On pastoral theology for the missional church in a postmodern world

When we think about the radical changes that are taking place in our time, it behooves us to think about how it impacts the church. I have done a lot of thinking about pastoral theology in the missional church. What does missional leadership look like? Both Missional Church (Guder) and A Peculiar People (Clapp) are very good resources as we think about how the changing cultural landscape impacts the church and her mission. McLaren has also written a lot about how all these changes might impact the ways we think about church, mission, leadership and training models in non-traditional ways (see Emergent Village).

For many years, I have thought (mostly at an intuitive level) that my vocational path would not follow the traditional professional model of pastoral leadership. This post by Preacher Mike... echoes many of my own impulses and questions about the professional model of leadership. How does our changing cultural context shape the way we think about church, mission, and leadership? What does pastoral leadership look like in the missional church? How can we move away from consumer-driven expectations of church--church as service provider to meet the needs of each individual consumer?

The trampoline jenga cartoon could provide some apt metaphors for this conversation. Perhaps some of you want to offer the ways this journey as missional church is like the cartoon.

pax vobiscum