Introducing My New Prophetic Learning Community

Right here on Substack

Kia ora friends,

As many of you know, I’m passionate about the prophetic. I’m passionate about it because I believe it’s a crucial gift for helping the church behold the beauty and wonder of Christ and because I believe it’s one of the most misunderstood and under equipped gifts in the church today.

I’ve shared here before how this gift has outworked itself in my own life from my youngest years until now. Throughout that time mentoring and discipleship in the spiritual experiences I was having was scarce. Now, in my own years of ministry I have encountered hundreds of Christians in the same boat, making it up as they go along, feeling bewildered by their experiences and totally unsure how to place themselves in the work of God in his church.

In response I began teaching a course in 2020 called Living As A Prophetic Person in the hope of fostering healthy prophetic people and redefining the prophetic ministry in our time. After a few years hiatus while I wrote Beholding and Thirsting, I began teaching the course again this year under the title Quiet Fire¹ in the hope of helping others foster a contemplative-charismatic approach to ministering this gift in our moment.

A growing community has formed out of those courses and I wanted to find a way to give that a more continuous and engaging expression. Enter the Community of Burning Hearts.

I’ve created a section here on Substack called Burning Hearts where I hope to teach through my course content week by week, interview leading global Christian voices, respond to your unique questions, share conversations with friends and offer cohorts and community throughout the year. I’m hoping it may become a way to make the teaching more accessible, especially as my health seasonally prevents me from running the online schools live.

I believe Jesus Christ is the burning heart at the very centre of the cosmos, and that prophetic people are those who are willing to be and share his burning heart with the world around them. The title is a little cheesy, I know, but I wanted to keep the focus on love, on Christ, and on being his heart in the church rather than get distracted by the prophetic gift which often draws too much attention to itself.

I dream of seeing a renewed prophetic ministry in the church, anchored in scripture, inspired by ancient Christianity, holding the tension between the contemplative gift and the charismatic present, inspiring the church to behold Christ, returning her to adoration and intimacy with her Beloved.

And I believe that in this moment God is placing his Spirit on a new generation of prophetic people who will carry his burning heart of love with humility, unity, prayer and joyful hope.

And I’m here for it.

So, over the coming year or so I’ll be teaching on what prophecy is, a biblical New Testament framework for it, how to prophesy, the revelatory gifts, emotionally healthy prophets, sharing in community, the different expressions of the prophetic, prophetic words the Spirit gives me personally and much much more.

This, I hope, will be the perfect place to grow yourself, prophetic people in your community, and your understanding of how the prophetic intersects in the life and gifts of the church more broadly.

This section on my Substack will be paid-subcriber only. But I will have a few scholarships to offer so please don’t let that get in the way of your engaging with it if money is a problem for you.

For a little more info check out the introductory post here.

If you’re already a paid subscriber you will automatically get this content. If you’re not and want to catch the occasional free post, they will pop up as usual here in my general newsletter.

If you’re already a financial supporter of the Centre For Communion and would like to be added as a paid-subscriber to this section (for free obviously, thanks to your generosity!) please email me at strahan@commonerscommunion.com and I will make sure I add you.

I am so so grateful for those of you who freely give financially to this ministry. It means that I can offer so much without charge, and keep prices down for people when it’s unavoidable.

Here’s to the eyes of Christ returning to his body, with his burning love.

Much love,
Strahan.

p.s I’m still working out the kinks of this aspect of Substack so please be patient if the functionality isn’t straightforward!

1. The language of ‘Quiet Fire’ has taken on its own life now and is used to describe the charism emerging in the church more generally so I’ve decided to move the prophetic language into a new space to avoid confusion.