom Photography, Print-making, Pottery, Digital Storytelling and Musicianship. Each of these collectives are designed to inspire the students and give them an opportunity to learn, discover, and ultimately, be seen by family. They are set up to make space for students to get vulnerable and take creative risks as they are being closely led by our staff in much smaller groups. After two months of setting their hands to various art-forms, our entire community gathered together last week to celebrate them as they showcased their final projects.
Our community has a high value for being seen and celebrated by one another. We believe that creating and sharing what you create are equally important for your heart. Creating gives us an opportunity to step into wholeness, because creating requires our hearts, minds and hands. However, creating alone is not enough. When the Father created the world, He created someone to share it with. If our vision is to become like our Creator, we must take a step beyond creating and embrace vulnerability by sharing our work. Inviting others to see and celebrate our creativity is a vital step in our hearts coming alive.
We encourage you to ask the Father how you can invite others to celebrate the creative things you’ve been setting your hands to. Whether it’s a song you’ve finished, a painting you’ve completed or a story you’ve resolved, make space this week to let someone see you. Take the risk of vulnerability and let yourself be seen. Ask the Father to highlight someone you can share your work with that will answer you with encouragement and support. You are meant for creativity. You are meant for celebration.
We've Re-released Vol. II!
Today we are so excited to release Volume II, The Clarity Winter Brings, under the new Cultivate title. The Clarity Winter Brings is designed to help find the beauty in winter seasons of life. We created this issue to champion the significance of our roots growing deep into God’s heart and our branches resting from producing fruit. This book includes writings on topics such as hope, perspective and stillness and is designed to help you carve out moments to hear His voice in the middle of your process.
This reprinted version features the same writings and prompts as the Eighteen Inch Journey book, but has been reformatted and designed to offer a higher quality product. Cultivate is now printed in off-set, which makes for a beautiful, overall matte finish on each of its pages. This matte finish helps the reader receive everything on the page without any glare or shine. In addition to a shift in printing, Cultivate has also moved to a larger size. This new 8.5x11 design makes space for a sharper, cleaner book.
Each volume of Cultivate is a stand-alone book, uniquely themed to meet you in your process and empower you to take ownership of His thoughts over your life. We invite you to explore these volumes that are designed to inspire your relationship with the Lord.
To learn more about Cultivate click here
To purchase a copy, visit our store shop.cagelessbirds.com.
The Discipleship Season
Written by Allie Sampson
Photography by Morgan Campbell & Chris Miller
Every year, our community swells with excitement as we approach the Phase II school. The Phase II opening dinner marks the beginning of our Discipleship Season and as a community we transition into daily laying down our lives for the students who come. We believe that there is no greater honor than stewarding hearts. To be entrusted with a human heart, to be invited to speak into someone’s life, is a weighty privilege and it is one that we do not take lightly. In the Discipleship Season, we feel the fruit of saying yes year-round and submitting our own hearts to discipleship. As a staff, we are being led throughout the year by Jonathan and Melissa, and their leadership has led us to believe in the power of correction, love and help. Our own testimonies of being changed by discipleship empower us to go the distance for the students. We have all been marked by leadership and correction and are deeply grateful for it!
Over the next six months, our twelve students will explore creativity, sit under teaching and discover what sustainability looks like. They will live with us, eat meals with us, celebrate birthdays and tend the land. In September, the Phase II will serve our Phase I school alongside our staff in and encourage the students coming behind them. In all of these things, our heart is that our Phase II students would be empowered to thrive in every season of their lives.
This week we encourage you to open up a conversation with the Lord about His vision for discipleship over your life. Maybe you are currently being discipled or discipling someone else. Maybe you are recognizing places where your heart is hungry for someone to speak into your life. Wherever you are, begin asking the Father what your heart needs and start dreaming with Him. Let Him inspire you with ideas for how to go deeper into His heart for you. He is faithful to answer you.
We rebranded our book!
Over the past few months we have received many messages asking when we will be restocking our Eighteen Inch Journey book. We’ve been responding with an excited “sometime soon”, eagerly anticipating what is coming. After many months of dreaming, vision and teamwork, we are so excited to announce that we have rebranded the Eighteen Inch Journey book and changed the name to Cultivate. Our vision behind the rebrand is that this book would carry a name that accurately reflects its purpose.
Cultivate means:
to steward growth,
to better through work and care,
to untangle roots or free up the soil
Today we are so excited to release Volume I under the new Cultivate title. This reprinted version features the same writings and prompts as the Eighteen Inch Journey book, but has been reformatted and designed to offer a higher quality product. Cultivate is now printed in off-set, which makes for a beautiful, overall matte finish on each of its pages. This matte finish helps the reader receive everything on the page without any glare or shine. In addition to a shift in printing, Cultivate has also moved to a larger size. This new 8.5x11 design makes space for a sharper, cleaner book.
Each volume of Cultivate is a stand-alone book, uniquely themed to meet you in your process and empower you to take ownership of His thoughts over your life. We invite you to explore these volumes that are designed to inspire your relationship with the Lord.
To learn more about Cultivate click here
To purchase a copy, visit our store shop.cagelessbirds.com.
Bethel Midwest USA Tour
Written by Jonathan Helser
Photography by Bethel Music
For the last week we have been with our Bethel music family traveling across the Midwest. We’ve had the honor of leading worship in five beautiful cities and will be in three more over the next few days. I’ve been astonished at the way the presence of God has invaded each night. We have been co-leading these nights with five different leaders, and there has been such a seamless unity on and off the stage.
As we have been sharing the privilege of leading, I have been learning there's no competition around the throne, because no one wants to be seen—everyone is consumed with the desire to see more of God's face. The hunger and thirst for the presence of the Lord has been incredible. Every night, there are moments when the sound of the voices singing in the room is louder than the sound system.
As a worship leader, my favorite moments of leading are when we transcend the songs written on a page and everyone in the room begins to sing the song written on their hearts. Heaven is coming to Earth and the sound of worship will keep getting louder till the whole earth looks just like Heaven.
From the Road, somewhere between Pittsburg and Chicago
Jonathan Helser
An Invitation to Worship
Written by Allie Sampson
Photography by Bethel Music
1 worship noun wor·ship \ˈwər-shəp also ˈwȯr-\
: extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem(Merriam-Webster)
“Worship is giving back to God what He first gave to us.”
- Jonathan David Helser
Worship is the simple, but profound act of honoring the Father by giving Him everything He gave to us as an offering of love and adoration.
The love He first gave to us, we give to Him.
The song He first sang over us, we sing back to Him.
The joy and delight He first lavished us with, we joyfully pour out on Him.
Worship is where we collide with our deep gratitude and connect with the Father. It is the moment we lay aside our agenda and say, “You are worth my time, Papa. You are worth all of my attention and affection. Nothing tops your incredible love.”
Today, some of the Cageless Birds will be taking off to participate in Bethel Music’s Midwest Tour. We could not be more excited to be a part of this family, and our hearts are full of anticipation as we set out on this adventure. Ten days, eight incredible cities, all for the purpose of celebrating one loving Father. These worship nights are so special to us because we love coming into agreement with God’s heart over each city and blessing the hearts of the people who live in each city. We love getting to come to you and declaring God’s goodness over the place you live and love and work everyday.
As we embark on this tour, we feel a fresh wave of inspiration in how we approach the Father in worship. We encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit what He is inviting you into in your worship. Take some time to ask Him, “Father, what can I give back to you in my worship this week?” Enjoy opening up a conversation with Him and take time to journal what He speaks to you. Then make a point to implement what He is speaking into your rhythms of worship this week. Jesus loves your worship. He loves the way you communicate your love to Him.
We would love to worship with you. Come join us in the following cities:
April 15 - Cincinnati, OH
April 16 - Columbus, OH
April 18 - Detroit, MI
April 19 - Indianapolis, IN
April 20 - Pittsburgh, PA
April 22 - Chicago, IL
April 23 - Green Bay, WI
April 24 - Minneapolis, MN
Check out bethelmusic.com/events for tickets and more information.
Thirty Years of Changing Lives
This week our community is so excited to be celebrating the 30th birthday of A Place for the Heart! A Place for the Heart is the pioneer ministry that paved the way for everything we are currently doing as the Cageless Birds. In 1986, Jonathan’s parents, Ken and Linda, watched in faith as the Father fulfilled their dream for a piece of land where young people could come for camps and retreats to encounter God. That 52 acre piece of land became known as A Place for the Heart. Since then the land has opened her gates to countless hearts, welcoming them to come in, breathe deeply, become still and know that He is God. From men’s retreats and Southern pig pickin’s to teen creative worship camps and 18 Inch Journey schools, A Place for the Heart has facilitated 30 years of life-changing encounters with Jesus.
A Place for the Heart is truly the foundation of the Cageless Birds. It is where we live and work. It is where we eat meals and host schools. It is the soil that holds our history and we are honored to be part of its legacy. Each of our staff have been marked by encounters with Jesus on this land and we are forever changed.
As we reflect on 30 years of God’s goodness, we invite you to celebrate with us! We would love to hear how Cageless Birds and A Place for the Heart have impacted your journey with Jesus. It is our desire to celebrate every story and testimony of what the Father has done from the overflow of this ministry. To share with us, simply write your story in the comments below or share it on social media using the hashtag #thirtyyearschanginglives. Whether you met the Father at a retreat, saw a transformation in your child after they did the Journey, collided with the Gospel through a prompt in an Eighteen Inch Journey book or experienced the love of God in a lyric, we want to hear from you! All of these things are fruit of what the Father has done on this land and we are eager to celebrate His goodness together!
The Importance of Gratitude
Written by Allie Sampson
Photography by Sydnee Mela
“Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!” Psalm 100:4, ESV
Can you recall an instance when you gave someone a gift and you were met by a sincere thank you? Maybe it was an extravagant Christmas gift you gave to your kids that left them squealing and releasing thank you’s through peals of laughter. Perhaps it was a surprise you had been waiting to bless your friend with and you caught their thanks in the midst of misty eyes and a heartfelt smile. How did this moment make you feel? How did their thanks mark your heart? Isn’t it amazing how simple gratitude can leave you feeling so gratified? Nothing completes a gift given like a thankful receiver. Gratitude acknowledges the giver’s thoughtfulness, intentionality and sacrifice. It communicates that their time, effort, generosity and love are valuable.
Gratitude is an easy step to skip. In the hurry of life or the emotion of a holiday, saying thank you often slips through the cracks. Sometimes we become so fascinated by a gift that we forget to pause to acknowledge the one who gave it to us. This may seem like a simple oversight, but saying thank you makes all the difference—it pulls us out of the culture of entitlement and aligns our hearts with the Father. In Luke 17, saying thank you is what gave the Samaritan leper a full healing. While the other nine were set free from their physical ailment, they missed out on the total healing: the healing of the heart. But the Samaritan’s gratitude sparked his faith, and his faith made him well.
We believe that thankfulness is essential to a life lived with the Holy Spirit. When we say thank you, it not only acknowledges what the Father is doing in our lives, but seals it on our hearts. Thankfulness locks us into remembrance and feeds our faith—it sets us up to remember that He is a good Father that comes through for us. As a community, we have made it a point to exercise thanksgiving in our daily lives. By consistently thanking the Lord, we are calling our hearts to attention and reminding ourselves of His constant presence and goodness. This simple rhythm has changed how we see and ultimately shifted how we approach the Father. This is the cultivation of a life of entering into His gates with thanksgiving in our hearts.
This week, we encourage you to ask the Father to highlight someone that has made an impact on your life and to flood your heart with thanksgiving. Let your gratitude fan the flame of faith in your heart. Then ask the Father for an idea of how you can communicate your gratitude. Maybe it’s as simple as carving out time to call them on the phone. Perhaps He’s inviting you to write a card of encouragement. Or maybe He’s inviting you to go all out with a thoughtful gift or beautiful meal! Make space for the Holy Spirit to inspire your heart with thankfulness and engage in the fruit of following through with the Father.
Thank you! We reached our goal!
Writing by Molly Kate Skaggs
Photography by Sydnee Mela
Hello Family and Friends!
I am still in crazy awe over how this fundraiser has been so incredibly blessed. Wednesday, March 2nd at 9:25am marked the end of our incredible 30 day journey together. My phone was buzzing and flashing with the notification of new donations even till the very end that morning. It was unreal. I will never grow tired of saying this because a blessing like this deserves a million, trillion more: THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
With a support team of 318 people who have sown in to this fundraiser, we not only have all the money we need to pay for the album, but we also met our first tier stretch goal as well! Our entire community is undone and overwhelmed by the kindness and goodness of the Lord through the love, support, and generosity on such gorgeous display through all of you. I say again: we could not have done any of this without Him or all of you. Partnership is a precious thing; help is a tremendous gift. You have communicated such joyful support to not only me but our entire community. Thank you for believing in us and to the Dream in which we are giving our whole lives.
I fully believe in the ancient principle of sowing and reaping, and I want to say to you all that you have sown beautiful seeds into really good ground. And I believe with all of my heart that all of you -- whether it was through your seeds of money, seeds of messages and texts with love and encouragement, seeds of helping me spread the word and rally others to partner with us -- YOU WILL see a beautiful return and bountiful harvest of good fruit from what you joyfully sacrificed and gave. And just like it has been for me and our whole community, I believe that it will shock, amaze and astound you...because that is how unbelievably good our Father is!
I will continue to update you all on the progress and process of this wonderful album project in these coming weeks and months. I can tell you this: last week was the week I tracked all the core piano parts for each song, and boy howdy....WHAT AN AMAZING WEEK IT WAS: challenging, stretching, full of humility and growth and exultation of the heart. All the things one can only hope to expect when making their first album (or any work of art, really). I have often heard that making art is a gift from God so that the heart can process and become healed and made whole. I have also heard that making art is less about the product we will produce and more about WHO we are becoming through the process. And I am finding this to be true more with each day spent down in our studio with my brothers. What a joy and gift to be so loved by God!
I have received so many personal messages and words of encouragement from so many of you, and feel covered and loved by the Lord through them all. Thank you so much for continuing to partner and walk with me in this process. I need it! So much love and blessings to you all!
Love, Molly Kate
The Value of Encouragement
Written by Allie Sampson
Photographed by Sydnee Mela and JD Gravitt
So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind (Philippians 2:1-2, ESV).
Therefore encourage one another and build one other up, just as you are doing (1 Thessalonians 5:11, ESV).
Have you ever been in a moment of frustration, difficulty or insecurity and suddenly found yourself met by unexpected words of kindness from a friend? Whether it’s genuine, positive feedback on a project you feel stuck on or a simple compliment on your appearance, it’s astounding how quickly a word of encouragement can lift your head and shift your perspective. Most of the time, an encouraging word has the power to pull you out of your own personal drama, and bring clarity to the reality of the moment. Every person in our community can recall countless moments where a simple word of kindness from one of our friends or leaders has helped us overcome our false perception of a situation and called us into a true understanding. Encouragement is essential to community living because it is the very nature of Heaven itself.
As the Cageless Birds collective, we believe that encouragement is vital in everything we do—friendships, discipleship, creative projects, groundskeeping, office work and everything in between. In order to learn, to grow and to develop, we must have both permission to fail and those who will champion us in the midst of failure, refusing to let us stay in a place of discouragement. As our dear friend David Burbach says, “Encouragement is the table where community feasts.” Encouragement is the place where we cultivate friendship and build trust. It is the place where we are invited into a more authentic view of ourselves. It is the place where we are formed in family and where we begin to believe that we are really supported by a loving Father.
Year-round, our community practices rhythms of encouragement. Encouragement breathes on the land as we gather every month for our community birthday nights, making handmade cards and crafting words of love to champion the next year of our friends’ lives. In our discipleship seasons it takes the shape of Open Mic Nights, making space for every student to share, be heard and celebrated. In our creative seasons, it looks like exchanging ideas, projects and songs, opening ourselves up to be seen by family. This month in particular, it has become tangible in the generosity and support shown for Molly’s Kickstarter campaign. At every corner, encouragement is marking our family and moving our hearts, and it will continue to change us as long as our hearts are soft and willing to receive it.
This week, we encourage you to ask the Father for eyes to see how you can support and encourage someone. Open your heart up to the Father who longs to see His kids cheering each other on, motivating them in love and kindness. Ask Him for an idea and be faithful to follow through with it. Maybe He wants to make a card with you for a friend. Perhaps He’s inviting you to rally around someone in your community. Or maybe He wants to team up to speak hope into someone’s life. Perhaps he’s inspiring you send encouragement to our community through Molly’s Kickstarter! Whatever the case may be, open up a conversation with the Father and let your heart join in the excitement of what He can do through powerful, simple encouragement.
The Power of Remembrance
Written by Jonathan David Helser
Photographed by Sydnee Mela
In our first staff meeting of 2016, we took time to look back at the last year and remember all that God had done. We have an entire wall in our office that we have painted with chalk paint to use in meetings for planning and dreaming. We quickly filled up that wall with all the things we could recount. As the list grew bigger and bigger, I could feel joy and faith brimming up inside my heart like a rising tide. Honestly, I had come into the staff meeting feeling heavy because of some of the drama that had been going on in our lives over the last few months, but this simple act of remembering completely changed my countenance. There was so much joy and faith in the room from the simple exercise of remembering what God had done, that it launched us into an extraordinary time of prayer and thanksgiving before the Lord. As we were wrapping up the meeting I began to count how many of the items on the list were complete surprises. Almost half of the list were things that we never expected to happen last year. Ephesians 3:20 says that our God is“able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” As I stood looking back at what God had done, I realized that God’s goodness is so much bigger than my imagination. I can try my best to dream big, but He will always exceed what I can ask for. This caused me to wonder with excitement what that chalk wall is going to have written on it at the end of 2016.
Have you ever played tennis or ping pong with someone whose talent is far superior to yours? I have been humbled on several occasions by someone whose skills were much better than mine. You can try your hardest to send them your best shot across the net, but they always return it with a shot far greater than what you sent to them. I believe this is what true prayer looks like. We can try our best to send up our biggest prayer to God, but He is so extremely good that He will always return them to us with a response much greater than we could have even asked for.
We have had a beautiful rhythm with our children where we will stop in the middle of the busyness of life and all say five five things out loud we are thankful for. Every time we have done this, the atmosphere changes around us and hope overtakes us as a family. Many times we have asked the kids to do this when they are in a situation that seems very overwhelming to them. On these occasions, they will usually try to resist doing this at first, but when they finally give in and remember what they have to be thankful for, there is a significant change that happens. Recently, I was having a really rough day and it seemed like everything was going wrong. I has huffing and puffing around the house as we were rushing out the door with the kids. As I was anxiously backing out of the driveway, Cadence said from the back seat, “Dad, I think you should stop and say five things you are thankful for.” In that moment I was arrested with truth. The very principal I had taught my children, they were teaching to me. I stopped the car and seized the moment. As I began to speak out the things I was thankful for, I started to see clearly again. That moment of remembering changed everything.
Do you remember the Father and Son conversation in the movie The Lion King? The son of the King has forgotten who he is and he is wandering in the wilderness. But then he stops and looks into his reflection by the stream of water and this is what happens:
Ripples form, distorting Simba's reflection; they resolve into the face of his Father. A deep rumbling noise is heard.
Rafiki: You see, he lives in you.
Simba is awestruck. The wind picks up. In the air the huge image of Mufasa is forming from the clouds. He appears to be walking from the stars. The image is ghostly at first, but steadily gains color and coherence.
Mufasa: Simba . . .
Simba: Father?
Mufasa: Simba, you have forgotten me.
Simba: No. How could I?
Mufasa: You have forgotten who you are, and so have forgotten me. Look inside yourself, Simba. You are more than what you have become. You must take your place in the Circle of Life.
Simba: How can I go back? I'm not who I used to be.
Mufasa: Remember who you are. You are my son, and the one true king.
As you stand at the turning of another year, I challenge you to take a moment to look back on all that God has done in this last year. Our hearts can become hard when we don’t stop to remember all that He has done. One of the enemy’s chief schemes is to keep us focused on what God is not doing, instead of focusing on what God has done and is doing. There is something about stopping and recognizing what God has done that softens our hearts and causes us to become ready for the promises ahead. Just like Simba at the stream, take a moment today and see the reflection of your Father’s goodness. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you remember all that God has done. That is one of the Holy Spirit’s job descriptions: to help us remember. Then get a journal and write down what He has done. Write down the big and the small things. When you finish the list, take some time to thank God out loud for what He has done. Get vocal with your thanksgiving. Remember that thanksgiving is a weapon. Stand up on a chair if you need to and shout out your thanksgiving. Let His presence wash over you and let His faith and hope be the wind in your sails.
Now with fresh perspective, begin to pray for your next year and call on all the promises God has in store for this next season. From this place of knowing that you are His child, boldly declare the goodness of God over the next season of your life. Go ahead and give God your best shot in prayer. Proclaim the prayers of a fearless child that knows that nothing is impossible with their Father. But please be prepared, for Habakkuk 1:5 declares what the Lord is going to send over into the courts of our lives in the days ahead: "Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.”
Molly Kate Skaggs' Debut Album
Written by Allie Sampson
Photographed by Sydnee Mela
The Cageless Birds are excited to announce the upcoming debut album by our very own Molly Kate Skaggs! Molly has been part of the Cageless Birds community for over five years and has been giving her life to community, discipleship and serving the sound of countless people on this land. In addition to playing piano with Jonathan and Melissa, Molly has been leading music collectives during the 18 Inch Journey Phase I and Phase II schools, as well as leading interns and teaching them to cultivate their sound. She has supported so many songwriters and musicians by lending her ears, ideas and musical talent to their projects and we could not be more excited to announce that this is her season! Molly’s sound is rich and warm, saturated with the sound of family and the tenderness of a life deeply imprinted with the mark of Love. We feel so much of the delight and anticipation of the Father as He is dreaming into this sound of His heart permeating the earth!
It is Molly’s dream to craft this album with excellence and to steward the sound of her life well. In order to make this project into a reality, we are joyfully asking for your help! On February 1st we will launch a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for Molly’s first album. Our goal is to raise $16,000 to cover production costs, paying guest musicians, mixing and mastering the project, travel expenses, and other miscellaneous costs. Anything else raised above this amount will go toward any remaining production costs and will serve as seed money that will directly go toward other musical projects that our collective is dreaming into for the future.
Many of you have been moved by the sound of Molly’s heart through the songs “Invitation” and “Love Come to Life” on the Live at Home record, as well as her accompaniment on many of Jonathan and Melissa’s albums and in person at worship events. We are asking you to joyfully consider partnering with us to transform this dream into a reality and to release Molly’s sound into the world. Please visit her Kickstarter Campaign and be sure to check out all of the amazing perks from our community! Thank you for considering investing in the sound of our community and into Molly’s story! We can't do this without you!
THE CREATIVE SEASON
Written by Allie Sampson
Photographed by Sydnee Mela
The Cageless Birds calendar year rotates between two different six-month seasons: the discipleship season and the creative season. We have found that both of these are equally important and essential to our growth and wholeness. During our six month creative season, our community scales back down from 65 people to 20, and we invite the Father to inspire new ideas and make space for fresh dreams in our hearts. As children of God, we believe that it is part of our original design to be creative. We believe that creativity is a key to wholeness; we create because He is the Creator and we are made in His image. This season not only makes space for our hearts to encounter the inspiration and intimacy of the Father, but it breathes new hope and resets our hearts. We open up to dreaming and set our hands to new creative ventures by taking risks and cultivating our dependency on the Holy Spirit. This is the season that refreshes our hearts and calls to who we truly are.
In the creative season, we feel the invitation to take on our greatest creative adventures. Over the past few years, we have set our hands to everything from music to leather to books, all for the purpose of coming alive and supporting the ministry through creativity. One creative adventure that’s come from the quiet season is the launch of our small batch coffee roasting business, Maker Coffee. Coffee roasting involves a balance of art and science. It brings value to both the need for a specific process and the importance of innovation and expression. We have loved the challenge of pioneering this art form on the land this year we are honored to partner with the Father in something that we love so much! He knew that in the process of roasting coffee, we would come alive.
Maker Coffee is just one small window into the incredible things the Father is doing on the land in our off-season. This is the season when we consistently find ourselves blown away by the brilliant ideas of the Father and saying over and over again, “We never knew He could be this good!” As we approach the quiet and creative season of 2016, our hearts are flooded with expectancy. Over the next six months, you’ll be hearing more from us about what the Father is doing with our creative season. We encourage you to ask the Father where He is inviting you into creativity in your own life! Creativity is not a talent, and it isn’t for the select few. Because you were made in His image, you have a calling and a need to be creative. It is our hope that you will be inspired to take a risk and sit with Him and explore His dream for creativity over your life!
If you would like to purchase Maker Coffee click the image below.
Thank You: The 2015 Year in Review
Written by Allie Sampson
Photographed by Sydnee Mela & JD Gravitt
As we approach the end of 2015, the Cageless Birds community is astounded by all of the incredible things the Father has done in the last year. 2015 was truly a year of transition for our community, and we learned to embrace growth and change with the Holy Spirit with more joy and excitement than we’d known before.
One of our most substantial changes this year was the shift of our discipleship season. This year we hosted our first fall 18 Inch Journey, and we were so moved by how close the Lord came to do what only He can do. Our staff were blown away by watching each of our 32 students’ hearts being radically transformed against the backdrop of the changing autumn leaves. The vibrant colors of fall paralleled the color that was coming out of each one of our students as they said yes to dying to themselves and making space for more of Jesus in their lives. Moving the 18 Inch Journey to the fall ended up being one of our most joyful transitions. It felt like our entire property took a deep breath; inhaling rest, exhaling gratitude to the Father for this good and timely idea.
Along with moving the 18 Inch Journey school to the autumn, we experienced the longest season we’d ever had without doing discipleship. Our yearly schedule is a rotation of six months of discipleship and then six months of cultivating creativity and growing the Cageless Birds. During the discipleship season, we host the 18 Inch Journey as well as our Phase 2 school, while the creative season consists of focusing on dreaming with the Father and creating and releasing new products the Cageless Birds. The shift of the school meant that our off-season was nine months rather than our usual six. This extended season gave us space to dream into new ideas with the Father, and ultimately led to our first ever 18 Inch Journey Retreat, our first ever housing campaign and the building of our two new cabins! During our first retreat, we had 42 people join us from 11 states and four countries for four days on our land. This was our first retreat for 26-40 year olds and we loved partnering with the Lord to see so many hearts changed. On April 1st, we kicked off our first ever Housing Campaign. This was a huge journey of faith for us as we invited people to partner with us to make the dream of more housing on our land become a reality. This 30 day campaign brought in our first initial $60,000, which fully funded the building of our first cabin. We extended the campaign and with the extension, we raised $134,128 which fully funded two gorgeous cabins. Our donations averaged $185 per person, and the cabins were finished just in time for the 18 Inch Journey in September. On September 14th, we worshipped in the new cabins right before our 16 female students moved in. In these spaces, their hearts were radically changed, and we are still amazed that so many supporters rallied around us to make this change in their hearts happen.
And that’s only the beginning! In addition to the changes in our discipleship season, we cultivated creativity with the Father deeper than we ever have as the Cageless Birds collective. This year our online store has grown exponentially, and we are amazed by the abundance of the Father. Through your support, our online store has become a huge success and has made way for us to continue in our dream of discipling a generation. Our leather makers have worked so hard and have partnered with the Father to ask for ideas and execute their inspiration with excellence. This year we released a whole range of new products to our online store as well as our first release of woodwork goods. On July 27th, we launched Maker Coffee — our small batch coffee roasting business that has been incredibly fruitful! We’ve felt so much of the favor of the Lord throughout this whole process and we are so excited to be shipping coffee all over the world! One week after we launched Maker Coffee, our drummer and Core Staff member, Joel Case, released his second album Found In Love. Our entire community surrounded Joel to host his CD release night on August 7th as we worshipped the Lord and celebrated His goodness! It has been a full and deeply creative year!
Through all of these things, we are most grateful for what we’ve seen the Father do in hearts and families right here on this land. We believe that the greatest thing we can invest in is people, and everything that we set our hands to is fueled by the dream of seeing people encounter the love of God in their lives. Changed hearts are the fruit of what we do, and we count it all joy as we see people growing and maturing in their relationships with Jesus. Our community is overwhelmed with the goodness of God, not only in our ministry, but in our personal lives. This year we celebrated the marriage of Joel and Kateland Case, the engagements of Luke Skaggs and Rosemary Gingerich, Zac Vance and Lindsay Armistead, and the birth of the second baby in our community, Quill Reverie Gravitt! 2015 was full of life and celebration for the Cageless Birds.
We continue to be so deeply grateful to everyone who has sown into the ministry and partnered with us to see a generation awakened to the love of the Father. As a support-based ministry we rely on the faithfulness of the Father and the donations of others to maintain what we do. Thank you for your incredible support and generosity in making 2015 such a fruitful year! It is our desire to continue growing as we approach 2016. We have so many more dreams in our heart for this land, the schools and creative projects, and we cannot do them on our own! We are joyfully confessing our need for help, and if your heart is stirred, here are a few different ways you can get involved! One of the biggest ways you can contribute is by making a donation through the link below or placing an order from our Cageless Birds store. All donations and proceeds from orders sow right back into the ministry! Another great way to support us is through prayer. We would love to have you partner with us by asking the Father for increased provision, favor, inspiration and wisdom. Thank you to everyone who supported us financially and through prayer this year. The Father is doing incredible things and we are so grateful to be a part of it!
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Closing of a Season
Written by Allie Sampson
Photographed by Sydnee Mela & JD Gravitt
As the Cageless Birds community, we have set our hands and hearts to so many things. We release albums and books, create art, run an online store, take photos and create videos, roast coffee, craft leather goods and take on building projects. Though we spend six months out of the year creating and growing the Cageless Birds collective, we believe that there is no greater thing we can invest in than people. In the other six months of the year, we host two discipleship schools: Phase I and Phase II of the 18 Inch Journey. We consistently refer to the discipleship season as the highlight of our year, and while we value art and love creating, we have found that seeing people come face to face with Jesus is the most rewarding thing we can invest in. More than songs, more than words, more than art, we believe that the effects of a person who has encountered the love of God will change the course of eternity. At the heart of the Cageless Birds collective is the dream for discipleship — to see a generation wake up to who they are as sons and daughters; to see a generation changed by the Love of God.
Last Friday we closed this year’s 18 Inch Journey and we were blown away by the Goodness of God in the lives of each of the 32 students. They each came in to the school unsure of what the sixty days would bring, but ready and willing to give Jesus their yes. Throughout the school, they discovered the power of their willing and humble hearts. They consistently came to the end of their ability and made the powerful choice to let God meet them, help them and change them. Through the creative collectives, teachings, cleaning times, work duties and assignments, they unpacked this one simple truth: dependency on the Holy Spirit is the key to sustainability. Over the two months, the students found themselves in the middle of moments that challenged them and pressed them in many different areas. It was in these moments that their character was forged as they learned the power of their choice: to refuse His help and stay the same, or to make space for the Holy Spirit to speak into their lives and change them. Over and over again, these students chose to let the Father tear down their walls and to welcome the process of becoming a new creation. From standing on chairs and declaring who God is for them to creating paintings to declare who they are as sons and daughters to letting family see and celebrate them, they faced their fears and they were transformed. As we sat down at an extravagant dinner table, we reflected on all that the Father did in their lives in such a short time and we were overcome with gratitude. Truly, He is faithful.
Tonight our entire community will sit down at another beautiful feast as we close our Phase II school. These ten students all chose to come back for another season in the woods of Sophia, North Carolina. They said yes to six months of discipleship, humility, growth and servant leadership. They said yes to Jesus, and they have been profoundly changed. As we sit together for one final dinner, we will hear from each of the ten as they read their exit statements and seal their season by proclaiming what the Father has done for them, who they have discovered Him to be, and who they are as they step into their next season. We will laugh deeply and weep earnestly as we remember how faithful the Father is to each one. We will close this season with celebration and bless them as they bravely step into their next seasons. Tonight, around the table, we will honor the incredible journey of each of their lives and raise our glasses to the Author of their stories. It has been our deep privilege to walk with them, lead them, live alongside them and love them. We are forever grateful for the season the Father gave us with these ten. Their lives are saturated with hope, and we are certain that beautiful things are ahead for each of them because they have cultivated friendship with the Father and surrendered themselves to the best leader that they will ever have: the Holy Spirit.
After closing the Phase II school this evening, our community will be taking some time off to visit our families and loved ones over the Thanksgiving holiday. The Cageless Birds community will resume our normal rhythms in December. We pray that you have a restful holiday. We look forward to sharing more from our community with you this soon!
The Value of Art
Written by: Allie Sampson
Photographed by: Sydnee Mela and JD Gravitt
One of the core pillars of the 18 Inch Journey is Creativity. It stands alongside Worship and Community, two other aspects that we believe are keys to wholeness, and we believe that it is vital to the heart. We believe that creativity is not a talent, but rather is a natural expression of us connecting with our Father, the ultimate Creator. During the 18 Inch Journey, the students cultivate creativity in a range of areas, some of which they may have loved for years, and others that may be brand new to them. Recently, we posted a blog about Collectives: specific small groups focusing on one creative expression spanning the course of the Journey. However, one of the other areas that students cultivate creativity in is Art Class.
Twice a week, the students gather together in the Art Barn to receive technical and inspiring art lessons from our Art Director, Justina Stevens and her assistant, Lindsay Armistead. In their first lesson, the students are taught to make a History Book: a handmade leather book to visually document their journey with God. Throughout the course of the Journey, the students are given various History Book prompts, or assignments, to help them chronicle their time spent on the land. In addition to History Booking, students are taught a scope of art techniques, mediums and terminology. Within the safety of family, the students are released to explore, create and share. After each prompt is complete, students share what they’ve created with each other and learn the power of encouragement and being seen.
We cultivate creativity through art throughout the entirety of the 18 Inch Journey because we believe that learning how to see properly is essential to life. We believe that art is not about what you produce, but who you become in the process. This year it was our great privilege to take the whole school to the North Carolina Museum of Art and give them space to drink in beauty and be inspired. As they walked around the museum, students found that their vision has changed. They began to understand that great art draws something out of us, inspires us and causes us to recognize the beauty that is all around us.
By encountering, learning and creating art, the 18 Inch Journey students learn to connect visual art and expression with what is inside the heart. More than the students becoming fantastic artists, it is our dream that they would grasp how to be constantly inspired to produce from a place of wholeness. As artists, it is easy to fall into the trap of creating from a place of striving or proving, but when this happens, we miss the point. The Father created out of inspiration and delight, and we believe it is His dream to meet us in our creating. We believe the point of art is intimacy with Him.
For more details about the Art Barn or the History Book, check out the videos below:
The Value of Meals
Written by Ella Roselt
Photographed by Sydnee Mela
“Encouragement is the table family feasts at.”
David Burbach
It is one of the greatest honours of my life to be a member of the kitchen staff team (captained by the phenomenal Martha McRae) at A Place for the Heart because the kitchen is right at the heart of the ministry. Meal times are an essential part of our everyday lives and play a crucial role in establishing our core value of family and community during the 18 Inch Journey. I grew up in a family that believed in eating meals together around the table – but I didn’t understand the full value of that simple ritual until I was much older. Because it was so normal to me, I was surprised when I discovered how rare it actually is to find families that regularly take time to eat together. I was therefore so delighted, when I first came to the 18 Inch Journey in 2011, to discover that meal times are something this family deeply values and makes time for. This is because we have received food and meal times as a good gift from our good Father, and as a family we prioritize time spent around the table together.
When our Father created us, he could have designed us so that we would need food only once a week, and perhaps even that we could get it in a simplified form; like a car being re-fueled. But in His great wisdom and kindness, that is not how He dreamed up our lives. Perhaps because He wanted us to have a daily reminder (in the form of our physical hunger) that we have a spiritual hunger that may be easier to ignore, but which it is even more important that we tend to. Gathering around the table three times a day during the 18 Inch Journey reminds us of our need, and how the Father wants to meet it.
We know only a fraction of the day-to-day life of Jesus, and yet much space is given within those limited accounts to his interactions with people over the business of meals. Take for example Jesus inviting himself over to Zacchaeus’ house for a meal; the feeding of the five thousand; the fish breakfasts he cooked for his disciples on the beach; the last supper. Every meal was a significant time to Him, because it made space for family moments to happen, and he understood that the very act of eating together carried in seed form many truths of what life in the Father’s kingdom looks like.
Meal times are an essential part of our year-round lives at the farm (as we affectionately call our 52 acres). The kitchen is the heart of the land, and the table is the place we reconnect with each other after a full work day. It is where we gather to encourage each other, to swap stories, to share the hard things of life, to celebrate the victories. And so when students arrive for the 18 Inch Journey, and join us at a table for a meal, they are folding into a pre-established rhythm of honouring the life-giving space that a meal can provide. Meal times are always very intentional, and just as important as a teaching session or a collective time. It is important that we learn to dive into the depths with the Holy Spirit, and it is important that we learn to let Him lead us back up for a deep breath of fresh air. Laughter around the table is just as necessary as the laying on of hands.
We take great delight in the planning and serving of our school meals. As Papa Ken Helser says, “You can find God in everything and miss Him in anything,” and we have found so much of God in every part of the process; from the planting and tending of the garden and the harvesting of its bounty, to our weekly shopping trips; the planning of a great feast, to the fruition of a wonderful evening, and even in the washing up of dishes that comes later. We have seen the Father as Planner and Provider. We have learnt about His intentionality and the delight He takes in planning beautiful moments for us. We have discovered how He loves and leads us through serving us, and laying a place at the table for us. We have learnt how He helps clean up with us the messes we make as we create the dishes of our lives. Every student has the invitation and opportunity to learn these aspects of the Father too: the second phase students get to help us chop vegetables and lay tables in preparation for meals, and the first phase students take turns to help us clean up afterwards. All of it is full of delight because it is full of the nature of the Lord, and full of family.
In the physical, we never get to the point where we have eaten the one meal to end all meals. In both the physical and the spiritual, we will never progress beyond the cycle of becoming hungry and then having that hunger met. May we never stop becoming hungry for community, for the feasting on the Word, for communing with the Father.
Collectives
Written by Molly Skaggs
Photographed by Greg Harris
Creativity is one of the core values of the 18 Inch Journey because we know it is a key for living out a thriving life with the Trinity. We believe that we were created by a beautiful and perfect Creator, and that one of the most wonderful gifts He gave to us as image-bearers of His likeness is our hunger for and ability to create. In the journey of Wholeheartedness, we have a deep need to use our own voices and hands to create something that tells our heart’s story. We have a need to communicate and a desire to be seen and heard. While the 18 Inch Journey is not a school whose primary focus is on students becoming better, more skilled artisans, we see important purpose in incorporating weekly rhythms of creativity in focused artistic areas for the students. These are necessary times for our hearts to exhale. One of these times are Collectives, one of our favorite school rhythms.
The Collectives range greatly in artistic focus. This year, our staff is able to offer Movement, Music, Writing, Bookmaking, Darkroom Photography, and Digital Storytelling. Before they arrived to the school, we sent these choices to the students and asked them to bravely choose a Collective where they felt their hearts would be challenged. Each week for two afternoons, our students break off into their groups to work out beautiful assignments with their leaders. They are confidently led into moments of facing the fears that challenge their greatness and keeps them from being exactly who He made them to be. Students are given opportunities to walk out the process of their hearts becoming more whole as they choose Belovedness over fear and shame. Sometimes, that looks like creating something by themselves; sometimes, that looks like creating and collaborating with others. Walking out the creative process is messy, andstudents often hit walls of fear, insecurity, and inadequacy. Yet, it never fails that each time, just when our students think they have absolutely nothing to say, they have a true face-to-face encounter with the Father. He meets them in their creative processes and through His love and value for them, they learn to love and value themselves. They learn how to fall back in love with creating from Love rather than from pressure to perform or be accepted by what they can do or make.
The Collectives are little families within the bigger 18 Inch Journey Family. Here, the students learn how to not only stand up and take back their own voices, but they learn how to bravely and joyfully fight for one another. They quickly discover that the more whole and free they become as individuals deeply loved by the Father, the only natural outflow of that love is lavishing encouragement on their fellow students. Collectives can be one of the most vulnerable spaces of the entire school because they invite students to be fully seen and known by God, themselves, and one another. Love is always the agenda. Joy is always the compass. Students’ hearts are recreated by the loving hands of Jesus in the midst of family encouragement, shared laughter and tears, and deep camaraderie and fellowship. The staff believe in the power of agreement and family fighting for each other, so much so that the Collectives are some of the safest places for sons and daughters to be reborn into who they always were meant to be, without pressure or competition, prideful striving or shameful hiding.
We are six weeks in now and find ourselves as a staff consistently amazed at the bravery, vulnerability, and beauty that has come forth from our students. The way creativity unravels the human heart is remarkable — it is full of confrontations with the truth of Love and becoming undone from the false identity of being only what you can do in order to really be loved, accepted or even forgiven and wanted. Creativity has a way of putting the shovel into our own hands and giving us opportunity to really find out who we are in the eyes of Perfect Love. It is all a part of the well-digging of Sustainability for a life lived in the Holy Spirit that we practice and cultivate in the 18 Inch Journey.
At the end of the school, we host our Collectives Presentation over two nights so that the whole 18 Inch Journey family can see, touch, and hear what the beautiful love of God has done inside of the hearts of our students in each collective. They are two of our biggest nights of family celebration and joy, and we are always undone and forever changed by the power of His love and the Gospel that has reawakened inside of them. Creativity has a way of Naming us as we have always been known and named by their Originator of our design, and it is our privilege as a staff to host these safe spaces for students’ hearts to be renamed forever.
Heart Transformation
Written by Allie Sampson
Photographed by Sydnee Mela and JD Gravitt
We are halfway into the 2015 18 Inch Journey, and already we are undone by the incredible things the Father has done in the hearts of our students. They have sat in empowering teaching sessions, participated in work duties, explored their creativity in collectives and cleaned up after meals in the kitchen, and they are discovering that every moment is changing them. Over the past four weeks we have been blown away as students share the incredible changes that are happening in their hearts.
One consistent theme that the students have shared is how much they are being changed by family. Throughout the school we have discussed how the Kingdom of God is a family and that we are all created to be a part of it. As we have unpacked what Kingdom family looks like, our students are learning that they do not have to fight for a seat at the table, that is, they do not have to work to belong. When we understand that we are not orphans, but beloved sons and daughters, we are able to confidently walk out our identity without comparison or competition. It is this revelation of family and belonging that is transforming these thirty-two hearts.
Another truth that is planting unbelievable hope and redemption in our students’ hearts is the truth that Love is extravagant. Over and over, we are hearing testimonies of hearts that are colliding with Love Himself, Jesus, and that are being blown away by his extravagance. As the thirty-two begin to understand that He is an extravagant Father, they see that Jesus looked at them and gladly chose to die for them. As they begin to learn His heart, they learn that He looked at them and joyfully resolved: “You are worth the cross!” This truth is building new, incredible foundations and making space for them understand how profoundly loved they are by the Father.
Perhaps the greatest value that the 18 Inch Journey students are learning is that life is not about getting fixed or finding the formula to solve all of your problems. Rather, it is about dependency on the Holy Spirit. As we delve deeper into the school, our students are beginning to see that they are being set up for long term success, as we lead them not to ourselves and our own leadership in their lives, but to the feet of Jesus. Every day, the 18 Inch Journey students are being empowered to cultivate friendship with the Holy Spirit and to seek His help in their lives. They are learning friendship, dependency and sustainability. They are learning wholeness.
As we reflect on everything the Father has done over the past thirty days, we are blown away! We are so proud of each and every student, and we are only halfway in. We are excited and expectant for what the Father wants to do. We know that He has incredible dreams in His heart for the thirty-two, and they are consistently making the brave choice of saying yes to Him.
Papa Ken Time
Written by Allie Sampson
Photographed by Sydnee Mela
As a staff, one of our favorite elements of the 18 Inch Journey is Papa Ken Time. Papa Ken is Jonathan’s dad and the founding father of this land. He and his wife, Linda, have been pouring into the 18 Inch Journey since it started, and once a week each small group has breakfast with Ken as they discuss life, scripture and what the Father is teaching them. During this time, the students have the rare opportunity to sit down with a father in the faith and hear his heart and ask him questions. Often times, Ken will share something that he felt the Lord share with him in his own quiet time or will share from My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers. It is Ken’s heart that each of these students would fall in love with the Word of God and would begin to understand what it means to work out their salvation with the Lord.
In addition to these weekly sessions with Ken, he and Linda invite each small group up to their house for a Sunday Lunch during the school. At these lunches, the students get to hear family stories and the history of A Place for the Heart.
We are a community who is exceedingly grateful for mothers and fathers in the faith. As a group of young adults, we recognize our need for those who have gone before us and can speak truth and wisdom into our lives. It is for that reason that we believe Papa Ken Time is one of the greatest gifts the students receive during the 18 Inch Journey. We are so grateful for Ken and Linda and their investment in our lives and for all that they are doing to shout the acts of God back over our generation. For more about Ken and Linda and A Place for the Heart, visit aplacefortheheart.org/connect/#/kenandlinda/.
