Hearing the Bible Missionally
September 25, 2008
Dallas Willard has said that our churches are full of converts who do not intend to become disciples. Another way to put it would be this: Our churches are full of people who are there to receive the benefits of grace without knowing that they are receiving such blessings “in order to be a blessing.”
In such congregations, mission tends to be one of many programs done by the community, rather than to define the very purpose and character of the community. Mission sermons are preached now and again in order to mobilize action or resources for a particular outreach. People know that mission is a theme of the Bible, and they expect to hear about it now and again. But discipling is rarely focused on mission. It is primarily understood, where it is talked about, as a process of personal spiritual growth. . . .
Where missional renewal is happening, different kinds of questions are brought to the Bible. Congregations are open to being challenged, to looking hard at their deeply ingrained attitudes and expectations.
The missional approach asks: How does God’s Word call, shape, transform, and send me . . . and us? Coupled with this openness is the awareness that biblical formation must mean change, and often conversion. Christian communities may discover that their discipling will require repentance and that their way of being church will have to change.
– Darrell Guder in Treasure in Clay Jars: Patterns in Missional Faithfulness
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Just an FYI, spent some time with a good friend at Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta this week and he shared with me that Scott McKnight is about to release a book, Blue Parakeet, that takes up this exact issue. I know I am looking forward to it!
Thanks Doug, I knew McKnight was coming out with the book but I really didn’t know what it was about. My wishlist continues to expand
Doug,
Thanks for the heads up on McKnight’s book.
I have you noticed that on JesusCreed McKnight is distancing himself from emergent and making public his rapprochement of mission/evangelism
A conviction that is growing in me is that any spirituality that is not missional (a life lived as participation in the Missio Dei) is anemic at best and at worst narcissistic!
We feel that the 3 common commitments (a life punctuated by prayer, a life that is being continually formed by Holy spirit, and a life that proclaims and oozes with an invitation to salvation) of missional order are indivisible; they form an integral unity of Christian living.
We pray for the actualizing of these common commitments. They are common in that we share them and in that they are components of Christian living.
Just thinking out loud (write!) .
Hello all,
Rodney Neill from far flung Northern Ireland here .
i love the site and am a kindred spirit. Athough I am far removed in terms of distance I will keep a close eye on what you are doing
thanks for all your work
Rodney
[...] Great New Site w/a Great Post Filed under: from the sublime to the profane — paulhill @ 8:13 pm In our house church tonight we talked about how we read the Bible. We wondered aloud how to interpret the Old Testament and the New. Just as importantly we discussed how we are to apply what we interpret. Here’s a great post on a great new site opening up the discussion of how to Read the Bible Missionally. [...]
Excellent post.Keep up the great work,You must definitely have to keep updating your site