Missional Theology for a Missional Church

October 27, 2008 | Filed Under missional, theology | 1 Comment

The church does not do mission, it is mission. By its very calling and nature, it exists as God’s ’sent’ people (missio = sending). Its worship, its proclamation, its life as a distinctive community, and its concrete demonstration of God’s love in acts of prophetic and sacrificial service are all witness to the good news whose sign and foretaste it is to be.

Such is the consensus of missio Dei theology — but it is hard to translate into the deeply rooted and long since defined classical patterns of western theology. It is equally difficult to translate into the structures of churches which are still shaped by the mindset of Christendom and which have not come to terms with the paradigm shift that surrounds them.

No area of theological work or churchly practice is untouched by the theological agenda of the Missio Dei. This is demonstrated by the ways in which the study of missiology has evolved in this century. From a rather narrow focus upon the expansion of western Christianity and it implications, the discipline today intrudes into every area of theological discourse.

It is still possible to find seminary courses on “the theology of mission.” But the global paradigm shift requires now that we do “missionary theology.” This is the missional challenge that confronts the biblical scholar, the church historian, the systematic theologian, and the practical theologian.

– Darrell Guder

Barth & the Sent Church

October 24, 2008 | Filed Under missional | 1 Comment

As His community [the church] points beyond itself. At bottom it can never consider its own security, let alone its appearance. As His community it is always free from itself . . . . Its mission is not additional to its being. It is, as it is sent and active in its mission. It builds up itself for the sake of its mission and in relation to it.

Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics IV/1

Church Planting Novice Blog

October 21, 2008 | Filed Under church planting, missional | No Comments

If you are not familiar with Jonathan Dodson’s blog Church Planting Novice then you need to be. Jonathan consistently offers up practical resources for missional church planting as he journeys through the planting of Austin City Life.

Some of my favorite in the past couple of months include:

Where to Office: Church or Home?
Why Evangelism Methods Must Change
Church Planting Manuals Reviewed
Tools For Missional Church
And today’s post: Church Planting Landmines

Sacred Rhythm & Missional Order

October 19, 2008 | Filed Under missional, missional order | No Comments

I shared a few weeks ago that my friends Georges Boujakly, Paul Hill and I had been working on a Missional Order site that we hoped would help foster missional thought and practice through the engagement of three “common commitments” that include “sacred rhythm,” “continuous formation,” and “participation in the Missio Dei.”

Because we beleive the formation piece and the missional piece both flow out of the time we spend with God in some sort of sacred rhythm, we have decided upon a “blog rhythm” that will look like this:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday: “Sacred Rhythm”
Tuesday: “Continuous Formation”
Thursday: “Participation in the Missio Dei”

For this week’s post on the importance of developing a sacred rhythm check out:

Monday: Be There
Wednesday: Present to the Pesent
Friday: Abide then Abound

The Gospel of Risk Management

October 14, 2008 | Filed Under gospel, way of Jesus | 3 Comments

What keeps us from a life of such faith is that we have become very good at assessing and minimizing risk. Our culture is all about risk management. We want to hedge our finances against future market downturns, and we have home insurance, life insurance, car insurance, fire insurance, flood insurance, and earthquake insurance.

Athletes and entertainers can insure parts of their bodies against injury. We sign prenuptial agreements to protect us from the financial ramifications of divorce, and we have health plans to protect us when we are sick.

We practice birth control and watch our blood pressure. We wear seat belts and helmets. I see the need for most of these things, but we have become people who focus on managing and minimizing risk everywhere we see it. We love the illusion of danger but not the real thing. I can ride a roller roaster and feel out of control, while remaining safely buckled into my seat.

We want Jesus to be the same way: all reward, no risk. We don’t give ourselves fully to him because we are afraid he will send us to China or ask us to become poor. We want the illusion of faith, as long as we are safe. But walking with God is not a no-risk proposition; it is one of the most dangerous things you can do. Risk is inherent in the life of faith. Risk and faith cannot be divorced.

Mike Erre in “The Jesus of Suburbia: Have We Tamed the Son of God to Fit Our Lifestyle?”

The Newbigin Triad

October 7, 2008 | Filed Under lesslie newbigin, missional, theology | No Comments

I have found Darrell Guder to be one of the most important voices in the missional conversation. In an excellent essay titled “The Challenges of Evangelization in America: Theological Ambiguities” Guder emphasizes the fact that mission is the definitive task of the church.

Furthermore, Guder believes that any attempt to reclaim the missional calling of the church will require serious reflection on a spectrum of theological ambiguities that Christendom has left behind.

For a list of some of these ambiguities check out Kruse Kroncile’s post on the same article. Michael also has a link to download the article.

In one portion of Guder’s article he introduces what has come to be known as “the Newbigin Triad.” Lesslie Newbigin proposed a series of questions that spoke to the need of reclaiming the missionary nature of the western church. These questions were organized around the key emphases of Gospel, Church, and Culture.

Newbigin stated that it was essential that we constantly ask these fundamental questions:

Gospel:

What is the Gospel and how does the Gospel form and confront the church? What has happened to the Gospel in the course of western Christendom? How do we reclaim the fundamentally event character of the Gospel over against more abstract, propositional renderings of it? How do we engage the fundamental translatability of the Gospel?

Church:

What is the church and what is its purpose? How do we reclaim the church’s essential vocation as witness to the gospel, as light, leaven and salt, as Christ’s letter to the world. How does the church after Christendom learn what it means to “lead its life worthy of the calling with which it has been called?”

Culture:

What is the interaction between the church and the cultures in which it is planted? How does the gospel through the church both confront and affirm cultures as ways in which witness becomes concrete. Here again, we are asking about the fundamental translatability of the gospel, recognizing that the Gospel “destigmatizes” every culture by affirming it as a potential bearer of gospel. How does the witness to the gospel become appropriately embodied in diverse cultures, while continuing to confess the one message of the one Triune God?

If you are interested in a few of the books and journal articles by both Newbigin and Guder that I have found helpful check out my missional reading list.

Missiology then Ecclesiology

October 6, 2008 | Filed Under missional | No Comments

Here is an article by Joy Skjegstad from the Alban Institue that serves as a simple reminder that knowledge of the community should define the mission of the local church in a given context. Another way to say it is that good missiology should influence our ecclesiology, not the other way around.

Hurry Isn’t Helpful

October 2, 2008 | Filed Under books, hospitality, prayer | No Comments

My friend Georges Boujakly reminds us from Celtic Daily Prayer that hurry isn’t helpful for anyone.

Hurry is an unpleasant thing in itself, but also very unpleasant for whoever is around it. Some people came into my room and rushed in an rushed out and even when they were there they were not there–they were in the moment ahead or the moment behind. Some people who came in just for a moment were all there, completely in that moment.

Live from day to day, just from day to day. If you do so, you worry less and live more richly. If you let yourself be absorbed completely, if you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly in those moments.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh in Celtic Daily Prayer