Vol 3: 16 Missional Living: The Chaos of Following the Spirit

Following the Spirit can only be described as chaotic when we sense we have lost or are losing control in knowing where we are being led. We determine a situation is chaotic, when we cannot exert enough influence to ensure the outcomes we desire. Exercising effective leadership has much to do with bringing order out of chaos – but I suspect it has little to do with being open to the leading...

Vol 3:14 Missional Living: Focusing on What (Whom) God Notices

What makes us missional? Being missional I am realizing has less to do with focusing on the task of God’s mission as it does focusing on what God notices. Or perhaps, it is better stated, whom God notices. This coming week I am speaking at the Illinois Mennonite Conference Annual Assembly. The theme for the assembly is 1 Corinthians 3:9 – Co-workers in God’s Service! As I was...

Vol 2: 37 The Soul of God: A Missional Credo – Living as Jesus

As I further explore insights from Ray Anderson’s theological memoir, The Soul of God, I continue to be deeply influenced in being shaped in living missionally. In the second chapter of The Soul of God, Ray Anderson shares regarding the humanity of Jesus as to what it meant that he was sent – as a way of shaping how we are sent. I share his statement here without comment – it is for me a...

Vol 2:33 Mission and Evangelism: Living Life through “Gospel Filters”

Ben Campbell Johnson in Speaking of God: Evangelism as Initial Spiritual Guidance expresses the process of discernment as listening through “gospel filters” (cf. p. 121). I would like to take that a step further by asking the question as to how we live our lives through “gospel filters.” This is not a way of seeing through “rosy tinted glasses” which causes us to see what we want to...