This document discusses the need to rediscover Christianity through community, spirituality, and mission. It explores how Christianity has lost its way at times through issues like institutionalism and embracing violence. However, it also discusses examples throughout history of rediscovery through movements like the desert fathers/mothers, St. Francis, and liberation theology. It argues that finding our way again involves developing ways of community, spirituality, and mission focused on social justice issues like poverty, peace, and the environment.

1. finding our way again

3. finding our way again
how we lost our way

4. institutionalism
male hierarchy
anti-Semitism
syncretism with Greek thought
deals with Roman politics
embrace of violence
Constantine’s cross
obsession with certainty
creedalism

5. we turned
a way
into
a
destination

6. truth
correctness
purity
we thought we had arrived.
maturity

8. a brief history of
rediscovery

9. desert fathers & mothers
St. Patrick & Celts
St. Francis & Claire
Reformation
radical reformation
social gospel
black & liberation theology
feminist & eco-theology
theology of multitude

10. a generous orthodoxy
Christianity worth believing
generative Christianity
emergence Christianity
a new kind of Christianity
Christianity for the rest of us
new paradigm Christianity
missional Christianity
progressive Christianity
the next Christians
convergence Christianity
Christianity rediscovered

11. postmodern
post-colonial
post-capitalist
post-industrial
post-christendom
post-protestant
post-denominational
post-institutional
post-eurocentric

13. finding our way again
3 dimensions

14. finding our way again
1. a way of community

15. practicing one-anotherness
1. a way of community

16. practicing leadership “among ...”
1. a way of community

17. practicing the courage to differ
graciously ...
1. a way of community

18. what center holds us together?
1. a way of community

20. finding our way again
2. a way of spirituality

21. why gather?
public worship as group spiritual
formation
2. a way of spirituality

22. liturgy: the work(out) of the
people
bad liturgy: the checklist of the
clergy

23. ritual: using bodily action to
bond to meaning
ritualism: action without
meaning

24. ritual: using bodily action to
bond to meaning
ritualism: action without
meaning
what meaning?
what stories? what larger
narratives?

25. A table of elitism and exclusion ...
reinforcing violent sacrifice?
or a feast of grace and reconciliation ...
recalling God’s self-giving?

26. promoting secrecy:
spirituality “in the closet”
2. a way of spirituality

27. “guard your heart well, for from
it flow the well-springs of life.”
2. a way of spirituality

29. finding our way again
3. a way of mission

30. community and spirituality:
formation for mission
being/belonging/becoming for
doing
3. a way of mission

31. engaging disciples in the big 3:
planet, poverty, peace
3. a way of mission

33. witness as with-ness
3. a way of mission

34. salvation:
saving the world
3. a way of mission

35. fr. vincent donovan

36. After some time among the Masai, Donovan
described, with some disillusionment, the
version of Christianity he and other
Western, Euro-American missionaries had
imported into Africa: “an inward-turned,
individual-salvation-oriented, un-adapted
Christianity” (8). He became so disillusioned
with this approach that he felt the need to
move away from the term salvation
altogether. One paragraph in his book
especially intrigues me:

37. “Preach the gospel to all creation,” Christ
said. Are we only now beginning to
understand what he meant? I believe the
unwritten melody that haunts this book
ever so faintly, the new song waiting to be
sung in place of the hymn of salvation, is
simply the song of creation.
To move away from the theology of
salvation to the theology of creation may be
the task of our time”

38. salvation - not evacuation plan
from damned humanity
salvation = transformation plan
for damaged humanity,
based on
God’s saving love
for all creation.

39. joining God in God’s saving love
for all creation
3. a way of mission

40. finding our way again
1. a way of community
2. a way of spirituality
3. a way of mission

41. security
finding our insurance governance ex-communication
politics standardization authorization
way again
protection
certification policy 1. a way of community
2. a way of spirituality
3. a way of mission

43. finding our way again
two ways: life & death

44. finding our way again
we have a long way to
go!

47. finding our power again

48. what you focus on
determines
what you miss.

49. 49

50. 50

51. 51

52. 52

53. what are we focusing on?
the power we have?
the problems we have?

55. a pub in London

57. What’s missing today is a
high-quality discourse on
rethinking the design and
evolution of the entire
system from scratch.
- Otto Scharmer

58. The quality of results produced by any
system depends on the quality of
awareness from which the people in the
system operate. (Otto Scharmer)

59. ANXIOUS?
ANGRY?
JOYFUL?
HOPEFUL?
DEFENSIVE?
The quality of results produced by any
system depends on the quality of
awareness from which the people in the
system operate. (Otto Scharmer)

63. Death Resurrection
Burial

64. Letting Go Letting Come
Letting Be

65. Marching to the
old drumbeat

66. Marching to the
old drumbeat
frantic, desperate
activity

67. Marching to the
old drumbeat
frantic, desperate
activity
pensive pacing
Being still

68. finding our way
again
Marching to the
old drumbeat
frantic, desperate
activity
pensive pacing
Being still

69. Are we open?
Truly open?

70. finding our power again

72. pastor power

73. pastor power
people power

74. pastor power
people power
pastor-people power
refusing to be complicit in your
own diminishment

75. parent power

76. parent power
kid power

77. parent power
kidpower
family power
enlisting parents to teach a new
kind of Christian faith

78. music power
why do the fundamentalists have
all the good music?

79. sermon power
story power
setting yourself on fire
setting the world on fire

80. youth power
rediscovering Christianity as an
empowered youth movement

81. diversity power
what will it take to face America’s
original sin?

82. faith power
becoming cynical about our
cynicism

83. Death Resurrection
Burial

84. resurrection power
Spirit power
embodiment-of-Christ
Christ-in-you
power
death isn’t the worst thing that
could happen

92. finding our power again

95. finding our momentum
again

96. Three possible futures:
Continuing contraction
Extremist resurgence
Pregnancy

97. Three possible futures:
Continuing contraction
- Shrinking numbers
- Wrinkling members
- Low retention
- Low evangelization
- Constrained leadership
- Secure finances

98. Three possible futures:
Extremist resurgence
- Immigration fears
- Western domination
- Terrorism fears/revenge
- Playing to bases
- New alliances (global,
ecumenical)

99. Three possible futures:
Pregnancy
- Theological reformation
- Missional reorientation
- Post-national, post-partisan
identity/ethos
- Spiritual-social movement
(Peace, planet, poverty)
- New alliances (global,
ecumenical convergences)

101. we need a theology of
institutions, movements. and
Communities

102. Communities
Families, individuals, and
organizations linked to a
common environment,
collaborating for the
common good.

103. Institutions:
Organizations which conserve
the gains made by past
social movements.

104. Social Movements
Organizations which make
proposals or demands to
current institutions to make
progress towards new
gains.

105. Both movements and
institutions...
Organize for their purpose
Need one another
Are frustrated with one
another
Benefit or harm communities

106. Without movements ...
Institutions stagnate ...
Without institutions ...
Movements evaporate ...

107. Some movements
successfully inject their values
into the institutions they
challenge
Other movements
create their own institutions,
or pass away

108. Vital movements
call people to passionate,
sacrificial personal
commitment
Sustainable institutions
create loyalty across
generations through
evocative rituals & traditions

110. critical communities
movement visionaries
movement organizers
movements

111. Parker Palmer’s 4 stages of
social change
1. Divided no more
2. Communities of congruence
3. Going public
4. Alternative Rewards

112. From Greg Leffel
Faith Seeking Action: Mission
and Social Movements

113. Movements unite people to create or resist change. Through
them, individuals seek a common voice to challenge, social,
political, economic and cultural powers; movements, in fact,
multiply the power of individual action through their unique
form of collective, non-institutional power. (47-48)
Social movements are non-institutionally organized human
collectives, that put meaningful ideas in play in public
settings, that actively confront existing powers through the
strength of their numbers and the influence of their ideas,
and that grow in size and power by inspiring others to act, in
order to create or resist change (48)
A movement is “a segmented, usually polycephalus cellular
organization composed of unites networked by various
personal, structural, and ideological ties. (50)

114. It takes collective, non-institutional
(or prophetic) power to bring change
to institutions.
You can’t change the
center/inside/priestly without
proposals and pressure from the
margins/outside/prophetic.

115. Movements are diagnostic, prognostic,
and motivational (51)
- They say what’s wrong
- They say what’s needed
- They motivate and mobilize for
concerted action.

116. Movements are context dependent.
In certain periods, fundamental contradictions
in a society’s core understanding of itself
create the possibility of widespread and
socially disruptive change. (52)
Movements exploit opportunity:
1. An active interest among elites in changing
the political structure
2. Conflicts or corruption within elites
3. Events that weaken established social
control (war, disaster, economic collapse)

117. Leffel’s 6 Characteristics of Vibrant Social
Movements

118. 1. Opportunity Structure (Context
Awareness)
Current restraining realities ...
in tension with ...
emerging opportunities.

119. Opportunities:
- Problems needing to be solved
- Elites who hold power, resist change or
promote negative change
- Fissures, Problems among elites that
make the status quo vulnerable
- Values of the movement in conflict with
values of elites
- Potential advocates and allies in
academic, civil society, arts, church,
government, business, science, etc.

120. 2. Rhetorical Framing/Conceptual
Architecture
Movement leaders have to make a conceptual and verbal
case for their movement by answering questions like these:
How do we redefine reality?
How do we disrupt or change current realities?
How do we name our grievances? Articulate our positive
vision for the way forward?
How do we motivate and sustain dissatisfaction with the
status quo, and affection for our shared vision?
How do we justify our aims in terms of 5 lines of moral
argument (Jonathan Haidt): justice, compassion, tradition,
loyalty, and purity?
How is the movement liberating? (liberal)
How is the movement conserving? (conservative)

121. 3. Protest (messaging) strategy
Raising awareness, attracting growing numbers of
participants
Campaigns, tactics, deployments, making demands, public
relations, sustaining conflict, forcing a crisis, managing
internal tensions, managing stigmatization, showing results,
maintaining momentum, not overreacting, defining
acceptable level of disruption,
- Gaining attention - demonstrations, sit-ins, teach-ins, etc.
- Building Networks of Participants and Allies
- Wisely Identifying and Engaging Opponents
Movements must be convergent (creating broad, vigorous
alliances) and insurgent (confronting real problems upheld
by elites and the systems that privilege them).

122. 4. Mobilization Structures & Strategies
- Authority and Decision-Making Structures
- Transparency/Confidentiality, Communication Plans
- Leadership development, Relational Development, Conflict
Management Plans
- Coalition development
- Resource, Technology, Finance Mobilization and
Management
- Evangelism, recruitment, induction
- Renewal and Increase of commitment
- Awareness of levels of commitment (core, activists,
supporters, listeners, opposition, indirect impact, unaware

123. 5. Movement Culture
“Movements are about changing a
society’s lifeway; a movement itself
becomes an experimental field where a
new way of life can be, to some degree,
experienced and where the movement’s
ideals, values and common vision are
put to the test.” (61)

124. 5. Movement culture
- Emotional vibe (fun, serious, angry,
playful, heady, gutsy, etc.)
- Feel of spaces, physical and digital
- Songs, slogans
- Virtues, values, moral ethos
- Dress, Graphics,
- Nicknames, terminology
- Emotion, motivation, motion

125. 6. Participant Biography
How does involvement benefit - or harm -
participants? How does the movement promote
emotional and social sustainability ... avoiding
burnout, squabbles, etc.
How does it contribute to personal formation:
- character
- attitudes
- knowledge
- recovery from trauma
- relationships
- renewal
What do participants gain from being involved?

126. 1. Opportunity Structure
2. Rhetorical framing
3. Protest (messaging) strategy
4. Mobilization strategy
5. Movement culture
6. Participant Biography

127. Jesus says the kingdom of God is like
gardening (an organic movement) not
warfare (institutional action): It spreads
through seeds ... sown into systems to grow.
The seeds of the message.
The seeds of people who personally embody the
message.
The seeds of communities who socially embody the
message.

128. Jesus seizes the opportunity
structure provided by conflicted
elites (Pharisees/Sadducees;
Herodians/Zealots) and struggling
masses (Galilee/Judea)

129. He provides rhetorical framing on hillsides,
in houses, on retreats, in public teach-ins, in
debates, through parables, through rituals
and practices. He repeats key themes -
commonwealth of God, life to the full, life
of the ages, liberation - rooted in dynamic
tension with tradition.

130. His protest (messaging) strategy includes
public demonstrations (healings & miracles),
teach-ins (sermon on mount), civil
disobedience (turning tables), guerilla
theatre (exorcisms), festivals (feasts &
feedings), naming evil (woes), naming heroes
(blessings).

131. He develops a mobilization strategy
based on 3, 12, 70, and multitudes. He
entrusts freely with responsibility and
expresses high confidence in his agents
(greater things shall you do ...)

132. Jesus and the 12
- Intense time of modeling, relationship building and vision
sharing
- Contagious passion
- Periodic sending and returning
- Final sending/Succession insured
- Warnings of expected trials, failures, conflicts
- “Polycephalic” structure - connection without control
- Self-organizing units
- Welcoming of new leaders (Paul)
- Reproducible expansion
- Both individual agency and group agency (Paul, Philip,
Antioch)
- Both planning and spontaneity

133. He associates his movement
culture with love, joy, justice,
risk, hope, creativity, courage,
service, willingness to suffer,
nonviolence.

134. He provides his disciples challenge,
rest, retreat, encouragement,
recovery after failures. They testify
that their participant biographies have
been forever changed for the better.

135. What spiritual movement is trying to be
born among us today?
What are its demands/proposals?
What role might we play in its emergence?
What convergences are necessary for this
movement to begin moving?

136. 3-D Mainliners +
Progressive/Post Evangelicals +
Progressive Catholics +
Peace Churches +
Civil Rights Legacy Churches +
Emergence/Convergence
+
Multi-faith collaborations

138. Movements inspire a
passion for the possible.

139. Movements move with the
Holy Spirit -
- the Spirit of
creation/creativity
- the Spirit of evolution
- the Spirit of Jesus

141. finding our momentum
again

144. The kingdom of God is
not a matter of food
and drink ...

145. The kingdom of God is
not a matter of food
and drink ...
buildings, budgets
deficits, hierarchies
plans, pensions

146. The kingdom of God is
not a matter of food
and drink ...
buildings, budgets
deficits, hierarchies
doctrinal disputes
power struggles
desperate attempts
plans, pensions

147. The kingdom of God is
not a matter of food
and drink ...
buildings, budgets
deficits, hierarchies
doctrinal disputes
power struggles
desperate attempts
fear
playing it safe
running for cover
plans, pensions

148. The kingdom of God is
not a matter of food
and drink ...
personal ambition
political games
trivial pursuits
buildings, budgets
deficits, hierarchies
doctrinal disputes
power struggles
desperate attempts
fear
playing it safe
running for cover
plans, pensions

149. The kingdom of God is
not a matter of food
and drink ...
hostility
conflict
anger
personal ambition
political games
trivial pursuits
buildings, budgets
deficits, hierarchies
doctrinal disputes
power struggles
desperate attempts
fear
playing it safe
running for cover
plans, pensions

150. The kingdom of God is
not a matter of food
and drink ...
but of justice
peace
and joy
in the Holy Spirit

151. finding our momentum
again