This will probably be my last entry in this series. I may have a random thought here or there, but this'll do for now. Unfortunately, I don't seem to be ending the series on an "up" note. Oh well.

While at a conference that involved missiologists, denominational seat holders, and other sorts of theological types, I was struck at how very stale the spiritual dynamics were there. Apparently, there was more interest in the state of Christianity at work in the world than interest in the way the Triune God is at world in the world. One could argue about the inevitability of an institutional feel at an academic conference of scholars, but if that's truly the case, then I'd like to opt out of the academy. I just don't believe that academics, and the dynamics of a living, working, redemptive God, are mutually exclusive. It's far too easy to lose our way. The topic of Christianity in the Global South is hugely important - way more important than most Western Christians can conceive. But isn't it the Spirit of God at work? Aren't we called by the name of one that we believe has risen from death? The kinds of changes that we need to embrace in our radically changing world are not of the scholarly, reserved, staid variety - they are the changes brought about by compelling passion that refuses to stand still and be respectable.

I do not mean this post as a knock on anyone at the conference - they were a wonderful, gracious, hospitable group. I just hope that they (we) are able to integrate our hearts and souls into this intellectual work in a way that creates excitement and movement.