Suite of Resources for Becoming a Community in Mission
Resources inspired by our global community to support leaders who are called to cultivate a community that has a way of seeing, doing and being that frees it to love and serve as modeled by Jesus.
Our primary resource is See.Do.Be.Free.: A Field Guide to Becoming a Community in Mission. Within the five chapters of this book, you will find a field guide designed to help free leaders to love and serve in the shape of what we call a Community in Mission (CiM), along with "Fieldwork" questions and practices at the end of each chapter to help you reflect on the content.
We recommend working through the book in order, at your own pace. Below, you will find a chapter-by-chapter overview of resources, rhythms and gatherings to help you engage with the ideas found within that chapter. It Is important to note that the conversation connected to these chapters is has no end; it just keeps getting bigger and better.
→ Chapter 1: Missioned Into Being — Becoming a Community in Mission (CiM)
→ Chapter 2: Incarnational Hermeneutic — The Interpretive Task of a CiM
→ Chapter 3: Incarnational Method — The Formational Task of a CiM
→ Chapter 4: Incarnational Design — The Creational Task of a CiM
→ Chapter 5: Incarnational Framework — The Evaluative Task of a CiM
(1) Missioned Into Being — Becoming a Community in Mission (CiM)
In Chapter 1, we start by focusing on what we mean by a Community in Mission (CiM), an important foundation to future conversations. In short, what we are lifting up here is a practical ecclesiology – a vision of what Jesus had in mind when he imagined the “church.” The word church is derived from the Greek term ekklesia, a secular term that describes a particular kind of gathering in Athens, made up of citizens who came together to care for and call forth the good of the city. We also highlight the gifts of a bed, a bath and a meal as essential for sustaining this type of community.
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(2) Incarnational Hermeneutic — The Interpretive Task of a CiM
In Chapter 2 we focus on the interpretive task of a Community in Mission. The central question we are asking is: How does a Community in Mission as modeled by Jesus interpret reality? Stanley Hauerwas said, “We can only act within the world we see.” Paying attention to how we see is perhaps the first and most vital task of a Community in Mission. To that end, we will explore Jesus’s hermeneutical practice – his way of seeing God, reading Scripture and making sense of life itself – especially with those who have suffered.
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(3) Incarnational Method — The Formational Task of a CiM
In Chapter 3 we focus on the formational task of a Community in Mission. Specifically, we consider Jesus’s highly relational method of formation known as induction, in which he committed to walking with those he loved, apprenticing them, and helping them make sense of things along the way. As it turns out, becoming human is a lifelong task and, as we will see, it is worked out in community, over time and in context. We also explore mimetic anthropology and the impact of desire on human behavior and social interaction.
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(4) Incarnational Design — The Creational Task of a CiM
In Chapter 4 we focus on the creational task of a Community in Mission modeled by Jesus. We refer to this creational task as the work of Incarnational Design. It pairs well with the Incarnational Hermeneutic and Incarnational Method discussed in the previous chapters. Simply put, Incarnational Design is the practice of developing models of social innovation that lead to human flourishing as modeled by Jesus. As we will see, most of the work of Incarnational Design is about discernment – learning to see things as they are.
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(5) Incarnational Framework — The Evaluative Task of a CiM
In Chapter 5 we focus on the evaluative task of a Community in Mission. Here we explore the underlying questions regarding Jesus’s way of seeing, doing, and being, and how it frees us to love and serve. These questions make up the Incarnational Framework – a diagnostic tool for a Community in Mission that seeks to embody Jesus’ vision of the ekklesia for the sake of the polis.
The Incarnational Framework is an easy to remember rule of thumb: See. Do. Be. Free. It helps leadership get to the heart of things quickly. It allows us to tell ourselves a more complete truth about God, ourselves and our call to love the world. In this sense, it invites us to measure what matters.
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