Comments on: Missional: Becoming & Living Christ Together

By: St. Patrick, the Cross & Missional Formation « A Living Alternative Our Missional Pilgrimage

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:53:00 +0000

[...] of Easter, Little Flowers Community has been meditating on the Cross and its formational work in shaping us into Christ’s Body, a missional-incarnational people together. This past Wednesday was the Feast of St. Patrick, a man whose life powerfully displayed this [...]

By: Little Flowers Community » Blog Archive » St. Patrick, the Cross & Missional Formation

Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:49:52 +0000

By: Missional Life & A Global Perspective « A Living Alternative Our Missional Pilgrimage

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 18:06:24 +0000

[...] Previous Post – Missional: Becoming & Living Christ Together [...]

By: Little Flowers Community » Blog Archive » Becoming & Living As Christ Together

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:24:40 +0000

[...] the rest of the entry here. « The Wise Builder – SOTM Series [...]

By: Jamie

Jamie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:38:43 +0000

Good point, Chris. A very helpful addition to this post. Thanks!

Peace,
Jamie

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:18:47 +0000

Yes, good post Jamie. “Dying to self” can really only happen in the context of a community…we lay down our life, not for the sake of dying but we lay down our life, in imitation of Jesus, for our friends. This does not work as an abstract concept (”if soldiers came into this room right now and pointed a gun at your head…blah, blah, blah”), it can only happen in relationships. The choice to actually give your physical life for the gospel will come to very few of us (we hope), but the choice to give your life for the gospel as a living sacrifice comes to us every moment of every day. Am I going to live for myself or lay that down in imitation of Jesus. This is how we are the body of Christ and in all those small deaths we die (daily) we can see God still doing his redemptive work of resurrection in our relationships.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:52:57 +0000

Thanks JR. Indeed, that is exactly what I was after with this post. At Little Flowers Community we have been very, very intentional not to go after “missional activity” as though that would make us missional. Certainly we engage in missional activities of various kinds, but as we pursue what it means to be a missional community, we are seeking to shaped together into the image of Christ, allowing His Spirit to move us in His way.

Peace,
Jamie

By: JR Rozko

JR Rozko — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:43:22 +0000

These are some great thoughts Jamie. Dave didn’t mention it, but the guiding phrase for us at Life on the Vine has been, “Living in Christ, with one another, for God’s mission in the world.”

This sort of phrase does at least 2 things. 1) It takes a stab at “defining” missional by unifying three core aspects into one identity. It’s not a staged or linear process of growth, development or programming, but all three elements are concurrent and mutually dependent on one another. 2) It makes what we are about as a local church community more a matter of “being” than “doing.” The classic mistake (well, one of them anyway) with articulating a missional identity is to envision it as doing more, going out, reaching out, things of that sort. These are all of course wonderful things, but are not to be equated with what it means to have a missional identity.

If I’m reading you right, it sounds like this is what you’re after.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:44:06 +0000

Thanks David, that means a great deal to me.

Peace,
Jamie

By: David Fitch

David Fitch — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 23:39:11 +0000

Dude …
If there was any doubt before …let me affirm you – you’re a theologian. Thanks for the post.