Community in Mission Suite of Resources

Community in Mission
suite of Resources

The following suite of resources outline how faith communities can embody the spiritual technology of the Incarnation, mystery of Word made flesh. We describe this embodiment as a Community in Mission. A Community in Mission (CiM) is sustained by three incarnational gifts: incarnational hermeneutic, incarnational method and incarnational design. Finally, the Incarnational Framework functions like a diagnostic tool that helps leaders of a Community in Mission assess their faithfulness to this vision and its impact.

What is a Community in Mission (CiM)?

A Community in Mission is a living, breathing paradox of creative tension. The things that sustain community may at times seem at odds with the things that sustain the mission. This creative tension is not a flaw, but one of its essential features. It’s what generates momentum and makes it work. Throughout these resources we will explore this creative tension and offer a series of questions that call it forth and sustain it.

Sustaining the creative tension requires courage, compassion and a growing capacity to forgive and then forgive again. Why? Because a Community in Mission is always a work in progress made up of people who are a work in progress, in a world that is a work in progress, all of which evolve by undergoing being loved and forgiven by One who is not scandalized by our imperfections. This requires a spirituality of imperfection that can hold and heal our imperfections. This is how creation unfolds and gives glory to God.

For now we want to emphasize that when modeled after the life of Christ, CiMs imagine themselves not as the provider of religious goods and services to passive consumers, but as the gathering of those who are actively undergoing a gospel that frees them to love and serve. In doing so, this shifts the identity of its members from passive consumers to active participants, undergoing a huge, open-ended adventure in which we are true co-creators helping design the adventure itself. It re-energizes, re-members, and re-centers the faith community to become a living example that models the very reason it exists. It does so by freeing its members to love and serve, not in the shape of a closed system, but in ways that honor the vocation and call of its members and seek the common good of all and participate in the ongoing act of Creation itself. CiM’s are not private clubs that promote their own cause. They are public gifts that widen the circle of human concern and call forth a shared humanity so that everyone belongs. This resource is designed for faith communities, churches and other types of faith-based communities alike, who are responding to that call.

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Becoming a Community In Mission

This resource is designed for the leadership of faith communities who want to create the conditions for human flourishing, embodying the very thing they desire to see in the world, and explore questions like, “What are the emerging social structures that will help form, shape and model the kind of humanity that leads to human flourishing? What kinds of communities can hold difference and create the conditions for everyone to belong, especially the most vulnerable?” Throughout this resource, we refer to this type of organization as a Community in Mission (CiM). Such a community can take many forms, such as a local congregation, non-profit or any organization who is committed to the common good as modeled by Jesus.

How do I use this resource?

The vision represented in this resource is a vision that is realized in glimpses, over time, and in the context of a community that is willing to undergo a journey together. There is no straight line to glory. In the words of Eugene Peterson, it is "a long obedience in the same direction." Becoming a Community in Mission is a series of zigs and zags and regressions that threaten to bring the whole thing to ruin. If there is a progression, it looks something like three steps forward and two steps backwards.

We lift up the baptismal shape of the journey of CiM and the paradigm shifts it must undergo. We also name the eucharistic practice that sustains the journey of a CiM, but truly, there is no right way to get there. The key is to cultivate shared desire and lean in.

If becoming a Community in Mission is something you would like to live into more fully, we recommend that you find ways to share and discuss these ideas. For example, if you lead a more established organization ready to reimagine itself, consider gathering a small group from your leadership team to read sections of material and discuss the reflection questions together over the course of several weeks. Or, if you are trying to launch a new community, you could invite people who have shared concern about the worrisome changes they see in society to read this introduction. You might then discuss whether or not these concepts and vision offer a direction they’d like to consider more deeply.

If after engaging the vision there is a shared hunger to live into it more fully, we encourage you to reach out to Street Psalms for support and additional resources.

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Incarnational Hermeneutic

In this resource, we explore the living hermeneutical presence of Jesus that helps leaders of a Community in Mission teach and preach Good News, based on a God in whom there is no violence, and who is in rivalry with nothing, not even death.

How do I use this resource?

If practicing the hermeneutic outlined in this resource is something you would like to live into more fully, we recommend you find ways to share and discuss these ideas with your community using the discussion questions provided. If, after engaging the vision presented in this resource, there is a shared hunger to explore this more fully, we encourage you to reach out to Street Psalms for support and additional resources, including our Preaching Peace initiative that is designed to help facilitators cultivate and sustain preaching teams with a liberating hermeneutic.

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Incarnational Method

In this resource we explore Jesus’ method of formation and how Jesus inducts his disciples into a shared humanity. We also explore the implications of this methodology for a Community in Mission that wants to create cities of peace for all people where everyone belongs.

How do I use this resource?

If practicing the formational methodology outlined in this resource is something you would like to live into more fully, we recommend you find ways to share and discuss these ideas with your community using the discussion questions provided. If, after engaging the vision presented in this resource, there is a shared hunger to explore this more fully, we encourage you to reach out to Street Psalms for support and additional resources. For example, we encourage you to consider partnering with our global network of hubs who are committed to freeing leaders to love and serve using the incarnational methodology of formation outlined in this document. These hubs make up what is called the Urban Training Collaborative which is a rich learning community and ongoing source of wisdom.

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Incarnational Design

Incarnational Design describes the creative partnership between God and a CiM. This partnership, along with the process and principles outlined in this document, engages in the ongoing act of creation by developing models of social innovation that lead to human flourishing. The term itself supplies the creative tension necessary for this task. We understand the Incarnation as God’s creative action. We understand Design as humanity’s response. The co-creative partnership calls forth creation when God’s desire meets humanity’s desire with a holy kiss.

How do I use this resource?

If practicing Incarnational Design as outlined in this resource is something you would like to live into more fully, we recommend you find ways to share and discuss these ideas with your community using the discussion questions provided. If, after engaging the vision presented in this resource, there is a shared hunger to explore this more fully, we encourage you to reach out to Street Psalms for support and additional resources. For example, we encourage you to consider partnering with our Design Studio as you come together to create new models of social innovation that leads to human flourishing in your specific context.

Incarnational Framework Introduction - cover

The Incarnational Framework

A diagnostic tool designed that underlies this suite of resources. It is designed to help leaders cultivate a Community in Mission that has a way of seeing doing and being that frees it to love and serve. It is a framework that asks questions, not a curriculum that gives answers. It functions as a rule of life for those who are ordained with Street Psalms. Street Psalms uses it to hold itself accountable to its mission and measure impact. It’s shared by our network partners to help them examine their own approach to freeing leaders.