(e)mergent Voyageurs

During the Allelon evnet last week, one of the questions asked of Alan Roxburgh was about the difference between “organic” and “institutional” expressions of church or missionality. Alan quickly dismissed the distinction as a false dichotomy, stating that we have too quickly branded institutions as “bad”. While I think he missed the heart of what the question was asking (What say you, Greg?), Alan made some excellent points.

Many others were stirred by this portion of the conversation. My friend Paul, from the local Watershed community, had this to say:

A question I am left with after listening to the conversation involves Alan’s response to someone who was attempting to distinguish between “organicly directed” mission and “institutionally directed mission. Again the inadequacy of language rears it head – what I took as the question was how I move from “Spirit” determined expansion of the Kingdom rather than “strategic” self constructed marketing geared at conversion.

The answer that Alan suggested through his talk, but not necessarily in response to the questioner, was that as we share as individuals in faithful community we allow the Spirit to be a Go-Between ourselves and others in such a way as to lead to the awareness of Christ’s presence. Incidently this is not a conceptual process but an incarnational and spiritual one.

Alan’s direct answer to the questioner, overemphasized the definition of organic and institutional. Of course both aspects are in every situation and the Kingdom’s wind blows in Emergent and Missional and traditional settings but the deep conversation is definitely impeded by humanly constructed restrictions on how the Spirit operates. Hopefully more on this and other topics as the dialogue moves on.

I think Paul was perceptive in noting that language and definitions were impeding the actual question. While I agreed with what Alan shared- for I think we are taking a great risk in dismissing all forms of institution is respect to the church- I wish he had explored the issue more thoroughly. (Ironically, I think Alan got caught up in defintions shortly after he made it clear than such definitions are not very helfpul). Where I agreed with Alan was that we should not view the church in such binary terms- be it organic vs. institutional, emerging vs. traditional, etc. We have much to learn from each without limiting our understanding so narrowly.

That being said, I do believe there are significant implications in the distinction between organic and mechanistic worldviews, especially in how they inform our ecclessiology and missiology. While I won’t go into detail here, I believe the impact of the Industrial Revolution on the way we view and relate to the world around us has been significant and damaging. Our understanding of community, missionality, Scripture and even God drastically shift if we can relearn the more organic worldview into which we were created.

What do you think?

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After only a few quick weeks of planning, our local evening event on Missional Leadership fast approaches. For those within a drive of Winnipeg, I want to invite you to join us at 7pm tomorrow evening (Tuesday, June 5th) at the Ellice Theatre (see map below). Our speaker will be noted author and speaker Alan Roxburgh of Allelon. Allelon is a multi-generational network of missional church leaders, schools and parachurch organizations which envisions, inspires, engages, resources, trains and educates leaders for the church and its mission in our culture.

The evening promises to be a fruitful conversation of what it means to be missional Christians and pursuing missional leadership in the Body of Christ. Wanting to encourage as many people to come as possible, the event is free. A free will offering will be taken to help cover the costs. There is already an exciting cross-section of Christians signed up to join us.

If you are in Winnipeg or within driving distance, please consider joining us for this event. If you know of any one else who might be interested, please bring them along. Our desire is to see the Body of Christ in our area encouraged and equipped to be faithful followers of Christ in reaching our communities.

For more information and to pre-register (simply to help us get an idea of who is coming), please visit the website: www.missional.ca

Ellice Theatre – 585 Ellice Ave. Winnipeg, MB (click on map to enlarge)

If you missed it, I was very pleased last week to announce the upcoming Missional Leadership Conversation with Alan Roxburgh we are hosting on June 5th. Visit www.missional.ca for more information. To give you a taste of some of what Allelon is up to, check out the videos below. The first is an interview with Ryan Bolger by Alan Roxburgh, the second is about the Allelon Summer Institute. Check them out.

After much planning (and far too much foot dragging), Brother Maynard & I are excited to announce the Winnipeg Missional Leadership Conversation with Alan Roxburgh – sponsored in part by Allelon, promoted by YWAM Urban Ministries Winnipeg and Resonate. This event is dedicated to introducing and exploring missional leadership. We are stilling sorting out a venue, but for anyone within shot of Winnipeg we want to encourage you to come out and bring as many as you can.

The event is going to be free and no prior registration is required. However, there is a website up where people can sign up to come and get updates (as per location, prior reading, etc.) at: www.missional.ca . We would also appreciate it if you would help spread the word, through your blogs, email, etc. Feel free to add a button to your sidebar.

Also, because the event is free, there will be an offering taken to cover costs. We are also looking for churches, organization, individuals, etc. who would be willing to donate towards or help sponsor the event. Let me know if you are interested in helping out.

Emerging Church, Missional