It's hard to think of a more important book on Christian imagination than Willie James Jennings' The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race. The American Academy of Religion awarded the book its 2011 Award for Excellence in the Constructive-Reflective Study of Religion.

We were privileged to host Dr. Jennings for two days of discussion and presentation on his ideas. Here's the video of his main lecture, held December 9, 2011.

Tony Jones offers up  ten myths of the missional church. Kind of a fun take on it all, and I particularly appreciated his critique of the sacred/secular divide: "there aren't 'thin places,' every place is a 'thin place'!"

This same blog post has a great link to a Storified version of the Funding the Missional Church conference.

An MCC 2011 Reflection by Laurie Neill, MDIV Senior concentrating in Children, Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary

The reality that John Roberto brought to light for me at the 2011 Missional Church Consultation was that it is not only possible, but beneficial, for the church to provide faith formation for anyone, anytime, anywhere, 24x7x365. While I know that our youth (and adults) are connected to each other on many different levels and circles (often at the same time), I never really envisioned …

Here is the Reverend David Everett talking about his research into missional leadership and a group of very dynamic historically Black churches.

 

Here's Mark Vitalis Hoffman at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Gettysburg talking about the new masters degree in religion and media that Gettysburg and Luther are entering into together. I'll be co-teaching the first course in the program with Kristin Largen from Gettysburg. That course will take place in an intensive two week format at the end of August on Gettysburg's campus. I hope you'll share news of this opportunity with missional leaders -- Gettysburg is even offering great funding …