Comments on: Missional Discipleship – The Struggles of Leading a People into the Concrete Everyday Missional Life

By: Wayne Cox

Wayne Cox — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:18:09 +0000

Here’s a contribution to the conversation – but I submit it with an invitation to critique(!).

Our church, in a quest for the “concrete,” put in place a description of the functions of biblical community. We tried to identify what was already going on and draw from the NT evidence (what we were missing) to define the functions a Jesus-community will do in obedience to the great commandment/s.

The acronym COSMOS is what we came up with (if you’re interested, you can read the six functions here: http://bridgecommunity.org/about/cosmos/). Hopefully, it doesn’t become a legalistic thing, but we’re trying to build a certain set of “expectations” for what it will mean to be part of the mission/church …

Thanks for the discussion!

By: JR Woodward

JR Woodward — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:57:55 +0000

Love it. The statement is succinct, memorable with depth and direction and the specific ways to practice it can only be helpful for the congregation.

By: Mike Crowl

Mike Crowl — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 04:22:03 +0000

Absolutely need the concrete. Too much of a congregation’s time is spent wondering what the blokes up front actually mean when it comes to talking about where we’re all going.

Of course, I’m not talking about MY church…!

By: len

len — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:30:40 +0000

Values are often motherhood statements; practices, while they will connote legalism for some, are the only way to move beyond dualism while putting feet to the ground. I like the way you moved beyond the buzz words while casting a “concrete” imagination for everyone. Well done bros!

By: geoff holsclaw

geoff holsclaw — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:13:59 +0000

i see a keith meyers impersonator (Matt, dave prefers man-hugs!) OXOX.

Dave, way to hang me out to dry in case their was a big backlash!

but it seems we are not the only ones who don’t have it all figure out. that is reassuring. Of course for us these things are still just BIG ideas which still have to take root and become ingrained in us all. that is the tough part, yes?

By: mick

mick — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:09:18 +0000

No time to think about this at the moment but wanted to say I appreciate your generosity in sharing a narrative sentence that envisions your community, and yet they are congruent with your earlier identity statement.

I appreciate your desire in not wanting to offend our fundamentalist “wounds”. But we need to get over this and see that fundamentalism (at its worst) was about legalism, earning, control, fear, guilt, etc.), vs. active practices, disciplines, etc. that lead to deeper relationships of loving God, loving others as well as receiving love from God and others. It is often sacrificial and cruciform but also life giving resurection power.

By: davidfitch

davidfitch — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 03:37:17 +0000

Can I blush now? DF

By: Matt Tebbe

Matt Tebbe — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:09:05 +0000

Keith,

Dave does not appreciate man-kisses like he should. But don’t let up on him…he will see their immense benefit some day.

Hope you are well, friend -

Matt

By: Keith Meyer

Keith Meyer — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:14:49 +0000

Dave,

Looks good to me.

Love and Kisses,
Keith

By: Adam Gustine

Adam Gustine — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:39:05 +0000

Dave,

Thanks for this post. It resonates with me as well. In fact, it was our pastoral teams discussion at breakfast this morning. We can talk about learning to live together as God’s people here in our city (Brooklyn) but if we can’t even put a concrete picture of “what it might look like” together, why would we expect anyone else in our community to be able to either. It seems as though this might be the harder work, learning to translate the idea into concrete practices, but potentially a way to help people learn to live out the language we use.