Believing Big with New Hope

"The missional church, by its very nature, will be an anticlone of the existing traditional [church] model. Rather than being attractional, it will be incarnational. It will leave its own religious zones and live comfortably with non-church goers, seeping into the host culture like salt and light. It will be an infiltrating transformational community. Second, rather than being dualistic, it will embrace a messianic spirituality. That is, a spirituality of engagement with culture and a messianic spirituality. That is, a spirituality of engagement with culture and the world in the same mode as the Messiah himself. And third, the missional church will develop an apostolic form of leadership rather than the traditional hierarchical model."

"As Brock Bingaman says, no one in San Francisco wants another church, but they do want a cool shoe room. If we come to plant a church in a particular area, we're not perceived as doing anyone any favors. But, if we're starting a cafe, an Internet lanunderette, or a day-care center, we're seen as bringing some intrinsic value to a community. We're serving those to whom we're sent."

The Shaping of Things to Come Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch

I've had a number of ideas brewing in my head and heart over the last weeks about the type of incarnational community that to date lives more as a fetus in the womb of my heart than in my daily interactions. My dream includes a BIG house, and probably at least one other commercial building if not more. I see job coaching/resourcing, a connection with a cross section of financial classes, and an artsy, community space to hang out and accomplish some of the mundane things of life without being so mundane (kind of like the way an internet launderette cafe would let renters clean their clothes and feed their minds and drink java bean all at the same time. I've started praying with a growing hope for God to help me faithfully pursue some heart desires that seem far larger than I could ever hold alone, and far beyond my present grasp.

The primary issue is that whether tangible resources are at my fingertips or not, I already have the best resource for building relationships and drawing out the best in others. I need to surrender the rest of the plans to that without giving up hope for Jesus to breathe life into them.