// In Yoda style, ‘Wrestle with this. I do.’
Just read Brad Watson’s helpful post tackling the question of “Why does our missional church gather on Sunday“. Unlike Brad I’ve come to the question from a different place as I am a child of the ‘gathered’ church. I don’t have any distilled learning to share yet from our experience of the last 4 years with Mosaic and Exilio but may share some someday…
It’s a good post to read anyway.
// I introduced Millennials
Here’s some nuggets from chapter 2, ‘Generational analysis’:
The Orr-Ewings highlight 7 key characteristics on p47 of the ‘Millennial persona’, as they put it, taken from Strauss and Howe’s, Millennials Rising:
The authors also quote a report from the Evangelical Alliance Council Meeting on September 16, 2009 on ‘The 18 – 30 Mission: A Missing Generation’
In research carried out by Innovista it was found that 96% of church leaders think that increasing the number of 16 to 30 year olds in the church is either more important or as important as any other top priority. Yet despite this, only 11% of the same church leaders felt ‘well resourced’ to do this in terms of people, training, and tools. p48
They are looking for a job that will give them everything. p49
The “magic” for Gen Yers comes in making a difference – producing something worthwhile – whilst working with a great team and getting the rewards they feel they deserve. p49
Teaching on giving will need to be strong and clear as will the link between caring about social justice and doing something about it personally as the gap between rich and poor increases. p52
Due to the amount of adverts, the focus of the millennial consumer has become lifestyle image rather than functional need. p56
[Millennials are] used to not having to exert much effort. p57
To become part of the inner circle a brand needs to be trusted, agile, transparent, and engaging. p59
“Hyper communication” leads to constant multitasking, and the potential for CPA (continuous partial attention). p62
This point resonated as I’ve recognised the shifts in my behaviour over the last five years or so: multi-device consumption, shorter attention span, increased ease of distraction etc.
Quoting p46 of Smith and Snell, Souls in Transition,
The vast majority are intuitionists – that is, they believe that they know what is right and wrong by attending to the subjective feelings or intuitions that they sense within themselves when they find themselves in various situations or facing ethical questions… The majority of emerging adults interviewed had difficulty thinking of even one example of a situation recently when they had some trouble deciding what was the morally right or wrong thing to do. p64
If we succeed in reaching this generation for Christ they have the potential to rival the Victorians in the impact they make in the world in rebuilding the community and the family, tackling poverty and seeing massive social transformation in the face of poverty and inequality. Could they usher in another great Evangelical century? p70
// Just come across this great piece by Keith Anderson called ‘The digital cathedral: Coffeehouses as social media? Pubs as sacred space?‘. Well worth a read about an elixir close to my heart!
HT to @time2morph
// The Exilio community had an evening of sharing vision and prayer at the weekend and as part of sharing where Mosaic is at and what it’s up to I showed the video below. At the risk of sounding like a one-trick pony, the awesome Jeff V of Soma unpacks what day-to-day life looks like for his missional community, a lot of which is aspirational to myself and the Mosaic community. Enjoy!
// I can concur. Life with three children IS truly mad! And wonderful. And smelly. And LOUD!
Anyways, despite being a while since I’ve managed to post anything here, the awesome family at SOMA have put these three shorts vids together recently and they serve as a good reminder of what we are trying to do.
If you are looking from the outside in, forgive the churchy language.
The question is, what do you think?
// Tim Chester has just posted over at The Resurgence six great, and simple, suggestions for mission rhythms in our lives. I’ve pasted the headings below and would encourage you to follow the link for further, brief, explanations.
6 Simple Ways
Do you have any other simple tips & rhythms to recommend?
// This touches on issues that are worthy of a fuller post (which may see the light of day… eventually), but here are some of the many reasons why I no longer work as a ‘full-time Christian Minister’ (I really do hate that phrase and its many contradictions). I’m convinced there is a better model than ‘professional’ clergy, and these guys touch on some of the reasons why.
// A few years ago, Steph and I had a life changing 5 days hanging out with a bunch of Jesus’ followers in Sheffield, England, who were part of a community called The Crowded House. To say the experience had a seismic effect on our understanding of community, mission and culture would be an understatement.
If you are new to this great bunch of people the book Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community
(HT Tim Chester)
I also discovered three other gems on their Vimeo channel that unpack their vision and values further under the ideas of community, mission and word, through interviews with people in the community. Grab a cuppa and enjoy. Continue reading
// I can’t believe it’s true, but it is: Mosaic is now a year old! Our rag-tag community have experienced so much over the last 12 months, but we are very much still at ‘the beginning’. There is lots to learn and a ton in our community life and mission that I feel still needs nailing down. But, is has been, and is, amazing. I love our community, and the people who make it. I love the friends we’ve gotten to know over the last year. And I love what God is up to in us and through us. A lot of the time I feel like our emerging community is a kite in God’s wind, blown into new things and kept aloft by him. And recently, it’s been quite windy!
// Mosaic musings 