Field notes on life and mission with God after Christendom
In my last post I identified a common discipleship-killer. It’s something that sabotages our best disciple-making efforts. And almost every church I’ve ever worked with has it.
It’s a gospel issue. Specifically, the problem most pastors have with answering this question:
Does the gospel I preach naturally lead to people becoming disciples of Jesus?
[Read more…] about How to Proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom
Tucked away in the narrative of the earliest days of the church is a fascinating and funny story. In Acts 18:5-8, the apostle Paul and his team are in Corinth, and he initially spends his time preaching to the Jews, but they oppose him and become abusive. So Paul shakes out his clothes in protest and says, essentially, “Fine! If you’re not interested, from now on I will go to the Gentiles.”
Here’s the funny part: Paul leaves the synagogue and goes next door to a Gentile home, where there is a person of peace, and it’s the beginning of a lengthy, fruitful ministry in Corinth. This is a story about what to do with “difficult soil,” and highlights a principle of fruitfulness in disciple-making and gospel ministry: Cast seed widely, but concentrate your efforts where the harvest is ripe. If the harvest isn’t ripe, move on.
Early on in my explorations of missional theology, I remember thinking that this stuff was so brilliant that all people really needed was permission to do it, and it would take off. I figured all this missional energy was just bottled up inside everyone and they were just waiting for someone to release them and bless them in it. I thought the reason people weren’t doing it was because they didn’t know they were allowed to.
You probably know what’s coming. Excitedly I began giving people permission to live missionally, explaining why it made sense, illustrating the possibilities. And people basically nodded in agreement. Some even got excited with me. But nothing changed (including me). Even people who wanted to couldn’t find their way into a way of life that was naturally joining God in the renewal of all things as a matter of course. A deeper problem was manifesting itself, one that I was just beginning to understand.
[Read more…] about No Mission Without the Gospel of the Kingdom
Okay, the short-and-sweet facts of the matter: For several years now, the Missional Learning Commons has been a highlight of my year. It’s a collaborative learning event for missional churches and practitioners to share stories, discuss ideas, and encourage one another for the sake of incarnating the Gospel in their contexts. It has been an incredibly generative time for me over the past few years, and I meet wonderful new people every year.
So you should come this year! This year’s MLC will take place Oct 28-29, 2011 in the Chicago area, and in addition to our regular diet of on-the-ground practitioners and collaborative discussion, we are excited to announce that Mike Breen and a team from 3DM will be around to share some of what they have learned and help facilitate some of our conversations by asking some provoking questions. They’ll also be doing a discipleship-and-mission workshop on Friday Oct 28 during the day (before the MLC) for those interested in learning more about what they do.
Head over the MLC site for more info and to register. Feel free to RSVP via Facebook as well. But for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, a little back-story:
“Does the gospel I preach naturally lead to people becoming disciples of Jesus?” – Dallas Willard
Put another way: Is becoming a disciple of Jesus the natural way to say ‘Yes’ to the gospel I preach?
This question has been revolutionizing my understanding of the gospel, evangelism, and discipleship. For example, if we see the main message of the gospel as “Your sins can be forgiven,” it does not naturally lead to becoming a disciple of Jesus, because once you’ve got the “forgiveness contract” signed, discipleship seems like an optional extra-curricular activity for people who are into that kind of thing. Gospel-as-forgiveness is an anemic understanding of what the New Testament proclaims.
Here’s the way I am beginning to understand this, and the simple way we are going to be teaching our leaders at Christ Church to practice evangelism. Do you think this adequately captures things? What do you think?
