This is one of those posts.. you know, the ones where something goes round and round, and eventually seems to lose touch with it's source.... call it plagiarism, call it repeated wisdom, call it lazy, whatever... Mark Bushor (one the scribes from the soon to be defunct Daily Scribe) posted this, which he found here posted way back in January a week after Larry posted his characteristics of Missional Church which I posted here but it's reposting has been extremely timely...
What happens when the missional church gathers?
- Stories from the frontlines.
- Space and time devoted to forming Kingdom virtue.
- A holistic worship engaging mind, eye, ear, touch and even smell.
- A participatory experience where gifts are shared.
- Minister to the broken and seek God's healing Spirit.
- Strategy discussions for cultural engagement.
- Prayer and contemplative silence.
- Acts of remembering and connecting to God's story (Lord's Supper).
- Quality listening, sharing, connecting with each other.
- Inviting people from the community to share their story.
- Gatherings are not spatially specific because church is a happening , not a place, where two or three gather in the name of the Lord. Why not move our gatherings occasionally where the people in our community gather? Their turf is made sacred by the presence of Jesus.
Whilst we would want to hold on to the sense that THE gathering is not the most important part of who we are as a community, there is no doubt that it is vital at this stage of our journey together. We need to focus, we need to share stories and struggles, we need to reflect, we need silence, we need to model community and to be community.
Technorati Tags: Church: Emerging Church: Mission: Rhythm: Spirituality
Hi Mark
intereseting post. We have been thinking about desert fathers http://www.sundaypapers.org.uk/?p=301 and was wondering if there were any connections with your links to celtic fathers what they teach us about how you balance withdrawal and engagement, particularly James comments???
Posted by: Richard Passmore | 27/10/2006 at 10:37