Rooted + Renegade

The way of the Renegade = The way of Jesus.

Rooted + Renegade: The Origin

Rooted + Renegade is Renegade50 the way it was originally ideated to be.

Years ago, we came across the idea of being "Rooted and Renegade" while following Grace Midtown (that documentary it totally worth the watch). Ever since then, we've been stuck on it. Rooted and Renegade resonates so deeply to us, so much so that it is a core part of our family values and something we try to live our lives around.

So, what does it mean to be rooted and renegade?

Rooted and Renegade is Noah building the ark. It's Joseph staying faithful in Egypt. It's Moses standing before pharaoh. It's Caleb and Joshua looking at the land of giants with faith when the other spies feared. It's David facing Goliath and Saul. It's Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego refusing to bow to Nebuchadnezzar. It's Daniel in the Lion's Den. It's Ruth. It's Esther. It's the Prophets. It's John the Baptist. It's the 12 Disciples. It's Paul. IT'S JESUS.

The story of the Bible is the story of people that were deeply rooted in their faith in God and dangerously renegade in how they lived. They knew God intimately and the story He was telling through all creation. That made them renegade in how they lived, often rejecting the voice of reason in favor of radical obedience to God. Their faith allowed them to live a life not defined by culture, but by standing on the truth and power of God himself.

One of the best illustrations of this is the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, three Jewish guys that found themselves in a foreign land with a culture that clashed with their faith in God.

When faced with a choice to bow before an idol, or face certain death, they stood. That standing led them to execution, but God met them there, entering into the fire with them and bringing them out unharmed. They were rooted in the faith in God, and renegade in their actions, doing whatever it took to stand for their faith.

This picture hangs in our house as a reminder of this story (check out the artist).

So again, what does it mean to be rooted and renegade?

It means we stand firm in the kingdom, and aren’t afraid to follow Jesus into hard things.

Being rooted in the story of God makes us renegade in how we live in it today. Knowing who God says we are informs what we do and how we do it. Like Jesus, our lives serve as a sacrifice to God, (your kingdom come) and will be a compelling alternative to culture. Renegades are often misunderstood, ridiculed, and mocked. Renegades are often pioneers and prophets, standing when most others fall. Renegades are tough, strong, and relentless in the pursuit of Gods story and glory. Renegades embrace the challenge, knowing that’s the way of Jesus.

So no that you know the backstory, here's the challenge:

Rooted + Renegade Protocol

3 Day Fast at the beginning and end (Friday-Sunday | Thursday-Saturday)**

1 Day fasting a week (24 hrs)

Eat Clean

No sugar or alcohol

Rest day turns into a real sabbath

Personal Development turns into deep work around the story of God in our lives.

Each week we will have a different topic to think and pray about.

Memorize a passage of scripture

Media limitations or no media

30:00 of prayer and scripture each day

**We suggest starting your fast Friday night not eating dinner, and breaking it with dinner on Sunday night.

All of the Rooted + Renegade Content will be posted here on our website. However, we would love to be able to track with you, pray for you, and send you some extra stuff as we go along. Send us an email (info@kalamazoo.fitness) saying "Rooted + Renegade" and we'll add you to the email list.

Fasting

3 Day Fast

Rooted + Renegade starts and ends with a 3 day fast. Why? Throughout scripture we fasting being an essential part of consecration, setting yourself apart for the purposes of God. It's a practice that takes our physical bodies and tangibly links them to our spiritual realities. Put another way, when I chose to abstain from a physical need or desire (ie. food) in favor of a spiritual need or desire (fasting and nearness to God), the spiritual becomes the greater priority than the physical and becomes the primary driver of my life. Or you can think about it like this: when it's date night, you put your phone away so nothing distracts you or steals your attention away from your date. That's the same idea as fasting.

For Rooted + Renegade, fasting helps us put it everything in the appropriate place...at the feet of Jesus. Its also preparng us for the rest of the 50 days. When Jesus went to fast for 40 days in the wilderness, it was to prepare himself to begin his ministry and to be ready to battle with the devil when he came to tempt him. That's the same idea with the first 3 day fast. Make no mistake, the enemy's not gonna like this, so we need to be prepared.

Logistically, here's what we're looking at/recommending: fast from Friday morning - Sunday dinner. Our goal is to do a liquid only fast for those three days, but you can do whatever you feel God leading you to do. If you've never fasted before, my recommendation would be to eat one meal a day, probably dinner. Remember, the heart of fasting is to draw near to God not to hit a certain standard.

Whatever you do, make sure you are making time and space to pray and be with God. It's very tempting to just distract yourself through it...don't do it! Let your discomfort drive you to prayer and desperation for God.

Weekly Fast

Each week, we want to challenge you to do a 24 hour fast. This is something we (the Shrodes) have been doing for the past few years and have found it to be very fruitful. For us, this fast typically goes from lunch on Tuesday - lunch on Wednesday. This works best for us and our lives right now. It also lets us have more undistracted time with God. When we tried fasting dinner - dinner, two things happened: 1) Carson often got a little foggy/lightheaded which was pretty dangerous while he was building houses, 2) We would just stay busy throughout the day to distract us from the hunger and never take time to seek God. So make it what you need to.

The purpose of this fast to take a moment throughout the week to re-center on God. remember the truth of His story in our lives, and declare our dependence on Him. It's a powerful thing to do on a Tuesday (or whenever you do it).

Bonus: We have also started to take Communion together on Tuesday nights. Sometimes it's just Maddy and I, other times some friends join us. It's simple, not polished, but very sacred. Heres a super rough outline: 1) Pray and invite the Holy Spirit to search your hearts and open you up to God's voice. Take a minute to slow down and make space for God. 2) Read. We like 1 Corinthians 11:23-26. 3) Pray, eat, drink. 4) Close in prayer.

Resources

Below are a few resources on fasting. The Sam Gibson sermon is super solid!

Sam Gibson - Church of the City New York - "Missional Formation | Crucified and Consecrated"

Fasting for Beginners

What is the Purpose of Fasting?

Sabbath

Sabbath is a tough one for us, isn't it? We're in a hustle culture where you keep working or you get left behind. Even our time off is often corrupted by catching up on emails or working on side projects. However, sabbath is one of the greatest gives and most powerful practices God has given his people. What's also crazy...taking a sabbath is one of the 10 commandments! We don't treat it like it is, but it is.

So what is sabbath? Sabbath is taking one day completely off of work to rest and enjoy God. It reminds us that God is in control, not us.

So practically, how do we sabbath?

Start small. If taking a full day off of work seems impossible, start with half a day. For our family, we try to sabbath from noon-ish on Saturday - Noon-ish on Sunday. Typically, this looks like taking a nap, playing with the kids, trying to avoid screens, and just not working. Do we sometimes watch a movie? Yes. Do we sometimes start some laundry? Yes. Do we still get on our phones? We try not to, but yes (thats gonna be a part of our Rooted + Renegade Challenge). The point is to try to seek and enjoy rest with God.

I highly recommend The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer. Super solid. This is a podcast of a sermon he gave that covers some of the same content.

Deep Work

For Rooted + Renegade, personal development turns into deep work. What we mean by deep work is spending time processing and thinking through some important questions that will direct your life. 10:00 isn't much, but if you can lock in for this, it will be enough. However, this will be the easiest thing to skip out on and let slide. Dont do it.

This is the money maker of this challenge. The other parts/practices/disciplines are great and will make a huge impact. But doing doing this deep work could change a lot in your life. We often go through life focusing on the things that are right infront of us and fail to go deeper. When we do this, we are left simply going with the flow.

These Deep Work questions will largely focus on story: the story of the Bible, the story you live in, and the story you live out. What is true and what is a lie?

These Deep Work question prompts are going to be found here, on the website. Look below for weekly prompts.

Scripture Memory

What you put in, you get out. We want to take these 50 days to put the scripture in so we can live it out more in our lives. Consider this. We spend 1 hour, multiple times a week to train our bodies at the gym. How much time are we spending training our minds? That's what this practice is all about. Let's fill our mind with scripture.

Two strategies: 1) Pick a larger passage of scripture try to memorize the whole thing by the end of the challenge. 2) Pick 1 shorter passage a week and lock it in.

Passages to consider: Any sections of Matthew 5-7. Romans 6, 7, 8. Ephesians 2, 5, 6.

Media Limitations

Just like with scripture memory ^ what you put in, you get out. There's not a ton of good that comes out of social media. We often use social media, or other media, to numb out, which is not what we want to do. It's often in those moments that God wants to meet us. Put the phone down at least one day a week, maybe for the whole 50 days even!

Prayer + Scripture

The standard for this is to spend at least 30 minutes a day in the Bible and in prayer. Tackle this anyway you want. Pick a bible reading plan on the Bible app or you can get in touch with me and I'll send you the one our house church/Bible study is using.

The main thought I want you to have here is make time to meet with God. We do that primarily through scripture and prayer. Make this a top priority.

If you need help with prayer and reading the bible, please reach out! We would seriously love to talk about it.

Deep Work Prompts

“The story you live in is the story you live out.” - Pete Hughes

I honestly can’t remember where I first heard this quote, but it stuck with me for several years now. Stories can be true, lies, or somewhere in between. Stories shape our perception and our reality. What I’ve realized is that we are all a part of a story, and, simultaneously, our lives are telling a story. The question is…what are those stories?

I’ve had the privilege of being around some amazing people who have incredible families. I’ve learned from them that living a life of purpose, meaning, and conviction doesn’t just happen, but is the result of intentionally wrestling through some tough questions and having the courage to act accordingly.

Rooted + Renegade is a chance to take new ground for you/your family. Do you have a vision for your life? Do you know who God wants you to be? To know this, we have to know the story we live in…the story of the Bible…the story of the Kingdom of God. Then, once rooted in that story, can we live out that story, truly becoming holy Renegades in a world that desperately needs a compelling alternative to culture.

This is taking new ground. There will be resistance. It will be hard. But there is a well worn, ancient path that we can follow. It’s not big, it’s not flashy, and not many people venture down it, but that's exactly where Jesus tells us to go. Go prayerfully and let the Holy Spirit be your guide. He’ll make everything clear.

Each week, spend 10:00 each day wrestling through these questions. I suggest writing down your thoughts as you go, maybe in your sweet Renegade50 notebook!

If you’re not a follower of Jesus yet and you’re still here, sweet. Lean in. Take a look at the story of the Bible and think about the questions. You might be surprised where you end up. And if you have any questions about anything, please reach out.

Week 1: Your Story

What are some of the stories that have compelled you the most? (movies, books, etc.) Why?
What is the story of your life? If someone wrote a book about you, what would people take away from your life?
What are some of the most formative things in your life (events, people, accomplishments, failures, etc.). Think of the good and bad. You’ll probably tend to one over the other, but try to have both.
Have you ever thought of who you want to be? Can you describe that person? Are you becoming that person? How/why or why not?

Week 2: The Story

What is the story of the Bible? What is the larger meta-narrative that runs throughout the Bible and all of History?
Can you say it simply and concisely?
What does that story say about God? What does it say about us? What are we supposed to do with it?
Here are a few video's I've found helpful to answer these questions:

Week 3: The Merger

Waht areas of your life resonate with, or reflect, the story of God?

What areas of your life have dissonance or constradiction with the story of God?

Week 4: Your Role

What is your unique role to play in the story of God?

God wants to partner with his creation to cultivate something beautiful, just like he did in the Garden. He's put us in a specific place at a specific time, designed a specific way with unique talents, abilitites, and desires for a reason. Let's lean into that.

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