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Written by jared@bronxfellowship.org (Jared)
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Sunday, 12 November 2006 |
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A couple of months ago a colleague and I received an invitation to participate as consultants in a meeting with Seminary Consortium for Urban Pastoral Education (SCUPE). We agreed and spent Thursday in Chicago as contributers to a report to be submitted to a planning committee for SCUPE's 2008 urban ministry conference. Let me share some things I took from this trip.
There were foundation representatives, church planting directors, ministers, university professors, and others of various "stripes." I was part of a team that synthesized the group's feedback on the state of leadership and church development. The overall response was striking.
There was a general disatisfaction with the current state of the American church. This represents the feelings of leaders from a variety of races, denominations, ages, and both male and female. Numerous responses addressed struggles with heirarchial organizational structures and ego-driven leaders among other issues. There is an almost desperate appeal for new wine and for new wineskins. At the same time there was a feeling that the current climate of crisis creates an increasing openness to church innovation and that there are signs of hope and grace on the horizon.
One comment that resonated with me was this: There are indeed new creative ministry efforts emerging but that there are no (or few) examples that we can follow into this next era for the church. I would say that this is especially true for missional ministry as opposed to "reshuffling the deck" ( i.e. Christians moving from church to church). In other words, we know we need to experience change, but there are few footprints in the sand to follow. This is the place we find ourselves today.
Over the last few years I've been involved in learning and putting into practice relational disciple-making, forming Chrisitan community, and facilitating networking as an organic church structure within intensive urban settings. There's been some celebrated success, and there certainly has been some deficit involved in our efforts. Lessons that I cannot quantify are those of being a kind of pioneer. Like the comment I mentioned, there have been few (examples) footprints in the sand for us to follow as we've engaged mission.
Still, what encourages me most about having no footprints ahead of us is that it forces us to focus on the footprints of Christ. It compels me to trust Him. It leads us to rethink our assumptions and to rethink again. It influences me to go beyond my assumptions and become once again immersed in the Gospel narrative. Perhaps this process of breaking new ground for the missional church is not for the faint-hearted, but as many have pointed out.... This is the need of the hour.
We do indeed live in interesting times. Pray for us. Pray to the Lord of the harvest for workers. Pray that we will resist quick-fix solutions but rather be empowered by grace, love, and the leadereship of the Holy Spirit.
Original content by: http://urbanekklesia.blogspot.com/2006/11/interesting-times.html.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 12 November 2006 )
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Scott Bartchy is a radical. He believes in a subversive system that embraces those on the fringes of our society and seeks to establish a new way of life that goes against the status quo.