EMERGING
November 2008 
In recent years, innovative Christian leaders around the globe have been observing their world and reaching a similar conclusion: one of the most damaging effects of modern Christianity has been the idea that those from the sending countries do not need to learn from the receiving countries, and vice versa.
 
Many of us realize that a new day is here—a time for emerging leaders from south, north, east, and west to learn and work together in unprecedented partnership and dialogue. Together we face a new world—full of new problems and riddled with old conflicts, but primed for fresh vision, new questions, and a season of true promise. We need to summon new ways of thinking, connecting, and moving to forge ahead and ignite transformation in communities.
 
Around the world, a conversation has been growing among an emerging generation of young Christian leaders, often encouraged by thoughtful and forward-thinking mentors. This conversation is about more than exploring ideas; it is about considering new frameworks, building relationships, and creating networks.
 
This is one reason we will offer a Global Mission Conference in June 2009. We seek to encourage and facilitate a conversation and network of friendships among emerging leaders, engaging with today’s world in the name of Jesus.
 
Do justice; love mercy; walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). This is our calling. This is our passion. This is our joy. We work toward a transformational Gospel, a Christian order among poor and emerging leaders. We listen to each other, interact, and reflect on Scripture together with the goal of collaborative, community action. As we journey together, we will see God at work—both in corporate community and as individuals.
 
An emerging journey into doing justice, loving mercy, and working humbly with God unfolds in six natural phases or missional positions. These are the positions that missional leaders need to learn, maybe even master, to engage culture well. So we focus our conversations, our experiences, and our work on these positions in our journey:
 
Listen: Learning to listen to God, to our hearts, and to the culture around us.
 
Incarnate: Being the hands and feet of Jesus in the communities in which we live.
 
Connect: Becoming fragrant followers of Jesus who gather people around a compelling story.
 
Discipling: Mentoring colleagues whom God has brought into our lives in a personal, intentional manner, leading them toward Christlikeness.
 
Create: Seeing and embracing what God has created for us, preparing for the next steps in our mission.
 
Entrust: Preparing those we disciple to continue their journey with God, encouraging them to impart what they have received.
 
These are natural, essential phases we will experience as we explore what it takes to be Good News messengers, to navigate life, and to be part of a community of faith. We must live and work in a manner that provokes the questions for which the Gospel is the answer.
 
Some characteristics of emerging leaders who will engage in this conference:
Tired of "life-as-usual" and desperate to learn what it means to live missionally for Jesus.
Eager to learn about developing community, leaders, and churches in an engaging setting.
Longing to spend time learning what the Gospel and the Church look like in today’s culture.
 
The move from second-hand to first-hand theology means that emerging national leaders must articulate their experiences and understanding of God in their own voice and vernacular. We will bring together creative, imaginative leaders from emerging and established churches in peer-based learning communities committed to seeking fresh ways of being God’s people in our own mission contexts. We will focus on three elements of the Bible text: theology, context, and praxis.
 
Theology: One of our challenges is that Christianity has been presented as a system of dogmatic and disjointed belief instead of the unified story that God intended. Speaking generally, we understand stories but we have a harder time with systems; we understand conversation but we have a harder time with lectures; we understand community wellbeing but we have a harder time with church denominational, organizational lines. We need to understand the comprehensive story of God, from creation to culmination, for all other details to make sense. A solid theological framework is a necessary prerequisite for thoughtful praxis, or application.
 
Context: In the West, we are familiar with the term “post-modern”, indicating the end of modern ways of thinking. In many areas of the world, it is more appropriate to speak of “post-colonial”, the era after colonial power and influence. How do we understand the Gospel apart from colonial and modernist missionary-era constraints? A gospel, not of coercion, power, and evacuation strategies, but a gospel that cares for the poor, the marginalized, and those suffering under unjust systems. Leaders need to explore gospel imperatives in light of their cultural context. What will the Church in the post-colonial world look like?
 
Praxis: How does your story and your life in your community serve the purpose of the big story, the story of God? With an improving theological framework and more astute cultural understanding, leaders will have greater resources—spiritual, intellectual, and theological—to address thoughtful praxis. Our hope is that a foundation will be laid for emerging national leaders to begin to sketch out praxis for their unique communities. Emerging leaders from multiple nations are people of action; we hope to equip them with tools to marry reflection and action for stronger outcomes.
 
We are a community of emerging leaders committed to the rediscovery of God’s original design for His Church. We believe this means a complete integration of the key elements that define the local church in mission: evangelism, discipleship, worship, community service, and a prophetic role. We believe that the integration of all of these elements—along with an appreciation of regional culture—uniquely position the local church as the hope for its community.
 
The vision is to see a vibrant and effective network of regional leaders working together throughout the world to further God’s kingdom on behalf of people suffering from physical and/or spiritual poverty. We hope to facilitate an environment in which these leaders will be able to join their strengths, combine their learning, and pool their resources to release the justice and mercy that Jesus spoke of and exemplified in His life.    
 
Emerging values include: 
 
Community: the presence of the Spirit is manifest in sharing of lives, resources, talents, spiritual friendship, and time in a community of love united in the Lord.
 
Conversation: dialogue that is inclusive, well-informed, encouraging, and produces a climate of learning, support, and tangible outcomes for all involved.
 
Holism in Holiness Movements: the whole Gospel meets the needs of the whole person and the whole community.
 
Partnership: working together as partners in God’s on-going mission in the world.
 
Reconciliation: compelled by our Lord’s peacemaking example.