My last post only garnered two responses but they both challenged me to rethink whether we can stop ‘beating the missional drum’ and I think they are right to say ‘no!’.
It is our default setting to think ‘me first’ and to enjoy comfort rather than sacrifice so I think the commenters were right to say ‘we will probably never really get it.’
Perhaps what I was expressing was a bit of my own weariness after 10 years of saying the same stuff. I’d like to think people have heard it by now and are moving forwards, but that may be more wishful thinking than reality.
Perhaps those of us responsible for leading Christian communities simply need to keep saying this stuff over and over and over until we see real significant change in the communities we are part of. Having mulled it over, I have actually been re-inspired to add my voice to the cause yet again.
I do long for the day when we ‘get it’ and we can ease it back a bit, but for now I reckon some of us will need to keep on banging that drum!!
hamo
Jesus had a pretty similar message for the 3 years he was on earth too… I’m sure he though often,”What is wrong with these people…are they really not getting it yet?” But his message didn’t change. If we copy him we can’t go wrong i reckon and I think one of the good things about the “missional” movement was that it focussed heavily on putting Jesus right back in the centre of how the church should operate… strange to think that could have shifted hey!?
It may well be the lot of each generation to keep banging on about the same old thing until the new can see the problems that we’ve created and do it all again. Here’s to monotony!! 🙂
While I acknowledge that I am old-fashioned in many ways, and I haven’t been to Bible college I do find a lot of what you said in the previous entry to be ‘jargon’. Just as we were encouraged to use words that non-church goers would understand, there are some of us who feel bamboozled by the big words often associated with these discussions. I like the old KISS rule of keeping it simple!!
Perhaps it’s the shape of the conversation that has changed. Rather than it being ‘over’, maybe the emerging church has emerged and missional discussion is no longer fringe. I know that we have a looooong way before we look anything like missional.
I think Alex is onto something. I don’t think ‘the church’ as a whole has got mission as it needs to be got, but there is a strong discussion within the church, rather than it being discussed at or about the church.
Therefore, it makes sense that the work of people like yourself (Hamo et al) is, to a degree, done in that regard. Local Mission is not ‘done’, but your work in raising it as a serious matter to be championed by local churches is.
With your apostolic bent, it makes sense that you would want to be doing something new. 10 years is a long time!
Other more prophetic, evangelical & (small ‘p’) pastoral types (I’m thinking of Geoff W’s APE chat here!) will continue the work that you have started.
“Heard it and moving forwards”?
Some may have done, but most are probably still trying to work out ‘what it looks like (I HATE that phrase) for them in their own context. But they will continue to do that in their own time now that you and others like you have put it in front of them.
Continuing on the train of thought started by Toddy and Alex, let’s ask ourselves the question: how does one “contextualize” the missional message into, for example, “Christian-ese”? That’s my current struggle, how do we not just get them to understand what it means but also to then actually go DO it, when all that’s happened so far is “yes, I agree with what you’ve said, and I do that already” when they really don’t.