Transcript Culture and Context Spring 2013 Session One The Contemporary Missional Story • Lesslie Newbigin – Missionary to India – 1974 • The Gospel &

Culture and Context
Spring 2013
Session One
The Contemporary Missional Story
• Lesslie Newbigin – Missionary to India – 1974
• The Gospel & Our Culture Network – 1980’s
– A network in North America that followed
the work of Newbigin in Great Britain.
• David Bosch – Transforming Mission – 1991 –
became a key text for missional theology &
the missional movement – a missiologist.
• Missio Dei – The mission of God.
The Contemporary Missional Story
• Missional Church – edited by Darrell Guder –
1998. This book is the foundational work for
the missional movement in North America.
• The Shaping of Things to Come – Innovation &
Mission For the 21st –Century Church –
Michael Frost & Alan Hirsch
A Clear Picture of Current Reality
• The day of the professional minister is over.
The day of the missionary pastor has come.
• The day of the churched culture is over. The
day of the mission field has come.
• The day of the local church is over. The day of
the mission outpost has come.
Kennon Callahan
Effective Church Leadership - 1990
“The rise of the missional church is the
single biggest development in
Christianity since the Reformation.”
Reggie McNeal
Missional Renaissance
Missional takes us back to the
original purpose of Jesus. God is a
sending God who is sending us.
What is the mission of God?
Defining a few terms:
• Missions:
• Missionary:
• Mission:
• Missional:
something a church does as
part of its life & programs.
someone sent to do
missions somewhere else –
primarily in the form of
evangelization.
a purpose or agenda –
something to accomplish.
to join God in his mission as
a way of life – reflecting
his character.
Ken Shuman D.Min.
Missional has nothing to do with
being cool, hip, or trendy. It’s not
about methods or style.
Missional is not a fresh coat of
paint on the same old outreach
programs.
Missional is more than just doing a
few community service projects.
Missional is not yet another
program to add to your already
busy church calendar.
To be missional we must begin to
think like missionaries in our own
culture.
Missionaries are required to be
learners, which takes enormous
humility.
To be missional we must learn how
to study & understand the cultural
context of our neighborhoods,
rd
workplaces & 3 spaces.
Missional very simply is taking on
the radical example and teachings
of Jesus as our way of life.
Being missional is joining with God
is His ongoing mission in the world.
“Mission is the result of God’s initiative,
rooted in God’s purposes to restore and
heal creation.”
“God’s mission is to set things right in a
broken, sinful world, to redeem it, and to
restore it to what God has always intended
for the world.”
Treasures in Clay Jars
Edited by Lois Y. Barrett
“As we have used the tools of biblical
scholarship carefully, we have begun to
learn that the biblical message is more
radical, more inclusive, more transforming
than we have allowed it to be.”
Missional Church
Edited by Darrell Guder
“Mission is faith in action. It is the acting
out of the central prayer that Jesus taught
his disciples to use: ‘Father, hallowed be
thy name, thy kingdom come; they will be
done on earth as in heaven.’”
Lesslie Newbigin
The Open Secret
“Salvation in Christ is salvation in the
context of human society en route to a
whole and healed world.”
David Bosch
Transforming Mission
I have come to believe that God’s
mission is to restore all of creation
to wholeness.
“As we have used the tools of biblical
scholarship carefully, we have begun to
learn that the biblical message is more
radical, more inclusive, more transforming
than we have allowed it to be.
God’s mission embraces all of creation.”
From the book Missional Church
Edited by Darrell L. Guder
It has taken us decades to realize that
mission is not just a program of the
church. It defines the church as God’s
sent people. Our challenge today is to
move from church with mission to
missional church.
Missional Church edited by Darrell L. Guder
From Souls to Wholes.
“For Luke, salvation actually had six
dimensions; economic, social, political,
physical, psychological, and spiritual.”
David Bosch
Transforming Mission
Could missional be about restoring
wholeness in these six dimensions?
We are called and sent to represent God’s
dream for the world. It is our task to
create foretastes of God’s kingdom here on
earth. We become “movie trailers” for the
kingdom of God.