Recently I was reflecting on my own journey deeper into the gospel, when I came across the story of Richard Kaufman of Harbor Presbyterian Church in San Diego, CA.  Though I am miles away from his understanding of all the implications of Gospel-centrality, I found this message challenging and encouraging.

Kaufman divides his journey into eight gospel lessons; salvation by justification by faith, double imputation, the bible is all about Jesus, sanctification by grace through faith, how to minister the gospel to others, how to apply the gospel to the sin under the sin, how the gospel calls us to be a missional church, & how to lead a grace renewal church.

You will not waste a minute listening to this insightful talk.  You can find it here.

~Mike

Small group discussion questions for the week of November 22, 2009, based on the sermon “Missional Living” from the “What, Why, & How” series.

Theme: Missional living is about spreading the Gospel by adapting to our context, demonstrating real care, and going in community with other believers.

Introduction: When we hear the word “evangelizing” what do we usually think of?  How do those actions/ concepts compare with this definition:

“A missionary is somebody who relationally takes the unchanging gospel into a culture for the cause of Christ, understands people in that culture, learns the questions of that culture, understands the worldview of that culture, and begins a church in that culture that proclaims the unchanging truths of Scripture in the changing cultural context. In the same way, a church that is ‘missional’ views itself as a missionary to its culture, filled with ambassadors for Christ who take the gospel into every sphere of society. We don’t simply need evangelistic churches, but rather ‘missional’ churches.”

~Luke Simmons, article used by permission

Questions:

1. Read 1 Cor 9:19-23. How many times does Paul say “I became”? Why does he say he did this?  In what ways is he adapting to the context being a servant (v. 19)?  Is it our culture’s responsibility to adapt to us or our responsibility to adapt to culture?

2. How does Jesus model and empower this adaption? (Philippians 2:5-8)

3. What are some ways we can adapt to our context without compromising the Gospel? (John 17:11, 15, 18)

4. What does I Thessalonians 2:8 tell us Paul did to demonstrate real care? How does sharing our life open up opportunities to share the Gospel?

5. To what kind of people did Jesus extend care and compassion?

6. Read Luke 15:1-2, 7:34. Why were these things said about Jesus?  Were they true?  Who said them?  Should we be willing to live with similar accusations?

7. 1 Peter was written to Christian communities scattered throughout several regions (1:1). Read 1 Peter 3:15. What would provoke people to ask Christians about the “hope” that is in them?

8. How could living life “in community” with other Christians, in the company of non-Christians be a primary way of spreading the Gospel? What are some ways you might do this?

9. What do you think of the quote, “Every Christian is a paid missionary, we just get our check routed in different ways”? (Luke Simmons)

10. Might holding a party for people on your street be a means of adapting to context? How would it demonstrate care for unbelievers and aid growth in community with other Christians?

11. What kinds of activities could you undertake as a small group to pursue missional life?

Missional.

Have you heard this word lately?  What do you think it means? Should we put it in the trash heap of faddish, fleeting Christian jargon or might there be something more to the term?  If “missional” means recovering a missionary mindset for the particular locale in which we live, then maybe we should stop and explore it more deeply – after all, we have been sent by Jesus (Matthew 28:19-20).

Consider the following quote taken from this article:

“Most traditional evangelical churches still only win people to Christ who are temperamentally traditional and conservative.  But…this is a ‘shrinking market.’  And eventually evangelical churches settled in the declining, remaining enclaves of ‘Christendom’ will have to learn how to think like missionaries in order to reach people in the surrounding culture.

This missionary mindset is what it means to be ‘missional.’  A missionary is somebody who relationally takes the unchanging gospel into a culture for the cause of Christ, understands people in that culture, learns the questions of that culture, understands the worldview of that culture, and begins a church in that culture that proclaims the unchanging truths of Scripture in the changing cultural context.  In the same way, a church that is ‘missional’ views itself as a missionary to its culture, filled with ambassadors for Christ who take the gospel into every sphere of society.

We don’t simply need evangelistic churches, but rather ‘missional’ churches.”

The article also defines and develops 5 elements of a missional church.