Thoughts on the Missional Movement ~ Part Six

The Fragmentation of Evangelicalism
and the Precipitation of the Missional Movement

Part Six: When Collaboration Just Won’t Work Well: Operating Systems of Legalism or License Instead of Liberty

Overview of Part Six

In Part Five we looked at five different ways of processing information – all of which have a unique realm of application to imperatives and principles and paradoxes in Scripture. I gave some initial analysis to show how those five epistemologies hold values that can keep us on track with liberty and freedom in Christ, or veer us off toward legalism (being rule-bound where Scripture isn’t) or license (being without bounds where Scripture is). In Part Six, we’ll conclude that exploration of legalism, license, and liberty.

Thoughts on the Missional Movement ~ Part Five

The Fragmentation of Evangelicalism
and the Precipitation of the Missional Movement

Part Five: When Collaboration Just Won’t Work Well: “Irreconcilable Differences” on Operating Systems for Discipleship

Overview of Parts Five and Six

In Part Four, we looked at elements that potentially set us up for “irreconcilable differences,” when it comes to being part or partners in some kind of movement or ministry collaboration. I introduced epistemology (information processing styles) and axiology (values) as the core of the ministry systems and cultures we create. The key idea it led to was this: If we’re missing some biblical values, or our values are anti-biblical, we can easily end up with beliefs and behaviors, and lifestyles and cultures that go against Scripture

In Parts Five and Six, we will look at the “operational framework” – the sets of maco-level principles that guide our everyday beliefs and behaviors, interests and interactions. If we’re off center biblically in our epistemology and axiology, we’ll be even farther off in our operational framework, either in the direction of legalism or license instead of true biblical liberty and the freedom for which Christ set us free.

Thoughts on the Missional Movement ~ Part Four

The Fragmentation of Evangelicalism
and the Precipitation of the Missional Movement

Part Four: When Collaboration Just Won’t Work Well: The Way We Process Information and What We Value Create “Irreconcilable Differences”

Overview of Parts 4, 5, and 6

This series has looked at aspects of the uncontrollable process we find ourselves in as a result of a global shift in paradigms and cultures. Some forces in the process work to fragment the old, others to reformulate the new. To my thinking, this has resulted in six streams in the post-Evangelical vein. Other forces, like the power of paradox, help us consider why the missional stream has more potential for drawing in a wider range of elements from other sources to create a more comprehensive structure and a more dynamic trajectory.

In the next installments (yes, it’s grown past four parts), we’ll look at some powerful principles that seem to have the opposite effect from paradox. In brief, they don’t provide a safe place for people to land while they sift through the complexity to figure out if they fit. Instead, some variations in these sets of frameworks set up conditions and pressure people to decide if they fit before they enter. Some don’t go anywhere once people have entered.

So, as to potential collaborations, they represent “irreconcilable differences” in terms of entry and trying to merge into the missional movement, or trajectory and trying to collaborate and journey toward a common goal, or destiny and what goals they would value. Even if they all apply the label of “missional” to themselves, it doesn’t mean they’d survive as a long-term part or partner in a coherent missional movement.

Thoughts on the Missional Movement ~ Part Three

The Fragmentation of Evangelicalism
and the Precipitation of the Missional Movement

Part Three: Principles of Paradox, and Magnetic Attractions
and Repulsions in the Making of a “Missional Movement”

Part One looked at how different people have been viewing the fragmentation and re-formation of the “missional” movement. Part Two expanded on how there are six streams in what seems to be the next generation after “evangelical” – Emergents, Progressives, Evangelicals, Emergings, Neo-Reformeds, and Missionals – and how they seem to be identify with the “missional movement.”

As I mentioned in an earlier part of this series, I have been in all six streams (or their earlier prototypes) during my Christian experience. By that, I don’t mean just an occasional visit now and again, but extended periods with years of participation. As I’ve experienced a stream by immersing in it, I’ve come to see the pluses and minuses of it, and made adjustments. I think missional will end that series. It seems to integrate more of the pluses of all the other streams and fewer of the minuses. It’s complex, but it makes sense to me. Actually, I’ve been more missional than I realized for nearly 40 years … so, no wonder I didn’t fit in so well in so very many ministry situations before!

And since missional is my home base for “faith and practice,” I’m curious about how elements within these streams might connect or disconnect in a larger missional movement. So, my new questions arise (as always) more from reflections on concrete experiences I’ve had as an insider in them – not from reading books on abstract theory about how movements work or how things should be in the “ideal” church. And right now, I’m wrestling mostly with questions about where various streams will find their entry points into marrying with the missional movement, and what points or perspectives will prove barriers.

Here in Part Three, we’ll explore how “missional” often equates to a “third way” of paradox – those situations where polar opposites co-exist, and on the surface of things that doesn’t seem to make sense, but underneath it actually does. (I need to tell you up front why it’s paradox is crucial to understand, and that’s, because the ongoing worldwide paradigm shift is moving us toward paradox as the dominant way of processing life. If we don’t “get it” soon about paradox, we’re sunk. We won’t be able to navigate the present or the future.) We’ll also look at how paradoxes create “missional magnetic impulses” of attraction and repulsion that affect whether these streams can form a movement in the long run or not. In Part Four, we’ll look at how various discipleship systems and stances toward culture typical within the six streams compare and contrast, and provide either bridges or barriers for collaboration. So … take it slow, here we go!

Thoughts on the Missional Movement ~ Part Two

The Fragmentation of Evangelicalism
and the Precipitation of the Missional Movement

Part Two: Six Streams in the “Missional Movement”

Missionary ~ Missional

A lot of individuals and groups use the term missional these days, but mean some vastly different things by it. For some, it’s about The Latest Program or add-on feature – a buzzword designed to attract people who are into what’s new and happening. For others, they seem to use it as a “big tent” concept for any group that holds to being something akin now that mirrors what evangelicalism was before.

For others (like myself), it’s the inverse of being a cross-cultural missionary where we’d go overseas, learn the language and culture, find the “people of peace,” and disciple them and others. Similarly but turned inside out, the missional-minded disciple moves in his/her own country where the Spirit leads, roots into a local neighborhood, listens and learns from the people right there, becomes a “person of peace” who welcomes all with respect and justice, and disciples others.

So, what sounds like group compatibility when we hear “missional” may actually turn out to be irreconcilable differences between underlying paradigms … It’s confusing, as the ways we perceive the world just aren’t the same, even if we’re using the same word to describe our approach.

Thoughts on the Missional Movement ~ Part One

SERIES INTRODUCTION. This week, I will be launching into the final edit of the first in a series of five curriculum books that I’ve been working on for a very long time. The main topics in this doorway book are culture, creativity, and compositing teams of people with different strengths to forge better collaborations. I see teamwork as one way to navigate the choppy waters of the world as it now is, a way to expand the surface area of the raft we float on together in that ocean of uncertainty.

Problem is, collaboration doesn’t work well when there are deeply-rooted, irreconcilable differences between potential ministry partners. It’s not that we can’t find a level of appropriate tolerance in letting people be where they are, not where we wish they were. It’s about what to do when conflict occurs not in the content of our perceptions but in the deepest processes we use to make those perceptions. These are what keep us from linking together effectively … and maybe that disconnection is something that we cannot or even should not try to overcome.

This three-part series explores some key aspects of how the Church in the US has fragmented during the modern-to-postmodern paradigm shift, what the field looks like in its missional re-formation, and what this may mean in very practical terms for our discipleship systems and collaborations.

New Tutorial on Critical Thinking Skills and Transformation Tools Posted

It has been a long time since I posted anything here. But that doesn’t mean I’ve been inactive! Over the past few months, I’ve been writing and editing a huge amount, actually. I am nearing completion of an introduction to bringing together “Opal Design Teams” for transformational, intercultural ministry. My deadline to get that short book to the editor is coming up soon, and it should be available in January. I’ll post details once everything gets finalized. Once it’s done, I plan on launching into the final edits on my curriculum series that expands out this introduction with more detail, illustrations, images, case studies from films, etc.

Meanwhile, I did produce a new futuristguy tutorial on Transformation while in the process of writing on critical thinking skills and tools for transformation, for the Opal Design Teams book. (This also appeared as a two-part guest post on my friend Julie Anne Smith’s blog.)  This tutorial is futures-oriented. It covers some basics of how to detail events and discern the times. For my main illustrations, I’ve drawn on case studies from secular and Christian organizations that are dealing with allegations or proven situations involving abuse of power, failure to report crimes, cover-ups, and the like. Sadly, this represents a significant layer of bullying in contemporary culture. But there is hope for that situation to change …

So, check out the tutorial – and I hope you find it of help in seeing new ways of perceiving an individual’s or organization’s past, present, and future!

Linda Bergquist on “Church Planting: Systems Thinking”

My church planting strategist friend Linda Bergquist recently wrote an important post at ChurchPlanting.com. “Church Planting: Systems Thinking“ is a combination of (1) a report on teamwork in the San Francisco Bay Area to establish a more systems-oriented collaboration for encouraging church health and church planting, and (2) an overview of six elements or sub-systems within this sort of church planting system, and a one-paragraph description of each:

1. Research
2. Evangelization
3. Recruiting
4. Equipping
5. Resource
6. Connections

I posted several extended comments in response to Linda’s news/overview. That’s because, as a resource writer on organizational systems research and development, I believe a systems approach is absolutely essential for the kind of paradigm shift we need to make to bring our churches and ministries into the 21st century, and for keeping organizations more sustainable. Also, I’ve known Linda for over 15 years now, and trust in her ability to raise system-oriented questions and to help others understand the relevance of integrative systems for sustainable ministry. Her brief post is both informative and encouraging, and I hope you’ll read it soon!

For follow-up reading from Linda, and her co-author Allan Karr, see Church Turned Inside Out: A Guide for Designers, Refiners and Re-Aligners.

Seven City-Reaching Systems

Summary: The recent process of evaluating Pastor Tim Keller’s “gospel ecosystems” approach to city-reaching inspired me to think about other approaches that I’m aware of from the past 20 years of experience and research. And so I wrote this post to offer an initial overview of seven distinct systems for reaching cities for Christ. The overview for each approach includes something about its ministry emphasis, theology, and generation-group appeal. If we look at these approaches as a set, I suspect we’ll be better able to develop a more comprehensive and contextual strategy for wherever it is that God’s providence has rooted us in.

“Gospel Ecosystems” and Its Organic Features

Summary: This series began in response to a blog post by Dr. Dave Fitch on Pastor Tim Keller’s concepts and practices of “gospel ecosystems.” My previous post in this series about Keller’s approach to collaborative city outreach was “Gospel Ecosystems” and Organizational Systems. There I summarized Keller’s key elements in organizing people and processes as best I could from the information in his white paper and video, and then suggested where we’d need more information to evaluate his approach more fully and fairly. Finally, I focused in on research and development topics related to church planting assessment tools. I see this as a crucial part of contextualized ministry for emerging paradigms and cultures.

In this post, I take a similar approach, but addressing aspects of organic systems that could make or break “gospel ecosystems.” After summarizing Keller’s elements, I list areas that need more detailing. Then I focus on prevention and intervention related to various agents that would subvert the system and make it unsustainable. I conclude with an Afterword about the overall topic of “city reaching strategies,” and give some initial thoughts on the approaches I have seen in the past 20 years.