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"Unsafe" People and Explaining the Gospel to Our Children

"...without realizing it, parents like me are sometimes embarrassed by Jesus. Why would Jesus draw people like that to himself? It is hard for parents to remember that children in the crowds saw Jesus with prostitutes, tax collectors, and sinners. Parents want to go into Jesus's presence at church in order to keep their kids safe from the world. But Jesus keeps drawing unsafe people from the world to himself. We are confounded. We complain, 'How am I supposed to explain this to my kids?' With that complaint we lose sight of something vital: To explain how Jesus reaches people no matter where they've been or what they've done is to explain to our kids the gospel. It is to explain our own testimony. It is to teach the next generation how Jesus relates to people and the world"

(Eswine, Preaching to a Post-Everything World, 81)

Ed Stetzer: The Meaning of 'Missional'

What does the word missional mean anyway? Ed Stetzer tackles the question in part 1 of Meanings of Missional

Missional. Depending on your perspective, it brings warmth to your soul or a shiver down your spine. Yet, there is no question the word is gaining traction. Is this the case with the church word of the day or is it here to stay? And… oh yes… what does it mean anyway? The answer to the last question depends on who you ask.
(read the article)

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Paul's Understanding of the Church's Mission

I just received the newest issue of JETS and it includes several important book reviews (including Denny Burk's review of God's Indwelling Presence and Mark Karlberg's reviews of Jesus' Blood and Righteousness: Paul's Theology of Imputation and The Way of Salvation). The review I found most intriguing, however,  was Don Howell's review of Robert Plummer's new book,  Paul's Understanding of the Church's Mission: Did the Apostle Paul Expect the Early Christian Communities to Evangelize? (Paternoster Biblical Monographs).

Howell introduces his review this way:

Did the apostle Paul expect the early Christian communities to evangelize? This is the subtitle of the book and also the central question that Plummer seeks to answer. Framed in another way, did Paul command the churches that he addresses in his epistles to imitate him in centrifugal missionary outreach? His answer, supported by lexical, exegetical, and logical argumentation, is a resounding affirmative. To some, Plummer's conclusion may seem obvious and thus the question hardly worth asking. However, the history of interpretation on this issue has been divided, and therefore a fresh look at the evidence is justified. Plummer makes the disturbing observation from his survey of the research that few books written by missiologists are informed by sound methods of biblical theology and, conversely, biblical scholars rarely interact with insights from missiologists. Surely this is a call to both groups for better integration of their respective disciplines.

This book has immense potential-- not only to model for us an exegetical foundation for missiology-- but also to redirect trajectories among certain veins of missional ecclesiology that discriminate against evangelistic proclamation and conversionist models.

I ordered the book last night.

How Missional Is Your Church?

How Missional Is Your Church? (Jonathan Dodson)

However, while I agree that being missional includes being culturally alert and active, church planters often appropriate this idea monoculturally. Our notion of being culturally aware is often radically ethnocentric, primarily restricted to American culture. As missional people, we can become so committed to reaching our own culture that the cultures and peoples of the rest of the world end up taking a backseat. As a result, "missional" becomes a codeword for Western, ethnocentric, monocultural church planting, which leads to churches that aren't fully missional. In turn, this missional short-sightedness produces churches and disciples of Jesus that are not shaped by the insights and challenges of the global church. (read more)

Ed Stetzer | 2007 SBC Annual Meeting

youtube link

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Ed Stetzer on Mission & Contextualization (Baptist Identity Conference)

Ed Stetzer: Toward a Missional Convention (via Timmy Brister)

Missional is not a new word and is not my word. It was first found in Oxford Dictionary in 1907. The normative application of NT Christianity is missional. Part of the debate over “missional” is because it has been used in various contexts in many ways.

Being missional is not about terminology, but focus. We spend so much time objecting to terms that we never get around to changing our churches. We have embraced this idea on the foreign mission field, but this has not been implemented here in North America. A shift is absolutely essential in light of the declining and dying churches. Only 11% of churches are experiencing healthy evangelistic growth.

Missional thinking is not the same thing as missiological support. We have confused missiological support with being on mission where we have relegated the work of the Great Commission to someone else, somewhere else. (read more)

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Leadership Journal: The Missional Buzz

The upcoming winter issue of Leadership will wrestle with the meaning of a very popular word—missional. Tim Conder, pastor of Emmaus Way in Durham, North Carolina, says, “So many fellowships that once boldly self-identified as cell churches, meta-churches, house churches, seeker-style, or purpose-driven now claim to be missional. It’s such a buzzword that it’s fair to ask, ‘Is there really any such thing as a missional church?’ Tim’s full article on the subject is featured in Leadership’s theme section, “Going Missional.” Here is a preview

Christians & Tipping

Relevant Magazine // The Dreaded Christian Table (Daniel Holland)

I had an up-close and extremely personal view that night of how many people see American Christians. I hate to admit that my co-workers were right when they told me the “Church table” would be one of the most frustrating things I would encounter at my job. Now, because of the way my colleagues have been treated Sunday after Sunday, their hearts have been hardened to the message of Christ. I’m fortunate that I came to the truth earlier in my life and have the realization that not all who call themselves Christians actually follow the principles of Christ, or for that matter have any clue whatsoever what those principles are.

In the wake of this article, I'll ask the question that I've asked here before: If all they had to base their opinions on was you, what would the baristas in your local coffee shop think about generosity of Christians?

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9 Marks Ministries on the Church and Mission

What in the World is the MIssional Church? (Jonathan Leeman)
What is the Missional Life? (Eric Simmons)

Tim Keller | Characteristics of a Missional Church

Characteristics of a Missional Church (video)

[my excuses for why I can't go to the Above All Earthly Powers conference are slowly evaporating with each one of these videos... ]

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