The first post is the one in which he coins his church structural concept, MIROR, which is a spin off of Len Sweet’s MRI construct.  MIROR stands for Missional, Incarnational, Relational, Organic and Reproducable.  You can read more in his post, The Trinity:  Foundations for Missional Theology.

His most recent effort is The MIROR, Missional and Releasing Your People.

I was really struck by his last post and the simple concept of releasing your people.  We understand that Missional is sending.  God is a sending God.  The Father sent the Son, sent the Holy Spirit.  We are sent in the Great Commission and Acts 1:8.

Sending, however, is not always releasing.  There arise in our culture numerous examples of a desire to control those who are sent out.  People get tied to policies and procedures that keep them from acting independently.  It is a centralized mindset, rather than a de-centralized one.  It steals initiative and creativity from the individual. [As I read this, it occurs to me that some people will think I am referring to our Southern Baptist Mission Boards.  I'm not.  I may address that further one day, but I doubt it.]

I think that the failure to release is actually a failure to send.  It looks like sending, but it’s more like annexing.  Not the same.

Comments

• October 7, 2008, David Phillips writes: "I think that the failure to release is actually a failure to send. It looks like sending, but it’s more like annexing. Not the same." Art... Bingo! David Phillipss last blog post..The MIROR, Missional, and Releasing Your People
• October 9, 2008, Mike Woodward writes: This is one of those things that you go "all in" abstractly, then when you start living the reality, you begin to wonder if this is what you really believe. 64K question: Where does your responsibility as an overseer start and end in the act of releasing?
• October 9, 2008, art rogers writes: Mike, I don't have many problems living it out. I have problems getting others in my church to live it out, sometimes. Strike that. I did spend about 3 days mourning the recent departure of a family that moved from our church. Then I realized that as much as I loved and appreciated them, there was nothing I could do and that where they were was between them and God. As for my role as overseer, I challenge them to live Biblically, but otherwise I realize that they are not under my "control." I don't have rights over the people of my congregation, rather, I am there to serve them.

Related posts:

• More Missional from David Phillips
• Alan Hirsch is stealing my thunder!!!
• I love Jesus, but I drink a little…
• Missional Non-Conference with David Fitch
• Pastoral Blogging

I have a friend named David Phillips who is a pastor in Delaware.  Among other things, David is a truly Missional thinker and has a great many thoughts worth your attention, and I want to recommend a couple of short posts to you.

The first post is the one in which he coins his church structural concept, MIROR, which is a spin off of Len Sweet’s MRI construct.  MIROR stands for Missional, Incarnational, Relational, Organic and Reproducable.  You can read more in his post, The Trinity:  Foundations for Missional Theology.

His most recent effort is The MIROR, Missional and Releasing Your People.

I was really struck by his last post and the simple concept of releasing your people.  We understand that Missional is sending.  God is a sending God.  The Father sent the Son, sent the Holy Spirit.  We are sent in the Great Commission and Acts 1:8.

Sending, however, is not always releasing.  There arise in our culture numerous examples of a desire to control those who are sent out.  People get tied to policies and procedures that keep them from acting independently.  It is a centralized mindset, rather than a de-centralized one.  It steals initiative and creativity from the individual. [As I read this, it occurs to me that some people will think I am referring to our Southern Baptist Mission Boards.  I'm not.  I may address that further one day, but I doubt it.]

I think that the failure to release is actually a failure to send.  It looks like sending, but it’s more like annexing.  Not the same.

Comments

• October 7, 2008, David Phillips writes: "I think that the failure to release is actually a failure to send. It looks like sending, but it’s more like annexing. Not the same." Art... Bingo! David Phillipss last blog post..The MIROR, Missional, and Releasing Your People
• October 9, 2008, Mike Woodward writes: This is one of those things that you go "all in" abstractly, then when you start living the reality, you begin to wonder if this is what you really believe. 64K question: Where does your responsibility as an overseer start and end in the act of releasing?
• October 9, 2008, art rogers writes: Mike, I don't have many problems living it out. I have problems getting others in my church to live it out, sometimes. Strike that. I did spend about 3 days mourning the recent departure of a family that moved from our church. Then I realized that as much as I loved and appreciated them, there was nothing I could do and that where they were was between them and God. As for my role as overseer, I challenge them to live Biblically, but otherwise I realize that they are not under my "control." I don't have rights over the people of my congregation, rather, I am there to serve them.

Related posts:

• More Missional from David Phillips
• Alan Hirsch is stealing my thunder!!!
• I love Jesus, but I drink a little…
• Missional Non-Conference with David Fitch
• Pastoral Blogging

Posts

Women in the Beginning – Emily Hunter McGowin kicks off her series which will discuss Women in the Bible and their place among the church. Sure to be a hot topic, as were her posts along similar lines at SBCOutpost, bring your thinking cap. Whatever your position, you will have to defend it with depth, not volume.

Ed Stetzer quotes from the weekend – Rick Thompson gives a litany of powerful quotes from our buddy Ed. This came out a little while ago, but really good stuff.

For the Sake of the Kids – Bowden McElroy comments on Snoop Dogg’s return to his family, eschewing the Hollywood lifestyle.

WSJ on Church Discipline & Wall Street Journal Hatchet Job – Drs. Tom Ascol and Hershael York, respectively, respond to an article in the Wall Street Journal called Banned from Church. One of the responses is more gracious than the other, but I’ll let you determine which is closest to the appropriate tone.

Sites

CampusTech – Especially helpful for those of you still in College or Seminary (or if you are or have a family member who is an educator), CampusTech has phenominal education discounts on tons of software.

Who’s Hosting This? – This site will let you type in a domain name and find out who they are using as a hosting service. If you’re like me, you are curious about who everyone is using. I’ll save you the trouble: I use Bluehost.

Purgatorio is back up and running.

The Linked Word Project is from Bob Jones University and is in the KJV, but is a unique online repository by which you can click on any word in the Bible and get a pop up reference to information from the original language, cross referenced with OT and NT definitions as well as the information from Strong’s Concordance. Under Word Origin, click the number to get detailed info on the root word.

Line Rider online addictive game that some people get way too carried away and produce things like this: Line Rider – Jagged Peak Adventure.

Comments

• January 21, 2008, Bowden McElroy writes: Thanks for the link!
• January 21, 2008, Art Rogers writes: Sure. It's a good story.

Related posts:

• Later today
• Better Blogging: NextGen Picture Gallery
• The Run Down 1.26.08
• Link Load 04-18-08
• Better Blogging: The Theme or Template

Introducing a not so subtle rip off of Steve McCoy’s Lots-o-Links periodical post. Subtle difference (besides the name): two catagories – Posts and Sites.

Posts

Women in the Beginning – Emily Hunter McGowin kicks off her series which will discuss Women in the Bible and their place among the church. Sure to be a hot topic, as were her posts along similar lines at SBCOutpost, bring your thinking cap. Whatever your position, you will have to defend it with depth, not volume.

Ed Stetzer quotes from the weekend – Rick Thompson gives a litany of powerful quotes from our buddy Ed. This came out a little while ago, but really good stuff.

For the Sake of the Kids – Bowden McElroy comments on Snoop Dogg’s return to his family, eschewing the Hollywood lifestyle.

WSJ on Church Discipline & Wall Street Journal Hatchet Job – Drs. Tom Ascol and Hershael York, respectively, respond to an article in the Wall Street Journal called Banned from Church. One of the responses is more gracious than the other, but I’ll let you determine which is closest to the appropriate tone.

Sites

CampusTech – Especially helpful for those of you still in College or Seminary (or if you are or have a family member who is an educator), CampusTech has phenominal education discounts on tons of software.

Who’s Hosting This? – This site will let you type in a domain name and find out who they are using as a hosting service. If you’re like me, you are curious about who everyone is using. I’ll save you the trouble: I use Bluehost.

Purgatorio is back up and running.

The Linked Word Project is from Bob Jones University and is in the KJV, but is a unique online repository by which you can click on any word in the Bible and get a pop up reference to information from the original language, cross referenced with OT and NT definitions as well as the information from Strong’s Concordance. Under Word Origin, click the number to get detailed info on the root word.

Line Rider online addictive game that some people get way too carried away and produce things like this: Line Rider – Jagged Peak Adventure.

Comments

• January 21, 2008, Bowden McElroy writes: Thanks for the link!
• January 21, 2008, Art Rogers writes: Sure. It's a good story.

Related posts:

• Later today
• Better Blogging: NextGen Picture Gallery
• The Run Down 1.26.08
• Link Load 04-18-08
• Better Blogging: The Theme or Template