Subversive Influence

50 Ways to Define “Missional” - IV

Last week I I began a series examining the posts from the recent missional synchroblog in which I participated with a total of 50 bloggers (plus a few unofficial entries) in an effort to describe the meaning of the word “missional.” The project was born out of a frustration with the misuse of the term, as expressed by several of us. This was also the impetus for the major series I undertook last summer on the subject. I had left it aside for a while, but am still hoping to revive my work on the topic for eventual publishing.

Duncan McFadzean begins by quoting Mike Frost from Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture:

..but we church best with those with whom we share a common goal or mission…..In fact I believe that our proper understanding of Christ (Christology) leads us into an appropriate commitment to mission (missiology), which forces us to develop the means of a common life together (ecclesiology).

HoMY 59: Praise Him, Praise Him

Seems I’ve been at this weekly series for quite a while now. There were a lot more hymns in my youth than I had realized… I haven’t run out yet! This week’s addition to the series, Then Sings My Soul: The Hymns of My Youth is “Praise Him, Praise Him.” The hymn was composed by Fanny Crosby and published in 1869, with music by Chester Allen.

My recollections of this song is that it was one of the more upbeat, even boisterous hymns that we would sing. The verses represent a bit of a tongue-twister when matched with the tempo, since it was always a bit of a trick to get all the words out properly. “Highest archangels in glory” was the particular part, following the tune at that pace and spitting out each syllable. “Suffered and bled and died” wasn’t nearly as tricky once you’d accomplished verse one, of course. Well. You were warmed up for “Tell of his excellent greatness,” at least. Given all that, by the time you hit the end and coasted through “Ever in joyful song,” you needed a break before hitting the next verse from the top.

Random Acts of Linkage #66

I’ve been back at my post for two full weeks following our trip now, and I’ve still got over 2,000 unread items in my newsreader. Do you think everyone in the blogosphere would consider a ceaseblog of new posts for about three days so I could catch up? The scary thing is that even at 2,000 posts, I’m still actually making headway toward catching up. But hey, it’s an uphill battle. ;^) Yikes.

Collected words of wisdom from around the Internet:
• It’s always darkest before dawn. So if you’re going to steal your neighbor’s newspaper, that’s the time to do it.
• Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
• If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
• Duct tape is like ‘The Force’. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
• There are two theories to arguing with women. Neither one works.
• Never miss a good chance to shut up: a closed mouth gathers no foot.

We Must be Insane

Our 10-year-old had a sleepover with some friends in our basement last night… I never knew four girls could make so much noise. They settled early enough, but were awake at 5:00AM and giggling. *sigh* This meant I was up and making little bear pancakes for them much earlier than I had anticipated. Last night’s headache carried over. Room spinning. Going deaf. That is all.

50 Ways to Define “Missional” - III

Somewhat by accident this week, I started a series examining and interacting with some of the posts from the missional synchroblog in which I participated this week along with 49 other “official” entries and a few unofficial ones. Having already apologized to Paul Simon, today’s set is the “make a new plan, Stan” series.

Cobus Van Wyngaard weighs in by invoking David Bosch’s Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission right in the post title. This is one of the keystone works for understanding missional, so it’s good that somebody brought it into the fray. Leaving the definition to others, he chose to explore the question, “Why the missional church?” Although often credited with the term missio Dei, he writes that “Bosch is simply giving an overview of how the concept has developed since 1932 onwards.”

50 Ways to Define “Missional” - II

Yesterday I started working through some of the posts from the recent missional synchroblog in which I participated; there were a total of 50 people on the “official” list, but a few others decided to post on the topic as well. Yesterday I apologized to Paul Simon for quoting the lines, “I’d like to help you in your struggle to be free / There must be fifty ways to define ‘missional’.” I summarized the first few posts, and before we slip out the back, Jack, today we’re going to tackle the next batch.

Brad Brisco titled his post “Missional: More Than a Buzz Word,” which seems to express a widely-agreed sentiment. He structured a threefold description by saying that missional church is “about the missionary nature of God and His church”; “incarnational rather than attractional”; and it’s “about actively participating in the missio Dei, or mission of God.” These three themes will be familiar to anyone who is actually paying attention to the term and how it’s being defined by some of the leaders in the conversation. To foster a missional posture, he says, begin with Spiritual Formation, emphasize the Priesthood of All Believers, create new ways of measuring ministry success, search for “Third Places,” and tap into the power of stories.

50 Ways to Define “Missional” - I

When I composed my entry into the Missional Synchroblog, I suggested that of the 50 different responses in the list, there just might be 50 different definitions of missional. Some of the entries have been really top-notch, and make valuable contributions to a rounding-out of the term. While there may be some mildly contradictory views, I did want to explore what the corpus of posts is saying as a whole — or at least to summarize and interact with a few of them. Given the number of posts to wade through, this will probably be a bit of a miniseries, lest I be accused of writing too many loooong posts. We set the stage with apologies to Paul Simon.

“The problem is all inside your head”, she said to me
The answer is easy if you take it logically
I’d like to help you in your struggle to be free
There must be fifty ways to define “missional”

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