On The Missional Church:

So, this week I have been a part of the Thompson Scholar Program where we have shared in conversations about "The Missional Church". I wanted to share some things that I learned and open up an opportunity for us to reflect. So here it goes:

The Church Goes Indoors:

• At Pentecost, the church was born! Consider scripture: "As the Father has sent me, so now I'm sending you!"... "As your going, make disciples... baptize... and follow all that I have taught you." "You shall receive the Holy Spirit... to be my witnesses." In other words, the purpose of the church is to be Jesus' agents in the world.
  

• With Constantine, who made Christianity the "state religion" of the Roman Empire, the church began to go indoors. For example, Haggia Sophia as the oldest Christian church is a symbol of a building became the center of a repository of God's grace.
  

• The issue today is that the building is crumbling - "the Titanic is sinking!". For example, PCUSA is #1 in percentage AND total number of people leaving out of the 25 largest denominations. What happens? Continual sadness leads to depression that leads to suicide (the end of PCUSA).
  

Types of Problems:

1. Technical problems: problems which can be solved by applying current know how or by some change in how we do things or how we are organized. I.E. Solvable by people in authority.
2. Adaptive: problems requiring people to change and learn new habits, change their values. Such problems can only be solved by discovering new ways of doing things. People with the problems MUST be involved in finding the solutions.

Key Issue: too often we treat adaptive challenges like technical problems (can I have an Amen!)

Stages in the life of a congregation

The Emergent Phase: maximum experimentation; high innovation; adaptive community;
This is where TLR is.
Key issue for us: to build leadership --> from experimenting to forming, ordering, developing our habits and structures of life together.

That's all for now - whatcha think????