The Blind Beggar

Last week I was blessed to be able to attend Off the Map’s “Inside the Missional Matrix” conference where Scot McKnight spoke. What follows are my notes and paraphrase of Scot’s first talk, including some quotes.

Scot said his objective was to provoke ideas that he thinks are connected to missional.

The first question we should be asking is, “What was God doing through Jesus?” Because what God was doing through Jesus is what he calls us to do.

To answer this question, Scot started with Mary and the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). “She said that Herod is coming down and you [Jesus] are going up and the poor are going to be fed and the rich are going to be spanked and run away empty and there is going to be justice in the land through you.”

Jesus in his first sermon said the same thing, and in the Beatitudes, same thing, and when John asked through his disciples if Jesus was the one to come, Jesus pointed him to Isaiah, “the one who will bring about justice for the poor and heal all these people and bring them to the table.”

So missional starts with what God was doing through Jesus — “bringing a new society characterized by radical justice for all people.”

How did Jesus frame this? Matthew tells us (Matthew 4:23) that Jesus was going around to all the villages teaching, proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom, and healing every disease and affliction. Matthew then records the teaching and preaching of Jesus in Matthew 5-7 and records healing stories of Jesus in Matthew 8-9. Matthew then wraps it up in Matthew 9:35 by saying “Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.”

Here is the secret to missional activity. What Jesus does (outlined by Matthew), he calls 12 people to do (Matthew 10:1). He did it and now he sends others to do this very thing. [Reminds me of John 20:21 where Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."] We become Jesus in our very world.

Missional activity then has four terms connected with it:

• It is being Jesus
• It is bringing the Kingdom of God
• It is presence (being the first two in our community)
• It is behavior (living those things out)

“To be missional then is to be the presents of Jesus. To establish the Kingdom of God in the way we live and what we do.”

Moving to the Practical

No one can tell each of us how to be missional in our community. It will vary from situation to situation, but we can know how to be Jesus in our context if we do these five “L’s” in love:

• Look — we must look out of our own window and see the people and needs.
• Listen — we need to listen to our neighbors.
• Learn — we need to learn how we can connect to these people and needs.
• Locally — we do these things locally.
• Link — we link concretely with the people in our world.

I’ll have at least one more post from this conference and maybe more. Todd Hunter also spoke powerfully and I’d like to recapture some of his thoughts.

Tags: Off the Map, Scot McKnight

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