June 17-19, 2027
St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana, USA
Missional Imagination: Preparation for Kingdom Innovation
The need for imagination in mission has never been more urgent. As global complexities and opportunities multiply, many mission organizations and churches turn to pragmatic strategies rooted in the latest trends from business, social science, or design thinking. While these tools can be helpful, they often rely on frameworks that fail to address the spiritual depth of mission.
At the heart of missional practices lies missional imagination—the Spirit-shaped capacity to see not only what others see, but to envision new possibilities for God’s kingdom-shaped redemptive work in the world. As Nobel laureate Albert Szent-Györgyi put it, “Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” Jesus modeled this when He told His disciples in John 4, “Open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” He called them to perceive reality through a missional imagination.
From the very beginning of the church, examples of a missional imagination abound: the Apostle Paul envisioned the marketplace as a context to exchange not only financial capital but spiritual capital as well, Matteo Ricci changed his identity and lifestyle to engage with Chinese scholars and philosophers and find common ground between Confucianism and Christianity, and William Carey envisioned the use of various means to "Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”
Too often, missiological training privileges (left brain) reason drawn from history, theology, and the social sciences—while overlooking the vital role of (right brain) imagination. As C.S. Lewis once wrote, “Reason is the natural organ of truth; imagination is the organ of meaning.” A robust missiology for today must integrate both reason and imagination.
We invite paper proposals (both from individuals and groups) that explore and expand the role of missional imagination in shaping innovation that reveals the kingdom of God.
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