Charles Lee

Charles:

I participated remotely with some of the main sessions and could not agree more. The spirit expressed by this group of Christ followers is so practical, loving and positive.

I so yearn to hear the perspective of women in this conversation. How are they raising families in this tension of “not playing church”? How are the relational strengths that women typically bring being brought to this conversation?

Thanks for this post. Your perspective is always appreciated, Charles.

Dawn Carter
@decart

RT @charlestlee: New Blog Post – Thoughts on Missional Church #verge10 – http://www.charlestlee.com/ministry/thou...
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Good thoughts here, and this follows along with what I’ve been feeling lately as well (posted this week and a few weeks previous). Always good to hear thoughts that I’ve had in the mouths of others – now to keep it moving forward in Him.

Thanks for your comments everyone

Dawn, I had people like you in mind that really do live missionally in all areas of life. Thanks for being a living example of what it means to embody God’s love to the world.

Dave, blessings on you. I’m excited for the journey that God has placed you on. You and your wife are amazing people. I’m glad that living missionally is not predicated on whether or not one pastors a church.

Daniel, love you’re optimistic attitude!

So glad this resonates with both you, Antoine and Mike.

Also, I had a conversation with Mark DeYmaz and loved his insight on how many multi-ethnic communities already live missionally because their people do reflect their city. Serving them has led to natural opportunities of serving others in their respective cities. Some good thoughts there. Therefore, diversity is a necessary way to go if we desire to be missional.

Thoughts on Missional Church – http://www.charlestlee.com/ministry/thou...
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@charlestlee if we have to try to be missional, it’s to late
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Your session on Social Justice affirmed my convictions yet left me with questions:

How do you handle detractors? When I present myself this way, critics start calling out, “Marxist!” and “Babykiller!” Yes, they call me Babykiller because I vote for those who are seeking social justice. I try to explain that it’s about so much more than the one issue, but my entire being is invalidated because I’m socially liberal which means I side with babykillers.

Thanks for all your work at the conference, on these issues, and your passion. You want to know about the voice of the women– the women are raised up when they are protected by the men. We know we have value when we matter to you. When what matters to us matters to you.

Several “random” responses from someone not there, but rooting for all of this…

1) Congregations, as structures, are rarely missional– or don’t tend to last long in that mode (i.e., not more than a generation if that). Congregations are the same as churches– but are rather one format of Christian community among others that together form the network called church. Other formats of Christian community— typically things like neo-monastic communities or intentional missional groups– are far better at delivering on missional by all participants in real time. When I hear about “planting missional churches” what I’ve typically seen actually happen is an attempt to plant a congregation with the hope that it will be missional– and that tends to be #fail.

2) There’s a reason this conversation is happening this way in predominantly “white” (i.e., in the US, dominant culture) contexts. It’s partly because it doesn’t NEED to happen as much in non-dominant culture contexts, because there the congregations themselves very often already are and have been “missional” for decades if not centuries.

When you live at the margins, that’s more possible. When you’re in the cultural mainstream, congregations won’t be missional– other formats of Christian community have to take up the slack, and sometimes do.

All that means at least two things. One is non-poor white folk are woefully behind. A lot of what we’re talking about is stuff other folks have taken for granted for a long time and so see no need to talk about. It’s just what they do and who they are and how they do it. They don’t need a label to describe that. Yet white folks in this conversation may tend to come off as if we’re on the cutting edge and blazing a new path for everyone, while in fact we may be in deep need of major remediation.

Another is social networks. How deeply are folks of various ethnicities actually deep enough in the social networks of each other that they even know how to talk meaningfully to one another? There are reasons separate networks have developed over time. Those reasons aren’t entirely passé. But if we want more non-dominant-culture voices to inform this conversation, all of us in every culture will need to work at building cross-cultural social networking better than we have– myself included. This, too, takes time– and sometimes a long, long time.

And here we may have to be careful about our own version of “bait and switch.” Are we seeking to make the conversation more diverse simply to validate our own current commitments to the missional conversation, or are we seeking to do this genuinely to learn and perhaps correct the defects, gaps and perhaps culturally-bound and blinding assumptions of the current conversation? Of the folks I’ve met, I know we’re really wanting to do the former. What I also know is just how easy it is actually to do the latter.

3) For all the talk that “missional” is not a predominantly evangelical conversation, the facts remain that it pretty often is, and in that milieu the role of women has historically been muted or diverted from the mainstream of the conversation. So let’s be realistic (and so perhaps a bit generous) about inclusion as more of a generational project than, perhaps, an instantaneous one. That doesn’t mean we don’t work to include as many voices as possible now– but it does mean that perhaps we recognize that the dream will take a little longer than a decade to realize.

i listened to the message last night as i read my emails. I had to stop – the emails that is. i really believe Christ’s body is starting to get this. People who are looking for God in this broken world are being drawn to the fragrance of a movement who ‘s mantra is “live to give”. Good sermon grasshopper.