Thought Leaders, Scholars, Emerging Leaders Consider the Future of Mission Church
International Research Consortium and Church Innovations’ Think Tank Convene in March
By Pat Taylor Ellison, Ph.D.

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The future of the missional church will be the focus of the International Research Consortium’s 2009 annual meeting, as well as the invitation-only Church Innovations’ Think Tank on the Future of Missional Church in March 2009 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

International Research Consortium
The IRC was founded six years ago by Harald Hegstad of the Lutheran School of Theology in Oslo, Norway; Coenie Burger, of then BUVTON, now Communitas in Stellenbosch, South Africa; and Patrick Keifert of Church Innovations in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. More than a dozen members of the consortium from Africa, Europe, and North America will arrive on March 26. Stanley Green, Keifert, and Pat Taylor Ellison will convene the welcome session that evening, offering a look at the missional church movement to date. Participants will present papers on where they see the movement headed in their homelands in the foreseeable future, and make plans for the coming year. On Sunday, March 29, the IRC will be joined by the Church Innovations’ Think Tank on the Future of Missional Church for a shared 24 hours of listening and speaking together on the subject. IRC members will leave mid-day on Monday, March 30, while the Think Tank continues working and networking to support the missional church movement’s future.

Think Tank on the Future of Missional Church
The Think Tank on the Future of Missional Church will gather a small number of key leaders from seven groups involved in the missional church movement, including original founders and authors, younger missional scholars, and the youngest emerging leaders who have taken this movement into their lives and ministries. These seven small panels will listen and share with the IRC, jointly discussing the movement’s future in their respective countries. The Think Tank will also discuss how the movement can grow forward into a new generation. Through the practices of Dwelling in the Word and blessing of work, Church Innovations will create a time and space for leaders to tell stories, forge connections, and experience energy and life for missional church.

Participants in both the IRC and the Think Tank have the potential to shape the future of the missional church movement around the world. Watch of follow-up stories in this newsletter sharing highlights from their discussions.

Pat Taylor Ellison, Ph.D., is the managing director of research for Church Innovations.