faithful subversive

this past week we had an a amazing 12 hours with john franke from biblical seminary. you can listen to all the lectures on the web at pittsburgh seminary's audio site. he designated himself a faithful subversive with the reformed tradition. i like that a lot. it rings true with my own experience as a missional leader of a presbyterian new church development. john did a great job of articulating the reality of the tension we now live in as many of us (in the missional and emergent movement) are saying the christendom church is not the best way forward. and yet we do not have concrete alternatives of what the future will look like. it makes one feel like they have a split personality at times. but the way forward is in risky, and faithful experimentation. this is exciting and terrifying al at the same time. we need to use walter breuggemann's term, a prophetic imagination to carry the church into the future. as we rediscover the radical love mission of Jesus (christology) and rediscover that as the father sent Jesus, so Jesus sends us on this same and continuing radical love mission (missiology) the shape of the church will and must change (ecclesiology) as we encounter a radically new emerging culture in north america. this is the thrust of what i think it means to be a faithful subversive. seeking the continuing conversion of the church while prophetically imaging new skins for the bride of Christ in north america. thanks john franke for infusing the conversation of the missional and emerging churches here in pittsburgh.