Keifert, Patrick R. We Are Here Now: A New Missional Era, a Missional Journey of Spiritual Discovery. Eagle, ID: Allelon Publishing, 2006.

 

The Author

Patrick Keifert is Professor of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota. He has also been an adjunct professor at the School of Law, Hamline University, St. Paul, since 1984.

Ordained in 1978, Keifert served congregations in Chicago, Washington state, Wyoming and Minnesota. He has been the general editor of the Journal of Law and Religion, and served on the editorial boards of Word & World and dialog.

He earned a B.A. degree from Valparaiso (Ind.) University, where he was a Christ College Scholar, and an M.Div. degree from Christ – Seminex. He received a Ph.D. degree from the Divinity School, University of Chicago, and has done additional study at the University of Heidelberg and the University of Tubingen in Germany.

He has been the recipient of the Fulbright-Hays Travel Grant, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst Language Grant and the Franklin Clark Fry Postdoctoral Fellowship. His books include: Welcoming the Stranger: A Public Theology of Worship and Evangelism (1992), Worship and Evangelism: A Pastoral Handbook (1990), People Together, a set of small group ministry manuals (1994), Talking About Our Faith (1998), The Small Church Small Group Guide (1998), But Is It All True? (2006), Testing The Spirits (2006) and We Are Here Now (2006). He has also contributed to A Story Worth Sharing: Engaging Evangelism (2004), The Ending of Mark and the Ends of God: Essays in Memory of Donald Harrisville Juel (2005), and To Teach, To Delight, and to Move: Theological Education in a Post-Christian World (2006).^[1]

Outline

Models of Change

Organizational vs. Cultural Change

◦          Beyond Worship Wars

◦          Beyond Small Group Technology

◦          Beyond Conflict Managment

Gap vs. Diffusion of Innovation

◦          [Everett Rogers model]

◦          Awareness

◦          Interest

◦          Evaluation

◦          Trial

◦          Adoption

Phases of Partnership in Innovation

Phase 1: Discovering

◦          Living within the Life of the Trinity

◦          Living into God’s Preferred and Promised Future

◦          Dwelling in the Word

◦          Discovering Congregational Leaders

◦          Dwelling in the World

◦          Discovering Other Congregations

Phase 2: Experimenting

◦          Technical and Adaptive Change

◦          Acting and Reflecting

Phase 3: Visioning for Embodiment

◦          Five Documents

1. Statement of Missional Vocation

2. Vision for Embodiment of Missional Vocation

3. Strategic Plan

4. SMART Plans of Action

▪            Specific, concrete, objective

▪            Missional

▪            Authorization and Accountability

▪            Resources

▪            Timeline

5. Staff Covenant

Phase 4: Learning and Growing

◦          Worship as Public Witness and Community Formation

◦          The Bible and Christian Formation

◦          Making Christians and Doing Local Theology

◦          Risk Taking as Contrast Community

◦          Dependence on the Spirit

◦          Witnessing the Reign of God

◦          Witness and Evangelism^[2]