This is "Part 1" in a multi-part post. The other parts can be found here:
Intro | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

As a leader in a new, missional, emerging community I try and focus as much time and energy as possible on the ongoing formation of my ability to tell the story of Jesus to both seekers and apprentices. I make every effort to engage scripture and culture and try desperately to connect the Word to people's lives and to model Christ-likeness for our community. However, I fail so often. I am weak. I am forgetful. I rarely get it right.

I have come to believe that my active participation in spiritual practices [prayer, fasting, etc.] is not only a great idea, but a necessary step in personal spiritual development and community spiritual development. When I don't actively explore the disciplines, I am unable to really communicate the story to anyone else. When weeks go by that I am not involved in personal spiritual discipline, it takes a tole.

I have also found studying to be key. Studying the scriptures to better understand who Jesus is and what Jesus is about seems to be the way to learn how to lead this community. Unless I study and really try and know Jesus, how can I expect anyone else to? But I am also learning that there is a need for me to "study" the people of our community as well. I need to know them. I do this through research and reading, but mostly through conversations and living with this community.

If I am to speak into this community and tell them the story of Jesus and his desire to bring healing, wholeness and restoration to every facet of our lives, I have to know who these people are. What they dream about. What they think about themselves and the world, etc. The best way to do that has been to spend time with them. Sounds simple. But it's hard. Because every distraction in the world can interfere with truly getting to know a community and having them truly know you.

I also recognize it likely means "long-haul". Long-term journeying. I have been here for five years now and I am just starting to scratch the surface in terms of understanding the people of this community. Five years can seem long, but it isn't.

I need to be concerned, not only with the community which has formed at The Freeway, but with the wider community [neighbourhood] as well. This has proven to be very difficult and slow-going.

Effective story telling [communication] is a must. I fear this is an area that I not only struggle with, feel inadequate at, and get nervous about, but it is also an area which I often do not spend enough time and energy on.

• Sometimes I get distracted by all the requests from other parts of the church world to get to know them and tell the story of what's happening here with us in Hamilton.
  
• Sometimes I get so caught up in the stories of those around the country and around the world, that my time and energy is spent keeping up with what's going on [particularly in other emerging communities].
  
• Sometimes, however, it's just easier for me to spew what I already know, rather than figuring out how to contextually tell the story of God and us.

So, as far as I can tell, some of the main things I am learning when it comes to being a missional poet is the need to practice the following: research, conversation, experimentation, spiritual practices.

I may write more about this, but that's good for now, I think.

Update: Mark Berry adds the following to the discussion over at his blog:

"I love the idea of being a 'Missional Poet' and might even want to expand it to being a 'Missional Bard'... a teller of stories, a keeper of rhythm and rhyme, a connection to the ancients, a setter of truths into saga's and meaning into episodes, a synthesis between now and then, between this world and the other, between hopes and dreams, a guardian of wisdom, a link to the heartbeat of the earth, a reader of the heavens... mmmm yes I can see that... the poet and the prophet!"

I like that alot.

Labels: leadership, the freeway, writing