Stability, community and the "missional" life

Recently, I was killing time before heading to a conference by looking for a quick, fun read at a local bookstore. With so many options, I was surprised that my eyes caught a small book that was hidden on the shelf. It was an interesting title, "The Wisdom of Stability: Rooting Faith in a Mobile Culture," and could be a good selection for the flight. I soon realized that the book was much more than a quick, simple way to pass time on a plane.

I paused as I came to the final line of the introduction: "Should you ever leave the place where you are? I don't know. But I trust we are able to best discern the call of God in the company of friends when we are rooted in the life-giving wisdom of stability."

I was hooked, because this is what many people (especially my students) ask themselves in our mobile world.

On numerous occasions, I have explored with college students the possibilities of leaving their hometowns or moving back home to make a difference for Christ. Many realize that the mission field is no longer overseas, but rather in their neighborhoods, in their hometowns and even ironically (and sadly) in their own churches.

College students find stability in the form of community - from dorm life to road trips, to the constant need to be with other people. If college students do not seem to have community, they have an inherent need to create it. Community is a part of their life. Their need has birthed aspects of the modern "house church" movement, an increase in community activism, and even new forms of monasticism found in large urban centers.

The intention of the local church for short-term missions has begun to wane. I often hear of how short-term mission trips have become glorified sightseeing/shopping adventures. They have also become simple eye-openers for the work we need to do in our own communities. Often people are surprised by the faith in Third World countries because it seems more alive than in our own pews on Sunday mornings. Upon their return, short-term missionaries refocus their attention on their local communities of faith and the needs around them.

For more and more people, the ministry of "missions" seems to be "Glocal" (borrowing a term from the movie "Up in the Air"). "Glocal" is created by mixing "global" and "local." Our world has become so mobile (being able to travel anywhere in 24 hours) and so connected (through the Internet) that it has created a genuine desire and need for stability and the local community.

These are topics the church frequently has neglected in lieu of enhancing technology, employing marketing tactics and worship performance.

Many authors and experts call this shift toward a needed stability "learning to live a "missional" life." Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, the author of the book I read on the plane, is a leader in the new monastic movement. Much like popular author and activist Shane Claiborne, Hartgrove has co-founded a new monastic community in Durham, N.C. He and many others are growing in their practice of stability and are learning the rewards of "staying put."

Maybe it is time we considered the wisdom of stability and what is going on around us in our neighborhoods, communities and churches. We could take up Hartgrove's challenge of "doing the long, hard work of life with other people in the place where we are."

by Rev. Bob Henry

This article first appeared in the August edition of the FWLutheran.