In this episode, we look back on the 4 missional theology axioms we’ve covered so far. We do some review and some riffing, offering a few extra thoughts about how they work and why they’re important for living a truly integrated missional life. We surf from trinitarian theology, to yelling at our kids, to how we’re seeking to lead our own church from the perspective of these axioms.
Also, in this episode, we use the following obscure and/or unnecessarily complex words (sorry): amalgamation, bricolage, pastiche, kenotic, cruciformity, and recapitulate.
Here are the links to previous episodes in this series:
I really agree with this Axiom, that the leader becomes the most transformed. Just like parenting is also a second chance to grow as humans, a second chance at maturing or growing up.
Often there are a lot of tears for parents and leaders to do this, to provide the invitation for relationship that they never received. This often takes the support of a village, and a language to support this growth. I like you are providing this.
Something that jumped out though, how you mention apologising to you child. (I think it was Ben). Of cause there are ways to demonstrate this that can be helpful to demonstrate learning from mistakes, I sometimes call this a redo, but I have found one trap. We must never lose our alpha as the parent or leader.
Once we have regulated, when we again reengage the relationship, when we appologise (or make a redo) we need to not expect the child or other to accept our apology. We are in the lead, we offer the relationship, we don’t rely on them forgiving us. If they happen to, that is fine, but it is not a requirement.
The complement is also true, we don’t need the child to appologise to us when they make a mistake, such as a show of aggression when frustrated. We are the first to offer the relationship. We are in the lead to bridge what happened.
I am also suggesting for your consideration, when we sin, God does not require us to confess and repent. That is not the sign of the beginning of relationship. The first sign is God offering the relationship, and then we accept the invitation. We move into a dependent mode. Only later when we are more mature, would we maybe sometimes offer to God a confession and repentance, only when we are moved by a desire to connect, to do better. This is a sign of our growth edge, not a condition of relationship.
That was a lot of thoughts, hope this was interesting and helpful.