Social Location of the Western Church

February 14, 2008 | Filed Under alan roxburgh, books | No Comments

alan-roxburgh.jpg“The fourth and twentieth centuries form bookends marking transition points in the history of the church. Just as the fourth century adoption of Christianity by Constantine forced the church to struggle with its self-understanding as the new center of culture, twentieth century Christians must now struggle to understand the meaning of their social location in a decentered world.”

- Alan Roxburgh in The Missionary Congregation: Leadership and Liminality

The Sky is Falling

September 10, 2007 | Filed Under alan roxburgh, books, dmin project, gospel, missional | No Comments

the-sky-is-falling.jpgThis morning as I was reflecting on just how different the church would look if it was really shaped in terms of the missio dei, I ran across these words from Alan Roxburgh:

“Throughout Western societies, and most especially in North America, there has occurred a fundamental shift in the understanding and practice of the Christian story. It is no longer about God and what God is about in the world; it is about how God serves and meets human needs and desires. It is about how the individual self can find its own purposes and fulfillment.

More specifically, our churches have become spiritual food courts for the personal, private, inner needs of expressive individuals. The result is a debased, compromised, derivative form of Christianity that is not the gospel of the Bible at all. The biblical narrative is about God’s mission in, through, and for the sake of the world and how God has called human beings to be part of God’s reaching out to that world for God’s purpose of saving it in love. The focus of attention should be what God wants to accomplish and how we can be part of God’s mission, not how God helps us accomplish our own agendas.”

- Alan Roxburgh in The Sky is Falling

Engaging Neighborhoods Where We Live

July 23, 2007 | Filed Under alan roxburgh, church planting, dmin project, gospel, incarnational, missional | 1 Comment

allelon.jpgHere is a link to the latest podcast of the Roxburgh Journal interview with Pete Akins titled “Engaging Neighborhoods Where We Live.”

Roxburgh highlights a creative lay church planting movement taking place in the towns and villages in the UK. I would highly recommend taking 30 minutes to listen and be encouraged by what God is doing through the lives of His servants there. As Roxburgh states on his blog when reflecting on the interview: “I was struck by the power of what God is about in quiet, sustained forms of on-the-ground fresh expressions of kingdom life in rural England.”