Authors Eleanor and Alan Kreider, longtime missionaries to the United Kingdom, encouraged leaders toward missional imagination at a monthly pastors’ breakfast on February 10.
It is only by worshiping a God who is missional that God’s people can become missional, according to the Kreiders. We become like the God we worship, Alan said, “What kind of God are we worshiping? The deeper we get into God, the deeper we get into mission.”
They pointed to Herm and Cindy Weaver, parents of a young mission worker who was killed by a 16-year-old boy who was texting while driving. The parents forgave the boy–and it made headlines. “They are shaped by their worship of a God who forgives them to be people who are forgiving in their world,” said Alan.
The Kreiders, who published Worship and Mission After Christendom in 2011, believe that worship fans mission.
The Victim-Offender Reconciliation Program, which started in Canada in 1974 and is now an international agency, began because one person asked “Wouldn’t it be neat?” said Eleanor.
“‘Wouldn’t it be neat?'” Alan added. “There is the missional imagination coming into play!”