This month’s blog, in keeping with the theme of “Getting Back to Basics,” is going to deal with the Essentials.  We’re going to see that there are two ways to view, interpret and understand the Essentials that are equally important.  In fact, both views are a requirement for communities to maintain their Tres Dias Charter.

To start, the Preamble to the Essentials outlines the overall goals and purposes of the ministry and sets the foundation for the overall structure.  To begin, I’d like to quote from the section that applies to what we’ll be discussing.  It says:

“In order to ensure consistency and stability within the TRES DIAS Movement, there must be certain essential aspects to which all TRES DIAS organizations conform.  These Essentials fall into two categories:  those which are quantitative and those which are qualitative in nature.  It is the intent of TRES DIAS to use both of these categories as criteria for chartering local secretariats.”    (Emphasis is mine)

In other words, the Founders felt it was important that we observe the requirements of the Essentials (quantitative) as well as the spirit of the Essentials (qualitative) in equal measure.

One of the problems, however, is that although the Essentials are not really complicated, they’re also NOT very specific in many areas.  This ambiguity often leads communities to make their own interpretations, sometimes unintentionally going against the overall spirit of the Essentials.  As a result, the TDI Policy Committee plays a crucial role, similar to the US Supreme Court interpreting the Constitution. The Policy Committee is often called the “Supreme Court of Tres Dias” because they are responsible for clarifying the intended meaning of the Essentials.  Their interpretations, which are approved by the International Secretariat, are considered an extension of the Essentials and are binding.

All that to say this ambiguity is the basis of the confusion.  Communities rarely have issues with the QUANTITATIVE (objective) component of the Essentials.  Although I could be wrong, I’m not aware of any communities who have violated the specific requirements such as 3 days/approximately 72 consecutive hours, 15 Rollos, 5 meditations, 2 Table Chapel Visits (sometimes called We Prayers), etc.

I was almost going to state that the separation of clergy/laity rollos weren’t in question until I recently discovered that a community is dealing with that issue.

No, the problem comes from various interpretations of the QUALITATIVE (subjective) issues included in the Essentials.  Things like the purpose of team meetings, the role and qualifications of spiritual directors, spirituality vs emotionalism, the balance of grace vs structure, etc.  Also, there many cases in which non-Essential activities become a priority on a weekend that perhaps work against the goals (spirit) of Tres Dias.

So for the sake of argument, let’s assume that the black & white (Quantitative) points of the Essentials are not an issue, and let’s look at just three of the Qualitative areas that sometimes cause communities to go astray.  (There are many others but we’ll limit it to these for the sake of space and time):

• BAPTISM: Although the Essentials (Section 2.0.5) states that Tres Dias shall not assume the role of a denomination, some communities are still doing Baptisms, feeling that if someone is saved on a weekend that they are obligated to do so.  When this happens, it’s almost always an emotional event and a lot of pressure can be exerted to make it happen.  However, there are a number of solid reasons WHY Baptisms aren’t permitted, not to mention a Policy Position statement that prohibits it.  For instance:
  • How people are baptized (sprinkled or immersed) is generally a denominational issue which would preclude us from making that determination.
  • Why would we take away the joy of the person’s family and friends since they can’t be involved in this milestone event?
  • Why would we threaten our relationship with the person’s pastor and church since we would be usurping their authority?
  • Wouldn’t a better solution be for folks on the weekend to commit to attending the person’s Baptism at their church?

• CHRISTIANS V NON-CHRISTIANS: Some communities still encourage bringing non-Christians to a weekend to get them saved.  There are a number of arguments that are made to support this position, but they all violate the SPIRIT of the Essentials.  Bear in mind that the Essentials tell us that Tres Dias is a DISCIPLESHIP ministry, not an evangelical one.  For instance:
  • The first sentence of the Preamble says that Tres Dias endeavors to bring CHRISTIANS to a closer, more personal walk with Jesus, and to encourage them to Christian Leadership and Apostolic Action
  • Section 2.0.1 tells us that Tres Dias organizations shall not change the teaching or practices of the Movement to accommodate the participation of non-Christians.
  • In addition, 3.2.1(f) says it’s a renewal experience and not necessarily a conversion experience.

• WHY SHOULD THE ENTIRE TEAM CRITIQUE ALL ROLLOS?  Section 3.2.8 says “that the team meets prior to the weekend to: Promote community, receive instructions on the dynamics, and CRITIQUE ALL THE ROLLOS.”  (The emphasis is mine)  Yet, communities sometimes circumvent this for a number of reasons.  But again, the reasons need to be weighed against the SPIRIT of the Essentials – the qualitative component.  This raises the question of why we even spend time critiquing rollos:
  • Make certain the talk covers all points of the outline
  • Assures that the flow of the talk is reasonable so that it’s understandable to a broad range of people
  • Help the Rollista see different perspectives of how his/her talk might be received by people of different denominations, backgrounds, education, etc.
  • One of the important and over-looked aspects is that serving on a team is a teaching/learning process for future team members who may be called on to give a rollo.

This has been a brief overview of just some of the many issues related to compliance with the Essentials or, better stated, compliance with the spirit of the Essentials as outlined in the Preamble.  It shows how important it is for those who are responsible for setting community protocols to have a solid understanding of the Essentials, with a special focus on the SPIRIT of the document.  And this requirement is even more critical for those who teach the Essentials to others!

I hope you found this information useful.  Future blogs will cover more of these topics as we focus on getting back to basics.  In the meantime I’d be very happy to discuss these types of issues with you, so if you’d like to engage with me and others, join me on our Private Facebook Group.

Until next month,

De Colores!

Jeff Mehl
President
Tres Dias International