In Francis DuBose’s book “God Who Sends: A Fresh Quest for Biblical Mission” the author highlights his contention that “mission means sending” by surveying the theological sending passages within 7 Scriptural categories. Last week I shared a brief portion from the book concerning sending and the Pentateuch. Today I want to consider the sending theme found in both the Historical and Poetical books. Read more →
Monthly archive: April, 2007
Being Sent and the Historical Books
Praying with Erasmus
“Adorable Spirit, may the rushing wind of your mercy blow away all trace of sin within us, and may your unquenchable fire purify our souls. We believe that you comfort those who mourn, uplife those who are depressed, calm those who are angry, guide those who are confused, console those who are lonely, reconcile those who are estranged, and bring joy to all who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. We pray that you will live in our simple and humble hearts, and so make us truly temples of your glorious love.”
- Erasmus (1469-1536)
The Forgotten Ways – Chapter 6
In chapter 6 of “The Forgotten Ways” Alan Hirsch focuses on the issue of leadership in the missional church. He begins by reflecting back on the introduction of the book where he discussed the phenomenal Jesus movements of history, namely the early church up until 300 AD and the Chinese church during the reign of Mao Tse-tung. The question that begs to be answered with each of these movements is “How did they do it?” Or more specifically for the focus of chapter 6, “What kind of leadership?” Read more →
Missional Theology & Chalcedon?
In light of a post over at bob.blog where Hyatt discusses a misleading take by Phil Johnson on the theology of Dan Kimball, (you will just have to read the post to get all the ins and outs of Johnson’s inanity) I was prompted to revisit “A Sense of Mission: Guidance From the Gospel of John” by Albert Curry Winn. The book which I believe is now out of print was published in 1981 when Winn was President of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. In a section titled “Developing a Missionary Christology” Winn offers a very interesting perspective on the outcome of the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD and the problematic influence of its legacy in light of missional thinking. Winn writes (p. 38): Read more →
April Missional Network Gatherings
A reminder of the dates and times for the Missional Network gatherings coming up later this month. We will continue our discussion of “The Forgotten Ways” by Alan Hirsch by examining chapters 3 through 5. Also remember there is a short summary of each chapter here, here and here. Feel free to invite anyone else who might be reading the book to join the discussion.
KC Network
Thursday, April 26th
4:00pm-7:00pm
Kansas City Association
8745 Ballentine
Overland Park
Newton Network
Friday, April 27th
12:00 – 3:00pm
The Journey
7th and Plum
Newton, KS
Being Sent and the Pentateuch
I mentioned last week that I have been reading an excellent book by Dr. Francis DuBose titled “God Who Sends: A Fresh Quest for Biblical Mission.” The book was published in 1983 when Dr. DuBose was professor and director of World Missions Center at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. In chapter 3 DuBose presents a survey of the theological sending passages within 7 Scriptural categories, the first being the Pentateuch.
While DeBuse hightlights multiple sending passages in the Pentateuch there are two specific references that seem to be most significant. The first is the climatic use of the sending in Genesis as seen in Joseph’s words to his brothers, “God sent me before you” (Gen. 45:5). Read more →
The Power of Story
An interesting thing happened last week with the direction of the group discussion in both of the network gatherings. While the ”plan” was to discuss the first few chapters of “The Forgotten Ways” by Alan Hirsch, in both cases the group couldn’t get past the first sentence of chapter one. Actually it was the first half of the first sentence were Hirsch writes, “In true biblical fashion, a reliable understanding of the nature of things comes out of a narrative – a story invovling God’s dealings with human beings.”
Hirsch’s purpose in this statement I believe was to introduce his story of moving a faith community to become more participatory and missional. However, in our network gatherings we all began to discuss the importance and power of story. In the first two hours we struggled with why the church typically fails to recognize the power of story - telling our personal faith story, telling the stories of others, “preaching” the story in a coporate service setting, but most of all reading and understanding the story of God as the story of God.
What are your thoughts on the power of story? Why don’t we “tap into” story in the church? Why don’t we more often recognize the Word as the story of God? And what is lost in the reading and interpreting of Scripture when we do not recognize the story?
Eugene Peterson in “Christ Play in Ten Thousands Places” writes, “The moment we formulate our doctrines, draw up our moral codes, and throw ourselves into a life of discipleship and ministry apart from a continuous re-immersion in the story itself, we walk right out of the concrete and local presence and activity of God and set up own shop.”
Keep Moving Forward
This weekend my boys (6 and 12 years old) and I went to see the ”Meet The Robinsons” in digital 3-D. While the movie would have been worth seeing even without the 3-D technology the added feature created a wonderful experience. However, beyond the great effects there were a couple of themes that created some profitable discussion between the boys and I. First was the point that when bad things happen to us we need to strive to let them go so not to open the door for bitterness and resentment which only hurts the one with the festering attitudes.
The second theme was a simple phrase that continued to lead one of the characters on to accomplish great things. The phrase was “Keep Moving Forward.” Regardless of what level of disappointment, discouragement, or failure in life it was a good reminder that we are to keep moving forward.
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