August 4, 2009 • 8:50 am 0
Yesterday in my seminary class titled Missional Church we watched a portion of this lecture given by Dr. Michael Frost at the 2007 Presbyterian Global Fellowship. Frost challenges the church to see God, the church, and the world differently. If you want to learn more about the missional church movement, this is a great introduction.
July 19, 2009 • 6:19 pm 1
An article by Fuller Seminary President (and world-class Christian philosopher) Richard Mouw has been posted on Christianity Today’s online magazine. Entitled “The Heresy of ‘Individualism,’” the article addresses recent comments by Katharine Jefferts Schori, bishop of the Episcopal Church, denouncing the “individualist focus” of evangelical teachings as a “great Western heresy.”
The individualism evangelicals profess, says Dr. Mouw, not only is not a heresy, it is at the heart of the gospel. “Many of us in the evangelical world have devoted much effort toward remedying what we see as an unhealthy individualist focus in our ranks,” Mouw concedes; however, “we evangelicals never downplay the importance of individuals—as individuals—coming to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.”
This article brought me such joy. Amid all the fighting over “individual first” versus “society/community first” comes the true evangelical stance: the gospel is individualistic and at the same time it is so much larger than the individual. It’s not an “either/or” issue but a “both and” one. The Good News is the news of the Kingdom come in Jesus Christ. That news speaks a powerful word not only to the individual sinner but to a world of injustice and pain. How small is our gospel if its influence be over an individual’s sin only. But equally concerning is this: how empty and weak is our gospel if it does not transform the life of the individual.
Thanks, Dr. Mouw.
Filed under: Theology
June 19, 2009 • 2:37 pm 0
While on a short break from school and the craziness of ministry life, I thought I’d focus my posts during the next couple months on quotes from various books that I’ve been wanting to read and just now have the time to do so. One of those books is Confident Witness, Changing World: Rediscovering the Gospel in North America, a collection of essays edited by Craig Van Gelder, Professor of Congregational Mission at Luther Seminary.
This is a quote about the church from Douglas Hall’s essay titled Metamorphosis: From Christendom to Diaspora. Speaking of the reality of the North American church’s outdated identity and structure, Hall states:
We need to learn a critical and constructive theology of the church that is based on the character of Scripture and informed by the Holy Spirit, in contrast to one that is entrenched in the ecclesial conventions of Christendom.
Where is it written that the church must be a majority? Where are we told that the dignity, order, and authority of the corpus Christi can only be maintained if the church mirrors, in its internal structure and its mission, the accepted patterns of its host culture. Where, in our biblical charter, does it stand written that the Christian religion, being the only true one, must displace and repel every other claim to truth and goodness, and get the whole human populace onto its registry.
We have been giving to God what belongs to Caesar! We have been reading our scriptures with Constantinian eyes! We have made much of the so-called Great Commission, but little of the characteristic metaphors by which our Lord described his “little flock” (Luke 12:32). And we have made almost nothing at all of his question whether, upon his return, any faith would be found on earth (Luke 18:8). We have isolated and grossly exaggerated all the triumphal language of the Bible, and have paid little attention to the fact that the cross is the center of our faith where it ought to condition the whole of our ecclesiology.
Wow! I find this quote radically eye-opening. The Church has too long been condition by the ways of a now-defunct Christendom world (one where the church sought to maintain its legitimacy and majority influence in society). I think Hall is here serving as a prophet to us today.
April 2, 2009 • 3:04 pm 0
A month ago I wrote about the Ecclesia National Gathering in Washington, DC. Though I haven’t been to many conferences, it ranks as the best I’ve ever attended. What I appreciated most was that it combined the best of the academic world with innovative and experienced church planters and pastors. Represented were men and women sincerely concerned for the future of the church in an increasingly post-Christian America and who believe strongly that the answers to our declining influence are not to be found in the arena of technique or style (better methods of attracting people). The way forward, instead, must originate in a theological shift in our understanding of the church, wherein the Kingdom of God and the Mission of God are paramount.
I strongly urge you to visit the Ecclesia site and listen (for free) to the main session teachings. If you only listen to one, I would suggest Session 5 by Dr. Darrell Guder. In this lecture he unpacks the meaning and theology behind the word “missional.” Since the site does not provide them, I am including the session titles below. I hope this helps you choose which ones you’d like to listen to.
March 27, 2009 • 12:24 pm 0
The term ‘Kingdom of God’ is one Christians use often; yet, like me, many people unknowingly have a misunderstanding of its meaning. One of the ways our struggle to grasp its meaning is evidenced is in the language we use to talk about it. I have found this insight from Darrell Guder (in his book Missional Church) to be greatly helpful. I hope it helps you too.
2 misconceptions of the Kingdom of God:
What the Bible says about it:
Filed under: Theology
February 28, 2009 • 9:11 pm 0
Last week I was made aware of this quote about the gospel. The content is great, but what I find most impressive about the quote is the year it was written- 1929. The “new” debate over the nature of gospel is not new at all. The church has been wrestling with this issue for decades if not centuries. Is the gospel about personal salvation only? Or is it about social justice only? Eighty years ago, someone accurately said it’s both…
“We must preach the whole gospel of personal salvation and social service, and whatever it means, have no fear of giving actual expression to love of the neighbor. It is imperative that social service should not be substituted for evangelical religion, as it sometimes has been, but be shown to be one of its integral characteristics … the gospel of salvation must be preached not only as a gospel of personal redemption, but also of social reconstruction, if we are to reach this age, and if, indeed, we are to preach the whole gospel of the New Testament.”
J. Ernest Rattenbury, 1929
February 24, 2009 • 8:33 pm 0
Next week I will be traveling to the DC area for the National Gathering of the Ecclesia Network, a movement of missional churches. Among the presenters, I am most excited to learn from Dr. Darrell Guder, Professor of Missional and Ecumenical Theology at Princeton Seminary. I am presently reading his book, Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church in North America. Among his many significant contributions to the church, his writing on the incarnation of Jesus and its impact on ecclesiology has most impacted me. Guder developed the terms “missional” and “incarnational” to describe the biblically-faithful church long before they became overused and empty buzzwords. Here are the details:
“Crafting Missional Expressions of Church” (conference pdf)
Collective sessions include:
Focused sessions include:
Following the conference I will be writing a paper highlighting the major themes discussed and will be presenting them to Dr. Chilcote, my professor at Ashland. I will also post my thoughts here, likely during my two-week spring break that starts March 14.
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