The why and the whither before the what of “missional” or “prophetic” church practice

This is a half-baked response to someone who got in touch with some questions after reading Why the missional church must also be prophetic:

One thing I’ve noticed, not only in your writing but across much of the missional literature I read, is that the insights can often feel quite abstract or technical. They’re biblically and theologically grounded, but sometimes hard to translate into tangible action. Two questions came to mind as I read: What are some concrete examples of how your missiological model is being/can be lived out today? And how might a small group of people longing to embody this vision begin in their own local context?

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Jesus, the Shema, and the scribe who is not far from the kingdom of God
Given the importance that the Shema would acquire for Jewish religious practice in the rabbinic period and has had for christology among Pauline scholars in the last thirty years, it is remarkable that it is so rarely quoted or discussed, on its own terms, in the literature of second temple Judaism… ()
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There seems to be a lot of talk these days about reversing the decline of the West as a formerly Christian civilisation. Here’s an example that I happened to come across. The aim of the UK-based Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) is “to draw on our moral, cultural, economic, and spiritual… ( | 1 comment)
What is the “second death” in the book of Revelation?
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How and why gentiles were saved by the blood of Jesus according to Paul
When Paul says that God put forward the death of Jesus as—in whatever sense—an “atonement” (Rom. 3:25), he has in mind specifically the salvation of the Jews. ()
The name which is above every name: Philippians 2:8-11 as a meditation on Psalm 137 LXX
The Christ encomium in Philippians 2:6-11 is usually divided into two parts: humbling in 2:6-8 and exaltation in 2:9-11. But here I want to suggest that once it has become apparent to onlooking Greeks that Christ Jesus, for all his god-like wisdom and powers, was human, no more remarkable than a… ()