Archive for the ‘ missions ’ Category
Next Sunday gospel lover AJ Gibson from To Every Tribe Ministries will preach at Grace & Truth. I look forward to hearing my good friend speak from Philippians 1:12-26. You can learn more about AJ & his family here.
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.
Small group discussion questions for the week of November 15, 2009, based on the sermon “The Great Commission” from the What, Why, & How series.
Theme: The church exists to proclaim the Gospel in order to bring God glory. Therefore, our mission is the great commission.
Introduction:
Questions:
1. What do each of the above passages reveal about the great commission? (note how each passage builds on the one previous).
2. What do you think of this quote?
“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. When this age is over, & the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity.”
~John Piper in “Let the Nations be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions”
3. The entirety of history is flowing toward Revelation 7:9 – are you/we participating in this stream or standing on the sidelines?
4. We are called to be faithful to the Gospel Message while adapting to be faithful Gospel messengers in our context (1 Cor 9:19-23) – what specifically might that mean here in Hillsboro?
5. How does the Gospel itself empower us to proclaim the Gospel?
6. Imagine you have been called to a foreign country to share the Gospel and ask yourself these questions:
7. Recall the two kinds of military chaplains Mike mentioned in his message – which chaplain do you think had the most effective ministry among the Marines and why? Which chaplain best describes us?
Questions & sermon prepared by Mike Hanafee.
See Part 1 and Part 2 in our series of quotes from Total Church:
“So being gospel-centered means being word-centered and being mission-centered. The church exists both through the gospel, and for the gospel….The problem is the gap between our rhetoric and the reality of our practice. The continual challenge for us is to apply this principle to church life and ministry without compromise.
…We sometimes ask people to imagine they are part of a church-planting team in a cross-cultural situation in some other part of the world:
- What criteria would you use to decide where you live?
- How would you approach secular employment?
- What standard of living would you expect as pioneer missionaries?
- What would you spend your time doing?
- What opportunities would you be looking for?
- What would your prayers be like?
- What would you be trying to do with your friends?
- What kind of team would you want around you?
- How would you conduct your meetings together?”
We find it easier to be radical in our thinking when we transplant ourselves outside our current situation. But we are as much missionaries here and now as we would be if we were part of a cross-cultural team in another part of the world. Mission is central to us wherever we are. These are the kinds of questions we should be asking wherever we are.”
See part 1 in the series of quotes from Total Church:
“Missions begins in our own hearts as the gospel word of Christ crucified is effectively applied by the Spirit. And it does not stop until the far corners of the world. It is a constant continuum because mission is what we might call the steady state of God’s people. The early church understood mission very well. Vinoth Ramachandra, the IFES Secretary for Dialogue and Social Engagement in Asia, says, “Missionary outreach, both to Jews and to pagans, was not an activity tagged on later to a faith that was basically ‘about’ something else; rather it flowed from the very logic of the death and resurrection of Jesus”.
(page 101)
