Friday 19 February 2010

What is the Church Doctor saying?

Have a look at this from Kent Hunter who is one of the 'Visitors' (exterior accountability partner & advisor) for The Order of Mission. He heads up Church Doctor Ministries which is a way of helping church leaders in North America become missional in the face of the cultural upheavals of these times.
http://ow.ly/15hTB
I like the bit about overcoming pride - in other words being open to learn from those who are ahead of you... something I try to do through some key relationships. 
The 5.0 strategies are pretty good also.
Nothing we look at like this should be received uncritically.... but Kent's article should make us all observe, reflect & discuss a bit more. What do you think?


Wednesday 17 February 2010

The first Bishops Mission Order

Well - the first BMO was created last November - a network church in Exeter. See the link....
http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/stories/exeternetwork/

I guess we are going to see quite a lot of variety in the different BMOs.... ENC have been going for 5 years and have started from scratch.... we are not starting from scratch but rather transitioning from one model to another (something that many people are saying is the hardest thing to do!) Currently we are about 17 months into our transition having first de-cluttered ourselves from having services every Sunday thus enabling us to focus on being church as communities of followers and weaning ourselves off the 'Sunday-only' mentality. 
I'm intrigued to see similar language between us and ENC - as they begin to use a church building in the middle of Exeter Jon Soper says this: "Where we go next will be our third place, but we are going to call it a base or a tent – not a home." We need to continue to develop the base/tent mentality in relation to the place we do central gatherings in and where we have our offices.

Thursday 11 February 2010

Do you know how beautiful you are?

I have just been listening to a song on No Line on the Horizon by U2 called Get On Your Boots. A few lines especially struck me:

Here’s where we gotta be
Love and community
Laughter is eternity
If joy is real

You don’t know how beautiful
You don’t know how beautiful you are
You don’t know, and you don’t get it, do you?
You don’t know how beautiful you are


Truth is... we don't realize how beautiful we are - where there is real joy, where there is love and community there is beauty. As Bono puts it... these boots are sexy..... or as Isaiah 52 says "Awake, awake!" & "Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned O Jerusalem" - when we sit up & stand up in our authority as the people of God we get to have beautiful feet - "how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news." 
I think the vision of missional community for us is to release many different communities of people to walk confidently in the boots that are beautiful.... or even sexy and to have the self-perception to realise that because we are 'in Christ' then his presence in us makes us inherently beautiful & sexy. 

Friday 5 February 2010

Missional Community..... significant?

I picked this up from an Alan Hirsch status update on Facebook:
Missional community might be the concept that this generation is remembered for ~       Matt Carter
I'd certainly like to be part of a generation that is remembered for something that is significant.... could missional community be that significant? I think so....