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I am just about to embark on posts regarding the next element of mDNA that we need to consider (the missional-incarnational impulse). I thought we couldn’t go wrong in  quoting one of my theological heroes, David Bosch from Transforming Mission.   This quotes highlights the intrinsically incarnational nature of the church’s mission. (more…)

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THE Right Brain vs Left Brain test … do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise? If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa. Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it. If this is right, I am a ‘righty’ myself, but I can also see the anti-clockwise if I try, and so I must be a swinger.

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I received a review copy of Frank Viola and George Barna’s Pagan Christianity. This feisty book attacks the incipient paganism that has been absorbed into historic Christianity over the years. It exposes the syncretistic weak spots in what we assume to be basic in our way of doing church. Thoroughly iconoclastic, it is also at the same time a good apologetic for the house church movement which has strong restorationist impulses. My guess is that it will anger some readers and thrill others. I am one of the latter. Whatever, it won’t be too easy to dismiss as it is really well researched and substantiated. I think it is definitely worth the read even if I do think it is a tad purest in tone.  Just don’t drop it–it is likely to explode.

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This is an interview I did with Steve Eastman, editor of the ezine OpenHeaven.com TOP News…. (more…)

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Here is a scary reminder of the environmental cost of our consumptive societies. How hard is repentance going to be when it comes to the economy?? The video takes a little while to load, but be patient. and make sure you put your helmets on!

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In the video in the last post, Annie Leonard quotes Victor Lebeau, a leading post war economist, in what must surely be a defining comment on the nature of society we live it. (more…)

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As mentioned before, Frank Viola and George Barna have written a book called Pagan Christianity that delivers a rather stinging critique of widely accepted church practices. They are coming under a lot of fire for it. Frank has a website where he tries to engage people (critics and acolytes alike). I have really appreciated the responses he makes. Take this one for instance, he makes a case for the alleged overstatements in the book. He says that all prophetic comment is given to overstatement. What do you think….

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Here is a series of statements that will serve to set the agenda in what will be a series of posts on the mDNA of the missional-incarnational impulse.

The purpose in combining these words in The Forgotten Ways, is to link two practices which in essence form the one and the same action.  This is for [...]

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Because this goes against the grain of our inherited and ingrained practices, it is important to grasp the theological dynamics of the missional-incarnational impulse and how these two intertwined foundations of essential Christian theology inform our practices and behaviors. Firstly we can discuss the missional one.

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From the digram in the last post we can see the ‘sneeze-like’ nature of the missional impulse in the diagram. But the diagram also enables us to see how exactly it is that we have inhibited this outward flowing movement. The Christendom template tends to bolt down this missional impulse by substituting it with an attractional one. So while the local church does genuinely do forms of evangelism and outreach, because it measures effectiveness through numerical growth, better programming, and increase of plant and resources, it requires the attractional impulse to support it. The exchange is subtle but profound and the net effect is to unwittingly block the outward bound movement that is built-in to the gospel. Instead of being sown to the wind, the seeds are put into ecclesial storehouses thus effectively extinguishing the purpose they were made for. Or to go back to the sneeze metaphor…we suppress the ‘sneeze’ by holding back the impulse to sneeze in the first place. And because of this, it quite simply can never hope to impact the broader culture as Jesus movements are able to. This is an attempt to try portray the evangelistic attractional mode….

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Take a look at this. Talk about performance anxiety! I am sweating it already. Seriously, this is the premier church planting conference around. Everything focuses on that one thing…creating multiplication movements of all varieties. I and the shapevine team are running the missional-incarnational track throughout the conference, as well as hosting the discussions on the pre-conference track. It is a great honor and privilege. Should be a great event.

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If it wasn’t so tragic you would laugh, or if it wasn’t so funny, you would cry! Oh, I dunno, just read this ( copeland02pdf.pdf.) Care of Wittenburg Door.

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This was my introduction at the RCA conference yesterday…hilarious!

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You think my introduction was funny and tricky, poor Reggie McNeal got this from the mad Dave Trotter

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Hi tribe, just some great news: Shapevine is coming to the end of its beta testing period. Yay! After a year of development, lots of investment of time and money, the launch date is coming up soon–hopefully within a month. There are some really unique features of the site; we believe it will be dynamite. Go register, have a look around, and enjoy some of the free webcasts we already have available for you. We will also have them archived and available for free download by launch. The social networking piece has got immense potential. Based largely around video interactivity…there is nowhere like it on the web. At core, we will also be offering media rich learning options (we call them podules) through the SV campus. This will be clearer at launch date. Also, Mike Frost and I will be hosting a once a month forum together where we can explore ideas, share stories, host guest, and generally horse around in a missional kind of way. There are tons of other webcasts coming. We already have about 10 regular spots. Anyhow, check this out….

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I love Roland Allen. I believe he was a man who had a remarkable understanding of the nature of missional-incarnational movements. Writing in 1927 he said….
The spontaneous expansion of the Church reduced to its element is a very simple thing. It asks for no elaborate organisation, no large finances, no great numbers of paid [...]