Part 1 re-posts the “short version” history from the original M.T. site, and is valuable for demonstrating circumstances and the “spiritual DNA” present at the inception of what became Missional Tribe.
Instigating the Tribe
This Missional Tribe website grew out of relationships and ideas that were cross-pollinated by people who participated in The Wikiklesia Project (Voices of the Virtual World, 2007), Allelon’s Missional Order Project, and the Missional SynchroBlog.
As events unfolded, seven people ended up as “instigators” for this site and somewhere along the line, the name Missional Tribe stuck. Also, the name “elders” became attached to the instigator group, more from an anthropological perspective than from any of them being involved as church elders. From early on, it was clear that the group’s heart was to catalyze a conversation space and resource place that could be opened up to the many instead of “owned” by the few.
Five of the initial tribal elders participated in that initial volume of Wikiklesia: Peggy Brown, Bill Kinnon, Brother Maynard, Rick Meigs, and Brad Sargent. All five of these initial elders were also involved in the Seabeck Summit of Allelon’s Missional Order. Bill and Brother Maynard already knew each other from other settings with Allelon. Peggy and Brad knew each other beforehand from The Virtual Abbey, and they drove to Seabeck (on the Washington state peninsula) from Portland with Rick. Meanwhile, Sonja Andrews and Kingdom Grace were known to various other instigators from real-world and virtual-world connections.
All seven would consider themselves “missional practitioners,” even if they have developed gifts and passions for theology, theory, and/or strategy. The practices of being missional, probably more than anything else, shaped the initial “spiritual DNA” of Missional Tribe.
Early Themes and Events
The early history of Missional Tribe reveals some important themes about the external circumstances that created a need for a new thing, the internal values that brought our particular group of founders together, and the “providential propulsion” that aimed us toward a particular trajectory of impact. Some of the unfolding themes from the earliest days of Missional Tribe in 2008 include:
* Navigating the tension among unclear or competing understandings within contemporary Christianity about missional and other movements.
* Navigating the tensions among missional practices, theologies, and theories.
* Dealing with the paradoxical problem that many streams within contemporary Christianity are dominated by older generation Anglo males, who are by default in the positions of power; yet being missional is about embracing diversity and including intentionally.
* Searching for the best media forms currently available to keep content and conversations about missional life “evergreen.”
* Considering the classic tensions between openness and order, freedom and responsibility, creativity and control – and how they apply to a forum that focuses on welcoming both those who are beginners and advanced in their practice of missional lifestyles and seeks to encourage diverse expressions and dialogues around being missional.
If there was one event that most directly contributed to the creation of Missional Tribe, it was the “Missional SynchroBlog” of June 2008. Rick Meigs – known to many from his blogs, The Blind Beggar and Friend of Missional – issued the call for the SynchroBlog:
I have a continuing concern that the term missional has become over used and wrongly used. […] We must reclaim the term. The concept behind missional is really big and it would be terrible to lose it. I think it is time to make a bigger effort to reclaim the term, a term which describe what happens when you and I replace the “come to us” invitations with a “go to them” life. A life where “the way of Jesus” informs and radically transforms our existence to one wholly focused on sacrificially living for him and others and where we adopt a missionary stance in relation to our culture. It speaks of the very nature of the Jesus follower. (Call for Missional SynchroBlog – June 5, 2008 – The Blind Beggar)
The SynchroBlog hit the internet on June 23, 2008. According to Rick’s “Missional SynchroBlog Update” of June 12, there were 50 official participants on the list, and later, another dozen or so who did not contact Rick in time also blogged posts SynchroBlog day, or blogged links to prior posts on the meaning of missional.
What Next?
Afterward, three participants compiled tools of various sorts to help people surf the SynchroBlog. Also, once the Missional SynchroBlog had been completed, an email exchange on what to do next was started by three of the SynchroBloggers: Bill Kinnon, Brother Maynard, and Rick Meigs. This was in late June 2008.
What became this website started with the idea of a “Missional Wikiklesia” compilation book as a follow-through to the SynchroBlog. While would at least capture the material that was produced, it wouldn’t keep it “evergreen.” Content is different when it’s in the form of a conversation with the possibility of commenting, than when it’s stuck in a book or gets buried in the blogosphere.
So, what about posing new topics or questions, and trying to rediscover material already on the web, or bringing in a diversity of people and perspectives? And what could be done to help “newbees” get into the missional conversation without getting drowned by it? And for those who’d been involved a while, perhaps “peer review” of material that’s more advanced in terms of complexity or theology? The concept of a compilation quickly morphed from a static book to a dynamic website – more specifically, some type of wiki site.
The idea of something along the lines of a wiki site made sense: open source fits a more missional and participatory approach to diversity, inclusivity, and activity. The dialogue quickly expanded to be informed by current social theory, such as: Here Comes Everybody, Wikinomics, and The Starfish and the Spider. The structures and approaches more typical in the broader missional conversation seem to fit with the theories of these authors on decentralized or “leaderless” organizations.
Why Now and Who Next?
Meanwhile, more issues arose in the blogosphere, indicating that missional was still a misunderstood and misused term, and its paradigm was continuing to be pitted against attractional models and megachurches. The need was now to clarify the territory, not claim it. The three instigators soon brought in Sonja Andrews, Peggy Brown, Kingdom Grace, and Brad Sargent to round out the perspectives and push forward on the discussion.
In retrospect, it also seemed a providential time to start something. Around this same time, the Spirit was already moving elsewhere in “emerging” movements, and major changes were underway. For instance, that summer, Emergent Village was in the midst of restrategizing in anticipation of the forthcoming transition of National Director Tony Jones. And then, Scot McKnight, Dan Kimball, Erwin McManus, and others were hinting about the eventual formation of a more evangelical approach to emerging issues [which became The Origins Project]. Also, Allelon was launching its ATCs – Allelon Training Centers.
So, much was happening in wide-ranging but not always overlapping spheres of influence. But despite the positive features of these various branches in the emerging stream, they did not have full appeal to others in the missional movement. The initial process of discerning who you are as a group involves a lot of comparison and contrast to figure out what your actual critical values are – concerns that are so strong that they are hallmarks of your existence. And so, it is natural to find authors, thought leaders, and organizations with whom you either strongly agree or disagree.
In the earliest communications among founders in what became Missional Tribe, there were regular questions asked about what makes this group different … and not simply to justify our existence, but to ensure we were stewarding Kingdom resources well by creating resources not available elsewhere. And so, there were conversations about people and ministries within the Christendom and post-Christendom perspectives; within various branches in the Western Church/Kingdom (e.g., evangelical and post-evangelical, Charismatic and post-Charismatic); and within attractional, emerging, and missional movements.
It didn’t take long, though, to move from conversation to action – only about six months from the initial GoToMeeting convened by Rick at the end of July, to the Epiphany launch date planned for January 6, 2009. Autumn of 2008 brought with it clarified goals and values for Missional Tribe, and the elders put in much effort to prepare the way for the website. BuddyPress was in beta-best, so we were one of the early users to put that open source software to work. Thankfully, it had most of the features we were looking for to generate conversations on the incarnational grid and resource this and next generations of missional disciples. In a next-to-final step before the launch, the elders drew up a demographically diverse list of two dozen invitees to beta-test the site, beginning Christmas week of 2008. And with their suggestions, the launch version of this site was set for Epiphany.
Next: Part 2 shares the hopes each Instigator had for Missional Tribe.
