tell your story

I've been e-mailing with a friend about "missional networking." What is that, you ask? If you want to follow my blog metaphor, it is linking up searchlights (individuals, congregations) to engage in God's mission to seek and save the lost TOGETHER.

At Good Shepherd, we are stretching and being stretched out into our near-neighborhoods, but if we are to be salt and light in our whole city, then we'll have to connect with other congregations and "searchlighters" across the area. We've talked about what that would look like - but we have to do it.

In the conversations with my friend, we are pondering what that looks like at an even larger level - regionally and nationally. I suggested that was not the time to flip back to an attractional model of networking - for example, me planting a flag here at Good Shepherd and saying "all of you join my lighthouse-searchlight network and get with the program." Rather, we need a missional model of missional networking.

One practical way of doing that is to reach out by social networking... so here is a first step. I'm reaching out to you who read this through the blog, RSS, Facebook, and Twitter. Share the request, retweet, pass it on.

And what am I asking? I want to encourage you to tell your story. How are you or your congregation following Christ out into the world to engage in God's mission? Post a reply, or link back to this, or send me an e-mail (robert{at}gspc{dot}net) and I'll post a story. Your stories will not only give us fresh ideas in our own context, but also help us get to know each other and connect across the geographical space.