What is God’s mission in this world? While there are many ways to describe it, the concept of re-creation provides a continuity between the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the beginning God created (Genesis 1-2), and in Jesus Christ he re-creates (Ephesians 2, et.al). Broken relationships are restored in Christ. Re-creation is possible. …
Category Archives: Missional
Doing what God put us here to do!
We will Exalt the Lord. We worship him, we glorify him in word and deed. We seek to honor him and lift him up as worthy of praise and adoration. We will Edify one another. We find spiritual life and meaning within the community of faith, and recognize the need for encouragement and strength. We …
Mission Deficit
I glanced at an article by James Nored yesterday, filed it, will go back to it. (Do you ever process your email that way? Some days there is too much to handle in detail.) The article concluded that we have a “mission deficit”. In the same way that our national government seems incapable of establishing …
A Missional Christmas Idea
One of the things I miss about being the “primary” presence in the pulpit is the opportunity to take relatively small, insignificant ideas and present them as short-term, weekly challenges to the church as we strive to live out the reality of Jesus in our world. Most of our folks are not missing the desire, …
It’s Sunday Again: Church without Covenant?
Our culture is filled with churches that are trying to be or do the work of God apart from “covenant relationship” with God. As an increasing number of persons in our national culture seek the relationship of marriage without commitment or covenant, a similar situation has developed in many churches. What does it mean to …
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2010: Renewing the Mission
The church where I minister does not have an official mission statement. Perhaps that is bad. A positive that comes is that I get to continually write possible mission statements that reflect who we are and what we are trying to become. As I think about 2010, I have developed a new mission statement. Perhaps …
Missional: Christianity on the Fringes
We have been observing for at least two decades that Christianity is being pushed to the fringes of our society and culture. Beginning as early as the publication of Newbigin’s Foolishness to the Greeks, the removal of Christianity from the public sphere to the private has been observed and documented. One result of the privatization …
Mission Expanded: What about the strays?
Today’s blog is a reprint of an article written by my friend, Alan Martin. The article appeared in the Edmond church bulletin the last week of March 2009. There’s quite a sobering thought by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his chapter on “The Great Divide”.Here’s the thought: “The path of discipleship is narrow, and it is fatally …
Spiritual Formation and Missionality
[Today I am sharing a comment I recently posted on Missional Outreach Network in the Missional Spiritual Formation Group. If this is an area of interest, I invite you to visit the Missional Outreach Network and join the conversation.] The spiritual body of Christ (in my observation) spends a lot of time in basic bodily …
church, Church, big C, little c, who are we?
I see an increasing number of articles that are asking important and hard questions about our self-understandings and self-identity as Christians. Answering these questions is essential in the task of being the missional, evangelistic body God intends. I am pleased that we as a brotherhood are thinking again about what we mean when we use …
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