Got a couple of “Eureka” moments from around the blogosphere. The first comes from my favourite link-source: Out of Ur – inteviewing a pastor from Texas.
What is the mission of NorthWood Church?
Glocal transformation.
You mean transformation of individuals or of communities or what?
All of it. It starts with individuals. But it can’t stop there.
Love it! That seems to hit on exactly where my thinking is at for this whole emerging-missional thing. It has to start at the individual level, but it would be such a bitter tragedy if that’s where the transformational nature of Jesus’ ministry in this world ends.
The second ripper comes from a blog that I’ve only just found: “The Visitor’s Card“. It’s written by an intrigued agnostic, who is spending a bit of time checking out churches and reporting back. She’s a very good writer, and it shows. But I loved this little story from her post “Reason #4 – My Experiences With God Have Not Been In Church”
I forget where I was going, because I looked off to the east and saw a massive, ginormous, totally out-of-hand thunderstorm forming in the sky. (If you’ve been out west, you know how those big skies can be suddenly filled with thunderheads that seem miles wide and tall.) I watched this sky as I walked and suddenly I was blocks past where I had been heading, because it was so beautiful yet ominous yet powerful that I couldn’t look away. Somehow, it wasn’t just a thunderstorm, or just clouds, and I was overwhelmed by it, then felt a remarkable sense of peace afterward. I figure that’s God.
That articulates as well as I’ve heard, the trinitarian Baxter Kruger type stuff, melded together with the notion that Alan Hirsch talks about of “prevenient grace”. It just goes to demonstrate that we have an actively involved God who is revealing himself in little bits everywhere. Love it.