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“We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.”
– John Stott

=============================================================

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.


Scot McKnight has a great series going on at his Jesus Creed blog on Paul’s missionary journeys called “Acts and Mission.”

In a recent installment, McKnight says this about Paul and his interaction with Festus in Acts 26:

Paul’s passion is for everyone to see the light of the gospel in the face of Jesus Christ, and that means even Festus is in his circle of compassionate gospel preaching. Festus thinks Paul’s lost his mind with his belief in the resurrection as a gospel fully conversant with the Jewish Scriptures. But Paul asks him if he believes the Scriptures. Festus wonders aloud if Paul might not be trying to convert him right then and there, and so he says that very thing. To which Paul says: I wish everyone would see the truth of the gospel in Jesus.

I see here the heart of a missional man: using every opportunity to point people to Jesus Christ.

Read the story of Paul and Festus in Acts 26:24-32 here.


“We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.”
– John Stott

=============================================================

I’ve heard my friend Ed Stetzer say many times, in so many words:

If we are truly interested in being missional– in joining God on His mission– our efforts should actually reflect His stated mission.

And His stated mission is to take the Gospel to the entire world and preach the good news to all of creation (Mark 16:15). God’s mission is a global mission that includes our neighborhood AND the slums of Calcutta.

Last year, Ed wrote on the five reasons why missional churches don’t do global missions. Here is what he said:

1. In rediscovering God’s mission, many have only discovered its personal dimensions
2. In responding to God’s mission, many have wanted to be more mission-shaped and have therefore made everything “mission”
3. In relating God’s mission, the message increasingly includes the hurting but less frequently includes the global lost
4. In refocusing on God’s mission, many are focusing on being good news rather than telling good news. (He has a great quote with this point: “…as many missional Christians have sought to “embody” the gospel, they have chosen to forsake one member of Christ’s body: the mouth.”)
5. In reiterating God’s mission, many lose the context of the church’s global mission and needed global presence

So how do you, as Ed says, put the “mission” back in “missional?” He has four suggestions:

1. Recognize it is God’s mission
2. Engage more strongly, as evangelicals, in social justice
3. Share God’s deep concern about His mission to the nations
4. Obey his commands to disciple the nations

Read how Ed expounds on the reasons churches don’t do global missions and his suggestions for correcting that here.

I would add one more idea to the mix: read books/articles on world missions. It will stir you, I promise. To that end, tomorrow I will post some resources that are soon-to-be-released that will help you put the “mission” back in “missional.”


I’ve been reflecting some more on Brent Thomas’ thoughts on how to transition to “missional” if you are an established church.

In his post, Brent talks about how many pastors see the gap between the reality of what is and what they want to see happen missionally in their churches. It reminded me of a passage from The Tangible Kingdom by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay.

For pastors who feel discouraged, this should be of help:

We used to spend most of our time with…bold church planters because we thought it would be a waste of time to try to teach the old dog new tricks when you can release the young hounds into new, unrestricted land. Yet, over the the past six years, much of our work had been with existing churches and more traditional pastors who don’t want to settle for irrelevance. They are men and women who deeply love people – the “lost” – but also have responsibilities to love the found ones.

…I used to judge these leaders as weak, or unwilling, or even worse, unloving toward the harvest field. But now I’ve come to believe that they are just as important as the brave, arrogant, pioneer pastors. They are the shepherds; the ones who can help the pioneers take risks. They are the ones with the resources, people, and facilities who can help out the fledgling mushroom eaters.

Would it be okay to consider there are degrees of missionality?…Is it possible that God doesn’t need nor ask everyone to start something new? It is possible that God needs millions of leaders to care for a host of Christians who won’t be able to make the turn into new forms of church?…The transition within the U.S. church doesn’t require that we all travel on the same ship, but we must all sail on the same sea.

…The call…is not to get everyone back on the front lines of mission, but to get everyone involved in mission. Whereas some would say we need to move past our existing church forms, we disagree. We just need to see them as they are, accept their weakness, and their strengths, and find ways to help them contribute.

Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, The Tangible Kingdom: Creating Incarnational Community, pg. 34, 36

So established church pastor, find comfort in the fact that, as Halter + Smay state, there are different degrees of missionality.

The one tip I would add to Brent’s list of things to think about when transitioning to missional is related to established churches. As Halter and Smay said, established “shepherds” can be an important part of this missional movement. They have “resources, people, and facilities” that can be used to support those on the front lines. My additional tip would be:

Depending on your degree of missionality, use your resources to support missional pioneers prayerfully, financially, and practically and also, by planting churches out of our church community.

Re: planting churches, sometimes the best missional step for an established church is to plant a church out its fellowship. Church planting has been described as the most effective form of evangelism. Why?

Drew Goodmanson talks about it this way:

New churches have greater freedom to be flexible, change on the dime and try new things. This means they can experiment with new methods, sounds, styles and often this can reach untapped people groups. The same principles are seen when start-up companies are more innovative and surpass the larger bureaucracy-laden companies in tapping new markets.

My mentor calls himself a “hospice chaplain” for his church. In his best estimation, the church he pastors is dying but he has been called there to help them die well. Part of his passion is to mobilize his congregation missionally. I respect his call and bravery. It would be foolish to diminish his place in the Kingdom. We all have a ordained place in the King’s work – may we be faithful to discern and quick to obey Him where He leads…


In a recent post, J.D. Payne, Associate Professor of Church Planting and Evangelism in the Billy Graham School of Missions and Evangelism at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, talks about finding a “person of peace” — a concept that finds support from passages such as Luke 10:5-6; John 4:28-30, 39-42; Mark 5:18-20; and Acts 10:24; 16:15, 30-34; 18:8.

Payne says this:

The concept generally refers to the first few people who come to faith and are able to carry the gospel faster and farther throughout the population than the church planting team.

When approaching a large population segment, people group, etc., the church planting team should not be asking the question, “How can we personally evangelize all of these people?” Rather, they should be asking, “How can we reach a few people with the gospel, and equip and return them (Eph 4:11-12) to reach their families, friends, and acquaintances?”

Due to the landscape of post-Christendom in North America, church planters now find themselves as essentially missionaries as they plant the gospel in their mission field. To assist the planter-missionary in locating a “person of peace,” Payne encourages people to use the P.A.W. approach: Pray, Act, Watch.

Payne again:

Though this paradigm is not a linear model–but rather all three aspects, at times, are happening simultaneously–for the sake of explanation, I will address each aspect individually.

Read Payne’s description of the P.A.W. approach here.


Dr. Ed Stetzer takes 30 seconds to explain what it is to be missional:

What Does It Mean to Be Missional? from The Resurgence on Vimeo.


If you are a pastor, this is a must see.

Darrin Patrick, lead pastor of The Journey (my home church and where I intern) interviews my friend Ed Stetzer, President of Lifeway Research and Lifeway’s Missiologist in Residence, on what he sees as the pressing issues within evangelicalism today.

I believe this is Ed at his best, bringing prophetic insight to a wide variety of topics that should be of interest to those who love the church and the Gospel. Enjoy:


total-church-study-guide

I’m very excited about a new resource from Veritas Community Church, an Acts 29 church in Columbus, Ohio. They have created a free study guide to accompany the Re:Lit book Total Church by Tim Chester and Steve Timmis.

You can download the free 32-page PDF study guide here.

Chester and Timmis, the authors of Total Church, founded The Crowded House church-planting initiative in the UK and direct the Porterbrook Network. Steve Timmis is also Director of Acts 29 for Western Europe.

Total Church may very well be one of the most influential and informing books I’ve read that has influenced my ministry philosophy since The Emerging Church and Emerging Worship by Dan Kimball and Transforming Mission by David Bosch.

There is no shortage of great tools to help form Gospel and Missional DNA into the life of a church plant core team, a just-launched church plant, a small group ministry, a church revitalization, or a church that is transitioning from a traditional to missional model. The Total Church study guide is yet another exceptional resource to that end.

I would also encourage you to check out these great handbooks/guides:

>The Tangible Kingdom Primer from Hugh Halter and Matt Smay
>The Forgotten Ways Handbook from Alan Hirsch
>The Gospel-Centered Life: A Nine Lesson Study from A29 pastor Bob Thune
>Fight Clubs from A29 pastor Jonathan Dodson


margo-xmas

Parents often forget that their most important mission field is the home. Living missionally as parents means that God’s goodness should infect our homes as we humbly live out the power of the Gospel in our own lives. And as this happens, we pray God will woo our children to his saving grace.

I am so excited to share that last night, I had the privilege to lead my daughter Margo in a prayer of faith and trust in God’s grace for her salvation. What an unbelievable opportunity! Since Cooper trusted in Christ back in January 2008, Margo has been asking a lot of questions. There have been many moments over the last year of her life where I thought I saw the “lightbulb” come on for her, only to be convinced that she needed some more time.

Last night, we were reading the story of Jesus and the children from Matthew 19 from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones (an amazing Gospel-centered children’s Bible) and I could tell that something clicked in Margo’s spirit. She got it. The part of the story that she resonated with said this:

…no matter how clever you are, or how good you are, or how rich you are, or how nice you are, or how important you are – none of it makes any difference. Because God’s love is a gift and, as anyone will tell you, the whole thing about a gift is, it’s free. All you have to do is reach out your hand and take it.

…You see, children loved Jesus, and they knew they didn’t need to do anything special for Jesus to love them. All they needed to do was to run into his arms…

After I read this, Cooper said, “That’s what I did, Dad,” and Margo said, “That’s all I have to do, Dad?” I told her yes. It knew it was time. It had all been leading to this moment. We went upstairs and we talked for a bit and prayed together. Wow…

What is beautiful about this is that Cooper was drawn to the saving knowledge of Christ through the Word by the same Bible almost a year and a half ago. God’s word is alive!

She is so excited to get baptized, especially to show her grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins about her decision, but she is almost more excited to take communion as a family. At The Journey, we come forward to take communion and Holly, Cooper, and I have been doing this together for the past year and a half. Margo has been joining us as we go forward but not partaking. She has been asking more questions lately about what the elements represent.

I think this has been another big part of her journey to Christ. It reflects what can happen when, as an ordinary family, as Tim Chester and Steve Timmis say, you do ordinary things with Gospel intentionality. Just having Margo around the sacraments made an impact on her. It drew her into wanting to be a part of God’s family.

I thank the Lord for the professions of faith of Cooper and Margo and continue to pray for my two youngest, Sloan and Everett. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord…

For further reading, the following post was written in January 2008 and captures my heart on bringing the Gospel to your children, highlighting what is most important and exposing some misconceptions. I would encourage you to read: Bringing the Gospel to your Children: What I’ve Learned So Far


bodybillboard

In light of my recent post on seeing people, not as commodities, but inherently made in the image of God, or better, “eikons” in need of repair (to borrow from Scot McKnight), I really resonated with this post from Skye Jethani entitled “Your Body as a Billboard.” Here is a blurb:

The problem is when we make sacred things into commodities…we no longer see God as inherently worthy of our worship because of who he is but because of what we believe he can do for us, he becomes a divine commodity (hence the title of my book.) But we do the same thing to people created in God’s image. Whether it’s a corporation reducing people to a means of production, a society reducing unborn children to “tissue,” or churches reducing families to “giving units,” we live in an age when human beings carry no inherent value. They are expendable commodities whose value is determined by their usefulness.

Read Jethani’s entire post here: Your Body as a Billboard by Skye Jethani

And here is the NY Times Article referenced: The Body as Billboard by Andrew Adam Newman


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