The Theology of Google was just held. This is an ongoing conversation as denominations struggle to reach out to a wired generation.
Missional types are holding a more expensive conference called MissionSHIFT. One of the organizers is the researcher for Lifeway, the huge product arm of the SBC. Speakers are this conference are all US white male pastors, Â MissionSHIFT is being held in idyllic settings with a line up of who’s who in the US religious community. They use technology well. As with any high profile church leaders, they plan a manifesto, one of the ‘in’ things these days.
Organizers reached out to bloggers and asked them to tweet an explanation to ‘what is missional’. You can see the answers on the MissionSHIFT blog.
There is a token female and non-white person added to the line up they won’t be sharing the main stage with the celebrity pastors.
You won’t be seeing this exchange either on the official site, between Peterson Toscano and  Ed Stetzer.
What does Missional Look Like? Not Look Like? Why must I Tweet about it???
Here are some pieces. Peterson:
As I have posted elsewhere, we need to commit to hearing multiple voices, not just in on-line forums, but from the stage of the missionSHIFT conference. Demonstrate and validate your value to diversity of voices by giving those voices a place on the program and not just in blog comments.
The primary apparent flaw with the missionSHIFT missional manifesto conference is the grossly over-representation of white, male, middle-class, American clergy of the church planting variety. So many voices are not represented. Women, non-Americans, the poor, sexual minorities, other types of ministers (hospital & prison chaplains, people who work with children, the homeless, in hospice, college ministries.) The result is destined to be much of the same unless we open up the table to the full body of Christ.
Stetzer responded from his culture what he knows and focuses on one point, Guess what it is?.
I invite you to reconsider your view, look to the scriptures, get in a community that will encourage you to biblical fidelity and faithfulness, and, yes, change your view of homosexuality.
We are all broken– but the answer is not to call “right†what God calls wrong.
As I said, we won’t be debating that here… but since you commented, I’m glad to reply in what I hope is a respectful way.
Staying out that that rut Peterson responded, not wanting to get stuck in Steltzers SBC position responded.
I am fully aware that you are not interested in a discussion about the faith experiences of gay and lesbian Christians. I never intended to bring up that topic and would prefer we not get bogged down with a fruitless and distracting conversation.
Sexual minorities were only one of several groups I mentioned (and sexual minorities I mentioned were not gay or lesbian people but intersex and transgender individuals who rarely find welcome in either the church or gay and lesbian spaces.)
I hear you say you wish to reserve your platforms for pastors, and I imagine that means mostly male pastors, but the church and the mission field is made up of a vast array of ministers, male and female, in a diversity of ministries. These servants have vital information to share with church planters and pastors.
As I mentioned above these include–hospital & prison chaplains, people who work with children, the homeless, in hospice, college ministries etc. Also, having served in both South America and Africa, I can see the challenges and pitfalls of a predominately white US-led discussion of missions and missional living that does not include voices from outside of the US.
We may not agree on one issue, but I have a heart for missions and for the fulfillment of a scene that always moves me deeply:
I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
A Quaker, Tuscano wasn’t ready to let go and quipped:
I actually don’t exactly know why I am responding (leading of the Spirit or unresolved angst from my sordid Evangelical past?) but here goes. He who has ears to hear…
He continued:
Ed, I could not find your e-mail address where I can send the following, so I will have to hsare it here. You and others may find my comments relevant to our discussion about missional.
Above you write,
I invite you to reconsider your view, look to the scriptures, get in a community that will encourage you to biblical fidelity and faithfulness, and, yes, change your view of homosexuality.
-snip-
As I said, we won’t be debating that here… but since you commented, I’m glad to reply in what I hope is a respectful way.
Ed, Actually I find your words to be disrespectful condescending, reactive and dismissive–the antithesis of missional. Dis-missional?
You may not respect me because I am gay, and you have determined that my faith and my relationship to God are inferior to yours, but in doing so you highlight the very problem I point out in my original statement above–your view of missional is elitist, allowing only a select few to speak out. This is not a gay debate. This is about allowing even those you are in fellowship with a chance to speak at your conference.
You may not like to hear this message from me, someone you consider broken, but as a wise elder from an Evangelical church I attended in Yonkers, NY would say, truth is truth no matter who says it.
Elitism is such a harder truth to face than acknowledgement of exclusion, hang ups on sexuality and marginalization.
Humans see the forest not the trees and I wonder if that is what is happening here.
I wonder if Ed Stetzer is used to being spoken to this way,  he is working in the Nashville  headquarters of the SBC  where women and non whites are second class citizens. I doubt organizers growing and living in this culture will draw attention to the prophetic rebuke of Peterson Tuscano. As for me…Wow, thank you for speaking for  christian workers, and laypeople,  the ones we see, admire and work to be like; daily going about the work of the kingdom who have been offered no place at the MissionSHIFT table. Given the faithful work they do with the least of these , the cost of the conference and amenities would cut into their budget of caring for those they serve.
Read the whole exchange post, it is a powerful call to the church in America.
I believe you meant to include the F in SHIFT throughout, right? That doesn’t look like an editorial choice.
Typo, not intentional.:^) Fixed.
There’s actually no place in today’s church for you if you don’t slot into a predefined role. So, for example, married heterosexuality is extremely privileged, while unmarried people and people whose sexuality is not heterosexual are either not privileged or actively despised. If you’re male, you’re expected to become married, a breadwinner and the leader in your home, father to children. If you’re female, you’re expected to slot into the role of wife and mother, knowing your place in the divine pecking order. You’re given an opportunity as a young person to find your counterpart, but after a certain age (say, 30), if you’re not, well, you can just hang it up and expect that you’re going to be that square peg in the round hole down at First Evangelical Wholly Sold Out For Jesus Church down the street or around the corner.
It was the way the church saw me, a single, never married, no children, very educated woman–as someone who didn’t fit and who was a challenge to the way people are slotted–that caused me to realize there was really no place for me. And then, I started looking at the religion I had called home all my life and it came up wanting. So, ultimately, while it started out with being the square peg, it ended up being “I can’t worship another human being as God, there’s just too much weirdness there.” And that after an adult lifetime of accepting Jesus as my personal savior, believing that his shed blood had taken away all my sins, etc., etc., –and trying to fit my square peg into the round hole.
Now I’m agnostic on the whole thing. It works for other people, just not for me.