For the last few years, we have been embarking on a voyage of discovery of the kind of church God is calling us to be in the next phase of our life.
There has been much discussion and prayer in the community to discern the heart and mind of God. On Saturday we held a day together for the church, to talk further about how we believe God to be leading us, to talk together, and pray and break bread at the end of the day.
As a leadership team, we were sharing about the direction we sense God is leading us. This isn’t a narrow “vision” … but a broad direction that allows individuals to bring their passions and contributions to further our movement. As we have speaking on over the last few sundays (as well as over the last few years) we are wanting to become an missional community, while also not neglecting the “equipping of the saints”.
It seems to me that God is changing the face of Church in the UK (and perhaps wider?). There is a move of the Spirit to bring reformation. What we have been isn’t wrong, but it is changing. And that is what we, along with others, are grappling with: “What does church look like in the 21st century?”.
From my perspective it seemed a good day together. It is always pretty difficult to judge, but there seemed a great sense of community; a coming together in worship and prayer; an excitement about the possibilities for the future (even if we are not sure what it is going to look like). I felt that we communicated well (I was sharing an adapted version of Guidance in Community – Part 4), there was some good discussion and feedback in a plenary session. All is all, it felt as though it was a significant day in our story.
I suspect we need to keep talking about what it could look like, what is is we are trying to do and why. This is only the beginning …
If you were there, I would love to hear your experiences and impressions? What did you come away with? What did you sense God saying to you?
And if you are in a different church, I would love to hear what journey you are on, in becoming the kind of church God is calling you to?
Tags: Emerging Church, Missional Church, Edinburgh, Community Church Edinburgh, Vision, Church, Community, 21st Century Church
Hey Guyz just found a little time to catch up with blog.
It seems to me from the progression of comments that there is a very gradual or little seperation of Gospel Good News (spreading the good news, preaching, “saving”, eternal life, connecting people with Jesus, forgiveness of sins) and being Missional (blessing others, hope for this life, healing and restoration, good works, social action and justice, charity, living life to full, fullness of life)
Can I suggest to view this as a “Coin”. A coin has two sides, heads and tails, though heads looks different from tails they are both part of the “Same Coin”.
You can’t have an order here, i.e.: does being Missional come after spreading the Gospel, Good News and “saving” or does the Gospesl come after being Missional?
There are part of the same “Coin” and asking this question is equivalent to spinning the coin on it’s axis.
The Body as different parts as Anna’s reverse of Epheshian 4 shows, some might feel more on the tail side of the coin some more the head side of the coin, but Jesus is “the whole Coin” and our continual focus on Jesus creates the “Coin” and is the key.
Jesus at the Center, always.
Good comment Alastair.
OK… here is a thought on justice: what about the concept of jubilee? that seems some really great good news for the poor (i know it nevery happened!) that Jesus picked up as his manefesto…
maybe we should start a new blog post for this?
… and totally agree about descriptive / prescriptive…
That Lotenna,
i guess I would want to see the “spreading of the gospel” as you put it, or perhaps what we have called evangelism is a subset of missional. Missional includes talking about Jesus, but also is bringing the good news of the Kingdom: caring for the poor etc.
I think eternal life is greater than non-eternal life, in more ways than just magnitude.
Lo
Yes … i totally agree…