Leadership, the Local Church and the Crisis of Imagination

Tim Keel, the pastor at Jacob's Well in KC, was the next presenter and led a talk of this title.  I had not previously heard anything by Tim other than his church's name, but that will change.  (I recently purchased his book!)  Keel makes the statement that the most significant crisis the church faces is the crisis of imagination.  He defines imagination as the faculty or action of forming new ideas, images or concepts that are not yet there.  Keel reminds us that Jesus proclaims that the Kingdom of God is near, but asks if we have the imagination to see it?

Imagination is going to be necessary if we (the people of God) are going to a place where we have never been before.  Keel claims that our leadership imagination has been domesticated in three ways.

First, our commitment to modern epistemology.  We want to strip things down to observable and applicable truths.  Leadership becomes the art of executing the techniques and we depend more on experts than the people that we are journeying with.  This can cause us to not see where God's Spirit is active around us.

Second, is through our American pragmatism and what he called the ministry of titillation.  Ministry and leadership become a bag of tricks.  The call is for us to seek God and listen to our narratives to discover what God is doing, instead of replicating what others may be doing.

Third, is through isolation which he claimed was Protestantisms dirty little secret.  We in the West tend to distance ourself from those who think and act differently than us.  Keel challenged that thinking and wants us to ask the question of what we could learn from other traditions.

In closing he brought our attention to John 15 and the organic process that is pictured there.  This is the passage that talks about abiding in the vine.  He said that trees do not strain to produce fruit.  Instead it happens as a part of who/what they are.  This same truth is true for us, if we abide in God, our fruit cannot help but to be produced.

So do you think about imagination and his thoughts on producing fruit?

Missional Theology

Last Friday, I and 3 others from my church went to Biblical Seminary to hear a conversation in Missional Theology.  The occasion was in honor of one of their theology professors, John Franke, who was being installed as the Lester and Kay Clemens Professor of Missional Theology.  I have read two of Franke's books and recommend them both, The Character of Theology and Beyond Foundationalism.  The best part of the event was that Franke asked 4 presenters to come in and talk about Missional Theology.  The presenters were Scot McKnight, Tim Keel, Darrell Guder and Brian McLaren with a few breakout sessions lead by some local leaders in our area.

I will spend the next few posts talking about the meat of what was covered, but I want to make one general point before I do that.  I was totally blown away by the way a generous orthodoxy was embraced at this event.  Having grown up in a denominational setting my whole life, I have trouble breaking out of a sectarian mindset.  I am constantly fighting the desire to draw the battle lines between the other and myself, when in reality we are on the same team!  I think that is in large part why Mission Theology is resonating within me.  It is speaking a new language that seems so right to me.  Missional Theology does not seek to further point out our differences, but instead to find commonality that will move towards uniting us as the people of God.  Thank you Biblical Seminary for being courageous to live out this conviction.  May God continue to build the Kingdom here among us all.