I've often heard people say that the process of learning in seminary is a whole lot like arriving with everything neatly packed in your suitcase, having it bust open and spill its contents all over the floor, and then rearranging everything back in the suitcase.
A friend of mine recently asked me to spend a little bit of time writing about the Missional Wisdom program so that he might understand a little more about it.
I find it's still hard for me to state specifically what it is I am doing in the program, but the suitcase analogy seems like an apt metaphor for what's happening with me.
The only difference is that this time around I arrived with my suitcase stuffed to the gills and its contents already in a jumble. What I'm doing now is sorting through all the contents. I'm finding out that I simply don't need some of the things in that suitcase and the rest of them need to go back in an altogether different order.
For example, here is a bit of what I've been tussling with recently regarding the place of worship and mission in the life of the church:
Readings for one week from our text, The Faith of Leap, suggested that mission needs to be restored as the organizing principle of the church. However, in seminary we had it drilled into us that Worship is the organizing - or at least central - principle of the church.
For me that's the way I've always seen things to be. Everything we do is supposed to flow out of our worship of God, or so I have always thought. However, as I've reflected upon my practical experience in the church, I've come to realize this never, ever has seemed to be the case.
As I've dealt with the institutional for the past 20+ years as a church member, elder, and as a minister, I've always been left scratching my head asking, "Why doesn't worship lead us into further engagement in the world?" "Why do people come to worship but seldom seem affected by it enough to go out and to love and serve their neighbor?"
Still, in the midst of all that struggle, doubt, and questions, I've had serious reservations about shifting my thinking in a different direction on this issue. I think those reservations have primarily come from an objection that a shift from Worship to Mission as the organizing principle might somehow tend to shift the focus from God to us, to the work we do in the world.
What's helped me change my thinking on this is the helpful suggestion of the authors that we should always see the proclamation of "Jesus as Lord" as the actual core or center of the church. The four columns of worship, community, discipleship, and mission all revolve around that core proclamation.
The place of mission in all this however is primary. It is to be the catalyst that sparks and gets things going. I now see that this is something that Worship, as wonderful, as necessary, and as foundational as it is, was never designed nor intended to do.
I wonder in what other ways, the contents of my suitcase will be sorted and reorganized in coming months. It's hard work, but I think the pay off will make it much easier for me to travel lightly on this missional journey.
A friend of mine recently asked me to spend a little bit of time writing about the Missional Wisdom program so that he might understand a little more about it.
I find it's still hard for me to state specifically what it is I am doing in the program, but the suitcase analogy seems like an apt metaphor for what's happening with me.
The only difference is that this time around I arrived with my suitcase stuffed to the gills and its contents already in a jumble. What I'm doing now is sorting through all the contents. I'm finding out that I simply don't need some of the things in that suitcase and the rest of them need to go back in an altogether different order.
For example, here is a bit of what I've been tussling with recently regarding the place of worship and mission in the life of the church:
Readings for one week from our text, The Faith of Leap, suggested that mission needs to be restored as the organizing principle of the church. However, in seminary we had it drilled into us that Worship is the organizing - or at least central - principle of the church.
For me that's the way I've always seen things to be. Everything we do is supposed to flow out of our worship of God, or so I have always thought. However, as I've reflected upon my practical experience in the church, I've come to realize this never, ever has seemed to be the case.
As I've dealt with the institutional for the past 20+ years as a church member, elder, and as a minister, I've always been left scratching my head asking, "Why doesn't worship lead us into further engagement in the world?" "Why do people come to worship but seldom seem affected by it enough to go out and to love and serve their neighbor?"
Still, in the midst of all that struggle, doubt, and questions, I've had serious reservations about shifting my thinking in a different direction on this issue. I think those reservations have primarily come from an objection that a shift from Worship to Mission as the organizing principle might somehow tend to shift the focus from God to us, to the work we do in the world.
What's helped me change my thinking on this is the helpful suggestion of the authors that we should always see the proclamation of "Jesus as Lord" as the actual core or center of the church. The four columns of worship, community, discipleship, and mission all revolve around that core proclamation.
The place of mission in all this however is primary. It is to be the catalyst that sparks and gets things going. I now see that this is something that Worship, as wonderful, as necessary, and as foundational as it is, was never designed nor intended to do.
I wonder in what other ways, the contents of my suitcase will be sorted and reorganized in coming months. It's hard work, but I think the pay off will make it much easier for me to travel lightly on this missional journey.
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