imagining how the church can reorient around mission

I have begun to describe myself as “post-deconstructionist.” That is not to say that I am done deconstructing ideas, because they are ever-evolving and refuse to behave, but I am observing what seems to be a sort of an addiction to deconstruction.

My friend, David Swanson wrote this a couple of years ago on FB: read more

What
does it mean to be a missional community of faith?  There is much talk about what that is, what it looks like
and how it works.  Newbigin (one of
the true forerunners of the current movement) identifies six characteristics of
a missional community:

1. It practices corporate praise, thanksgiving, gratitude,
   and grace;
2. It declares truth that challenges the reigning
   plausibility structure
3. It establishes relationships within a local
   neighborhood
4. It encourages mutual service in the priesthood
   of all believers
5. It expects mutual responsibility rather than
   individualism
6. It nurtures hope and a re-imagined vision of
   the future

I
love these.  read more

Such is the power of the eyes of faith.  The eyes of the body can only see what falls under the sense of sight, but with the eyes of faith it is just the reverse.  They see nothing that is visible, but they see what is invisible just as if it lay before their eyes.

The Need for Faith, John Chrysostom