Tools & Trainings e-newsletter-- Issue 21

Dan Kimball's Missional Misgivings and Ensuing Conversations
from Leadership Journal

In the last month, there has been a buzz around the cyberworld because of Dan Kimball's question, "Where's the fruit?" in the newest issue of Leadership Journal. Incidentally, several of our folks get time in there--Neil Cole, Alan Hirsch and Kevin Rains--making it a pretty interesting issue. At the end of the magazine, is Kimball's editorial "Missional Misgivings." Here's an excerpt:

I hope I am wrong. For the past few years, I have been observing, listening, and asking questions about the missional movement. I have a suspicion that the missional model has not yet proven itself beyond the level of theory. Again, I hope I am wrong.

We all agree with the theory of being a community of God that defines and organizes itself around the purpose of being an agent of God's mission in the world. But the missional conversation often goes a step further by dismissing the "attractional" model of church as ineffective. Some say that creating better programs, preaching, and worship services so people "come to us" isn't going to cut it anymore. But here's my dilemma - I see no evidence to verify this claim...

Click here to read the rest of Kimball's article, published on 11/26/08 on Out of Ur

There have been responses from practitioners of organic church and we will list a few here:

Dr. Traver Dougherty in his Dec 8 TidBits for Organic Churches commented:

"On the one hand, I think it's a reasonable question. After all, I can't honestly say there's so many organic church expressions in my community there's too many to count. On the other hand, I think looking for fruit prematurely is a mistake, too. Although some organic church "networks" have blossomed, most are still buds, waiting to mature.

One of the things we have to admit as a movement is that "going gangbusters" probably wouldn't be the adjective of choice to describe our growth rate. If we're talking about the majority world (the new way to describe "third world countries"), then possibly. But in the U.S.? No, gangbusters is not the word. Words I'd use to describe the growth of our movement are these: slow-going, gaining momentum.

At the same time, if I were to pick adjectives to describe our fruit, I'd pick: faithful, pleasing to God, and highly reproducable.

I think this is something to remember: just because we're excited about what we're doing doesn't mean we have to oversell our "version" of church to conventional church practitioners. Do I think organic church is the way to go? Absolutely. But the whole thing's sort of like having a baby. The result is really good, but to suggest the delivery process is "fast" and "clean" would be lying.

Imagine saying to a woman who's been having contractions for an hour or so, "Where's the baby? I should see a baby by now." On second thought, don't do that.

Things take time to reach a "tipping point" and as far as I can tell the organic church movement in the U.S. is still being "delivered." It's a slow process and can be messy. In the mean time, let's metaphorically chew lots of ice and try not to say (or think) mean things to those who are looking for us to push harder. What's more, let's rejoice with those movements that have already delivered. Their success is a blessing and we can praise God for it.

One of Alan Hirsch's points in dialogue on the Out of Ur blog:

* If we persist with our standard measurements for mission, we will miss the point. The issue is what idea of church is more faithful to the Scriptures. Genuine fruitfulness, surely, cannot simply be measured by numbers but by 'making disciples.' How does one measure that? By all accounts, current churches are made up largely of admirers of Jesus but few genuine disciples/followers-this is not a biblical idea of fruitfulness!

See the whole conversation here

Neil Cole responded with 6 articles on his blog

Dan asked several important questions about the missional church movement. He seemed to imply that house churches were missional churches. In the next few entries I intend to respond to Dan's remarks. This is just the first one...

Misguided Misgivings 1: A Response to Dan Kimball's Editorial Comments

Misguided Misgivings 2: The Walmart Effect

Misguided Misgivings 3: Bigger isn't Better

Misguided Misgivings 4: Do the math

Misguided Misgivings 5: A cost too high

Misguided Misgivings 6: Here is some fruit...

We wanted to communicate these things out to all you folks in the movement not to polarize or to take shots at those who might be critical, but to make you aware of the conversation and encourage you to look honestly and openly at the questions. Be discerning and contribute to the conversation if the Lord prompts you in such a manner.

Also we trust that you are encouraged by this conversation, that "fruitfulness" is the big question. A worthy question for sure! And we think that Neil's last post can be quite encouraging for those who are part of the CMA family.