A most excellent morsel from the blog of David Fitch, author of The Great Giveaway (in case you missed it several weeks ago on this blog,  this book is HIGHLY recommended).  And so is this blog to which I now point:

I propose we live boldly the salvation we have been given in Christ through love, justice, prayer, the saving of the innocent. Yet we never engage coercively for we believe all salvation comes at the initiation and work of the Holy Spirit, we are just to be faithful. We never engage in violence, excessive persuasive technique, or trounce on the weak for we believe truth requires no coercion, violence or undue defensiveness. It is in fact our vulnerability which reveals how grounded in truth we are as a community. It makes it safe and attractive for those seeking truth to come. We are called to be witnesses not prosecuting attorneys. This is just some of what I would call an open community of Christ amidst the pluralism of our day.

Source: Reclaiming the Mission :: The Weblog of David Fitch

Yes!  Amen!  What manner of life;  “how they love one another”.  These are the distinguishing marks;  the signs of truly “safe haven” and really “third places” (recollecting Ray Oldenburg’s “Great Good Places” studies). Indeed,  Fitch draws upon just that idea in this same post from which I quote.

I think in some ways all missional communities must become open communities in the territories of post-Christendom most of us find ourselves in. We try to do book clubs, theology pubs to make safe third spaces for these kind of conversations.

Those third places are those to which I would strive to be at every opportunity.  It’s the place and place(s) with which I find our thoughts aside from work or family;  and this conjures up the “why not the church?” question of our own ecclesial gatherings.  Is this not the place where conversation constantly dwells on things that matter a great deal,  and stand apart from the social dross of “casual and surface” social “thousand-fold hullo” conversations that stick to safe , popular , consumeristic topics.