This post gives four FAQs from the original site about Missional Tribe’s origins in 2008 and its vision for the site in 2009, plus two addendums to bring things up to date in 2011.
When was the original Missional Tribe site begun?
This site was instigated by three people (Bill Kinnon, Brother Maynard, and Rick Meigs) in late June of 2008, shortly after the Missional SynchroBlog, a well-represented event called for by Rick Meigs in an attempt to clarify and correct the misuses of the term missional.
Who instigated Missional Tribe?
The first seven people involved by October of 2008 were as follows.
- Sonja Andrews ~ Calacirian
- Peggy Brown ~ The Virtual Abbess
- Linda ~ Kingdom Grace
- Bill Kinnon ~ kinnon
- Brother Maynard ~ Subversive Influence
- Rick Meigs ~ The Blind Beggar
- Brad Sargent ~ futuristguy
Each contributed important questions and insights to the discussion, and also shared from various areas of expertise – arts, design, media, research, technology, writing, etc. They bantered about a term to make it easier to refer to the group, and, through a series of so-so choices, eventually landed on Instigators.
Where did the name “Missional Tribe” come from?
Actually, the exact generation of the name is sort of a mystery. The original handles used for the group were Missional Wikiklesia and Missional Wiki, mostly because they were descriptive.
The first use of the term tribe in any documents was June 30, 2008, in an article Bill forwarded on how informed amateur “citizen journalists” were challenging the territory traditionally claimed by the tribe of professional journalists.
The second documented instance of tribe showed up during a July 30, 2008, conference call among the first four instigators. It was in reference to Seth Godin’s book, Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us, on “tribal marketing.” The conference call was in the morning, and later that day, Bill had registered web domains using the term MissionalTribe. Regardless of the exact chain of events that led to adapting the term tribe, it makes more sense to have a group name that involves a relational WHO (e.g., a tribe) rather than just a resourceful WHAT (e.g., a wiki).
What were the original objectives for Missional Tribe and the website?
The instigators of Missional Tribe were well aware that the initial purposes of a new gathering get morphed as time goes on, and in fact, even believed that they should. And really, there was no official “vision statement” or anything like that, until December 2008 when some kind of descriptions for the group and the resources were needed. Until then, perhaps the overall context of a need for such a group/resource were the topics under discussion, along with what specific website features to offer, than to figure out an official statement.
And so, what follows is a compilation from the many conversations and communications between July and December 2008 that shaped the creation of the original website. Words and phrases used below appeared ever more consistently as the months progressed and the context for the group/website became more clear. These common-ground concepts represent key values and purposes of the Missional Tribe site, and include some specific terms used by each of the instigators in their mid-December 2008 attempts to express his or her perspective on, The tribe …
… offers a collaborative space to connect people and generate an accepting, supportive community that intentionally seeks for diversity.
… fosters dialogue in a respectful environment and gathers grassroots stories for mutual encouragement, teaching, and support.
… focuses on serving practitioners through resources, ideas, and stories from the front lines of incarnational engagement and radical transformation.
… shares the nitty-gritty of living our faith and sharing our life in order to break anyone’s sense of isolation on this journey, especially when a virtual support network may be the only community currently available.
… creates an “evergreen” space to capture and continue the collective wisdom of those seek to pursue Christlikeness, stewarding it in ways that will keep it accessible beyond the first generation of participants.
… encourages using the website as a social space for befriending people of similar (or opposite!) interests, as a discussion space for interactive learning, and as an archive space for links and materials that might otherwise be forgotten.
… engages in discussion of any topic about the missional journey, with a minimum of gate keeping and oversight to maintain it as a safe place for all so that nothing would be off limits except for bullying or belittling others.
… celebrates both individual and communal expressions of a missional paradigm, and seeks constantly to broaden its demographic reach as a commitment to embrace diversity in Christ’s Kingdom.
Although most descriptions of who and what the tribe is were stated in the positive, there is a place for stating some of what the tribe is not, or does not do. In the tribe …
… it’s not about methods, but about a paradigm and a lifestyle.
… it’s not about polishing theory or theology in attempts to get it perfect, but about movement forward in our practice of a missional lifestyle.
… it’s not about control or ownership by the few, but about empowering each member to participate responsibly.
… it’s not about celebrities, but about the everyday disciple.
Addendum #1: What happened with the old Missional Tribe site?
The short version, from Brother Maynard: The Missional Tribe Instigators launched a website once, called – what else – MissionalTribe.org. It was intended as a kind of social networking hub for the collection and telling of missional stories. It didn’t work out as well as we’d hoped, so we pulled the plug, with hopes of doing something different. Eventually, upon realizing that all of us had grown weary of blogging daily, we decided to try a group blog. And this is it.
Addendum #2: What about the purposes behind the new Missional Tribe site?
“futuristguy” here again. I hadn’t read that list in, like, over a year. And in all our many emails and conference calls over the last few years, not much in that “mini-manifesto” has really changed in terms of overall philosophy. Where we mostly got overwhelmed was with the strategy: trying to be too much, do too much, and do-be-do so much too much too quickly. Who could possibly keep up with administrating a site with forums and blog posts and comments and spammers and etc.? And, frankly, some bloggers seemed to be more interested promoting other things than participating in a conversation.
So here we are with, overall, very similar perspectives and purposes to what we hoped for and worked toward when we launched M.T. #1 on Epiphany 2009. In this relaunch, seems we’re just refreshing the original vision on the screen. But maybe it will help if we sacrifice wide diversity in topics going on simultaneously in order to pursue some ongoing depth in whatever topic is at hand. Also, hopefully we’re wiser, doing what is reasonable stewardship given our individual life situations as Instigators, and enjoying the pace as grow-robic instead of aerobic.
Again, welcome to the reborn Missional Tribe site – and hope you enjoy the difference …
