Missional
Church in Practice - Relying on and Providing the Bread of Life Click here to return to the Church Innovations web site. When we as an entire family arrive from South Africa to spend a considerable amount of time in a totally different kind of environment in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, the bread business has come on hard times. That is not because you are going to be a student without the same kind of financial security that you were used to for the last 10 years (but that also of course!). It is also not because you are so acutely aware of the global context of wars in the Middle East (although it is true that where there is war, there is no bread!), or the tragic proportions of a lack of bread supply in your own continent (no theology is possible in Africa without including continuous reflection on the tragic lack of bread supply in a continent plagued by hunger and HIV/AIDS). It has more to do with the newness of the current lectionary texts on bread amidst all the questions confronting the family: Are we going to survive? Will the kids enjoy their new school? Will we adapt comfortably enough in such a different setting? None of us ever showed much anxiety about all of this! We are actually very excited about this adventure and the new possibilities. But it is only after you arrive, and new realities sink in, that you realize how reassuring and relevant the bread texts suddenly become in a foreign country. And, of course, how one discovers bread at unexpected places and learns a new appreciation for God’s bread suppliers. It all started about 5 years ago when I, as the lead pastor in a mega-church in South Africa, first met Pat Keifert of Church Innovations. He was just another visitor from abroad who came to enrich us with his theological experience and depth. But this soon became totally different. Without any of us knowing or planning exactly where it would lead, it was actually the start of the Partnership for Missional Church (PMC) in South Africa and Namibia that is now more than 200 congregations strong. It was the start of a serious relationship with Church Innovations as an organization that supplies many congregations and church leaders with the inspiration and tools to rediscover their calling to be God’s bread suppliers. It was through Pat and CI’s subsequent role that I find myself in a position to enroll in a very unique theological program in which the church’s missional character and role are explored for the sake of God’s preferred future for His church and world. It is because of their encouragement and help that we as a family get the chance to enter a new phase of exploring our mission as a family. We had the opportunity of experiencing how others at CI, like Pat Taylor Ellison, Barbara Miller, Kris Stache, John Mueller Nowell and Caroline Hvidsten, are living out their own vocation as God’s bread suppliers. I know that everybody does not always believe in God’s abundance of bread that will always be supplied at the right moment. King Ahab (in the 2 Kings 6-7 narrative) certainly did not believe the prophet Elisha that there will be sufficient bread. Nor did the king’s advisor (bureaucratic officials are in the business of the closed world of what is humanly possible, not necessarily in God’s bread business!). It was eventually from those from whom nobody would expect it to come, that the good news of bread came – the lepers at the city gates. Beggars normally know where to find bread. Maybe that is what attracted me to the Partnership for Missional Church concept and the style of CI’s work – those who know what it means to be in a position of begging, also know where to send others for bread. No wonder DT Niles, celebrated Sri Lankan ecumenist, once said that Christian evangelism is the action of one beggar who has found bread telling other beggars where they also may find bread! Jannie
Swart is currently a PhD student in Congregational Leadership and Mission
at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN. |
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