“monday is for missiology” roundup

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Christianity, Gospel, eschatology, evangelism, history, kingdom of God, missio Dei, missiology, mission, missionSHIFT, missional, missional church, missional living, social justice, theology
• Date: Mar 29,2010

I thought I would “roundup” the great posts happening over at edstetzer.com with the recent resurrection of his “Monday is for Missiology” series. This is really helpful stuff if you want to avoid the historical “naivete” that can tend to happen in the current missional conversation.

Here are Ed Stetzer’s thoughts as he sets up the series again:

Over the next few months leading up to missionSHIFT, along with introducing to you to the folks who are joining us at Ridgecrest to be a part of the missional conversation, I want to make sure that we continue to trace the roots of the missional debate historically and theologically. These posts will be a continuation of my “Meanings of Missional” series that has been on hiatus for a while. Okay, since October of 2007 (grin).

For many of you, this discussion may not interest you. Your focus is, “Let’s live on mission.” Fair enough– we will actually be talking about some practical discussion with some partners in the next few days. I don’t think this practical approach is a wrong approach– but I think that if we are to think deeply on issues of church and mission, it will require historic and theological reflection.

…When you look at the historical trajectory of the “church and mission” conversation, it was a deeply theological discussion. We must continue to filter this discussion theologically. In fact, I would say that missional must be tied– and I believe it is– to something inherently theological, particularly, the missio Dei. If not, it is just another descriptor in a long line of descriptors: church growth, seeker-sensitive, church health, emerging.

Here are the seven posts that Ed has written since the start up of the series:

*Monday is for Missiology: The Eschatological Dimension of the Missional Church
*Monday is for Missiology: The Church, The Kingdom, and Mission
*Monday is for Missiology: Caveats Regarding the Eschatological Language of Mission
*Monday is for Missiology: The Church on Mission for the Kingdom
*Monday is for Missiology: The Connection Between Missiology and Soteriology
*Monday is for Missiology: How and Why is God at Work Outside of the Church?
*Monday is for Missiology: One More Run at Salvation

As an added benefit to the series, Ed has invoked the help of some of the leading missional bloggers to weigh in on the issues he is raising on their respective blogs. This team is working through these missional themes as a part of the “Prologue to Missional Discussions” synchroblog and they are:

*Rick Meigs: The Blind Beggar
*Bill Kinnon: kinnon.tv
*Brother Maynard: Subversive Influence
*David Fitch: Reclaiming the Mission
*Tiffany Smith: Missional Mayhem
*Jared Wilson: The Gospel-Driven Church
*Jonathan Dodson: Creation Project

I would encourage you to check the discussion happening at their blogs. And don’t forget to register for missionSHIFT — it’s going to be a great time to continue to talk about all things missional. See you there…

God’s mission is a global mission 2

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: Bible, Christianity, Evangelicalism, Gospel, Great Commission, New Testament, acts, church, church planting, contextualization, culture, discipleship, eschatology, evangelism, kingdom of God, missio Dei, missiology, mission, missions, multiplication, post-Christendom, postmodern, world issues
• Date: Feb 24,2010

Last week, I posted on the importance of understanding that God’s mission is a global mission. I promised you some brand new and soon-to-be-released books that will help you put the “mission” back in “missional.”

Recently released:

Paul Hiebert: The Gospel in Human Contexts: Anthropological Explorations for Contemporary Missions

Product Description:

While the gospel is timeless truth, it enters into ever-changing and widely varied human contexts. In order to meaningfully communicate the gospel to particular humans, those involved in cross-cultural ministry need to understand people and the particular influences–social, cultural, psychological, and ecological–that shape them. Further, we must understand ourselves and the influences that have shaped us, since our own contexts influence how we understand and transmit the gospel message. Therefore, we must master not only the skill of biblical interpretation but also the skill of human interpretation. That task is the topic of this book, the summation of a lifetime of experience and thinking by a world-renowned missiologist and anthropologist, the late Paul Hiebert.

Timothy Tennent: Invitation to World Missions: A Trinitarian Missiology for the Twenty-first Century (Invitation to Theological Studies Series)

Product Description:

This unique text is arranged in three parts according to the Trinity’s roles, relationships, and activity. Tennent questions whether missions as currently conceptualized is adequate and he challenges the reader by building the book around key theological foundations such as “missio Dei” and the “new creation” vision for the global church. This volume will call and enable the reader to understand how missions is biblically and theologically basic to Christianity, and how missions is essential to living out an abundant and impassioned life.

Coming soon:

David Hesselgrave + Ed Stetzer: MissionShift: Global Mission Issues in the Third Millennium (July 2010)

Product Description:

Veteran missionary David Hesselgrave and rising missional expert Ed Stetzer edit this engaging set of conversational essays addressing global mission issues in the third millennium. Key contributors are Charles E. Van Engen (“Mission Described and Defined”), the late Paul Hiebert (“The Gospel in Human Contexts: Changing Perspectives on Contextualization”), and the late Ralph Winter (“The Future of Evangelicals in Mission”). Those offering written responses to these essays include: Van Engen, Keith Eitel, Enoch Wan, Darrell Guder, Andreas J. Köstenberger, Hiebert, Michael Pocock, Darrell Whiteman, Norman L. Geisler, Avery Willis, Winter, Scott Moreau, Christopher Little, Michael Barnett, and Mark Terry.

Craig Ott + Stephen Strauss with Timothy Tennent: Encountering Theology of Mission: Biblical Foundations, Historical Developments, and Contemporary Issues (Encountering Mission) (May 2010)

Product Description:

This fresh, comprehensive text fills a need for an up-to-date theology of mission. It offers creative approaches to answering some of the most pressing questions in theology of mission and missionary practice today. The authors, who are leading mission experts, discuss biblical theology of mission, provide historical overviews of the development of various viewpoints, and address theologically current issues in global mission from an evangelical perspective. This readable yet thorough text integrates current views of the kingdom of God and holistic mission with traditional views of evangelism and church planting. It also brings theology of mission into conversation with ecclesiology and eschatology. Topics covered include contextualization, the missionary vocation, church and mission, and theology of religions. Sidebars and case studies enable readers to see how theology of mission touches real-life mission practice.

book review: four views on hell 4

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: eschatology
• Date: May 18,2008

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

What needs to be understood about the issue of hell is not whether we believe in a reality of hell – which all four authors agree on – but rather what is the nature of hell. What do the Scriptures say hell is? What is the outcome of those who are to be cast into hell? Just to say there is an imminent judgment in no way clears up the topic as to the nature of that judgment.

After reading the book with an open mind and heart, it could be said there is a strong case to be made in opposition to the “traditional” view of hell. Bearing in mind all the moral problems that the traditional view necessitates, why do so many still cling to it so persistently? In Four Views on Hell, Crockett seems to put forth a strong contention that Scripture does not justify such a stand.
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Photo by aslakr

book review: four views on hell 2

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: books, eschatology, review
• Date: May 6,2008

Part 1

John Walvoord advocates the conventional view, which embraces that Hell is literally a place of smoke and fire, where nonbelievers undergo physical and emotional agony throughout eternity. Verse upon verse is utilized to establish that the vengeance of God is more than sheer physical death. Words such as “olam” and “neash,” generally translated “ever”, are in some contexts limited as to duration in time (e.g. Ex. 27:21), but says Walvoord, “such termination is never once mentioned in either the Old or New Testament as relating to the punishment of the wicked… there is no intimation that this punishment should not be taken literally and continue eternally.”

William Crockett asserts that the Biblical representation of hell as fire is metaphor, symbolizing separation from God. While Crockett concurs with Walvoord that hell is a place of everlasting cognizant chastisement, he advocates that New Testament portrayals of both heaven and hell are fundamentally figurative and not an exact depiction of the worlds to come. He contends that ancient teachers used hyperbole to underscore the overwhelming dreadfulness of the judgment of God.

Zachary Hayes gives the purgatorial view of customary Roman Catholicism: that eternal fate is set irreversibly at the instant of death; that the majority of people are not corrupt enough to be relegated to a perpetual hell, nor are they good enough for heaven; therefore, some sort of “purification” process needs to take place between death and access into heaven. Roman Catholic theology affixes to this theory the likelihood of being aided in the cleansing method by those alive on earth.

Finally, Clark Pinnock offers the conditionalist view, oftentimes known as annihilationism, in which nonbelievers are eradicated entirely out of existence or after some period of conscious punishment. He acknowledges that this controversial view is extremely rare amongst early Christians, but rightly claims that tradition is not infallible, and thus the arguments for eternal conscious punishment must be considered on their own rights. Pinnock claims the innocent acceptance of the concept of the immortality of the soul, which is placed behind the conventional understanding of hell, direct traditionalists to ignore the literal meaning of many Scriptures. Pinnock then provides a good account of those key Scriptures that shore up the conditionalist view.
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Photo by aslakr

book review: four views on hell, ed. by stanley gundry 1

• Author: Brad
• Filed under: books, eschatology, review
• Date: May 6,2008

Part 1

The majority of modern Christianity accepts the dogma of hell, but what exactly constitutes this place of torment has been debated throughout the history of the Church…

As a part of the Zondervan Counterpoints series, Four Views on Hell takes four authors – John Walvoord, William Crockett, Friar Zachary Hayes, and Clark Pinnock – and asks them to present their views and counterviews on hell. What follows is four, essentially evangelical, analyses on hell – the hellliteral, metaphorical, conditional, and purgatorialin doctrines – and the author’s interaction with each other on the issue. And though the authors display an admirable attempt to illustrate their observations, only one view exhibits a sound argument and sensible scrutiny when laid beside the others.

Photo by aslakr