Naming a blog can be as difficult as naming your child. You want to be clever. You want the name to have meaning. You don't want the name to be stupid in 10 years. And you don't want to have to change the name at some point because, say, your child didn't like the name Moon Unit. This is especially hard when you decide to create your blog in a moment of creative passion and have brain freeze when blogspot requires a name. Right. Now. You know what you want to write, sheets and sheets you are ready to write, but can't think of one single name that works. This is especially frustrating when you believe you are being singularly clever with a name only to find out that someone else thought of it first. Over and over and over and ... over ... again.
I love my daughter's blog title ... "Finding Faces." It comes from a C.S. Lewis quote:
“I saw well why the gods do not speak to us openly, do not let us answer. Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?” C.S. Lewis: Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold
Her husband's blog has an equally cool title ... "prayservego." I love that. Profound. Self-explanatory. And my daughter's friend is writing a food blog called "How bout a cucumber." Nice. I follow another blog by a Christian college student called "No Pennies Needed." Makes you just want to read it. Cool names all.
Missional Theophanies? Hmmm. Can you change a blog name?
But it has meaning to me. I love the missional movement. I'm late to the bandwagon but I am endeared to the movement nonetheless. According to an article in Christianity Today written by Alan Hirsch (Defining Missional | LeadershipJournal.net), it has been "increasingly difficult to open a ministry book or attend a church conference and not be accosted by the word missional." Indeed, my daughter mentioned I was using a "buzz" word in my blog title. I agree. I don't necessarily want to be part of the latest Christian trend like bracelets and every other product known to man with four initials allegedly designed to make us think about what Jesus might do. Yet, the word fits.
The same Christianity Today states, "Missional represents a significant shift in the way we think about the church. As the people of a missionary God, we ought to engage the world the same way he does—by going out rather than just reaching out. To obstruct this movement is to block God's purposes in and through his people. When the church is in mission, it is the true church." I do not desire to get into a debate regarding the necessity or difference between missional or attractional churches. The term defines how God has uniquely wired me. It fits.
Theophanies means "God Encounters." The longer definition refers to the appearance of God to a human, or to a divine disclosure. God has chosen to appear to many throughout history. Adam. Abraham. Moses. I do not claim a burning bush experience but I do know God has chosen to make Himself known to me in ways that were undeniable clear and undeniably Him.
So, Missional Theophanies means, in essence, going out to engage the world and encountering God in the process. I pray you join me on the journey. So far it's been quite a ride.
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