Here are some more folks who have added their voice to the conversation.

Hamo
my hubby David

Kent Leslie
Maria
Pat Loughery
Hamo
Dave Faulkner
Peter
Malcomb+
Arnau van Wyngaard

Andrew Jones, as always, has some great thoughts. And because he’s just too cool for school AND came late to the synchroblog party (something to do with no internet in Aberdeen but I think he just wanted to get the last word in *wink*), he gets his very own “best of” post. Here are some excerpts from Andrew’s contribution:

I love the word missional but it still has some problems: (*my note: I agree with these problems by the way, esp. number 4 - number 4 was this vague sort of concern that I had when reading some of the other posts in this synchroblog)

1. It is often dumbed down by people who confuse it with “evangelistic” or “mission-minded”
2. It has often been purged by some evangelicals of its connections to the global mission movement (read ‘Ecumenical’) and given a newer and more acceptable face.
3. It has sometimes been co-opted by aggressive and competitive white males to drive resources to the programs that beef up their own churches.
4. It suffers from a compulsive activism, as if God was a workaholic who constantly drives on his team and never rests from his labours.
5. It lacks an immediate connection with worship which might be the flip side and a necessary balance.

….

mission is God’s initiative and the church is a participant in this mission rather than the originator.

Technorati Tags: andrew jones, tallskinnykiwi, missional

** Click here for my contribution to the missional synchroblog.

As I was reading the posts from the missional “mega synchroblog”, many many thoughts stood out to me and I thought I’d post some of the best here for my remembrance and (maybe?) your edification.

i honestly do not use the word for one primary reason–the people i know
who are really truly “missional” don’t talk about it too much & the
people who are trying to catch the latest church-trend use it a lot. ~ Kathy Escobar

we have to deconstruct the belief in dualism if you want to be able to
communicate what missional is. Believers need to see their life
holistically and completely sacred before they can begin to grasp what
it means to be missional. ~Rick Meigs

Actual mission must precede any new cultural understandings that the church might develop of itself.
…
If ‘missional’ carries the sense of being ’sent’, then ‘incarnational’
gives definition to the nature of that ’sentness.’ If ‘missional’ means
being thrust into the world as witnesses to the redemption that is in
Jesus, then ‘incarnational’ shows us that we ought to engage the world
in the same way that God did in and through the Incarnation of the Word
in Jesus the Messiah. ~ Alan Hirsch

mission is the overflowing joy of a Trinitarian God manifest in the material world.
…
Missio Dei is nothing more than our participation in the joyful, ecstatic, overflowing fruitfulness of God. ~Len Hjalmarson

You see, to me, missional is about giving hope in a world of gray.
…
Missional is about loving my neighbor and that can be expressed in thousands of ways ~Sonja Andrews

I think that “being missional” is, in part, finding those wells that still exist in our lives today. ~Barb Peters

I hope that those of us seeking to imitate an incarnate God really understand that that means following a crucified One. ~Erika Haub

The idea of mutuality is expressed by doing things With rather than For others.
This necessitates that we take the time to know them. We develop
relationships of commitment, to be with them in their journey rather
than to simply show up for charity work. ~Kingdom Grace (*my note: I really like ALL of Grace’s points)

Missional means practicing the presence of the Holy Spirit. ~Patrick Oden

In short a “Missional” faith is one which
has it’s core value as transformation, it sees the purpose of faith as
more than a place on Heaven guest-list but about being agents of heaven
here and now. Another starting place for us would be the “5 marks of
mission”

• To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
• To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
• To respond to human need by loving service
• To seek to transform unjust structures of society
• To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth

~Mark Berry

Missional is a call to a life of justice, a life of deep community and a life of authentic worship. ~Duncan McFadzean

To understand ” Missional”, is to immerse ourselves in the reality of
the gospels and rediscover that Jesus’ church lived in the world and
practiced an outrageous and scandalous table fellowship. ~Ron Cole

It begins with who God is and appreciates what God has done and is
doing; and attempts to reflect and join up in the same endeavor. ~Doug Jones

Missional is like pornography. It’s hard to define but you know it when you see it.

…

An alternative lifestyle where your top priorities are all about
signing on to God’s project to repair the World because you want to do
that work. ~Tim Thompson

Technorati Tags: missional

I made a wordle for many of the words here, I think it’s neat

Setting aside the argument against labels for a moment and assuming for the sake of conversation that we all use labels as a way to identify ourselves and our social groups, I’d like to attempt to tackle the question “what is missional?”

I feel in some ways, explaining missional is like explaining human - you’d think it’d be so easy since, well, supposedly I am one - - but labels can be infuriating, primarily because meaning lies with the receiver.

So in an attempt to stir the noggin, I’m watching the Graham Norton Show featuring one of my faves, Susan Serandon, and doing a little thought experiment - summerize missional in 3 words.

live well here
eat drink laugh
colabor with God
Jesus is them
Jesus is me
walk the path
listen to others
learn from others
eat with sinners
live on purpose

and the number one 3-word definition of missional

LEAVE YOUR CHURCH

In fact, I think if you put GO before each of the those, it would be even better to me, to talk about missional simply in terms of what it means is contradictory. Talking about missional really needs to be comunicated in terms of what one does, how one lives. The ‘now me’ would say to the ‘then me’, get out and live, cancel at least half of your church commitments, drop out of most of your Bible studies and prayer groups and GET OUT THERE!

Now, being who I am, I now feel compelled to explain what I don’t mean when I say these things. Missional is not *just* relevant, evangelism, missions, attractional >> in other words, it’s not a church growth model or a new curriculum buzz word. So when I say get out there, here’s the paradigm shift from the ‘then me’ to ‘now me’.

“mission” Then:
get out there to talk
get out there to teach
get out there to judge
get out there to save
get out there with a closed posture of protecting myself
get out there to bring back into the church

“missional” Now:
get out there to listen
get out there to learn
get out there to accept
get out there to be saved
get out there with an open posture of Christ
get out there to be the church

Living this way must be on purpose. It is natural to desire to live safely with people you know and agree with. Even further, if you are involved in a Church in any capacity, it will suck you in and before you know it, your weeks revolve around church services, bible studies, planning meetings (we spend more time planning how to love people than we actually do the doing of loving people), prayer services, staff meetings, etc. To avoid this, you have to make certain choices and set certain boundaries. It’s not always easy but I suppose Jesus never promised being a disciple would be. The trick is to learn to rest and find peace is the knowing of Jesus and let the other stuff go and then get busy living.

**edited to add: tomorrow I will follow up to this with the question posed by one of the commenters - “but how do we get there?” Great question that I will try to tackle having been “over there” and working on now being in this missional paradigm.

This is part of a synchroblog organized by Rick Meigs . Please visit some of the other bloggers participating.

Alan Hirsch : Alan Knox : Andrew Jones : Barb Peters : Bill Kinnon : Brad Brisco : Brad Grinnen : Brad Sargent : Brother Maynard : Bryan Riley : Chad Brooks : Chris Wignall : Cobus Van Wyngaard : Dave DeVries : David Best : David Fitch : David Wierzbicki : DoSi : Doug Jones : Duncan McFadzean : Erika Haub : Grace : Jamie Arpin-Ricci : Jeff McQuilkin : John Smulo : Jonathan Brink : JR Rozko : Kathy Escobar : Len Hjalmarson : Malcolm Lanham : Mark Berry : Mark Petersen : Mark Priddy : Michael Crane : Michael Stewart : Nick Loyd : Patrick Oden : Peggy Brown : Phil Wyman : Richard Pool : Rick Meigs : Rob Robinson : Ron Cole : Scott Marshall : Sonja Andrews : Stephen Shields : Steve Hayes : Tim Thompson : Thom Turner

Technorati Tags: missional, synchroblog, church

My girls definitely have their own sense of style. Take Aliyah for example, playing in the rain yesterday. Note the floral top with the differently patterned floral skirt (that is too big) with the tights and “wizard of oz” red sparkly shoes all under the yellow polka dot rain coat. That is some serious fashion sense right there.

It’s hard for me to allow this. It takes every ounce of self control to keep my mouth shut. Because the truth is, in this and many other areas in my life, I like conformity. It’s much more comfortable and simple. I don’t mean to turn a silly picture of my kid into a deep lesson or anything but…well…. I guess I am.

This is a terrifying time in the course of human events for those who cannot abide non-conformity. The rules are changing in every domain from politics to personal relationships to religion. No one knows what to expect anymore and the “silver hairs” who, in the previous era would have been the sages who knew it all are now the ones completely out of the loop, the ones who have obsolete and irrelevant advice to profer. (**) Those who were good at keeping people in line are finding that they no longer have the influence they once did. Those who are trained in traditional institutions using the knowledge of the past are finding themselves sorely ill equipped.

This is a time when the adventurous and daring non-conformists will emerge as the prophets. Those who, in the past, were denied a voice because they just didn’t quite “fit” are going to be the ones who have the insight to move forward. The young suddenly have more to offer.

It’s no wonder I hear so much fear, the powerful are losing their grip, they’re losing their sense of control in the familiar. They sound very similar to how I sound when my 6 year old insists on dressing like a gypsy to go to church - stearn, frantic pleading.

** Disclaimer: This is not to say that the “olders” in our society have nothing to offer. Don’t get me wrong, there is always so much to learn from the past, from experience. Cross generational relationships are vital for holistic growth. But the way we learn from one another, the way disciples are made for example, is just not the same. And this is also not to say that everyone over 50 is clueless, some of the most radical models for post and post post modern living we have in our lives are over 50 - but I would be so bold as to say they are exceptions.

Technorati Tags: postmodern, society, change, shift, mentoring

Church Basement Roadshow Reflections « A Mending Shift
*see the guys’ blogs/sites for more reactions, promotional vids and other fun stuff.

I don’t pretend to be friends with Doug, Tony and Mark and I try not to express that false intimacy that comes so easily in the internet ‘verse so I will just say that I am proud to know them, even if just a little. I am proud to be a small part in a big and beautiful “thing” going on in Christianity right now, not only in Emergent US but in versions of emerging-missional all over the world.

Michelle Obama, in her now infamous statement said that for the first time in her adult life she’s proud to be an American. For the first time in my adult life I’m proud to call a group of Christians my tribe. Like with Michelle Obama, it doesn’t mean I didn’t have moments of pride before or that until now I hated my religion, it just means that I can actually say without reservation that I am proud to know these people - not just Doug and Tony and Mark but all the men and women they represent. There is hope in their lives, their message and their faith expression and I hope some of you are getting the chance to experience it in your context because it’s beautiful.

Technorati Tags: emergent village, emerging, emergent, tony jones, doug pagitt, mark scandrette

(ht A Living Alternative)

Come, Holy Spirit,
bending or not bending the grasses,
appearing or not above our heads in a tongue of flame,
at hay harvest or when they plough in the orchards,
or when snow covers crippled firs in the Sierra Nevada.

I am only a human being: I need visible signs.
I tire easily, building the stairway of abstraction.
Many a time I asked, you know it well,
that the statue in church lift its hand, only once, just once, for me.

But I understand that signs must be human,
therefore, call one person, anywhere on earth,
not me-after all I have some decency-
and allow me, when I look at that person,
to marvel at you.

-Czeslaw Milosz

Technorati Tags: holy spirit, prayer

I have been taking my girls to vacation bible school this week (using the same curriculum that my husband sells, the songs of which I have already heard WAY TOO MANY TIMES). I didn’t think they’d let Aliyah participate or if they did if she’d be willing to stay but she’s been having a blast. I signed them up at a church less than half a mile away with little care of what kind of church it was so that we wouldn’t have to worry about car arrangements. It’s a small Presbyterian church, creatively called Westminster Presbyterian. *smirk*

Today on our walk there I was musing about something that has always struck me as odd. When I was growing up, my parents would have NEVER allowed me to go to a religious service of a strongly different Christian persuasion much less another religion and would have been out for blood if an adult of another religion tried to convert me. And yet, we were encouraged on a regular basis to bring our “unsaved friends” to VBS, kids church, youth group, church camp, etc. where they would most assuredly be subjected to a pint-sized version of the 4 spiritual laws and asked if they wanted to “ask Jesus in their heart” upon which time they would join other little impressionable children at the altar and tearfully say the sinner’s prayer.

I find this odd… Let’s set aside the niceties, I find it unconscionable and I find it completely ridiculous that there is this double standard. At least be consistent. If you’re going to subject children to evangelism, you better allow your children to be, at the least exposed to other religions.

Now, seeing as we’re at a Presbyterian church, I doubt there will be any altar calls, so that’s refreshing.

Another thing that I will expose about myself that is probably a little odd is that I would be more inclined to send my child to a Buddhist children’s carnival than I would a conservative baptist VBS. I guess we all have our quirks.

Technorati Tags: vacation bible school, evangelism

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