Mission in the Neighbourhood

On the Missional Network website Alan Roxburgh and his team invite you to join them as they introduce some ways in which you can begin some small experiments in joining God in the neighborhood.

Over the next 30 days they will tell stories, suggest actions and share interviews, and they invite you to join the conversation. What are your stories? What are the questions you would like to have answered? Where are you seeing the Spirit change your imagination of what it means to be the church today?

If you feel a little unimaginative in this regard go to another site recommended by Roxburgh called Missional in Suburbia. They're doing a series called The Church Returns to the Neighbourhood (the first post is here) and they're already (as at the 3rd May) up to their fourth post on the topic. The posts connect back to Roxburgh's book, expanding on his ideas.

Transmitting faith

The early church had to reject culturally irrelevant traditions in order to transmit the faith across cultures.

Some of us are keenly aware of the tensions that arise while transmitting the faith. A Korean congregation must decide how to reach the second and third generation who mostly speak English. A denomination that baptizes infants is faced with Hispanic congregations who embrace believer’s baptism. A mostly White suburban church wonders how to respond to new minority residents who’ve been displaced from the city by gentrification. Paul’s rejection of cultural monopoly seems downright impractical in these situations. Wouldn’t it be simpler for new converts, new immigrants, and new generations to adapt to our established traditions?

So asks David Swanson in a post entitled Urban Exile: Whose History?