Mike Frost on mission

A quote from Michael Frost:
It is not any longer possible…that we sit in some command center telling other people how to go forth. I’m speaking in particular to those of you who are clergy. You cannot preach about, encourage or motivate or mobilize people into mission unless you model what missional proximity looks like. You cannot sit in some ivory tower spending days and days preparing sermons which are seeking to motivate people into mission unless you yourself are prepared to embrace that similar commitment to proximity. Do you follow what I’m saying? I’m not just talking about proximity like “our building is on the street corner on the main street with a gigantic sign and everyone knows that we are there.” I’m talking about personal, relational, and geographic proximity to people.

Unfortunately Rick Meigs, the write of the Blind Beggar blog from which this quote comes, doesn't give us a source. (You might like to pray for Rick: he was travelling on his motorcycle on June 13th, and was hit by a truck crossing the line, and is in critical condition.)

Community and Common Purpose

Having spent a number of months over the last few years being involved (as an actor) in various amateur plays, notably the Narnia productions for Dunedin City Baptist, and many years before that as the pianist for various concert groups, I was interested to read the following in Michael Frost's book, Exiles - living missionally in a post-christian culture.

Many people undergo something of a communitas experience in their daily lives. Sporting teams, theatre companies, orchestras, bands, dance troupes – these kinds of societies all know something, perhaps just a whiff, of the concept of communitas. When a group of musicians or dancers are performing, every member must play his or her part well, not just individually, but in concert with the others. The sense of interdependence can be very exciting. Jazz musicians speak of the almost spiritual nirvana they sense when all members of the band are playing in perfect harmony. Any member of a sports team can recall something of the profound sense of intimacy felt with teammates when individual contributions to the game create a force greater than the sum of their parts.

When an amateur theatre group begins rehearsals, it can be just a rag-tag assembly of would-be thespians. But on the stage, galvanized by the urgency of the impending opening night, they are transformed into something else. With the script as their guide, they are forced together by the ‘ordeal’ of knowing that soon they will be giving public performances.

One young amateur actor once told me that he felt a greater sense of belonging and acceptance in this theatre company than in his church. I suppose he thought that it had to do with the quality of the people in the theatre as compared with those in the church. But the fact remains that churches are full of marvellous, kind, caring people, every bit as accepting as theatre people. The fundamental difference is that churches are working on community, while an amateur theatre group is a kind of communitas.

Pg 116 Hendrickson paperback edition, 2007

I'm not sure that I agree with Frost's conclusion about how the young actor felt: the quality of people in a theatre company may be just as diverse as anywhere else. In fact there will be some that you don't feel any great kinship with. But in the doing of the play together, even the most diverse people are pulled together into something greater than themselves.

The Shaping of Things to Come

I know that the book, The Shaping of Things to Come, by Mike Frost and Alan Hirsch, has been around for about four years, and most of you will have read it, or come across it.

However, for those who haven't, there's an excellent review and detailed summary of the book and its contents on the John Mark Ministries site, in Australia. It has enough detail in it for you to be able to assess the whole book without having to read it from cover to cover - something the busier ones amongst you might appreciate.