I'm still buzzing about Graham Cray's presentation on "Mission Shaped Church" I heard recently. How someone can answer most of my key questions and concerns in an hour's presentation short of actually reading my mind is quite amazing.
Some key quotes:
"The place of leadership is at the leading edge modelling engagement with the culture in the name of the gospel"
"The pastor apostle is one who forms congregations into mission groups shaped by encounters with the gospel in culture - structuring the congregations forms into shapes that lead people outward into a missionary encounter ... but in this kind of congregation, the pastor will only be able to lead as he or she models the encounter with the culture" (Alan Roxborough)
This resonates with me and where I believe I'm headed ... anyone else relate to this?
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Yes, that resonates with me as well. We have been discussing here about how to move forward as a Church from Modern to Modern and Postmodern side by side, but of course all the schemes and plans we think of tend to be Modern structures. Modelling engagement strikes a chord with Brueggemann's call for imagination rather than schemes.
Posted by: Howard Jameson | May 27, 2004 at 02:39 AM
Strikes me that we need to look to create 'open spaces' in work & life patterns for such encounters...which is hard to do but critical - any thoughts?
Posted by: Mark Balfour | May 27, 2004 at 01:10 PM