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In Seeker vs. Missional- Part Two, Driscoll provides a succinct summary of how a missional church sends its people into the community to share the love of Christ with friends, family, and co-workers. A "go" model vs a "come" model. "It's not about bringing people in, it's about sending Christians out."
Seeker vs. Missional- Part One
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Volume 2 Issue 14 of Newfrontiers magazine is focused on the theme: What on Earth is Para-Church for? Some of the articles include:
What's Wrong With the Para-Church?
The Unique Role of the Church in Social Action
The Church and World Mission
In his article, What's Wrong With the Para-Church, Steve Tibbert explores the historical separation between normal church life and the mission agenda in contrast to the missional ethos of New Testament communities. Tibbert argues that, in the end, para-church organizations actually limit mission.
In conclusion, the thrust of my argument is that we must continue to look to a biblical model of church which in no way separates local church life and mission. Mission-based para-church organisations have sprung into life in reaction to local mission ineffectiveness. But, rather than solving the problem, they have weakened churches, making the church more pastoral by creaming off the zealous and motivated. The lasting benefit of such mission is limited because, when evangelistic fruit ends up in local churches and these are weak, then weak disciples will be produced. As David Watson says in I believe in Evangelism, ‘If we fail to build individuals into the corporate life of the church we have missed the purpose of evangelism; it is one thing to reap, it is another to disciple and add.’
Full article
Volume 2 Issue 14
Technorati Tags: Missional Church, para-church, Newfrontiers
Joe Thorn and Steve McCoy have both posted excellent reviews of Ed Stetzer and David Putman's new book, Breaking the Missional Code: When Church Can Become Missionary in Your Community.
Joe's Review
Steve's Review
Also check out the additional resources at the book's web site
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Steve McCoy (soon-to-be the chief Tim Keller archivist), has cataloged the monthly book recommendations from The Movement (the church planting organization of Tim Keller & Redeemer Presbyterian Church). They are compiled here by date and subject.
Also, don't miss Steve's omnibus, Tim Keller Resources
Darrell Guder will be the featured speaker at the Center For Parish Development's 2006 Missional Church Convocation. The schedule indicates that Guder will deliver four sessions. Mark your calendars.
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Technorati Tags: upcoming events, Missional Church
I have always appreciated the GOCN Missional Indicators and have found them helpful in several regards. However, Steve Taylor posted some interesting thoughts today about the overly idealistic nature of these indicators...
"Why The Missional Church Leaves Me Cold"
In 1 sentence, it urges "too many oughts." Click on the indicators of what a missional church will look like and there are so many things one ought to be doing. There are ideals and lofty hopes and plenty of "not yet rhetoric." All of them I love and none of them I disagree with. It's simply that there are so many "oughts."
In contrast, let me quote from Euguene Peterson; God's great love and purposes for us are all worked out in messes in our kitchens and backyards, in storms and sins, blue skies, the daily work and dreams of our common loves. God works with us as we are and not as we should be or think we should be. God deals with us where we are and not where we would like to be. (Christ plays in ten thousand places, 75);
That's not "oughts" but reality. This surely is the meaning of Christmas, that God is found in shit and straw, under oppressive tax regime and mis-spent dreams.
Abstractions and ideals leave my cold. Lofty dreams paralyze me. I'm not sure the gospel is a set of ideals. Rather it is the reality of people, honest in their inadequacies, not trying to be something or someone, but searching, seeking for the unique whisper of what God is doing within their unique set of circumstances. It is concrete practices expressed among real people.
(full article)
Hospitality: Optional or Commanded?, Edith Schaeffer
(Christianity Today, Vol. 21, December 17, 1976, pp. 28-29)
WHICH shall I do first, go upstairs and write that article that is due, or go out to the garden and pick lettuce and some roses before the frost spoils them?" I hesitated, wishing I could go in both directions at once. Just then the doorbell rang, and I chose a third direction, the steps down to the front door. "I'm sorry to bother you, but this is an emergency. Can we talk to you now?" My husband was talking to someone in the living room, so I led mother and daughter into the dining room to listen to the problem.
Weeping with those who weep takes time. Two hours later when my husband had come in to join us, I glanced at the clock and realized that everyone needed some food. Slipping out I put together the ingredients for an egg-nog milk shake and started it whizzing, then dipped out broth from bones on the stove and added chicken bouillon and chopped parsley to give more flavor, then cut pieces of homemade brown bread and topped them with cheese and bacon and tomato slices and slipped them into the oven. A nutritious meal was soon ready for me to carry in on individual trays, without breaking into the flow of the conversation. Not only was the food needed for energy by each of us, but the pleasantness was remembered afterwards, and the beauty of a simple meal treasured, even by someone whose mind was filled with recent disaster and whose eyes were blurred with tears.
What are the ingredients of hospitality? How can love and community come out of the realm of theory and become a part of our moment-by-moment lives? How can we in these areas begin to be "doers of the Word and not hearers only"?
(full article)
Folks near the Twin Cities are in for a treat this year, and probably more so in the years to come as the people at Luther Seminary continue to develop their PhD concentration in Congregational Mission and Leadership.
I had hoped to attend one or both of these conferences, but money and class schedule will prevent me from doing so this year. I'm eager to hear reports and read the papers that are generated as a result.
-A Consultation on Developing a Contextual Missiology | Luther Seminary: December 2-3, 2005
2005 Annual GOCN Consultation | Cultivating Missional Systems. Luther Seminary: October 20-22
-I read Guder's Inaugural Lecture at Princeton, entitled, From Mission and Theology to Missional Theology. I wish I hadn't paid to photocopy it, because it didn't take much digging to find online. Read it-- it's good.
-Cloud of Witnesses, the Princeton journal on youth, church, and culture hosts an interview with Dr. Guder regarding the Missional Church-- particularly how a mission shaped ecclesiology relates to youth ministry. (windows media // original link)
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