Here’s a great video on discipleship!
H/T Jon Hasely
This is Discipling
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Statement of Faith Updated
Our statement of faith was unnecessarily vague concerning what we specifically accept or reject within the Lutheran Confessions. For this we apologize. Our goal has been to maximize participation while not compromising our Lutheran identity and distinctives. A fellow brother in the Lord lovingly pointed this out and as a result we have revised the statement (thanks Jon!). You may see the statement of faith page here, or download the full statement here.
Missional Manifesto
A handful of missional thinkers, innovators, and pastors have teamed up and produced a Missional Manifesto. Check it out! I especially appreciate these parts of it:
God is a sending God, a missionary God, who has called His people, the church, to be missionary agents of His love and glory. The concept missional epitomizes this idea. This manifesto seeks to serve the church by clarifying its calling and helping it theologically understand and practically live out God’s mission in the world today. Although it is frequently stated “God’s church has a mission,” according to missional theology, a more accurate expression is “God’s mission has a church” (Ephesians 3:7-13)….
It is first necessary to be clear about what missional does not mean. Missional is not synonymous with movements attempting to culturally contextualize Christianity, implement church growth, or engage in social action. The word missional can encompass all of the above, but it is not limited to any one of these….
Missional represents a significant shift in the way we understand the church. As the people of a missionary God, we are entrusted to participate in the world the same way He does—by committing to be His ambassadors. Missional is the perspective to see people as God does and to engage in the activity of reaching them. The church on mission is the church as God intended….
The manifesto goes on to give specific affirmations. Check it out!
Daily Prayer via iPhone
I use the Treasury of Daily Prayer
I asked Paul McCain if it was available electronically, and he referred me to the iPhone/iPod/iPad app for TDP, which is called PrayNow. It’s very easy to use and I like the overall style as well. Here is some screenshots I took today of the app:
Check it out in the iTunes store.
I hope you find it as helpful as I have….
Seeking like-minded folks
Would you consider yourself a missional Lutheran? Get in touch with me at info (at) missionallutherans.org. We’re looking for authors, partners in dialog, and fellow missional Lutherans.
Just curious how many there are of you out there….
Rogue Theologians Launch
We’re announcing the recent launch of ‘Rogue Theologians‘, whose purpose is primarily concerned with creating a network and community that actively reflects what’s possible in the tangible body of Christ.
So perhaps to make a healthy distinction, I really appreciate that MissionalLutherans is intentional in its pursuit of ‘making the mission of God an unavoidable issue for the Christian community’. In other words, that it does just that; to educate and inspire change in the missional movement and provide a theology that’s practical for continuing in this movement.
Rogue Theologians is designed to cover a more general spectrum (which has it’s pro’s and con’s, but hey, the internet needs more variety, right?), as it’s goal is to point to Christ as well as involve as many perspectives in the conversation as possible, along with connecting itself to other intentional online Christian communities.
So enjoy taking a look around….
Numerical Growth as a Double Standard
I want to share a great quote from Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion
“Fix-the-church books almost always figure that declining church attendance … means the church has messed something up. Even though the new crop of church books decry the old church-growth models, they still operate with the same basic assumption: namely, that churches should be growing and something is wrong with the church that isn’t.
This assumption, however, is alien to the New Testament. Didn’t Jesus say tell us that “the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matt. 7:14)? Wasn’t the early church of Philadelphia commended by the Lord Jesus even though they were facing opposition and had “little power” (Rev. 3:7-13)? There is simply no biblical teaching to indicate that church size is the measure of success.
We’ve written before that ministry progress is not measured by numerical growth, but by the creation of disciples who make other disciples. But this post is exposing the double standard, those who would “have their cake and eat it, too.”
Authors like George Barna like to use statistics showing the decline in church attendance to damn the church, but then quickly defend the 5-person house church because “progress is not measured by numbers.” So if the institutional church is losing numbers, it is always because they are doing church wrong. But if organic churches are not growing, then it’s for some other reason. All I’m asking for here is fairness. Isn’t it possible that a particular church isn’t growing because it is rightly teaching Law and Gospel and people don’t like to hear it? Isn’t it possible that a particular organic church isn’t growing because of the home leader’s pride? It works both ways, which is why numbers are not a good indicator of spiritual maturity nor ministry progress, no matter what church model we’re discussing.
Selfhood and the Missional community
We are in the middle. Today is a day of transition, and that is something wonderful, something beautiful. The missional movement is by no means a new idea, in fact it’s a very ancient one; nonetheless we find ourselves in this time and place in the midst of reshaping and remembering a body of Christ that is truly seeking to live as the broken and poured in community.
This post is about one simple facet of that transition, which is this idea of selfhood as it relates to a transition of identity as Christian and in this case, Lutheran.
The video below is a production called ‘RSAnimate’ put out by the Renaissance Society of America with lecturer Jeremy Rifkin as he discusses the evolution of empathy in our society. Although I don’t agree with everything in the lecture, I hope as you read this, you understand the general idea and transition that’s taking place as it relates to how we operate as Christians. Continue reading
What kind of religion is this?!
“In a sermon Dick Lucas once preached, he recounted an imaginary conversation between an early Christian and her neighbor in Rome.
“Ah,” the neighbor says. “I hear you are religious! Great! Religion is a good thing. Where is your temple or holy place?”
“We don’t have a temple,” replies the Christian. “Jesus is our temple.”
“No temple? But where do your priests work and do their ritual?”
“We don’t have priests to mediate the presence of God,” replies the Christian. “Jesus is our priest.”
“No priests? But where do you offer your sacrifices to acquire the favor of your God?”
“We don’t need a sacrifice,” replies the Christian. “Jesus is our sacrifice.”
“What kind of religion is this?” sputters the pagan neighbor.
And the answer is, it’s no kind of religion at all.”
~Tim Keller, King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus
H/T Justin Taylor
Is it OK to be gay?
We’ve been getting asked about our views on homosexuality a lot lately, particularly since a major Lutheran denomination recently voted to allow open homosexuals to be ordained as clergy. I wanted to take the time to address this issue in the most straight-forward fashion I am able, trying to be sensitive to a variety of potential contexts. All theology is contextual, even the name “Jesus Christ” is a first century Greek rendering of “Joshua the Anointed One (Messiah).” Everything we have is conditioned by our culture, including our own theology in these postmodern times.
Biblically, we frequently see the authors of Scripture writing against the practice of homosexuality. This is seen in both the Old and New Testaments. But we also see passages in the Old Testament telling us that it is wrong to wear clothing woven of two types of material, and the New Testament teaches that women should wear head coverings and be silent in gatherings of believers. So we have to look at the text in light of the surrounding culture and context. Continue reading