This is Reality: Missional. John 1

Transcription

1 This is Reality: Missinal. (Keynte slide f series lg put up as sn as I take the stage and leave up until next Keynte slide) Jhn 1 Intr: A mini-series called This is Reality: Thelgical. Missinal. Relatinal An attempt t identify and explain why we apprach things the way we d as a church Thelgy We want t be biblical and cnsnant with the character f Gd Missin We want t be prclaiming and demnstrating the Gspel in all we d Relatinship We want t make sure that we are caring fr and lving peple Wh, what, hw Gd, missin, lving relatinships This paradigm helps t keep us n track and in tuch with ur gal t glrify Gd and participate in the purpses f Gd in a way that is cnsnant with wh Gd is. Thelgical: We are cncerned abut and frmed by an understanding f wh Gd is Gd and Scripture dictate, shape and infrm wh we are and what we d as a church Nt the needs, ideas r pinins f peple and culture We care abut and address thse things, but we are nt shaped and driven by them The reasn we exist and gather and scatter is because f and fr Gd But, because f wh Gd is, we desperately want t tell the wrld abut Him s, we are missinal Missinal: We want t be careful with ur use f this wrd We are aware f its current uses in missin and church leadership circles It is currently/ften being used t identify almst anything that new churches are ding that mre traditinal churches and usual evangelicalism are failing t d (an adversarial and verused buzzwrd) Used t describe smething cnservative churches are nt (but we are cnservative) Used t describe smething mega-churches are nt (but we are a mega-church) 1 Has becme largely assciated with the emerging church and ften mre liberal churches (we are neither) It has becme clsely identified with the scial gspel (values scietal change ver indv. salvatin) Thugh the term is currently very vgue it is nt new Jhn Sttt; Lesslie Newbigin (England) et al fr decades The term itself is simply the adjectival frm f the nun missin But since it has s many cnntatins we have avided it fr sme time ( n missin ) But because it is s ppular currently, and really des get at smething meaningful when used simply and sincerely, we want t define it as we see it What it means t be missinal : T be (1) aware f and cncerned abut what Gd is ding in the wrld arund us, and (2) t endeavr t be directly and daily invlved in that. T believe that Gd is n missin, in ur wrld, right nw And t be cmmitted t, passinate abut, active in Gd s missin 1 There are abut 300,000 churches in the US and abut 1200 (abut.4%) f them are mega churches (weekly attendance f 2000 r mre). Surce:

2 That missin in the wrld flws frth frm the nature/essence f Gd and we are a part f that missin and invited int that missin T believe that missin is nt merely an activity f the church but rather an attribute f Gd All missin is Gd s missin and we are t be n that missin 2 The Attractinal vs. Missinal discussin Has t d with a general apprach t being and ding church Attractinal: Trying t get peple t cme t church (I.e. the building), and ultimately be interested in Jesus, thrugh having quality prgrams, excellent music, enugh parking and facilities, sermns that address immediate felt needs, and being cl enugh fr culture (make church cl and cnvenient) Anthrpcentric (It starts with peple: What d peple want? Lets design church arund that!) Big wuld be a gal Cme and see mentality Missinal: Nt s much cncerned with peple cming t a church building, but mre abut taking Jesus and His message t peple utside the church. Getting peple interested in Jesus by being like Jesus in culture Small might be a gal G and tell mentality The lcal church needs t be bth We can and shuld be attractinal and missinal (in the best sense f each term) Cme and see annnd g and tell We can and shuld gather in larger and smaller grups (Acts bth are needed) When peple cme int the church (in a large r small setting) it shuld be attractive (because f the presence f Christ and the lve f the peple) (The idea f cme-and-see ) It shuld als be relatable/understandable Nt t merely appeal t/hk peple, per say, but rather t cmmunicate t/with peple, because Gd lves peple and His message is directed tward them! We dn t try t make the Gspel relevant, we endeavr t shw hw it is relevant But we shuld als be missinal Understanding that sme peple will never cme int the church building and s we g ut int the wrld t take the persn and message f Jesus t them (The idea f g-and-tell ) This t we d with the realizatin that Christ in us shuld be attractive and that we als need t cmmunicate Christ in wrd and in deed in ways peple understand This idea invlves smething that is ppularly called cntextualizatin Cntextualizatin is nt giving peple what they want, it is giving them Gd s answers (which they may nt want) t the questins they are asking and in frms they can cmprehend. 2 (als knwn as cmmn sense!) We are nt trying t make the gspel relevant, rather we are trying t demnstrate and explain the relevance f the Gspel But bth ur gathering and ur scattering, ur attractinal and missinal elements need t be based n wh Gd is, what Gd wants and what Gd is ding (Thecentric), nt necessarily n what peple want and are ding (anthrpcentric) Realizing that Gd knws what peple ultimately want and need (lve and salvatin) 2 Frm a lecture by Tim Keller (Nt sure which ne)

3 The fact that we are missinal is based n things thelgical 3 Gd is a missinary Gd The nature/essence f Gd as revealed by the Wrd f Gd/Bible Trinity Father, Sn, Hly Spirit I Jhn 4:8 (lve) = A cmmunity f lve that reaches ut (Cf. The Church) Lve des nt permit the lver t rest in himself. It draws him ut f himself, s that he may be entirely in the belved. -Pseud-Dinysius the sixth century spiritual thelgian 3 The nature f lve is t g ut f itself T be ther-centered, nt self-centered r egcentric T reach utward (nt being inward riented) Since Gd is lve, Gd is n missin (essence) The nature f Gd is t g ut (He is a missinary Gd) First in creatin and then in redemptin What we see in the Gspels is the eternal mvement f Gd, made manifest, in human histry: The Incarnatin Out f the cmmunal lve within the Trinity flws Gd s lve fr the wrld utside the Trinity. 4 Missin is nt primarily an activity f the Church, but an attribute f Gd We are missinal because Gd is missinal (redeemed image-bearers) The Incarnatin (Gd ging ut and becming like in rder t save) becmes the mdel fr missin It teaches us that lve ges t and becmes like Steps int ther s wrld (lcatin, struggles, wrldview, thught prcesses) and cmmunicates in their way/frms Jhn 1:14 and And the Wrd became flesh, and dwelt amng us, and we saw His glry, glry as f the nly begtten frm the Father, full f grace and truth. 18 N ne has seen Gd at any time; the nly begtten Gd wh is in the bsm f the Father, He has explained Him. = Incarnatinal Ministry (present, living amng, demnstrating) Jesus is still ding this, but nw we are the bdy f Christ, in the flesh and n the earth The church is the visible manifestatin f the invisible Gd We are t exegete Jesus (in wrd and deed/prclamatin and demnstratin) T be missinal is t d, be, and tell the Gspel This requires a radical cmmitment t wh Jesus is and t the Crss (the Gspel) We affirm the uniqueness, the centrality, the decisiveness f Jesus Christ as universal Lrd and Saviur, the Way by fllwing whm the wrld is t find its true gal, the Truth by which every ther claim t truth is t be tested, the Life in whm alne life in its fullness is t be fund. 5 Jesus said, speaking f His death n the crss if I be lifted up I will draw all men t myself (Jn 12:32-33) The nly way t be saved and the Christian way t live Living sacrificially (and incarnatinally) 3 As quted in Stephen Seamands, Ministry in the Image f Gd: The Trinitarian Shape f Christian Service (Dwners Grve, Ill.: IVP Bks), Seamands, Lesslie Newbigin as quted in Jhn Sttt, The Incmparable Christ (Dwners Grve, Ill.: IVP, 2001), 127.

4 4 But it is Christ s bdy, and Christ s missin Acts 1:1 1 The first accunt I cmpsed, Thephilus, abut all that Jesus began t d and teach, 2 until the day when He was taken up t heaven, after He had by the Hly Spirit given rders t the apstles whm He had chsen. (Began t d and teach the verbs are in the imperfect tense nt arist = n ging actin) = The Bk f Acts annnnd present histry S nw, we d and teach what Christ is ding and teaching His missin is nging in the wrld We are part f its ging n (created by it) and its ging frth (invlved in it) This means that being the church n missin ceases t be abut ur ideas, gifts, passins, frustratins, excitements, hbby-hrses and pet-prjects Being the church is all abut discvering and becming passinate and daily invlved in Gd s missin Our missinary activities are nly authentic insfar as they reflect participatin in the missin f Gd. 6 What this means practically (tmrrw): We need t begin t see what Gd is ding arund us Read life and lcal and wrld events missilgically The task f every generatin is t discver what the Spirit f Gd is dng and then d that (Jnathan Edwards) We repent f apathy We desire t change the wrld nt because we have visins f grandeur fr urselves, nr because we are bleeding-heart humanitarians, but because Christ and the Gspel are changing the wrld fr the glry f Gd! This als means that ding missin stps being abut ding things fr Gd and becmes abut ding things with Gd We are Gd s fellw wrkers (1 Crinthians 3:9) But it is Gd s missin = This is the missinal ideal! We care abut and want t knw abut what Gd is ding in the wrld At ur wrkplaces and in ther places At hme and in Haiti We want t discver the Missi Christi and then participate in it Macr and Micr; lcally and internatinally We must realize ur sent-ness Jhn 17:18 and 20:21 Every member n missin (cmmissined by Christ) When we understand thelgically that we are a sent-peple We apprach life missinally We live life intentinally Realize that wherever yu are, yu have been sent there T explain and expse Jesus (prclamatin and demnstratin) We believe that Gd is as cncerned with Mnday-Saturday as He is Sunday! He is as cncerned abut yur ging t wrk as He is yur ging t church He is just as active at yur place f wrk as He is yur place f wrship 6 David Bsch, Transfrming Missin: Paradigm Shifts in Thelgy f Missin (Maryknll, NY.: Orbis, 1991), 391.

5 All fr His purpses!!! The key is ur intentinality And asking the right questin (Participatin in Gd s life) 5 We d this as bth the church-gathered and the church-scattered We cme t church and we g be the church Acts 2:26 etc = gathered; Acts 8:4 etc = scattered The Spirit f Gd wrks bth a centripetal and centrifugal frce n us Bth f thse actins have t d with what is happening at a center pint Jesus! We can be mst effective as a grup smetimes/and as individuals ther times (Church birthing vs. Yur wrk) We want t be missinal in ur gathering We want t be missinal in ur scattering Sme f the practical ways this plays ut fr us: The way we pray Part f the way we discver what Gd wants t d in the wrld arund us Part f the way we participate in and d the missin f Gd The way we teach and preach Ephesians 4:11-12 The building (place) is nt the gal but the rally pint t get peple n missin Only 46% f Prtestants that attend church at least nce a mnth strngly agreed with the idea that they have a persnal respnsibility t share their beliefs abut Jesus Christ with nn-christians 7 We are determined t change that (every member n missin) The acting ut f the centripetal frce that precedes the centrifugal frce We want t bring them in and send them ut (Gd s idea) We define success as the church gathered nt by numbers but by faithfulness and transfrmatin The places and frequency f ur gathering We d nt gather in the large setting several times a week Our gal is nt t always get peple int the building The gal is t get peple living fr/like Jesus, (ding and being the gspel) as the church in culture This is ften best accmplished by gathering in hmes and wrk places and public places Cf. Hmegrups The way we lay hands n peple Acts 13 Seeing peple live fr smething bigger than themselves (In HGs t) The fact that we birth ther churches and campuses Jesus is building His church (Mt 16:18) Obedient and strategic (Gd s strategy) Multiplicatin Campus decisin driven by the Great Cmmissin Multi-Site Churches are evangelistic and experience grwth 8 7 Sctt McCnnell, Multi Site Churches (Nashville: B&H Publishing Grup, 2009), 7. 8 McCnnell, 6 7.

6 The Prayer Turs we d 6 Our attitude tward ther churches Supprt and prayer and friendship (same team) Example: Prayer in VTA and SF Because there is nly ne missin We d nt bash them Our attitude tward culture We talk psitively abut ur cities and neighbrs We try t speak their language We seek t apply the gspel t their cre cncerns We als hld frth Jesus as the nly way t be saved! Jesus Christ did nt cme t make a cntributin t the religius strehuse f mankind, but that in Him Gd recnciled the wrld t Himself 9 Either the Gspel is true fr all r it is nt true at all. 10 The way we seek t address and care fr the pr and hmeless, widws and rphans, ppressed and brutalized lcally and wrldwide Reality as a hmeless shelter, laundry lve, supplies, etc We need bth scial actin and public prclamatin We d nt create the Kingdm n earth thrugh scial refrm, but we invite peple int the Kingdm thrugh individual salvatin The answer t the wrld s prblem is nt cleaner water, but living water! But, Gd des care abut peple s water supply (we d bth) Missin is nt the gal Missin exists because wrship desn t 9 Visser t Hft, N Other Name as quted in Jhn Sttt, The Incmparable Christ (Dwners Grve, Ill.: IVP, 2001), William Temple at the Wrld Missinary Cnference in Jerusalem in 1929.