Live-Blogging at MISE2010!

Jesse is the author of The Church of Facebook. If you haven’t gotten it, go over and get his book now. Trust me, it’s sweet.

The sort-of subtitle of this conference has been: “Engaging Community, Igniting Mission” – these go hand in hand.

Why should we even try to do this? Why should we get a Facebook Page or a Twitter account? What’s the point?

We engage our community and culture not in order to repair it, but in order to subvert it. To joyfully, subversively effect it so that it is ultimately changed into something good.

Adolescent and Self-obsessed
This is our culture. Adolescence is characterized by a deep abiding sense of inadequacy.
The sense that we don’t have what it takes and we never will.
In order to combat that sense of inadequacy we have to find a mask.
We all have Oprah shaped holes- we are obsessed with self-help.
As a result we’re constantly interfacing with each others masks- each others avatars.(This is my most interesting information. This is me.)
This makes it hard to get past that, to get below the surface of each others lives.

Historical Amnesia
As a result of this adolescence, we have this amnesia, or a very short sided view of reality.
We are extremely gullible. We don’t have the history to counter this.
We are suckers for the new. Why else would we stand in long lines to get the new iPhone that just came out, when six months ago we stood in a long line to get the new iPhone?
We need to trust those that have already experienced.
In this culture it’s nearly impossible to tell what’s important and what’s not.
We end up as social and spiritual nomads.

So what do we do about this?
Start by recognizing cannot be repaired, it has to be replaced. It cannot be saved, it must be subverted.

The answers have to be worked out in the context of our individual communities.

The subversive is someone who takes on the coloration of the culture as far as anyone else can see. If the subversive loses their coloration, they lose their effectiveness. The subversive works quietly, patiently. The subversive has committed himself or herself to Christ’s victory over the culture and is willing to do those small things. No subversive ever does anything big. Instead, he or she is always carrying secret messages, planting suspicion that there is something beyond what the culture says is final. ~Eugene Peterson, The Contemplative Pastor

We’re going to use the very same language and tools that the culture uses to subvert it.

We don’t seek to create our own secret, private club- we use the language already out there.

Two Ways to do This
Through prayer listening.

Three types of language
What we have now, in our hyper-connectivity, is these two
Information- it’s learning and developing, it organizes our world
Motivation- do this, go there, be this, buy this, think about this, you should totally get this, language of attention
Intimacy- between a mother & her newborn child (the baby talk); so much is being said, but it’s deep and unspoken electricity between people. This is all but lost in our modern culture. The more our connectivity grows the less intimacy we experience. The church has, and should have, the corner on this language.

It’s small talk that makes the world go round- it’s subversive. We talk about the weather, the fact that we’re doing laundry. It’s an art we can learn to master. Small talk doesn’t have an agenda. It just is. It’s a form of prayerful listening. It’s the primary way we connect, and therefore it’s the primary way we can be subversive.

Prayerful listening happens whenever we give the gift of our presence to each other- the gift of our full attention.
We have to choose to be fully present.
One of the best gifts we can give is often to give our full attention.
God only works in the present. We must be present.
We are someone even when we are not connected (it’s ok to unplug).

Through creative storytelling.
Retell the story in a model that people can understand. Keep it simple.
Think of Avatar. It’s the story of the Gospel retold. It’s a great story.
It works best on a small scale. Jesus called the Kingdom of God as small bit of yeast. That the Kingdom of God was a tiny mustard seed. There is power in small acts.
The best creative storytelling is in small acts.
A small thing catches fire and soon everyone knows about it, it’s viral. So is hope, faith, love- all of these are.

These are not easy things to do.

Here’s the good news about this though:
Paul, in Philippians, reassures us by saying, “being confident of this: that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.” (Philippians 1:6)

God is the one who begins. He also sustains. And He’s the one who completes. We are simply and joyfully, creative coworkers in this Kingdom of God project.

Fun fact:
Jesse had a friend named Melvin Miller in Kindergarten and they used to go around telling kids that if they like the band KISS (which stood for Knights In Satan’s Service, as he was told) they were going to hell. (This isn’t being subversive.)

Wrap Up
MISE2010 was a great gathering and extended conversation for anyone interested in engaging their culture and igniting their mission. All of the sessions were videoed and will be available for FREE.99 in the next few weeks over at Mission Igniter.

Stay tuned there as well for another MISE conference coming to the Portland area in May!

A big thanks to Michael Forney and Brett Eddy for getting this together!