When I was 10 years old I attended a series of “revival services” with a neighbor. The evangelist preached on hell several nights in a row. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore and I responded to the altar call. That night I accepted Christ as my savior, mainly because he scared the hell out of me! I was baptized and then asked the deacon who led me in the sinner’s prayer “What’s next?” “Nothing,” he replied. “It’s all over now.” That was the gospel of conversion.
A few years later my church disintegrated in its spiritual immaturity and I dropped out for a while. In retrospect, I believe I was truly born again at age 10. When I was a junior in high school a friend started taking me to Bible studies and church with him. I experienced a spiritual renewal. There I received the gospel of Christian education (you might say the gospel of discipleship, but it was really much more about knowledge than behavioral or heart change.)
A few years ago I was studying the gospels and it struck me that when Jesus talked about the gospel (the “good news”) He always talked about the “gospel of the kingdom.” He seemed to shy away from our modern gospel of conversion and our gospel of Christian education. He constantly talked about the gospel of the kingdom. In fact, He seemed obsessed by this message of the kingdom. It was all He proclaimed!
I have come to understand that the gospel of the kingdom is the gospel of transformation! (I am deeply indebted to George Ladd’s The Gospel of the Kingdom and Dallas Willard’s Divine Conspiracy to guide me in my understanding.) The gospel that Jesus preached was about transformation. He expected people’s live to be changed and he expected His disciples to be agents of change in their world in such a way that God’s kingdom would come and His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10.)
What does this have to do with the missional church? Everything! The church is to be God’s representative and agent of the kingdom! We represent his rule and reign on earth, and we are His instruments (agents) to proclaim His rule and reign on earth! Darrell Guder in Missional Church says that the church is to be:
The Community of the Kingdom,
The Servants of the Kingdom, and
The Messengers of the Kingdom!
A missional church has an actionary view of the kingdom! Missional churches see themselves as agents of the Kingdom, and they see the Kingdom as a practical reality that is breaking into the world all around us (cf. Matthew 11:12). We will never have missional churches unless we have this understanding of the Kingdom of God! Ours is the gospel of transformation!
We are Kingdom mobilizers and multipliers! Missional churches mobilize their community of faith into action both locally and globally to change the world! Missional churches also multiply communities of faith everywhere they see people who are unreached by the gospel! Bottomline: missional churches must have an actionary view of the Kingdom! What do you think?
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4 comments:
Robert, I think you're right. I like the way you described this progression. Maybe our missional church assessment should contain these categories. They are simple and clear, and I think accurate.
Hi, Glenn. It was great spending time with you and getting to know about your ministry. Will be praying for you and your plans. I like what you have to say about becoming a missional church. That is our passion in our denomination. Lets keep in touch.
Charles
6:56 AM
TomB said...
What I notice in the two blogs is the wonderful yet mystic combination of kingdom principles and missional principles. I believe the two go hand in hand. In fact, I think it would be near impossible to have one with out the other. The goal of both being transformed lives, transformed communities and a transformed world. For too long Western Christianity has been content with the quantity of decisions rather than the quality. Having been in Mexico for 14 years, I do not put much value on a single decision. Due to the fact that saying no in this culture is considered very rude, most Mexicans would rather die a thousand deaths then be forced to say no. Hence you hear a lot of positive decisions. So having the goal of a transformed life necesitates that you think, minister and strategize differently and more pervasively. Ministry has to touch lives where they are and the church has to go rather then wait for people to come to a facility. So for me I believe that a missional church is one that goes to where the people are, understands what the people need, meets those needs (be it emotional, physical or spiritual) in away that equips and inspires them to do the same and then leads those people on to affect their immediate and distant communities.
8:10 AM
Thanks Tom! I think your insights from Mexico are going to be extremely valuable in our discussion.
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