{"id":11868,"date":"2013-04-18T08:35:56","date_gmt":"2013-04-18T13:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/?p=11868"},"modified":"2013-04-19T12:32:11","modified_gmt":"2013-04-19T17:32:11","slug":"anabaptists-leading-missional-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/anabaptists-leading-missional-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Anabaptists leading missional change?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MA\"<\/a>Chris Morton got my attention with his summary insights from the recent Missio Alliance<\/a> conference.<\/p>\n

He made 8 key observations, but this one really struck me.<\/p>\n

6. Anabaptists<\/strong>
\nMany of those at Missio fall into what I once heard referred to as \u201cthe Hauerwas mafia.\u201d That is, those inspired by the writing of Hauerwas, Yoder and others, to think of themselves as neo-Anabaptist. Historically, anabaptists have either been persecuted by other churches, or have disengaged from the world (Amish).<\/p>\n

However, Anabaptism has one key tennent which is suddenly very valuable: it has never excepted the claims of Christendom, Christendom (culturally and governmentally enforced Christianity) and thinks of the church as a local, incarnational, counter society. As Christendom crumbles around North America and Western Europe, the Anabaptist tradition offers a posture for understanding the church\u2019s place in the world.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(emphasis mine)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Loyalties<\/strong><\/p>\n

If Anabaptists have sort of weathered the storm that is Christian enmeshment in the over-influencial cultural siren of political involvement\u2013and I think they have\u2013we have a lot to learn from them moving forward. The Anabaptist tradition challenges us, in a most important way, to question some of our misplaced loyalties.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Issues of social justice come to the fore as well in this outlook because we begin to identify with and reach out to the people that Jesus did: the underdogs, the powerless, and those without a voice in the power games.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is the shift obvious yet?<\/strong>
\nThe U.S. cultural climate has changed drastically in the last 10 years. Is this reality evading us? It is.<\/p>\n

Especially in Bible Belt areas that primary operate in a Christian biosphere. “Christian Land” happens in the places of profitable enterprises, power, influence, and a whole world dedicated to a kind of Christian sub-culture that, sadly, makes too little impact on the non-churched population.<\/p>\n

Nashville comes to mind, for one. But there are plenty of less obvious locations that don’t have the sheen of Nash-Vagas.\u00a0It’s the insular world (sometimes accompanied with chic hairdos and great pedicures) were folks really think their sorts of movies like Courageous<\/em> deserve an Academy Award….<\/strong>and maybe woulda gotten one if it weren’t for them Hollywood liberals!<\/em><\/p>\n

Yet, in most places in the U.S. the post-Christian era is here<\/strong>. Fully. To the unchurched, in many areas of the country, Christians and their silly churchy ways are impotent charicatures suitable for mocking. To those outside the bubble, they aren’t making a difference too much in the world, and not making progress in the spiritual depth of their own clich\u00e9 either.<\/p>\n

This means a reevaluation of what it means to be Christian and living a Kingdom life is crucial.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We need to once again ask, as we must in every generation:<\/p>\n

\u2022 “What are our core values and mission as Kingdom people?”<\/p>\n

\u2022 “Are our ways the upside down Kingdom ways?”<\/p>\n

\u2022 If not, what should we learn? What is most meaningful moving forward?<\/p>\n

The sifting begins!<\/p>\n

Want my best guess? Millenials<\/strong><\/em> are the key to traction for the Kingdom now.<\/p>\n

You can read Chris’ 7 other insights\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Christian Land” is the insular world were folks really think their sorts of movies like Courageous deserve an Oscar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,5626],"tags":[4934,383,5325,6,4649,649,14,15,887,5995,4697,1215,5070,4423,4716,1763,4609,41,1900,5645,1930,5974,2016,2061,6215,2234,2235,2275,2448,2521,4798,6072,5840,2786,2860,3126,73,3184,4492,5529,4303,3546,3579,3614,3658,4330,3768],"class_list":["post-11868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-authors","category-spark-my-muse","tag-america","tag-belt","tag-best","tag-bible","tag-business","tag-christian","tag-christians","tag-church","tag-culture","tag-depth","tag-down","tag-fall","tag-heard","tag-hollywood","tag-if","tag-in","tag-insights","tag-jesus","tag-justice","tag-kind","tag-kingdom","tag-learn","tag-life","tag-living","tag-millenials","tag-mission","tag-missional","tag-movies","tag-outlook","tag-people","tag-power","tag-progress","tag-question","tag-reality","tag-rest","tag-social","tag-social-justice","tag-spiritual","tag-storm","tag-the-church","tag-tradition","tag-understanding","tag-values","tag-voice","tag-weather","tag-western","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11868"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11868\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11879,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11868\/revisions\/11879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisadelay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}