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

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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.


Last week, I posted on Bob Roberts’ new book, Realtime Connections: Linking Your Job With God’s Global Work and said:

I can’t think of a more helpful book when many are preaching, writing, talking about what a theology of work looks like. Connecting our work to God’s glocal agenda is a must and this book will no doubt help us to that end.

Recently, Jonathan Dodson, lead pastor of Austin City Life in Austin, TX, also wrote on the issue of the mission of work:

We can’t plant a missional churches that don’t address work. Most people spend the lion’s share of their time in their field of work. That field of work is not only a mission field, but it is a city field. It is an urban domain.

Cities are comprised of anywhere from 5-10 city domains: Government, Arts, Education, Social Services, Health Services, Technology, Family, etc. Missional Churches must do the hard work of helping their people see their vocation in urban domains in terms of missional calling, not merely for evangelism but for whole gospel living.

Here are a list of resources that Dodson recommends to help in this endeavor:

Websites

* Redeemer’s Faith & Work Center
* Mockler Center for Work and Faith

Books

* R. Paul Stevens: The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work, and Ministry from a Biblical Perspective
* Tetsunao Yamamori and Kenneth A. Eldred: On Kingdom Business: Transforming Missions Through Entrepreneurial Strategies
* Tim Chester: Busy Christian’s Guide to Busyness
* Robert Banks: Redeeming the Routines: Bringing Theology to Life

I would add one more to the mix:

Wayne Grudem: Business for the Glory of God: The Bible’s Teaching on the Moral Goodness of Business


All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
Matthew 28:18

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Andreas Kostenberger, professor of New Testament at SBTS and editor of The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, looks at how Jesus’ authority emboldens his followers to join in God’s mission without fear.

Kostenberger:

…it is only after the crucifixion that Jesus claims to have all authority in heaven and on earth. It is the risen Christ who, in the manner of a conquering, victorious general, ascends the mountain and commissions his followers to go and conquer the worlds, similar to Alexander the Great and other military leaders who set out to subdue the universe and subject it to their will. But Jesus’ will be a gentle conquest…

He continues:

…as his followers go into all the world in order to disciple the nations, Jesus himself, Isaiah’s Immanuel, which is translated “God with us” (Matt 1:23), will be with them: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” How, then, can the church’s mission possibly fail, if Jesus, the risen Christ, the conquering general, will himself be present with his people in the power of the Holy Spirit?

Read the entire post here.


10 VERY helpful tips for missional community leaders from Nate Navarro, Director of Missional Community @ Austin City Life in Austin, TX:

1. Know God
2. Know your people
3. Know your neighborhood
4. Don’t go alone
5. Say who you are (and who you aren’t) every week
6. Get out of the living room
7. Live missionally
8. Eat, laugh, pray, and serve together
9. Share your stories
10. Come to serve (not just be served) on Sundays

Read the entire post here and see how Nate expounds on each of these tips…


Christianity Today recently asked religious leaders such as John Green, senior research adviser for the Pew Forum on Religion + Public Life; Cathy Lynn Grossman, religion reporter for USA TODAY; and Ed Stetzer, president of Lifeway Research this question: What was the most significant change in Christianity over the past decade?

Scot McKnight claims that evangelicalism’s metamorphosis in the late 20th century was also the most significant emphasis in the first decade of the 21st century. He says this shift was:

…a gradual, if largely unacknowledged, repentance from the near gnostic division of the spirit and the body that shaped its gospel in the early part of the 20th Century to a robust embracing of the missional gospel…

According to McKnight, a part of this “missional gospel,” is what most people call:

…”social justice” and, while I prefer to use the word “justice” and define “justice” by the will of God as taught through the Bible and the Church, it is now a part of much of evangelicalism — and not just as an appendix to the spiritual work done at the church.

McKnight sifts through the glut of books on social justice and recommends a new book by Peter Greer and Phil Smith called The Poor Will Be Glad: Joining the Revolution to Lift the World Out of Poverty. (Smith lives in the city where we are planting a church in the urban core in the spring of 2010: Tulsa; check this article from the Tulsa World: Tiny loans make huge difference in lives of poor)

Read McKnight’s entire post here.


David Fitch, author of The Great Giveaway, a pastor of Life on the Vine, and the Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary, recently put his twist on what church planting should/could look like in the post-Christendom culture.

Fitch:

We recognize then that when we get over a certain size, all we end up doing is making the goods and services of being a Christian more accessible and convenient for already existing Christians. We have no other option then, when we get too big, to ask fifteen or twenty people to leave and go be missionaries to dechurched places in post Christendom. This used to be called church planting. We often now call it “seeding missional communities.”

On discerning where to “seed” these missional communities, he says:

…we like to think in terms of “sending” groups of people as “missional orders” into a community – bands of people who can take time, and sink in and learn that culture and be among the place in which God has called them to minister Christ. When we discern places for such a missionary endeavor, we ask are these places “under-churched” and “affordable for us as we seek to live missionally and beneath our means?”

He goes on to share 5 issues to be discerned in “seeding” a new missional community:

1. Discern the 3 (or 4 or 5) leaders
2. Land in the community over launching in the community
3. Exegete the community over market surveys
4. Teach missional rhythms over attractional events
5. Prepare for a sustainable way of life over a long period of time over projected growth and financial sustainability after three years

I think Fitch’s instincts here are on the right trajectory. Read the entire post here and how he would flesh out the “seeding” process.


I’ve decided to re-post the first installment of a series I began back in April of 2009 (wow, that is a long time ago) and am going to continue it now.

I am hopeful this will spur all of us to do inventory on why we aren’t missional and move towards living sent and joining God in his mission to proclaim and enact the Gospel…

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Wednesday night, I had the privilege to attend “Theology at the Bottleworks,” a Midrash ministry of The Journey [my family's home church + where I am doing my church planting internship] at a pub, Schlafly’s Bottleworks, in beautiful Maplewood.

In older, simpler times, a pub or “public house” was often the focal point of the community, playing a similar role to the local church, where people gathered to openly discuss significant issues of the day. The Journey is re-entering the “public house” to reach into culture by tackling spiritual, political, and philosophical themes in an open environment.

And yes, this has been the setting for the infamous “Beer and the Bible” controversy that brewed, pun intended, back in 2007. There is great comment from my good friend and Journey pastor, Jonathan McIntosh, on the web home for Mike Corley of The Mike Corley Program here about TATB [unfortunately, the audio seems to be nonexistent]. You can read a couple of somewhat objective articles about TATB from the Baptist Press here and the Christian Post here…

I am shadowing the moderators for the next couple of months to eventually become a part of the moderation team over the next year. And let me say, after observing my new friend Matt moderate last night, this is going to be one of the most difficult yet shaping things I have ever done. I’m excited about what God is going to do in me through this…

This particular evening was unique in that it was the 4th anniversary of this outreach event. To be specific, this was the 48th TATB event. Pretty astounding.

There were probably about 50 people there and I was told that there are usually 70+. And my best guess was that it was split down the middle: 50% religious, 50% non-religious.

The topic was “The Impact of Technology on the American Way of Life.” And a lively topic it was. Here were some of the great points made/questions raised across a wide spectrum:

>technology makes us lose touch with reality into isolation
>human interaction is overrated
>technology pits art + creativity vs. efficiency + mass production + instant gratification
>technology makes you more human, not less
>does technological innovation undercut traditional fundamentals?
>technology makes us skip the fundamentals of knowledge, i.e., spelling
>new technology wouldn’t be realized with the fundamentals changing
>are we headed to a Wall-E or Matrix world?
>technology can enhance relationships but cannot substitute for human touch, empathy, etc.
>do we like where technology is taking us?
>technology moves us away from real sources, i.e., analog musical recording vs. digital
>to curb abuse of technology, we have to discipline ourselves and self-moderate
>technology is neutral; we use technology, it doesn’t use us
>technology is good for scientific + medical purposes but not relationships
>we are trading quantity of connectedness over quality of connectedness, i.e. Facebook friends vs. real friends
>there is no counterbalance with technology from the spritual + ethical side of the equation
>should we limit/restrain technology?
>Bible gives principles not specifics on how we should handle “stuff”, i.e., Genesis 1 “subdue” principle

So what does this have to do with why we aren’t missional? I sat at a table with a non-religious, 50+ year-old Greek curmudgeon, a non-religious 30+ year-old American-Asian (originally from Hong Kong) molecular biologist and resident at Children’s Hospital, and a non-practicing 30+ year-old Orthodox Jew. Uh, yeah. And it wasn’t the large group discussion that impacted me. It was the discussion with my three new friends after the discussion that did. Big time…

My experience Wednesday night unearthed some things inside of me that I need to preach to myself to help me understand where my heart and head don’t line up with regards to my missional posture to culture. So I thought I’d invite you to join me on the journey.

As a part of a series, I am going to unpack what I believe are the 5 main things that keep us from being salt and light in culture. I hope you join me in the conversation…


In Austin, Texas this week, over 2000 folks are attending Verge, learning from a diverse group of leading thinkers and practitioners of gospel-centered missional community such as Alan Hirsch, Francis Chan, Neil Cole, and Dave Gibbons.

In the opening talk on Thursday night, Matt Carter, lead pastor of Austin Stone Community Church, spoke on what Hirsch calls the heart of missional community, the theologically dense worldview: Jesus is Lord.

Carter told the Verge attendees this:

Missional community has the potential to be the thing that this generation will be remembered by – that will define this generation historically.

…I believe that missional community is the long awaited structure that the American church has desperately needed to unleash everyday believers into the mission of their everyday lives. For far too long, for too many churches – their story has been “come to us and we will feed you spiritually – we will provide you programs – we will make you comfortable with the idea of church.

…Missional community could awaken the sleeping giant of the American church. It is long past time for the American church to awaken from its materialistic, narcissistic slumber.

But Carter shared a warning:

If missional community is the only defining marker for our generation, then we have failed.

The temptation – the danger for us – is that we will love our mission more than our Savior. If we love our mission more than we love our Savior, then our Savior will have no part of our mission.

Read more of Carter’s comments via my buddy Jonathan McIntosh’s post here.


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.


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