Think Tank Explores Vision for Mission to Western Culture
By Kris Stache, Director, Partnership for Missional Church

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I was honored to be among 24 missional church thought leaders who recently revisited Lesslie Newbigin’s work and explored what a missionary encounter with western culture would look like. Participants represented three generations; more than half were from outside of North America.

The group came together with a passion for discerning what God is up to relative to a renewed missional church movement, and for wrestling with the questions and issues that will take it from theory to practice.

There is great energy for the vision of this movement. Fredrick Marais, a participant from Stellenbosch, South Africa, said, “I feel enriched by the gift of receiving the missional vision anew from people from vastly different contexts. It affirmed that this vision is not going to die, but is growing. Now is the time to embody it.”

Calling on the Spirit’s guidance, participants will create a theological discussion arising out of Newbigin’s work in the context of living, breathing communities of faith. This 10-year process will seek to understand congregations not as objects to be studied but as partners in conversation and learning.