I am taking a huge risk here. I am really starving for stories about what is happening in the home groups/mission groups that are developing in North America. Most of what is being shared is strictly on the level of the abstract. There are enough people reading other people’s materials, quoting other people, going to conferences, musing about how great this is all going to be, trying to give scriptural reasons for home groups, being philosophical about it, offering devotionals around it, asking questions….. yet no one is sharing what is actually happening in their groups.
There have been a few who are lamenting this. For example I read a comment by Jeremiah Smith on Jason Evans blog:

on another note, most people's blog entries on this subject do seem to be on a purely conceptual and abstract level.

it would help us a lot if those who are leading truly "missional" communities could share some real-life examples/stories of what it has meant for them to be "missional."
Listen to Jason’s new friend Jedd:

. Despite all of the conversations, reading, theorizing, and even writing on the subject, my own experience of community has been intermittent at best.

Listen to Todd hunter quoting Mark ????

let’s make some of the missional communities that actually live out the implications of the new way we are learning to understand the Gospel (i.e. Willard, Wright, etc.), THEN lets talk about it; or do both simultaneously. The bottom line: talk ALONE won’t get it done.

Stories have a power to encourage, motivate to give hope in the face of discouragement. After all isn’t that what the whole Bible is about; the stories of people who decided to follow God. What impressed me most from the Church of the Saviour was not their theorizing, but the stories of what they did. It excited me to believe that church could be ordered differently. The amazing thing about them is not so much what they have done, which is quite amazing, but how people continue to visit them knowing there is something quite different and exciting about them. And that difference has much more to do with the cross life than it does church success.

So my call here is to begin sharing what is happening amongst us even if we are taking baby steps. Stories of healing, reconciliation, ministry, new believers, struggles, ideas, new start ups, wisdom, and so on. Let’s ask some tough questions about this. At the same time we can continue to share new insights through what we’ve read, imagined, and thought about.

I have some ideas about this if anyone is interested and I would like to hear any ideas that you may have.

Please offer some feedback. zuzu@nts.net If you read this please pass it on to those on your mailing list. I’d certainly like some feedback.