Exilic Living

A good friend of mine posted a video today.  It's 60 minutes long, but please, please, PLEASE watch it.

Here is his post and subsequent video:

It was my privilege to participate in an international church planting conference in 2007 where Michael Frost was the keynote speaker. Unfortunately his first talk is not recorded here. However, it is important to know that he began the conference with a talk on the post-Christian reality that: had already come about in Australia; was a functioning reality in Europe; and was in the process of becoming reality in North America. (Note: these talks were delivered almost two years ago. During that time, trends have not, in my estimation, slowed or reversed course.)
In this follow-up talk he covers material from a book he coauthored with Hirsch–Exiles. Frost borrows some ideas from Brueggemann about the Hebrews living in Babylon and the resulting exilic literature. This may serve as a roadmap for how we can live a radical faith in our postmodern, post-Christian context.
The content shared here may disturb and disorient some. For others, it may begin or advance a process of reorientation that leads to meaningful change. I would encourage you to invite your spouse, your friend(s), and/or the team with whom you are seeking to share your journey of faith to watch the hour-long video with you. Grab some pastries, doughnuts, bagels, ramen, and/or something else to fit your palate and budget, fix enough coffee or tea to let them know you are serious about this activity as you have prepared in advance in order to honor them. Then view the video and set aside at least another hour to discuss it. Below the video are some possible discussion questions.
BTW – If given serious consideration, this is not easy material. Also, parts of the presentation are NOT APPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN.

Frost Video 1 - Wednesday, December 5, 2007 from Moscow Summit 07 on Vimeo.

Here are some questions he posted for discussion:

1. In what ways does our context merge with post-Christendom?
2. If we were to view ourselves as exiles, how would that change our praxis? How might it change our living out the Great Commission?
3. What aspects that Frost shares do we consider implementing now? What does that look like?
4. What do we need to revisit in the future? When do we plan to come back to this?
5. Would the lost community around us agree with our discussion / conclusions to the above questions? How could we verify this? Is that a conversation we are willing to begin?
6. What other questions should we be asking right now?
7. How serious about this are we? Honestly?