Saturday, April 17, 2010

Missional Think Tank: Tuesday

Today is the final day of the Think Tank. My sense is that the participants have found the conference both energizing and exhausting at the same time. It has been energizing to fellowship with one another, hear one another's stories, and challenge one another into deeper missional activity. It has been exhausting processing so many ideas in such a short period of time. There has been so much food for thought, and it will surely take each one of us a great deal of time to distill everything we have been considering into actionable future steps.

Today's sessions were designed to help us in this matter. What do we take with us? How do we keep the conversation going? How do we maintain the connections we have made? What is God calling us to do in response to all we have considered? There are no easy answers to these questions.

We began the day with worship and more dwelling in the Word from Luke 10:1-12. The insights gleaned from this time were many. One participant expressed his focus on the phrase "the harvest is plentiful." It struck him how there is plenty of work to do - plenty of ways every congregation can be involved in God's mission. Many gifts and talents are needed. No one local church has to do it all - be everything to everyone. Likewise, churches need not compete with one another - there is plenty of work to go around. Some churches might be stronger or more gifted in some ways than others, and that is by God's design. By focusing on our congregations' unique strengths, we can do the specific work God has for us to do for the Kingdom. There are many gifts, but the same Spirit!

After our time of dwelling in the Word, we heard reports from three denominational executives from three different ecclesiastical traditions. They each shared their stories of how they saw local congregations engaging in missional ministry. They all emphasized the importance of two main leadership questions: 1. How do we structure our conversations in a way that bring people from the margins into the center of the discussion? 2. How do we direct our attention? The speakers emphasized that spiritual leadership is about having a vision to help others see God in the story of their lives and ministry. Spiritual leadership is seeing so that others may see, so to speak.

A Mennonite executive discussed the importance of churches paying attention to what God was doing in their region. Where does God seem to be at work? Whom is God brining in to the region? Who is leaving? What Kingdom work seems to be happening, both inside and outside the local church? How can churches become a part of it? These are challenging questions!

An Episcopal Bishop reflected on the tension between the missional ideal of the Kingdom of God vs. the actual state of local churches. Our longing for the ideal was a longing for heaven - the Kingdom in its consumated form, which, as we know is both already, but not yet. This longing will never go away fully in this life, however, this should not deter us from seeking to be the best missional communities we can be in our present time.

A Lutheran executive shared his experiences of congregational life on the Kansas prairie - where there is great population decline due to socioeconomic factors beyond people's control and their greatest export is their youth. Rather than being discouraged by the struggles of the churches in his region, this executive was looking to God for a bigger Kingdom vision for this region. He encouraged us to leave this conference with a better sense of God's vision - Where is the missional movement of God happening in our area? How can we create space for it? He warned us not to leave this conference with mere ideas - just more things to do - nor were we to leave feeling discouraged that the work is too hard. He remined us that God is Lord of the Harvest - it is God's harvest, God's work. There is plenty to do, and God will give us both the grace and vision to accomplish the work, if we open our eyes to see it.

We spent our last session in our cohorts, where we again spent time dwelling in the Word. We grappled with the part where Jesus instructs those going out not to greet anyone on the road. This seemed strange to us at first - counterintuitive to what we would normally think Jesus would want people to do. After all, shouldn't we greet everyone who comes across our path? With some more wrestling and group discussion, we came to the conclusion that it was out of a sense of urgency that Jesus commanded his followers not to greet anyone on the road on the way to proclaim the Kingdom. Those going out were to remain focused on the task at hand, and not become distracted by circumstances around them. This led to a discussion of what one cohort member aptly named "disengenous need." We all could relate to the concept of having many needs in a local parish - many more than we could ever possibly meet - and how all needs were not created equal. We all knew of people in our churches and communities who always seemed to be in crisis, yet despite endless attempts to help, continued to have ever more needs. We reflected on how Jesus didn't heal every sick person, or cast out every demon, or preach to every crowd who came looking for him. Jesus was focused on the Kingdom work his Father sent him to do. Jesus set boundaries in his ministry, and it is perfectly acceptible to set boundaries in our ministry. It takes great inner strength, conviction, and wisdom to say "yes" to certain things and "no" to others, yet this practice will keep us focused in our ministry, not becoming distracted by anything and everything that comes along. We must learn how to discern as a community what work God is specifically calling us to do, and give ourselves the freedom to say "no" to the rest. After all, it is God's work - the ultimate results lie with God.

We then spent time sharing prayer requests with one another as a way of continuing our fellowship with each other. We departed with greater insight, strength, and wisdom for our respective ministries. We had processed a lot over the past two days, but now it was time to return to our congregations and continue the work God calls us to do.

I hope to share some final thoughts and insights with you at a later time. I am still processing through much of what I have learned at the conference.

More later. Blessings for now!

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