These are some great insights, Scot. I can relate to the “balancing act” you’re talking about. When I started working with Gypsies in Romania, I had to make some serious adjustments to my methodology, because the methods I was using for the teenagers in Romania did not go over with the Gypsies. Same country – different culture.
I had to get used to not always knowing what is “right” and to be prayerfully considering the decisions I made. The great thing about crossing cultures in ministry is that it makes you question the validity of your presuppositions. Working in Romanian churches made me question the way we Americans do it. Working in Gypsy churches made me question the way the Romanians do it. And so on. Eventually, God uses these experiences to enlarge our vision of His Kingdom and to be thoughtful in our treatment of the ministry.

Great thoughts. I think–sometimes–it’s easy to think of missional work as “not having a backbone” because it’s so loving and peaceful, but real missional love is passionate enough to be stern when needed and brilliantly strong-willed, too.

This has been my heart ever since I came to be a missionary on Capitol Hill. I realized that what we as an organization were doing on the Hill was postmodern young adult missions work. Thankfully, many “older” members of my organization have realized and understood this, and we are moving to mold more of our activities “to do things never before done” to reach the Hill community for Jesus Christ.
Thanks again for continuing to unpackage this idea of mission. It has helped in my own efforts to understand how the EC movement intersects with being missional on Capitol Hill, a series of posts I began at my blog, novuslumen.net.
Enjoy your weekend,
jeremy

Scot, I wish that other Christian leaders like yourself (I consider you a “thought leader”) would be so honest and courageous. These comments are so freeing: “Because the missional person finds herself or himself on the border, in liminality, and that means being forced to make decisions never made before. Forced to do things never done before. Forced to engage in situations never engaged before. Force to try new things and see new things and say new things — and it is not easy to know what is right sometimes.”
It seems a major segment of evangelicalism fears “liminality” and tries to stamp it out.
Good thoughts, New Kind of Scholar.