Was at CMS Oxford again today to hear Mike Frost (author of Exiles and co-author of The Shaping of Things to Come) speak on "Incarnational Mission". Here's some points that stuck out for me.
Food as the lubricant of mission
This is something I've blogged about before – that sharing food together seems to be at the core of building relationships and community – and therefore, of course, of mission. Mike talked about eating together as an equilising factor in a relationship. When I come to your house and eat with you I realise that you are actually just like me – only human. I see how you speak with your mouth full, and how your children misbehave like normal children and how your house is messy like a normal person's house.
Finding the "Fingerprints of God"
Mike talked about finding the fingerprints of God in people's lives and experience – especially in relation to being able to interpret and provide vocabulary for people's spiritual or religious experiences. This fits in well with the idea of the "Seedbearing Word" cultivated by Justin Martyr (Early Church Father). God is everywhere, in everything – let's spot where he's been and what he's doing and join in.
Medicine Man Chief
Medicine Man Chief is a book (not available in the UK?) that Mike talked about. He talked about the idea of dual-leadership – with two leaders each fulfilling different roles – as in the different roles of Medicine Man and Chief in Tribal groups. The Chief is at the centre of the community and embodies the communities values, whilst the Medicine Man is on the margins and tests the community's boundaries.
The Chief keeps order, whilst the Medicine Man cultivates manageable chaos.
Whilst part of me wishes I was the Chief – I very much know that I'm almost the epitimy of Medicine Man. But I think it's the Medicine Men that are lacking in the Church – there's too much order and not enough chaos, although obviously they are best when in equilibrium. I'm guessing most emerging/organic/pioneer leaders would tend to fit more the medicine man model.
However, the role of chief in our emergent society is very quickly diminishing – companies like Google are going out to find the Medicine Men who and cultivate them into creativity and chaotic, organic thinking – in order to push back boundaries. More and more, the role of Medicine Man is coming to the fore (although the term Witch Doctor is maybe a little cooler, it is a little dodgier).
All in all, an awesome day. It was good to have a very simple, well-thought out run through the whole mission-oriented approach – as well as some fresh extra bits added on.
Life for Hiam and the church is now more complex but, he says, more rewarding. To accommodate the lack of facilities, Hiam took the radical step and converted his basement into an administration center. “We slimmed down everything and focused on following Jesus into mission. We asked what it would mean to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. We now meet once a month for a large gathering and meal, and put all of our focus on meeting in homes. It meant really getting serious about discipleship and putting our trust into the hands of our gifted leaders.”
