Imaginative Missional Dialogues

Tonight I had dinner at Qdoba and stayed in the restaurant for a while to do some reading. I just started Brian McLaren's book "The Secret Message of Jesus", so I was enthusiastically immersed in the text when one of the Qdoba employees, a girl named Mikaela, asked me what I was reading. I wasn't sure what her response would be when I showed her the title, but she seemed quite interested in the topic, and said she had been doing some reading in Buddhism and Islam lately and had some basic knowledge about Christianity from her past.

She went on to ask me if I was a Christian. I responded "yes" but wish I would have creatively 'played with' that question a bit more. In hindsight, I would have said something to the effect of "That depends on what you mean by 'Christian'." We went on to have a few minutes of great conversation around the concept of why we are each interested in questions of a divine nature, and I look forward to the possibility of future discussions, but I am still quite aware of my instantaneous desire to 'have all the answers' when in conversation with another, especially around the theme of faith.

I wonder what it might look like to enter into dialogue without any solid answers, humbly committed to learning from the other in the encounter? I wonder what it might look like to trust the 'good news' enough to let it speak for itself, rather than needing to forcefully impose it upon others? I wonder how a spirit of creativity, imagination, and playfullness might transform my relationship with God and others, as we wonder together about how the Kingdom of God is already here, at work in this world, and how our stories might come to congruently mesh with the story God is already telling?