Reclaiming the Word "Missional"

I had the opportunity to meet Alan Hirsch a couple weeks ago, which was a great honor and, of course, included captivating, thoughtful discussion.

As part of his stop at CTI, he did an interview with Leadership journal and Out of Ur. You can find the audio here.

The short clip focuses on what "missional" really means (because everyone seems to be using the word these days), and I've included a few of my notes here:

• A missionary stance toward the culture
  
• Treat neighbors as a cross-cultural environment
  
• Pretend you're in Papua New Guinea and have to learn all about a new culture
  
• There are hundreds of subcultures around us (different music tastes, hobbies, dress code, political thinking, etc)
  

What does an attractional church do if it realizes they need to shift their posture to a more missional mindset?:

• Win the battle of the imagination
  
• Dethrone Constantine (that the Church exists beyond the institution)
  
• Be patient because it's such a huge shift
  
• Everyone has to take an active role and realize they're more than consumers
  
• Know that people will be upset by this shift
  

Listen to the short audio clip for more context.

Food Drive--Take Two

Last night we carried out part two of our meticulous two-part plan to gather food for Hesed House. Last weekend Michelle and I went around to about 20 of our neighbors' houses to invite them to a cookout and ask them to bring some non-perishable food stuff. I got home from work and with Michelle, Cory, and Megan got out the lawn chairs, some blankets, and wheeled the grill around to the front of the house. At 6:30 I started cooking, wondering if I'd be cooking for anyone but the six of us (4 plus Isaiah and Ayla). It was a nice night, but still kind of chilly, and I know meeting new people can be intimidating, especially when there's a kid with muscles like Isaiah is out front--so I didn't know if anyone would come.

I needed not fear (that's a weird sentence, but I'm leaving it). We ended up having people from six of the neighboring houses stop by, and most of them stayed to talk and consume some cooked meat. Everyone who came was very generous with their donations for Hesed House.

There were a number of highlights from the night.

1. A couple long-time neighborhood families (15 and 19 years) saying this was the first time something like this had happened in the neighborhood. They were so excited to be there and were talking about getting to know each other better over the summer.
2. Our neighbor down the street offering his 4 month old son as a "perishable good" for the food drive. (Well, I thought it was funny.)
3. Two of the people who were there expressed interest in hosting something for the neighborhood.
4. We took a huge step toward knowing our neighbors.

This morning Cory and I took the food to Hesed House (it took the use of both of our cars!). We all are praising God that the food drive went so well and that in this one step we have made some initial connections with our neighbors. God is good!