Overheard at Verge (a Missional Community conference in Austin)…
“The cross, by it’s very nature, is outside anyone’s comfort zone.” – Francis Chan
“It’s not about learning what we don’t know, but living out what we do know.” – Jon Ferguson
“Learning takes place when programming is subjected to questioning.”- Alan Hirsch
“if we don’t disciple, the culture sure will.” – Hirsch
“We don’t just need to use our gifts, we need to be equipping people to use their gifts.” – Ed Stetzer
“When we do for others what God has called them to do, we hurt eachother and hinder the church.” – Stetzer
“If people know you’re for them, not against them, they’ll start to believe your God is for them, not against them.” – John Burke
“If we aim at ministry, we’ll never hit mission, but if we aim at ministry, missions happens naturally.” – Hirsch
“Our lives must find their place in some greater story, or they’ll find their place in some lessor story.” – Caesar Kalinowski
You should also watch this:Â The Big Red Tractor from Jacob Lewis on Vimeo.
I’m still processing everything I heard, and I know some of it’ll require action. I guess we should all stay tuned to figure out exactly what that means.
Mayhem, Missiology and Musings... 
Micah,I get what you’re saying. Most mercchugahes seem to run everything they do through the filter of their mission, which is usually something like, Get people in the pews. But I’d like to differentiate between that sort of pragmatic approach and what Hirsch ( and others- it’s not just him!) would consider to be a foundational understanding of the function of the church.I don’t think this is a false dichotomy to categorize two common perspectives (one that says that the body of Christ should be the main thing for believers, and another, which holds that the reason God established the church at all was to organize us to do mission) and compare and contrast them. I agree with Todd- it’s not helpful to see them as linear, Which comes first? sorts of things, but should one, in fact, serve the other?Of course we’re all on the same team here, and of course no one is against anyone else in the conversation and of course, no one would put themselves into one extreme or another. Nevertheless, I’ve interacted with several godly leaders who seem to fall toward one side or the other. Most of my reformed and Acts 29 friends tend toward the ecclesiology side. They tend to say that we can’t do missions well (effectively, obediently, successfully, biblically) until we do church right. A plurality of (male) elders, gospel-centered preaching, discipleship, accountability, discipline, etc.Most of my missional friends would fall on the other side, saying that getting all the church stuff right won’t necessarily make us effective as incarnational witnesses. They usually go on to say that mission should be the organizing concept behind all that we do. By the way, my next post will show that I think we need to come at it from both sides. I’m a little bit behind David Fitch’s posts on the same topic, but I think each side needs to hear from the other side. Thankfully, all parties involved in the discussion claim that both ecclesiology and missiology follow after (or serve) christology.
Thanks for finally talking about >It Shall Be No Longer Mine « Mayhem, Missiology and Musings…
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