Marginal Christianity

David Fitch responded to Mike Breen’s above-named blog post by claiming that a “missing ecclesiology” is what creates the failure of the “missional” church to grow more than individual “missional” disciples.   I think he’s right. I believe this “missing ecclesiology” is endemic to American Christianity (in part because of the individualism Breen focuses on) and is the chief cause Christianity in this hemisphere has been vulnerable to, even eager, to be chaplain to North American culture rather its primary critic, or at least court jester who shows and tells the rest of the world that the emperor is wearing no clothes! I suggest that the biblical picture of God’s people contain just these later elements.   And they are irreducible and non-negotiable.   In whatever form we meet this people, -wandering families                          ...

Yesterday I summarized Mike Breen’s that the rampant individualism of western culture has theologically diluted the Christian idea of God as triune to effectively a Unitarian deity.   This god cannot generate a community of faith because he himself knows no community.   This view of God has effectively whittled the retrieval of the “Missio Dei” (Mission of God) movement of recent years down to individualized “missional Christians” rather a missional church.   Breen pleads for a theological renewal of Trinitarian theology and a deeper experience or participating in the triune life of God in Christ by the power of the Spirit. An academic renewal of Trinitarian theology has been going on but it has not effectively reached the good folks in the pews (or, likely, a fair number of pastors either). Clearly work remains to be done at this point. Breen’s identification of individualism is right but too narrow in my judgment.   I suspect its one element of a mutually...

Initial Thoughts on Mike Breen’s Proposal to Change the Missional Conversation (http://weare3dm.com/mikebreen/we-are-3dm/why-the-missional-conversation-must-change/?utm_content=buffer79af7&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer) Mike Breen’s blog “Why the Missional Conversation Must Change” puts into more popular form the core of John Flett’s scholarly analysis God as Witness . He argues that “Missio Dei” needs to become “Missio Trinitatis” to confront the strong individualism of western culture.   This individualism, claims Breen, has reduced the conception of Missio Dei to an individualized “God” which in turn results in producing individual missional Christians who are confused and ill-prepared to be witnesses in the world.   So, Breen says, we must recover the triunty of the one God, God as community, and allow this understanding and experience of God to define our sense of mission and transform us as a missional people. Flet...

In the last year, I believe we’ve most simply honed it down to these 5 essential ingredients of a Missional Community: • Size of an extended family. A missional family is best understood in the range of 20-50 people, as it is small enough to care but large enough to dare. From much experience, I’d say it can be difficult to sustain long-term missional activity for a group smaller than this. • UP/IN/OUT. Intentionally lives out the three dimensions of Jesus’ life. UPward dimension of life with the Father, INward dimension of life with the Body of Christ together, OUTward dimension of fully stepping into a broken world. • Clear mission vision. Who is this Missional Community trying to bring the Kingdom of God to? The most successful MC’s have a very clear answer that could only be true of their group. • Lighweight/Low maintenance. If the Missional Community can’t be led by people with normal 9-5 jobs who aren’t paid to do it, it’s not lightweight and low maintenance enough. It’s...