Calgary Church – Join a movement….

Well it's the day after our inaugural missional church dialogue session and I think it was mostly a success. 11 interested folks showed up to chat about what's brewing in the scenes of 'church' in Calgary. We met at FATS Bar and Grill and because today is a holiday it was a bit busier than usual. I suppose we could have opted to meet in someone's home, however, the prospect of meeting in a public place seemed more suitable given our topics.

Everyone was drawn together by the same curiosity of listening to the various thoughts and expressions of Missio Dei in Calgary. I can't say we all had a consensus on all subjects either, which is exciting because it highlights the variety and diversity within a movement, but here are some highlights of the evening.

- When talking about having smaller networks combine into larger networks for 'church' some wondered why there was even a necessity/push to gather as a larger community. Why isn't the smaller gathering considered 'church'?

- Others noted that some of the programs offered at their church are fit the missional perspective (so something new may not be necessary).

- One comment in regards to how we draw friends to church which I thought was valid:

I don't see why we need to bring people into our church just to have them conform to our rules.

We also spend some time dialoguing on the expressions of missional church, specifically in the area of social justice. A lively discussion on when does social justice become Christian social justice? (as in at what point do we do social justice just to draw people to Christ or simply a no questions asked service).

Thanks to all who came out, the next dialogue will take place March 14th, 2009, stay tuned for more information.