MC500: Summer Intensive, Summary

It is a super-large course, super-condensed into such a tiny fragment of time. Essentially the summer intensive around this time is comprised of the final balancing of what's left of my academic energy (what amounts to showing up to these morning classes everyday) and ministry: Back at church a myriad things like VBS, Short Term Mission Preparation, KM discipleship, Youth Group, etc... In sum, in my case, was this chronic procrastination for even the daily reflections, leaving it to a sector in my HD of recorded lectures.
Overall Dr. Bolger's methodology for this course seems to offer the panoramic, historical breadth of the nature of church throughout identifiable periods from the very beginning with Jesus. The general trend of change has been, from an "ecclesiality" that was at minimal structure, evolving into an institution, by the time of the Calvinist Reformation having documents such as: Luther's theses and "The Institutes of the Christian Religion." But a question that did come up from one of our post-classroom discussions over lunch with the fellow students was: "What about Mission?" This question reflects back to the title of this course. Church in Mission. It appears that it is Mission in terms of Missio Dei (the sending of God), or perhaps more accurately the Actio Dei (The Action of God) as coined by Karl Barth.
What is at the heart of this course? Are we at this time trying to determine the flow of history so as to come to some understanding on the phenomenological trend of God's involvement in the changing shapes of churches? Social engagement such as community service and mission and witness are categories of examination in which the function of the church within the world at large is examined through history, the chief concerns from the early days that are still alive is this idea of self-propagation. The issue of relevance or perhaps the more biblical "abiding in the True vine" deals with the sprouting of new shoots and new branches that yield their fruits in time. I casually asked Dr. Bolger after all was finished (of the lectures): "So, do you ever get arguments from your oppositions?" (At this point I haven't even yet read "Emerging Churches" so I can't engage in any penetrating dialogue) His answer was: "Yeah, I get hate-mail all the time." (or something along those lines) If I was to reflect on the Emergent Church movement, which seems to allow services that include the music of Enya in this sort of restoration movement of (Celtic, in the case of Enya as a choice for background music) mystical spirituality- the question may be: Is there any danger in blurrying the pagan/Christian divide? Or, is this the final call of what means to be "missional" in the North American spiritual landscape?
If we would be able to identify a point of departure as in the period of Jesus and his disciples and the metamorphosis of the church and the understanding of it through our time, at least what may be readily detectable is if there be any movement that calls for a clear return, to such Apostolic networks as proposed by Eddie Gibbs in Church Next. What may be alarming to some, is this idea of post-Evangelical, post-Christendom movements within the faith. Is this a global movement, or something that is pervasive in Europe and North America? What kind of a picture are we looking at in the next ten years? Glad I took the course, still have a mountain of reading on my plate left over, not to mention sermon preparations, sermon preparations, sermon preparations. Actio Dei, may the good God use these limbs and a mind that has given up any kind of resistance. I surrender all- Jesus, do with me as you will.