Especially in pockets of North America where Christian influence is merely a memory and/or when we decide that such culturally-negotiated influence skews the shape of Christian witness away from faithfulness, a great gift is offered. This gift is the long-forgotten, or perhaps never contemplated, idea that Christian leadership is fundamentally a communal practice. Moreover, that when this gift is stewarded well, its most immediate and defining attribute is the flourishing of a local community.
Tim Soerens, Co-Founding Director of the Parish Collective, and Karen, Wilk, author of Don’t Invite Them To Church: A Devotional Guide to Pursuing God’s Mission Together in your Neighbourhood and National Team Member of the Forge Missional Training Network (Canada), are two exceptional leaders who offer not only profound insight on this topic, but serve as living examples of people who have and are living this out.
We encourage you to check out the workshop offered below and to reflect as well as share your thoughts on how you/your community approaches leadership. Is it, as these presenters discuss, “rooted and linked?” What might the benefits of pushing even further in this direction be for the community you inhabit?
Workshop Description:
Evil is brilliant. It’s also profoundly networked. If the church hopes to implement the resurrection into the dark realities of injustice, spiritual isolation, and fragmentation we must re-imagine a church uniting around geographically defined areas of responsibility, engaging in practices and postures that demonstrate the Kingdom come near (Jesus’ tangible love) and forming connections within and between neighbourhoods and cities. Join us to hear some inspiring narratives of collaborative leadership already underway in cities across North America and engage in spirited dialogue on how to generate momentum of collective impact in your neighborhood and city.
The audio download of this workshop is available HERE and is available for free all day today, 11/25/13 (discount automatically applied when you add the workshop to your cart).
**If you find resources like this helpful, there are many more available here. You might even want to grab a bundle all at the same time.**
Missio Alliance Comment Policy
The Missio Alliance Writing Collectives exist as a ministry of writing to resource theological practitioners for mission. From our Leading Voices to our regular Writing Team and those invited to publish with us as Community Voices, we are creating a space for thoughtful engagement of critical issues and questions facing the North American Church in God’s mission. This sort of thoughtful engagement is something that we seek to engender not only in our publishing, but in conversations that unfold as a result in the comment section of our articles.
Unfortunately, because of the relational distance introduced by online communication, “thoughtful engagement” and “comment sections” seldom go hand in hand. At the same time, censorship of comments by those who disagree with points made by authors, whose anger or limited perspective taints their words, or who simply feel the need to express their own opinion on a topic without any meaningful engagement with the article or comment in question can mask an important window into the true state of Christian discourse. As such, Missio Alliance sets forth the following suggestions for those who wish to engage in conversation around our writing:
1. Seek to understand the author’s intent.
If you disagree with something the an author said, consider framing your response as, “I hear you as saying _________. Am I understanding you correctly? If so, here’s why I disagree. _____________.
2. Seek to make your own voice heard.
We deeply desire and value the voice and perspective of our readers. However you may react to an article we publish or a fellow commenter, we encourage you to set forth that reaction is the most constructive way possible. Use your voice and perspective to move conversation forward rather than shut it down.
3. Share your story.
One of our favorite tenants is that “an enemy is someone whose story we haven’t heard.” Very often disagreements and rants are the result of people talking past rather than to one another. Everyone’s perspective is intimately bound up with their own stories – their contexts and experiences. We encourage you to couch your comments in whatever aspect of your own story might help others understand where you are coming from.
In view of those suggestions for shaping conversation on our site and in an effort to curate a hospitable space of open conversation, Missio Alliance may delete comments and/or ban users who show no regard for constructive engagement, especially those whose comments are easily construed as trolling, threatening, or abusive.