Communion, Caring, and Celebration: Final Thoughts on Mission and Church by Reggie McNeal

1. Disinterest in institutional cultural Christianity will accelerate. (Even if you don't have a Christian church, how is this true of your church as an institution that is as traditional and as caught up in cultural values as any other dominant culture institution?).

2. Churches that thrive will become more externally focused in their ministry agenda and more intentional in developing their people. (see all the posts below)

3. An explosion of missional communities will occur. These will be groups of believers and nonbelievers who will operate in noninstitutional settings. They will range in size from a handful of participants to a few dozen. Gathering will take place in homes and restaurants, bookstores and bars, office conference rooms and university dorm rooms, hotel meeting areas and downtown Ys and yes even churches. Leadership will emerge from within. technology will assist teaching......These communities will order their lives around Communion, Caring, and Celebration. [Ron: These three C's are a part of what we do with The LivingRoom Church at A Third Place Center, just as are the 3 R's I have posted on before, as Relocation, Redistribution, Reconciliation.]

4. Increasing numbers of Jesus followers will live out their missional expression in the context of their family and work environments...they will attend worship on special occasions but their tribe will be those in close contact helping them live missionally. churches and clergy who get this can help them as one way of being church.

5. Many new leaders of missional movements will not be clergy, though many clergy will learn to transition into mission, and find ways through grants and other ways to be paid; but many will not be able to make this shift.

6. The current dominant affiliations based on doctrinal agreement and denominational polity will be replaced by those of common compassion and life orientation. The spiritual agenda will be less issue-oriented and more centered around loving God and loving others as the core attitudes and actions of genuine Jesus followers.

7. Spiritual literature (including the web) will increasingly focus on helping people beome more intentional Jesus followers in their natural habitats.

8. Some of you reading this will lead the missional church movement.

Thanks to Reggie McNeal for his book, for his workshop that changed and charged me up for visiioning the transition that has been chronicled through the posts of this blog. Again much of this post and those that follow quotes McNeal, paraphrases him, and adds my comment. Now add yours.

Type rest of the post here