Unlike some of the other comments, I appreciate the scorecard, because I can see presenting that to my Pastor. He would identify more with the “measurables” that you present.

First, its funny I have the Crep’s book but have never gotten to it, but most certainly will.

In regards to your other two comments, I couldn’t agree more. I hope very soon to share a new endeavor that I and two of my best friends have been working on for a year now. It is a “missional order” that is organized around the three key “common commitments” of sacred rhythm, continuous formation, and participation in the missio Dei.

Instead of it being a monastic/cloister type of order, where people move/live together as a community, (which btw I would want to affirm and enthusiastically commend) this order that we are working on is a dispersed, web-based “community” that we hope will help to foster spiritual formation that will eventually lead to the encouragement/support of missional communities.

Wow, I didn’t plan on saying so much at this time but I am very excited about the possibilities. Hope to share more very soon and thanks again for the great reflections.

On missio dei: does a “reconciled relationship” go far enough? I often describe it in terms of being conformed to the image of Christ, which begins with reconciliation but goes beyond that. Do you agree?

On Spiritual Formation: I think you are absolutely right that this is the place to begin. Existing churches need this badly, which is an emphasis of both of our DMin research. It seems that older churches like mine value what is said from the pulpit, so forming the community missionally begins there in our context. I’m finding that they respond when they view the Bible missionally.

On scorecards: Earl Creps has written a book called Off-Road Disciplines that has excellent suggestions for a new scorecard. They are similar to McNeal but go beyond him.