Saturday, March 13, 2010

Missional and Inclusivity

I was reading the comments to a blog post on Reclaiming the Mission about a missional understanding of inclusivity. The points made in the main post were pretty well thought out and the conclusion was powerful - regarding forming a posture of inclusion, as opposed to developing a concept of inclusion. Does away with my concern for the inherent tendency, in my view, of over-intellectualizing theology (we are all theologians, and therefore theology - the study of God and the Gospel - should not be performed on a stage by trained seminarians with the audience being "entertained" and/or "enlightened" but theology is concrete performance involving all the people in the theater).

One of the comments spoke of the Pharisees, arguably practitioners of harsh exclusivity (sort of the forerunner to the current day form of "conservative evangelicals" - btw, seriously dislike the combination of those terms as it seems to me more of a statement of one's political views than a general label for one's understanding of Jesus, but that is for another day). Back to the comment, if missional is about a posture of inclusion, and I take that to mean that all are welcome to the table, then entry to the table means joining a community of believers whose practices consist of engaging in the continual formation of not only a lived but a living theology, but also a continued formation in the practice of that very posture

As a missional believer, then should I understand the comment by Jesus as not simply woe to you Pharisee, rather, it may be understood as woe to you Pharisee if you continue to be blind. Come to the table, join the community of faith, and be formed all the while growing in and resting in the new relationship with your God. The inclusivity is not simply saying all are welcome and we don't care what you did or are doing now, rather the inclusivity is an invitation to join in the lived and living out of being with God and being shaped by, and being formed to respond to, His call in His work of reconciling the creation to Himself.

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