Editorial
Editorial Overview: What’s Next?
Our well-ordered, taken for granted worlds are not working. The narratives of liberalism and neoliberal economics are increasingly unable to address this malaise. In their waning legitimacy new questions are emerging: What takes their place? and by extension, ‘What’s next?’
A Framework for ‘What’s Next?’: Re-rooting in the Christian Story.
The issue builds on the overarching question of ‘What’s Next?’ It proposes that the proper response is a re-engagement with the West’s Christian narrative, a re-rooting of life in the Christian story. The issue then builds on this overarching proposal through an examination of what this re-rooting might mean. It engages three themes...
Editorial: Learning to Listen
In this issue of the Journal we want to turn our attention to hearing God particularly through encounter and sharing stories, drawing on the resource of Journal stories and the practices of action and reflection. Sally Mann was a storyteller for the journal, and she describes...
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Think Tank 2018: Allowing Stories to lead us
I'm learning the power of stories. My involvement with the Journal of Missional Practice began with telling my story. In Spring 2016, Martin Robinson and Mary Publicover came to interview us. Our community church, Bonny Downs, was featured in Issue 7. I can’t tell you...
Think Tank 2018: Learning Together
My years in church leadership, teaching, and consulting, along with a degree in education, have always focused on how we learn. There have been times when I was inspired by a compelling theory or new data, and I have seen others who also showed interest and voiced intent around new possibilities, but two things stand out...
Editorial: Questions of Place
We are witnessing a resurgence of interest in questions of place. This is quite a significant shift in which many of us are trying to sort out what it means to have our lives shaped by the notion of neighborhood. It’s a tricky question because since the early 60s modern western life has been characterized by mobility and an expectation of progress. All of this is changing... What, therefore, is the meaning of place for Christian life in the modern West? I’m discovering this is not as easy a question...
Editorial: Westernised Europeans and their Localities
Earlier this year I was giving a talk on evangelism to a group of European leaders, most of whom were students. One of the points in my presentation was the rediscovery of the local, of communities and of churches who were attempting to reconnect with their neighbourhood. We entered into a fascinating debate but there was one comment that caught my attention in a very acute way. Someone from Vienna questioned the contention that there was any longer such a thing as community in the local...
Editorial: Place, Time and Identity
This issue of JMP has focused on the meaning of place in contemporary societies and its implications for the life and witness of Christian communities. Each of us, as we read this, are situated in some place – our home, work place, local coffee shop, etc., that locates and gives shape to our everyday lives. We have learned through this issue that the places where we dwell are complicated geographies that in our late modern contexts, raise complex questions...
Around the Table: March 2017
How might God be leading us in this time and place?
On March 31, 2017 we held our first virtual conversation Around the Table to invite others to join us in reflecting upon the work of the Spirit in recent JMP stories. A full recording of the webinar and shorter clips to view and share can be found on our YouTube channel.
Editorial: Hopeful Stories, Anxious Cultures.
Since Issue 7 of the Journal those of us living in the UK and NA have been overtaken by a series of events that have accelerated, beyond our expectations, the levels of fear, crisis and anxiety among citizens. It is becoming clear that trust in the structures of state and economics to address current challenges is tumbling. It is now apparent that elites and thought leaders...