Some 'splaining

A little over a week ago I posted an entry entitled "failure."  I've been contacted privately by several readers asking me to explain (or elaborate on) the demise of nieuCommunities in Glasgow.

First off, I must say that I'm not going to write and open-letter addressing this subject.  I am willing to speak personally/one-on-one about it, but I'm not going to publicly address it.  I feel I should also point out that the purpose of the post was not to emphasize that nieuCommunities failed.  I was simply using a conversation that I'd had earlier in the week as a launching pad into the processing I'd begun on the issue of failure in general.

I simply found it intriguing that I had already begun the internal process of evaluating personal and group failures during my time in Glasgow, when the conversation with my friend spontaneously occurred one evening while we were out.

As I mentioned in the post, I can only speak for Jasheen and myself regarding these matters, but to understand what 'failure' meant in this context, one would have to understand and consider the vision, values and purpose of nieuCommunities as a whole.  nieuCommunities endeavored to be a missional community, thus, failure was a collaborative effort.  The operative words there are 'missional' and 'community.'  While 'missional' is not a recognized word in English dictionaries, its generally understood to mean, "relating to or connected to a religious mission."

'Community,' on the other hand is easy to define, and it's key characteristics are commonality, social group, shared location, etc.

The 'failure' I alluded to in the original post had to do with our failure as a community, and the subsequent withdrawal of nieuCommunities from Glasgow.  Despite the end result, Jasheen and I have experienced and enjoyed a flourishing five years of ministry here.  Our place and calling in Glasgow has never been in question, and as the smoke has settled, we remain right where we belong.  We may never fully understand God's hand in what happened during our time with nieuCommunities,  but for now, we can humbly accept that He used it as a vehicle to get us here, and perhaps it will serve further as the vehicle that leads us into further works in Europe and/or beyond.

I'm not sure that this serves as a satisfactory 'elaboration,' but I feel it's the best I can do as a public address.