See the preface and part 1.

The Missional Rorschach Test

Based on some of the blogs, my series has spawned, or reignited, some thoughts on what it means to be "missional." That's a good thing, I think, as it will enable some cross conversations.

Here are a few:
• Brother Maynard
• Jamie Arpin-Ricci
• Bill Kinnon

But, I think that "missional" is like a Rorschach Test for many people. In a Rorschach Inkblot Test, a subject is asked to describe what he or she sees in random inkblots. It tells much about what a person is thinking and feeling. I think the same is true for all of us engaged in the missional conversation. To some degree how we define "missional" is determined by our pre-existing concerns about what is wrong, and what is right, with the church today.

So, before I reveal my own ideas (or perhaps as I do so), I think we need to look to history for the genesis of the ideas that have shaped "missional" today.

My Lutheran friends rebuked me yesterday.

I promised them a blog post on "The Baptist and the Bishop," based on my conversation with Robert Newton and some good natured ribbing about our different denominations.

But I am a little behind... this blogging thing is more work than I imagined.

I promise I will write that post on the plane home today.

According to the folks here at the conference, Newton is the LCMS thought leader on the missional church. (I interviewed him as part of my research on the missional church.)

Newton emphasized that the Great Commission is the most important, not one of the important, parts of the missional church focus.

See his course on the missio dei here... good stuff.

More soon... but I love talking mission, missional, and missiology with missiologists...