How important is the place where you are? Does it really matter? Over the past year I've begin to work on a theology of place. I was in a class and Dr. Susan Muto said that the place where we are has an effect on who we are and who we become. She said St. Teresa wouldn't have been St. Teresa without Avila. With Castles all around her she wrote her spiritual classic Interior Castles. She also mentioned that St. Catherine wouldn't have been St. Catherine without Siena. The place where they were had an effect on who they became.

Dr. Seamands pointed me to an article from the Christian Century that discussed Wendell Berry who is both a farmer and writer. Berry knows how important place is. He is spending 17 years reclaiming some land. He believes it might take longer. Berry is committed to that plot of land. The article's author Kyle Childress discusses how this attitude is important for good pastors. I would add that it is vital for anyone wanting to transition to a missional mindset.

So a word of transition for me is place. I'm still working on my "theology of place", but I'm discovering that the ability to embrace where your placed is one of the first steps in missional transformation. If you are not able to embrace where you live (or are appointed) it is difficult to if not impossible to live incarnationally which is vital to missional living.

Under an appointment system there is the chance that you will be appointed to a place you really don't want to be. Perhaps you love the country and are appointed to the city. Or, you might love the city, but keep being placed in a rural setting. Regardless, we are called to embrace the place where we are. It might mean you will have to accept your appointment as a sacrifice to what God is calling you to. We can be angry with the bishop and/or cabinet or we can decide that we will sacrifice our preferences for whatever purposes God might have for that place.

I know from experience that some of the places I never wanted to go became the places I discovered God working the most. When it was finally time for me to leave I didn't want to go. I then remembered how, at the beginning, I didn't even want to be there. It is amazing how God can grow desire in our hearts where no desire exists. So, instead of being unhappy where you are and looking forward to your next appointment, why not seek God in what he wants to happen in your current one? You never know what God is wanting to do in that place, or in you, until you hand your unhappiness over to God.

Place is important. It makes us who we are. In order to be missional and live incarnationally we must embrace our place whether we want to be there are not. We must offer that place to God and discover what God is wanting to do and follow that fully to His glory.