Mission Is The Mother Of Theology
Monica met with me today to talk about all that is going on for us around family and children ministry. She always causes me to think about very profound things, thank you Monica!
Anyway, today's thought is Mission is the mother of Theology. It hadn't occurred to me, but this is a VERY profound thought.
Mission is the mother of theology.
Out of our mission comes our theology. Out of how we see mission comes our theology, out of mission comes our theology.
It is what we do that shapes our theology, maybe not quite that, but it is what we do that helps form our theology.
All of this was from a conversation about the Theological Position Paper drafted recently and the fact that we started not with our mission, not with what we do as a Diocese or even as a local judicatory in the midst of many organizations in this state, but rather we started with theology. We started with the heady theological stuff that always gets in the way of doing and being mission.
Paul Allick and I had a great conversation yesterday, he said that in the past, when he had reached points with his congregations where people GOT IT, where people realized that God was at the wheel and the congreagation realized they weren't, profound moments of mission orientation, it was always inevitable that someone would bring up the need for an elevator committee. Let's get a committee together to start raising money for an elevator. He said eventually, HEY, I have a name for your elevator, The Fr. Paul Allick Memorial Elevator. Nothing would be accomplished before he died, there is always something that sounds really good that simply is not at all helpful in doing or being mission.
I wonder if we aren't in the same boat, when we decided to start with theology and then move to mission. I wonder if we haven't already shot ourselves in the foot by starting with Theology.
Of course, maybe we haven't started with Theology, maybe we did start with mission, maybe we did start with those things that we do, those things that define how God is at work in our midst. Maybe we did start with discovering the gifts we have a Episcopal Parishes in the state of Minnesota, maybe we did start with understanding how the Diocese has been an instrument for God's work to spread the news about the Kingdom of God...
Maybe we did, not sure if we did or not. So, I will stop critiquing, what would it look like if we took some steps towards experimenting with God's call to us for our work in the world, inparticular our work here in MN. I have been asked over and over what is the purpose of the Episcopal Diocese of MN, and have yet to give or hear a satisfactory answer. There is not much that would be missed if we as a diocese would disappear. Seriously, not much at all.
But isn't that asking the wrong question? Shouldn't we be asking, what gifts and skills do we as a Diocese have to offer those we minister to and those we could potentially minister to? Should we not be working to discover where our strengths are and where those things that bring the Kingdom of God nearer to all of us are?
When the rubber hits the road, what do we believe and is what we believe in those moments of rubber hitting the road, able to be articulated in some way.
Our Baptismal Covenant is a great resource for that visceral experience of core belief, it is blunt, to the point and nothing but relational in its language. Our task as a Diocese is to discover not WHO we are, but WHAT WE CAN OFFER, and how we can stop being everything to all people, each and every local parish, and truly be the body of Christ. I kind of feel like we are all trying to be the head, or the hand, the same body part without recognizing that we each have particular gifts to offer, and our gifts create a mission that is full of the spirit and discerned not as our own personal mission, but what God is calling us to do. How can we live into the diverse ministries we each have to offer, how can we find places on the edge, places where the only thing that will work is cutting edge, innovative mission that is full of imagination and hope.
If mission is the mother of theology, then is it not time for us to move into doing mission so our theology can become more clear to each of us?
Be well,
A+
Anyway, today's thought is Mission is the mother of Theology. It hadn't occurred to me, but this is a VERY profound thought.
Mission is the mother of theology.
Out of our mission comes our theology. Out of how we see mission comes our theology, out of mission comes our theology.
It is what we do that shapes our theology, maybe not quite that, but it is what we do that helps form our theology.
All of this was from a conversation about the Theological Position Paper drafted recently and the fact that we started not with our mission, not with what we do as a Diocese or even as a local judicatory in the midst of many organizations in this state, but rather we started with theology. We started with the heady theological stuff that always gets in the way of doing and being mission.
Paul Allick and I had a great conversation yesterday, he said that in the past, when he had reached points with his congregations where people GOT IT, where people realized that God was at the wheel and the congreagation realized they weren't, profound moments of mission orientation, it was always inevitable that someone would bring up the need for an elevator committee. Let's get a committee together to start raising money for an elevator. He said eventually, HEY, I have a name for your elevator, The Fr. Paul Allick Memorial Elevator. Nothing would be accomplished before he died, there is always something that sounds really good that simply is not at all helpful in doing or being mission.
I wonder if we aren't in the same boat, when we decided to start with theology and then move to mission. I wonder if we haven't already shot ourselves in the foot by starting with Theology.
Of course, maybe we haven't started with Theology, maybe we did start with mission, maybe we did start with those things that we do, those things that define how God is at work in our midst. Maybe we did start with discovering the gifts we have a Episcopal Parishes in the state of Minnesota, maybe we did start with understanding how the Diocese has been an instrument for God's work to spread the news about the Kingdom of God...
Maybe we did, not sure if we did or not. So, I will stop critiquing, what would it look like if we took some steps towards experimenting with God's call to us for our work in the world, inparticular our work here in MN. I have been asked over and over what is the purpose of the Episcopal Diocese of MN, and have yet to give or hear a satisfactory answer. There is not much that would be missed if we as a diocese would disappear. Seriously, not much at all.
But isn't that asking the wrong question? Shouldn't we be asking, what gifts and skills do we as a Diocese have to offer those we minister to and those we could potentially minister to? Should we not be working to discover where our strengths are and where those things that bring the Kingdom of God nearer to all of us are?
When the rubber hits the road, what do we believe and is what we believe in those moments of rubber hitting the road, able to be articulated in some way.
Our Baptismal Covenant is a great resource for that visceral experience of core belief, it is blunt, to the point and nothing but relational in its language. Our task as a Diocese is to discover not WHO we are, but WHAT WE CAN OFFER, and how we can stop being everything to all people, each and every local parish, and truly be the body of Christ. I kind of feel like we are all trying to be the head, or the hand, the same body part without recognizing that we each have particular gifts to offer, and our gifts create a mission that is full of the spirit and discerned not as our own personal mission, but what God is calling us to do. How can we live into the diverse ministries we each have to offer, how can we find places on the edge, places where the only thing that will work is cutting edge, innovative mission that is full of imagination and hope.
If mission is the mother of theology, then is it not time for us to move into doing mission so our theology can become more clear to each of us?
Be well,
A+
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