The subtitle to John Franke's "acceptance speech" is "The unity of the Church and Missional Theology."  He's had become an official professor of missional theology, so we should expect no less.

The Mission of God is what matters.  The Gospel threatens the rich and powerful because it challenges wealth and power.  The unity of the disciples should be like the unity of the Father and the Son.  This unity is missional.

We are sent out as disciples in the pattern of God's sending of his Son: by the power of the Holy Spirit.  The phrase "body of Christ" is inherently missional---we are Christ's presence.  Our unity is not knowledge and agreement, but found in a plurality and diversity of love.  Scripture gives wisdom to all who ask for it.  We must learn to live with the Christian "other," and the world's "other," this being fitting because of the Trinity's distinction: living and loving the Other.  The Trinity is united in their interdependence.  The unity called for is not about assimiliation or homogonization, it is about a diverse body working together in mission. 

This participation is found in three groups: Evangelicals, Mainline, and Emergent.  All three, through missional theology, are committed to one mission, this is the bringing together of the church.  We need to walk together in the mission of God and defend one another against each other, because at the end of the day we are part of one mission, and we need each other.  We couldn't do mission without one another.  Those who aren't against us are for us. ... more

Brian McLaren gave the following lecture with lots of slides containing quotes and pictures of Jane Goodall and her primate friends. 

Epistemology: a question of knowing.  What does it mean to know?

The early church is not homogenized, new believers are not mimics when converted, they remain unique people.  Whoever loves God is known by God.  Knowledge can destroy the weak Christian; therefore, how do we deal with people with different knowledge?

Different Knowledge--->Different Giftedness--->Different "Body" Parts--->Most Excellent Way--->LOVE

Christians have to face the fact that we've been wrong before.  In the Middle Ages knowledge was achieved through God-ordained authorities.  In the Modern Era knowledge was achieved by doubting authorities (skepticism) and experimentation (scholarship).  In the current context we are struggling between mystification and reductionism, underconfidence and overconfidence in regards to how to know what we know.

Derrida encourages humility when approaching "truth."

Do not capitulate yourself to doubt---think theologically about knowing. ... more

Darrell Guder, a professor in missional and ecumenical theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, delivered this well thought out vision for missional theology.

Missional theology is not an academic exercise or word play.  It is a project.
Missional: mission as definition of church.
This is a time of profound change, a paradigm shift, where Christendom is eroding.  Missional theology is a project for working in a post-Christendom world. 
Westen theology is rooted in a tradition that neglects mission.  There is no mention of mission in the Reformed tradition until 1903, and this is a colonizing mention.  Missional ecclesiology is needed to do theology with the understanding that the church is mission.  It is from the Trinitarian God's mission that our mission is defined.  The church is the instrument for God's mission.  This is the fundamental calling of the church.  Missional theology is required to keep the church attentive to its calling.
Today we stand closer to the pre-Constantine church since the 4th century.  We can re-engage with the pre-Constantine Christian movement.  We are exiled from our kingdom (Christendom).  This is helping us find out what was going on in the pre-Constantine church and peel off the layers of lenses added to the church during Christendom.
The apostles did not go out to save souls, they went out to start saving communities.The New Testament is the voice of the Spirit to saving communities.  We may find ourselves energized by the "cosmic" implications of the gospel.  It is God's desire that all should be healed.  It is time to reclaim our vocation under God's Lordship.   We do not take Christ with us, we go to where he already is. ... more

Tim Keel presented this lecture in full preacher form.  It was powerful.  My personal favorite lecture from the day for the passion involved.

The Incarnation links Academics and Art, Head and Heart together.
The most significant crisis we are facing in the church today is one of imagination.
Imagination, a definition: the faculty of creating new things, words or actions, of seeing things that have not yet happened.
/metanoia - expand, open up, repent.
\paranoia - retract, implode on oneself.
We need to stop being paranoid and start being metanoid.

Imagination is critical to leadership.  Our leadership imagination has been domesticated.  What we have tried to do is domesticate the Holy Spirit in three ways: Our committment to modern rationalism and epistemology, our acceptance of American pragmatism, and our isolation.  The Holy Spirit is the source of our imagination.

Instead of imagination, we make decisions using modern epistemology: we are rational and objective to the point we create a culture of reductionism.  Truth & Knowledge become universal and generic guides and three-step plans become the norm.  A perfect storm has developed that effects the local leader.  Leadership becomes the right application of technique and models instead of a desire to be imaginative and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. This creates leaders who follow experts blindly.  We do not truly believe with our hearts and minds that God's Spirit is alive and active where we are. 

Instead of imagination, we make decisions using American pragmatism (aka Pastoral Titilation): we strip great ideas out of there context and apply them to places where they don't fit.  We are engaging with what is out "there" instead of looking for what the Spirit is doing "here."  How doe we posture ourselves as the Church Fathers and leaders yet do not imitate the way they made decisions: by the Spirit and in community.  When we posture ourselves and listen to God and look for him we will find the vision God has for us.

Instead of imagination, we make decisions by Isolation: this is Protestantism's dirty little secret.  The logic of Protestantism is to break fellowship.  The greatest sin in the Western Church is heresy, to disagree.  The greatest sin in the East is schism, to break unity with the Church.  A healthy organism grows around the breaks in fellowship, like a tree growing over its wounds. ... more

Todd Hiestand, a fellow PBU alumni, and Gary Alloway co-lead the following breakout session:

Are you fed up with suburbia?  Don't hate, dig deep and explore its culture.  Engage it to find ways to bring the gospel.
Consumerism is killing suburban culture.
The suburbs are made to be comfortable.  Theologically, Comfort is the god of suburbia.
There is very little cultural awareness in suburbia.  It is a-cultural.
In suburbia your identity is based on somewhere "other"; i.e., living in a suburb you always tell a stranger you live in Philadelphia or "near New York City" (I say that one all the time).
We drive by the poverty of suburbia to get to the poverty of the city.  We help the city out...we need to help suburbia out...by:

• Canvasing the town---mission is right in front of you, O suburbanites!
• Pointing theology outward: our preaching must point outward into the community.
• Going on a local missions trip focused on local mission.
• Asking non-profits about how to best serve the community.
• Fostering small groups that enhance locality.
• Remembering, God is present long before we ever get there---we must partner with what God is already doing.  If we don't know our communities we don't know what God is doing. ... more

Hat Tip to Dave Opderbeck at Through A Glass Darkly for finding this quote from one of Pope Benedict's latest speeches:

We may put it even more simply:  Scripture requires exegesis, and it requires the context of the community in which it came to birth and in which it is lived.  This is where its unity is to be found, and here too its unifying meaning is opened up.  To put it yet another way: there are dimensions of meaning in the word and in words which only come to light within the living community of this history-generating word.  Through the growing realization of the different layers of meaning, the word is not devalued, but in fact appears in its full grandeur and dignity.  Therefore the Catechism of the Catholic Church can rightly say that Christianity does not simply represent a religion of the book in the classical sense (cf. par. 108).  It perceives in the words the Word, the Logos itself, which spreads its mystery through this multiplicity and the reality of a human history.  This particular structure of the Bible issues a constantly new challenge to every generation.  It excludes by its nature everything that today is known as fundamentalism.  In effect, the word of God can never simply be equated with the letter of the text.  To attain to it involves a transcending and a process of understanding, led by the inner movement of the whole and hence it also has to become a process of living.  Only within the dynamic unity of the whole are the many books one book.  The Word of God and his action in the world are revealed only in the word and history of human beings. ... more

Scot McKnight began his lecture with several Cubs jokes and alluded to how he can write much faster than John Franke can.

The Bible is Story, God's Words and God's Story. 
When approaching the Bible we should Look, See, and Respond.

Scot establishes a dichotomy of Authority and Relationship, posing the question, "What is our relationship to the Bible?"
Our relationship is not with the Bible, but with the God of the Bible.
Saying the Bible is inerrant really isn't saying very much.  Saying it is true is far more profound.
The Bible is far more than Authority and Submission.
Authority and Inerrancy are inadequate terms, not wrong.
We must delight in the Bible.
A focus on a subject, the authority approach, is not enough.  The Bible is relational, and finds resonance in delight.
God and the paper are not the same.  An illustration: The Book of Jonah is about Jonah's God, not Jonah's whale.
God is more than the Bible, it is his communication in the form of words.
Behind all the doctrinal descriptions of the Bible it is still more than a repository.
A relational view of the Bible invites us to experience the Bible.
The Bible is a conversation between the different authors and their wiki-stories as they listen and relate to God.
The biblical books have their own context.
To read the Bible relationally is to read the Bible in community.
Our relationship with the Bible is a relationship with the God of the Bible. ... more

The conference at Biblical was absolutely spectacular.  Scot McKnight certainly thought so. It was great seeing Tim Ghali, Todd Hiestand, Evan Curry, Gary Alloway, David Opderbeck, Derek Cooper, Josh Livingston and many others.  I met Scot and John Franke in person and was able to talk to them for a bit. 

I also spoke with Karen Sloan and Ed Cyzewski for the first time.  Ed was gracious enough to give me a copy of his new book, Coffeehouse Theology, which includes the writings of my friend (any one who shares scone recipes with me is a friend!) Makeesha Fisher in the study guide.  Ed lives near Bennington, VT, Sarah and I's favorite vacation spot, so we had lots to talk about.  I hope to review Coffeehouse Theology, Karen's book Flirting With Monasticism, and Derek's So You're Thinking About Going To Seminary: An Insider's Guide soon.

I will be placing the notes from the five lectures and two break out sessions I attended up for your reading pleasure.  This is my version of "live blogging," and yes, you do indeed need to be more patient than usual for it. ... more

I am attending the John Franke installation at Biblical Seminary today with Tim Ghali from Black Coffee Reflections and David Opderbeck from Through A Glass Darkly.  I am not lugging my computer down there, yet I will be live blogging it.  Just the old fashioned way, with copious notes on what Scot McKnight, Brian McLaren, Tim Keel, Darrell Guder, and John Franke have to say.  Have a great weekened! ... more

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