Some more from my essay reflecting on the missional impulse mDNA component of Alan Hirsch’s model and how it relates to nccc… for your boredom

There is no doubt that the missional impulse is at the very heart of the nccc story, beginning with the decision to merge the four churches. For some, this was motivated by a survival mentality but the missional impulse was very strong. Post merge, this missional imperative continues as nccc has planted many different congregations and missional teams in response to the northern suburbs demographics. However, it is incarnational element of the missional-incarnational impulse element that challenges nccc. We need to question how we incarnate ourselves into the communities that make up the northern suburbs of Melbourne.

Our missional teams respond to needs within the community have shown an incarnational impulse. For example, the South Morang missional team are resisting the temptation to just run programs and invite people to attend. Instead, team members are joining in with the rhythms of the community life. This may be expressed in a number of ways in the local primary school and a local conservation group. The team is also establishing a community playgroup and while this is a ‘program’, it is entered into in partnership with the local council. Our other missional teams include the Opportunity Shop, work for the dole placement programs, Food bank service, emergency food relief and English conversation group. They are successful in allowing our Church to “incarnate” into the needs of the community. We continue to evaluate whether our missional teams are simply creating programs in the hope that we can get people there, or whether they are genuinely responding to the needs of the community. At the moment, I think it is largely the latter, but it is a question that must always rankle and challenge us.

It is in considering the congregations that I am most challenged by the incarnational impulse. Each of our new congregations was sparked by the missional impulse. They have all been started to provide a gathering space suitable for those with whom we are seeking to connect. For example, Nexus was intended to connect with the many young adults in the community, and was started in a café with a style that we believed would be compatible with young adults outside the church. Our new congregations hold the sharing of each others’ lives as a core value and this is symbolically demonstrated in the sharing of a common meal.

However, the very nature of a ‘gathering’ separates the congregation somewhat from the missional context. In practice, I think this is appropriate as space is important for missional life. Nonetheless, it is important that there are entry points and connections are made with the missional context. Steve Taylor in his book Out of Bounds Church (Taylor S, The out of bounds Church?, Emergent YS, USA, 2005)  may offer part of the solution. In drawing on the work of sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, Steve highlights the differences between ethical and peg communities. An ethical community is defined as one that is built on long term commitment. The community have a commitment to each other to engage in each others lives. A peg community on the other hand is one that is formed around an experience. It is the experience which provides the focus and allows temporary community to be formed. Yet, unlike an ethical community there is no expectation that lives will be shared.

The congregations of nccc are essentially ethical communities. We share common values and have shared spiritual disciplines. A commitment to sharing each others lives over the long term is encouraged. As contextualised as the congregations of nccc are, by being in location, style and content there is still a big barrier to be overcome for people to enter these ethical communities. It is peg communities that perhaps can offer the missional interface for ethical communities. Steve Taylor in his book gives examples of such peg communities such as walking a labyrinth, spirituality festivals, and post-modern monasteries.(Taylor, S. pp118-126) While Steve’s examples are largely worship related, at nccc we are experiencing the power of peg communities through our missional teams. It is an area of missional interface that we need to consider further. 

Alan Hirsch’s challenge to cultivate a missional impulse is one that should push us beyond worship and our various congregations. Perhaps the creation of and the joining into peg communities can be a helpful way for faith communities to incarnate into their missional context. As an example, our tangent congregation operates with a genx styled discussion and meal. There is a need for this group to create missional connection points with their community. One way to do this is to join into or create peg communities that are occurring all the time in the community. Examples of these peg communities would be film and spirituality nights, book clubs, spirituality seminars. Our thirst congregation is attempting to engage with those in our community who are seeking a deepening of their spirituality but are not finding it in or even not looking in the church. This congregation is running spirituality seminars designed to assist people in the community to deepen their spirituality.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 20th, 2005 at 7:56 pm by phil and is filed under mDNA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.