The Blog of E. Dale Nixon

It’s not difficult to discuss events that have occurred in your own life. There may be speculation as to the reasons why, or questions about what is next, but the experience is a specific memory, not a list of probabilities or possibilities; it’s done and the remaining options only relate to the future. It’s also makes better sense to talk most about what did happen or what you might do in the future given similar circumstances, than it is to talk about what you wish had happened.

In a church context (i.e., any group of Christians gathered for Christ’s name’s sake), conversation is a healthy approach to discerning the more faithful of available options, the conversation is not the point. The conversation is but a means for accomplishing a more ambitious goal. It’s the same with all the activities of a church, except worship. Worship alone accomplishes it’s end by simple engagement in the act of worship itself. In fact, if any other motivation compromises the intentions of worship, it becomes tainted by those ulterior motivations.

So, with proper planning and intentional direction, conversations have tremendous potential and can involve people talking together for the sake of making a difference in peoples lives. In fact, the etymological roots of the word converse are quite interesting:

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]: http://define.com/converse

Converse \Con*verse“\ (k[o^]n*v[~e]rs“), verb (used without an object) [imp. & p. p. {Conversed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Conversing}.] [F. converser, L. conversari to associatewith; con- + versari to be turned, to live, remain, fr. versare to turn often, v. intens. ofvertere to turn See {Convert}.]

Missional thinking moves the planning process out of the realm of asking “what we going to do next?” to asking “what are we really trying to accomplish?” Too often we do something because it’s what’s been done before and we are more confident that we know how. It may not be what is needed, but at least we have a high potential for “success,” even if that success has no particular definition beyond “we did something.” However, if we start with the desired results, clarify the veracity of those results in the larger framework of God’s kingdom, work backwards to a viable process which bears fidelity to Christian ethics in achieving the stated results, then we have a much more likely chance of doing what we are called by Christ to do.