A Missional Conversation

Rick at The Blind Beggar initiated a fascinating conversation concerning the "missional" church. You can jump into this stream at any point, but why not try Rick's most recent contribution, Missional and Dualism. Here's a taste:

Ask yourself, are we merely devotees, who, as a mark of our faith, attend church weekly, participate in a bible study and often invite a friends or neighbors to join us? Or are we disciples of Jesus whose life is consumed 24/7/365 with, as Hirsch stated it, “the practical outworking of the mission of God (the missio dei) and of the incarnation”? Most operate in the former when God calls us to the latter. Missional is about the latter. So why does the average Jesus followers labor to understand Gods call and to live it out?

At the end of this post you'll find links to the many other contributors to the conversation. I've only sampled it lightly, but I get the feeling that this conversation is one of the (few?) hopeful signs in the body of Christ here in America.

Along the same lines, check out Brad Briscoe's post, More than a Buzzword. I really think this is one of the most helpful things I personally have read on the subject. Brad lays things out very clearly. The whole post is a keeper, but I was particularly interested in the second half, under the heading, "Fostering a Missional Mindset." I hope to get back to some of these points a little later, but for now, just go read it!

And if you still haven't had enough, I really hope you'll read Erika Haub's two posts, Missional: To Dwell and to Die, and then Missional: To Die and to Live. Erika provides a "boots on the ground" account of the missional concept in action. Here we move from clean and neat theorizing (nothing against theorizing, mind you) to down and dirty practice. Wonderful!