Christianity is an embodied way of life, not just an institution or set of ideas.

The challenge is to create a congregational culture where innovation isn’t driven by or dependent on clergy. Without shared passion, the journey into the neighborhood in the way of Jesus will be little more than one more episodic program the latest pastor introduced. Each of the practices in part II offers a way to lead without having clergy act as

empowering leadership, gift-oriented ministry, passionate spirituality, functional structures, inspiring worship, holistic small groups, need-oriented evangelism, and loving relationships.

In my experience, few Euro-tribal congregations actively assume that God speaks to us in unique, specific ways through Scripture.

There is no pretense that those involved have it all worked out. There’s lots of messiness and experimenting as people act and learn their way into a different imagination, and we will see in part II just what those actions could look like.

Further, mission is the “central biblical theme describing the purposes of God in human history.”5 As Craig Van Gelder and Dwight Zscheile have noted, God’s mission in the world is related to the reign, or the kingdom, of God. This means the work of God is larger than the mission of the church, although the church is directly involved in the reign

Travel lightly.

Discernment is different from analyzing a neighborhood and then deciding how to meet some related need. Such research and response is not wrong, nor is helping others an improper form of Christian action.

different.