Unmissional

What missional isn't.

Comments

[matt redmond]

Yeah, I agree and I was appalled but I would give an appendage for some fundamentalist tendencies in my kids.

The whole time I was reading this I was praying, "please do not interview or qoute anyone!"

And then it happened...

[Denny Burk]

I don't know Steve. Maybe you need to acquire the fire.

[Matt Stokes]

I'm all about protests in the right context, but that's just...bad.

[Danny]

This breaks my heart. John Newton, author of "Amazing Grace" speaks to this kind of nonsense that we all need heed:
"A company of travellers fall into a pit: one of them gets a passenger to draw him out. Now he should not be angry with the rest for falling in; nor because they are not yet out, as he is. He did not pull himself out: instead, therefore, of reproaching them, he should shew them pity. . . . A man, truly illuminated, will no more despise others, then Bartimeus, after his own eyes were opened, would take a stick, and beat every blind man he met."

Piper's biography on Newton is phenominal in this respect.
Danny

[Adam L. Feldman]

*yikes* that's horrific. could they find better pictures? guess not...

[nate]

funny...i live in humboldt county and i know the youth pastor (scott thompson) that they quote in the article. i thought his quote was the best of the bunch, but to me a battle cry isn't the best way to engage the world around us.

[dusty deevers]

Steve,

I appreciate the work you are doing and am very interested in what "Missional" folks are saying. I think you are calling people to live incarnationally, or to reach out in ways and areas in which fear of man and sterility (to be exact, coldness of heart) does not allow.

My question is this (and please understand that I'm asking this in all sincerity and charity): Are necessary, perhaps helpful distinctions left out in the sweeping word "Missional"? Are needed and helpful distinctions such as "Domestic Ministry", "Evangelism" and "Missions" not being made?

Paul in Romans 15:19-24 says,

"So that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I [Paul] have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named. . . Now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions . . . I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain."

Why would Paul say he no longer had "any room for work in these regions" when there were still hundreds of thousands who were not yet evangelized? I would say it’s because Paul saw a distinction between missions and evangelism.

Is there a confusion of terminology among the "Reformission", "Missional", camp, distinctions that should be held between "domestic ministries" and missions or "frontier missions".

"By domestic ministries I mean all the ministries that we should do among the people in our own culture. For example, ministries relating to evangelism, poverty, medical care, unemployment, hunger, abortion, crisis pregnancy, runaway kids, pornography, family disintegration, child abuse, divorce, hygiene, education at all levels, drug abuse and alcoholism, environmental concerns, terrorism, prison reform, moral abuses in the media and business and politics, etc." John Piper

Frontier missions, on the other hand,

"is the effort of the church to penetrate an unreached people group with the gospel and establish there an ongoing, indigenous, ministering church." John Piper

Check these links out for more.
The Revelation of God’s Righteousness Where There Is No Church
Answers to Objections to Going into Missions: What I Said at Missions in the Main Hall

So these are my questions and I figured no better person to ask then you and others on the front lines. Again, I appreciate what you guys are doing and for all it's worth I may be one of "you guys". I just don't know enough yet about what "Reformission", "Missional" is.

Thanks so much for you thoughts.

Dusty Deevers

[Michael Foster]

Dusty,

Great questions! I urge you to read Tim Keller's article The Missional Church (see Steve's Keller Resource Page Link) and pick up a copy of Mark Driscoll's The Radical Reformission. I think these two sources are a great introduction to this very important topic. I also would point out the John Piper has added some thoughts to the idea reforming mission (reformission) already and you can find those sermons at www.reformission.com. I hope those are helpful sources to flesh this out somewhat. God Bless!

Michael

[Tyler]

It's ironic that the organizers of the rally were instructing the youth on how to respond to the counter-demonstrators, saying, "Don't engage them." This seems to typify exactly the kind of mentality that "Battle Cry" is propogating. Don't engage the culture. Fight it. Yell at it. Alienate those outside the church even more. And make sure that "we" are louder and cooler than "they" so that our kids don't defect to "them." Where exactly does the Gospel of grace and strength-in-weakness come to play in all of this?

[the fundamentalist]

A good Piper quote from "A Call to Advance God's Kingdom"

God aims to save people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. But one of the great obstacles to victory is when people are swept up into social and political and militaristic conflicts that draw away their attention and time and energy and creativity from the real battle of the universe...And one of (Satan's) key strategies is to start battles in the world which draw our attention away from the real battle for the salvation of the lost and the perseverance of the saints

I agree that a blitz isn't missional. It's not about "culture wars" as the article discribes. The culture war is a social conflict between two worldviews, and has very little to do with the gospel. It was also interesting that the event was for Christians put on by Christians. It seems that a closed event as such is hardly more than a pep rally. It does nothing to engage the world around them. What Piper is getting at is that we get distracted from the gospel by such wars as these. I fear that we have too many stuch wars in the states that we sink more resources into these than we do advancing God's kingdom on earth.

[Joe Kennedy]

Have you seen Xianz yet? I think it's absolutely wonderful. If you want to further isolate yourself and your youth from culture. (I hate MySpace and I hate Xianz, regardless of which one's "Christian.")

[nate]

"The MySpace alternative for Christians! It's invite only!"

invite only huh? that seems right in line with that whole line of thinking.

[Matthew Westerholm]

"invite only"? Calvinists, then? :-)

[Andrew]

I'm glad they're keeping all those pesky sinners off of their "bubble." That'd be really bad if some non-Christians got in. What would they do then?

[Mike Perrigoue]

While I don't particularly agree with "Battle Cry", I would like to hear how you think a bunch of teenagers should be missional to a bunch of protesters that showed up to their event for no other reason than to scream and yell at them for their religion of choice.

One ironic point of the article involved the woman that was holding a sign that read "I moved out here to get away from people like you." So, let me get this straight. This woman purposely moved to a very tolerant city. Yet was so intolerant of these Christians teenagers, she just had to come and express her intolerance of those that aren't tolerant.

Weird.

How am I supposed to be missional to people that hate me simply for being Christian?

I'll admit...I could have this missional stuff wrong. But it seems like there's nothing to it but just being nice and not offending. Slow cooker Christianity so to speak. You kind of slip it in there as the relationship develops. I could be way off but this is the way it comes across. Yes, I've read Driscoll's book. I even attended his church a few times back in the day. And I'm young and prone to hip stuff. Go figure.

Sometimes I don't think Jesus, Paul, or John the Baptist were very missional, according to what I think it means. What do you think?