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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Are the “gentiles” in Romans the lost tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel?
In some recent comments on a post about the salvation of “all Israel” Alfred encouraged me to look at the argument of Jason Staples that the “fulness of the nations” (Rom. 11:25) is a reference to the northern kingdom of Israel or Ephraim, and that the salvation of “all Israel” must consist in the… ( | 7 comments)
Brant Pitre on the Son of Man and Jesus’ divine identity
I have been working through Brant Pitre’s rather too methodical and, in my view, tendentious (I know, the pot calling the kettle black) Jesus and Divine Christology, in which he makes a case for reading divine identity into certain of the words and deeds of Jesus. ()
Why do you ask me about the good?
One of the supposed “riddles” discussed in the previous post was Jesus’ saying “No one is good except God alone.” In a comment, Gerard Jay makes the point that Matthew shifts the emphasis from the questionable goodness of Jesus to the unquestionable goodness of the Law—from the person to the action. ( | 1 comment)
Brant Pitre on the riddles of Jesus’ divinity
It is Brant Pitre’s argument in Jesus and Divine Christology that the intrinsic divinity of Jesus is revealed in the Gospels either through actions and events or through certain cryptic sayings. His divinity is a secret, a hidden reality, that may sometimes be glimpsed breaking through… ( | 3 comments)
The transfiguration of Jesus: what exactly is revealed?
The third “epiphany miracle,” after the two sea miracles, is the transfiguration or “metamorphoses” (metemorphēthē) of Jesus in the presence of Peter, James, and John, on the mountain. ()
What the walking on the water business is really all about
The second “epiphany miracle” discussed by Brant Pitre in his book Jesus and Divine Christology is Jesus walking on the water (Matt. 14:22-33; Mk. 6:45-52; Jn. 6:16-21). ( | 3 comments)
Brant Pitre on the epiphany miracles: the stilling of the storm
Chapter two of Jesus and Divine Christology is about the “epiphany miracles.” Brant Pitre states the main purpose of the chapter quite bluntly: it is to “demolish the modern scholarly myth… that Jesus is not depicted as divine in the Synoptic Gospels” (40).There are three such miracles:… ()