David Fitch wrote this article about a year ago. I'm highly impressed, as is my usual reaction to most Fitch-items. Today I want to concentrate on one paragraph in particular, putting the term missional into high resolution. Here it is:
When we plant today, we survey the land for the poor and the desperate, not just physically but emotionally and spiritually as well. We seek to plant seeds of ministry, kernels of forgiveness, new plantings of the gospel among “the poor (of all kinds)” and then by the Spirit water and nurture them into the life of God in Christ. We gather on Sunday, but not for evangelistic reasons. We gather to be formed into a missonal people and then sent out into the neighborhoods to minister grace, peace, love and the gospel of forgiveness and salvation.
I love that idea of "survey the land" and the object of that survey, the poor and desperate of every stripe. This desire to help, and the accompanying recognition of ourselves as being in that number... I find that very encouraging.
He winds up the paragraph talking about the why behind our Sunday gatherings: to be formed as a people that can knit the "redeemedness" of our lives with the lives of others. Sweet.
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