Holy Fool

I just want you to know that I can be a bit of a jerk at times.  The thing that makes it insidious is that often I only have the courage to be a jerk to you in my head, to judge you wrongly or make an assumption and not follow it up with open and honest dialogue.  May you forgive me.

What is my point?  My point is that judgment based attitudes can often corrupt very good things.  Take Missional for example.  I love the theological concept that we, as Christ's body, are in pursuit of and working within what is called the mission of God (missio Dei).  At the core of missional and trinitarian theology lies the concept of relationship; ours to God, ours to each other, and ours together to God.  Missional practice takes us out into the world in relational ways to embody (to enflesh) the mission God is already doing/forming in the hearts of men.

For me the problem is that there is God's missionality, and then there is my missionality.

In my missionality I have tended to look down on fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that I judged were guilty of wanting 'to be fed' to 'go to church' rather than 'be the church'.  The problem with this attitude is that I replaced a judgmental attitude towards those outside of the church towards those inside the church.  Rather than saying 'come as you are' to Christians that I felt weren't getting It I spoke derisively about those kinds of Christians as consumer Christians.  I felt that they could only be part of my community if they got themselves together first and got their heads screwed on straight, or got their spiritual house in order first.

I want to apologize.  I must repent of my missionality, and again rebuild towards God's ongoing mission and towards God's heart for all of humanity.  The gospel, the good news, of Jesus Christ is not spoken at the expense of any, but it is for everyones benefit.  I ask my brothers and sisters that have heard that good news to forgive me.