The missional church cannot generate its energy from the sighs of relief exhaled by its members who are welcomed into it as a place of refuge from “icky ole religion.” Nor can it be a place where people slide “safe” into home base and stay there for the rest of their church life, with grass stains on their pants and a sense of elation for having made the run. The church’s responsibility is to help such individuals get up off the dirt, brush themselves off, have any injuries tended to, and sent back out on the field, and then eventually out of the ballpark altogether.
AT THE INTERSECTION OF MISSIONAL AND UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST THEOLOGIES
The core elements of the modern missional theology movement strongly align with the theological house of Unitarian Universalism that Rebecca Ann Parker explained at Collegium 2003. These elements propel us toward new understandings about how we should work in, and engage with, the world. They urge us toward the life of a modern missionary, in which we both work with the culture, yet still understand ourselves as radical prophets in a land that often reflects values vastly different from our own.
Written two years ago. Over-reliance on quotes. But I said I’d post it, so here it is. – Joanna
AT THE INTERSECTION OF MISSIONAL AND UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST THEOLOGIES
Worship Wagging the Dog?
It is perhaps in our foundational understandings of humanity and God – and their intersection – that we can best find the theological component to drive us toward the positional path of missional life, to achieve that radical inclusivity we champion and crave. Our theological anthropology led to our first associative principle, our support of the “inherent worth and dignity of every person.” When we can genuinely understand and affirm this, and not “tend to think of ourselves as a people set apart, just a notch or two better than others,”(1) our reality will match our lofty goals.
Joanna Fontaine Crawford, “At the Intersection of Missional and Unitarian Universalist Theologies”
[1] Marilyn Sewell, “The Inherent Worth and Dignity of Every Person,” in With Purpose and Principle: Essays about the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism, ed. Edward A. Frost (Boston: Skinner House Books, 1998), 29.
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“…my experience is that there are many others in our movement that are feeling compelled to recover the dynamic of mission in their faith. Our world is facing cataclysmic problems and sitting on the Unitarian franchise is a luxury we cannot afford.” – Rev. David Owen-O’Quill
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David Owen-O’Quill, comment on “A Missionary Faith,” Celestial Lands, web log comment posted February 14, 2008, http://celestiallands.org/wayside/?p=40 (accessed May 13, 2010).
Spiritual Direction, Discernment, Mission and the Liberal Church
You’re here because you know something is wrong. What you know you can’t
explain, but you feel it. You’ve felt it your entire ministerial life, perhaps all your life – that
there’s something wrong with the church. You don’t know what it is, but it’s there, like a
splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to this
paper. Do you know what I’m talking about?
Even after all the trainings and workshops, even after the switch to adaptive
leadership and all-ages worship and a bit of multi-media, something’s still wrong.
Church still isn’t what it could be, what it needs to be for the coming century.
Out of my stillness, I can help with this confusion. I can’t give you any answers,
but I can offer a conceptual framework, some guidelines, some suggestions, one
ancient sacred spiritual practice, and promise my fellowship as you see how deep the
rabbit hole goes. It’s a sacred journey. Choose well, Alices. Take one pill and
everything you know about church is wrong, take the other and you can ignore
everything else I have to say and go back to your congregation as if I never existed and
as if this paper never existed. You will never know the difference.
Spiritual Direction, Discernment, Mission and the Liberal Church
The Beloved Community is not an organization of individuals seeking private and selfish security for their souls. It is a new adventure, a spontaneous fellowship of consecrated people seeking a new world.
Clarence Russell Skinner, The Church of the Beloved Community (Universalist, minister, educator, theologian)
Red Pill Brethren 