God’s Missionary People
“Rethinking the Purpose of the Local Church”
Charles Van Engen
Chapter 1
There is an urgent need “for a new vision of local congregations as God’s missionary people” (27) Van Engen takes a stab at understanding what the Local church can do as a missionary church, or what it’s identity will be as a missionary church. Since the 1930s, missiologists have been seeking to understand the congregation’s role in the work of missions, leading to the current idea of the local congregation as “God’s missionary people in a local context” (27). Van Engen lays out the issue by saying, “We cannot understand mission without viewing the nature of the Church, and we cannot understand the Church without looking at its mission” (30). The church becomes the Church when it emerges into its mission.
Chapter 2
We need to visualize the “Christian community as simultaneously a human organization and a divinely created organism” (35). Augustine took us from self-examination and criticism to self-congratulation and static definition. The Middle ages pushed the means of grace into the world, and the Protestant reformation marked the return of the self-critical corrective. Now in the 20th century, the church must be “constantly becoming, developing and ‘emerging’” as it lives out “it’s missionary nature here and now” (41).
Chapter 3
Van Engen lays out Paul’s work in Ephesians as what the church should look like. The first aspect is the Church’s mission in unity as we “receive by faith the oneness of the Church, bonded by the spirit. Unity, described by Paul, explains how the whole defines the identity of the parts and is more than the sum of the parts, and calls us all to participate in the whole of the church (50). The next aspect is the Church’s mission in Holiness, which we receive by faith the holiness of the church, a gift of God affirmed by His purpose in us (52). “We strive to individually and corporately to achieve the holiness which expresses the body of Christ” (52) and “true holiness is growth in love” (54). The third aspect is the Church’s mission to all. Paul says Christ fills all in all, and in that the church recognizes God’s universal intentions in Jesus (55).
Chapter 4
The church needs to be one, holy, catholic and apostolic church and that must be visible. “The only way we can measure a church is by what we can see. Paradoxically, we also know that the Church is not what we see…” (61). The Roman church took unity, holiness and catholicity to self-justification instead of self-examination (61) and the Reformers felt those attributes meant nothing without Jesus as the head of such things (63). The history of striving to discover the meanings of the local church have led us in a new direction which involves four distinctive attributes. The church must strive towards unity, strive towards holiness, grow in universality, and apply the apostolic gospel (65).
Chapter 5
Van Engen presents two issues with restating the missionary intention of the church. One being open to new ways of perceiving the church in time and context, and two, different approaches must always have the same focal point of Jesus as Lord, the same yesterday and today (74). The church must be for the world, serving others, as a “sent” church and living out its universality (76). The church must identify with the oppressed with a “radically-horizontal view of mission” (77). The church must live out its mission in a apostolic way, being sent by the Lord (78). The church must proclaim witness both inside and outside of its walls, restoring the “outward and upward direction of the church” (80). The church also much yearn for growth, much like finding the lost sheep, to incorporate “more and more men and women within the bounds of God’s grace” (81).
Chapter 6
The purpose of the Local church can only “be derived authentically only from the will of Jesus Christ, its Head; from the Spirit who gives it life; from the Father who has adopted it, and from the Trinitarian mission of God” (87). According to Van Engen, four aspects relay this truth of the identity of a local church, and how such a church should live: love one another, Jesus is Lord, the least of these my brethren, and you shall be my witnesses, reconciled to God (89).
Chapter 7
The church in relation to the Kingdom of God plays out in the local congregations as “branch offices of the kingdom, the principal instrument, anticipatory sign, and primary locus of the coming of the kingdom” (101). The church is the “local manifestations of the covenant community of the King” (102). Van Engen defines the kingdom as “both present, inaugurated, and begun, and at the same time eschatological and coming” which is also not viewed “spatially nor institutionally, but rather as the dynamic, active rule of God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit” (109). Van Engen also lays out the “church-kingdom-world” relationship where if we understand the relationship with the church to the kingdom, we will have a better idea of the role of the church to the world (114).
Chapter 8
Van Engen states that the work and the role of Jesus Christ is a pattern for the work of the church in the world (120). The plays out in “Christ’s threefold office” that of Prophet, Priest and King (121) which pushes the church to be said attributes to the world. Jesus also was a healer and liberator which challenges the church to be such things to the world as well (125).
Chapter 9
To be a missional church one must build it, or create it. Goals of such churches should be the sermon on the mount and to be salt and light to the world (134). Van Engen lays out a program of the church being a system, with many subsystems, all that evaluate the overall impact a church may have (137). The church service on a Sunday morning is the main system, with all the extra activities during the week being the subsystems (141).
Chapter 10
Van Engen speaks about the laity of the church versus the clergy, and who is supposed to lead, and who are called to work, and if all people in a church are called to be missionaries. Van Engen quotes Wesley Baker as he explaining the 90/10 rule of only 10 percent of church goers are active, involved members. Do we abuse their efforts, or work towards getting the ninety percent involved (150)? Van Engen explains that the term “laity” should mean “people of God” (151) and therefore all people involved in the church are “of God” and should work together in conversion, literacy and theological education, and training of the missionary mindset (152). Van Engen also says that the church is not a dictatorship, not a club, not a democracy or a tribe, nor is it filled with “santa’s little helpers” (155), but is a dynamic expression of the people of God.
Chapter 11
Van Engen talks about leadership in the mission-oriented church as “all Christians [being] called to ministry” and that there is a “call for a broad range of gifted leaders to facilitate and mobilize people in mission” (166), even citing grandparents and families as great leader. “The leader serves other leaders to help them serve the membership, in other that they in turn may be able to serve the world” (168). A serving leadership goes against a hierarchical style which Van Engen claims has caused more issues and anger in the church than not (170). Van Engen explains five different leadership and organizational theories: traditional, Charismatic, Classical, Human Relations and Systems. Each theory depicts how leaders will react and function. Either way, leadership should be evaluated on “whether the whole membership of the Church is growing in grace and in the knowledge of God toward ‘mature adulthood’” (176).
Chapter 12
Van Engen finishes the book by speaking about the importance of the administrative side of the church which “facilitate the actual doing of congregational mission in the world” (179). Van Engen says that the church administration “should be concerned with fitting the congregation’s life to its context” involved in the constant checking of the shape, form and lifestyle of their missionary congregations (187) while avoiding the “manipulative activities that plague missionary endeavors” (188).
Overall, Van Engen provides plenty of help for understanding what a missional church should look like, with aspects of one family of believers who live outside themselves. Some approaches are a bit stagnate, and while he speaks against molding specific formulas, he certainly provides enough of his own.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Thoughts on Class - 12.02.09
In class we talked about the Pentecostal movement and the establishment of the Azuza street community. I have had mixed feelings on the pentecostal movement before, and while this video and discussion didn't completely change my mind, I appreciate their story and a few of the elements they incorporate. I like the interactive services they hold (while understanding they will still look different than I imagine) with the Narrative testimonies, Storytelling experiences, Times of discernment and Times of reconciliation. These interactive elements helps church move from "sit and watch", consumer oriented church, to an actual interaction with a living God.
Overall, I have really enjoyed this class. The perspective on the history of how the church has interacted with the culture it resides has been quite informative, and the readings have been very enjoyable.
Overall, I have really enjoyed this class. The perspective on the history of how the church has interacted with the culture it resides has been quite informative, and the readings have been very enjoyable.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Thoughts on Class - 11.30.09
Today we talked about the Anabaptist movement, which, like every religious movement, was in response to the Calvin and Lutheran churches of the day. The Anabaptists started a new movement that included adult baptism (which was a strike against the conforming baptisms of the Calvin and Lutheran movements) and a new perspective on the Eucharist.
It's interesting to learn about all the different movements in history. Over and over again, people decide they are unhappy about their denomination, their theological beliefs, the role of government in their religion, etc, etc. I wonder if any denomination has been started just because, for reasons not of revolt, or frustration, or of "I could do this better."
What about other religions? Do they have denomination battles? Do they have people, time after time, starting new sects of believers out of distaste and frustration?
Are we getting anywhere if we continue to just make our own denominations or communities of belief in response to those we do not agree with?
It's interesting to learn about all the different movements in history. Over and over again, people decide they are unhappy about their denomination, their theological beliefs, the role of government in their religion, etc, etc. I wonder if any denomination has been started just because, for reasons not of revolt, or frustration, or of "I could do this better."
What about other religions? Do they have denomination battles? Do they have people, time after time, starting new sects of believers out of distaste and frustration?
Are we getting anywhere if we continue to just make our own denominations or communities of belief in response to those we do not agree with?
Book Review 5
"Disciples of All Nations: Pillars of World Christianity"
Lamin Sanneh
Intro
Lamin Sanneh has written an exhaustive account of the history of the expansion of Christianity from Rome to Europe and colonial expansion to non-Western societies in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Sanneh sets up cultural boundaries in religion “identifying a crucial feature in the history of religion, namely, religion as lawful custom enshrined in binding cultural practices” (4). Sanneh says that God is a cultural marker, and speaks of Peter signaling a new idea of God as “boundary-free truth” within the Christian faith (4). This book looks at how Christianity as gone across boundaries, across cultures and taken root, taken new shapes within new cultures, and established new worlds of its own.
Chapter 1
Sanneh explains how Christianity has “no inalienable birthplace and the church no territorial patrimony to defend. Jesus may have been born in Bethlehem, but he was no bred in the hearts and minds of believers anywhere and everywhere” (14). The centuries unfold with the works of Tertullian in North Africa who established the Latin language within the church (15) and Herod who integrated Christianity and government (16). Culture speaks of God in various voice, both the superior and marginal communities have a say in the religion it exists. “All have merit, none is indispensable,” Sanneh says, even saying that “original Christianity is nothing more than a construction” (25). Sanneh says that the bible was not written by Jesus, or in Greek, and “in any language the Bible is not literal; its message affirms all languages to be worth, though not exclusive, of divine communication” (25). This establishes an interesting idea that Christinaity spread “as a religion without the language of its founder” (25), or an original home, which is in contrast to Islam. Sanneh further explains the expansion into Central and East Asia (32) with Buddhist opposition (35), into England (36), and Iceland (41).
Sanneh explains ‘indigenous assimilation” as a way of witnessing to the truth of Christianity while in the midst of a culture. Augustine was instructed not to tear down old pagan temples, but to put new life into them with Christian relics. (45).
Sanneh recalls the work of Peter Brown who said, “We need to divest Christianity, if not of the baggage of empire and power entirely and of the accompanying guilt complex, then at least of the presumption of the advantage of civilization” and explains how Brown presents Christianity in the “antistructural” religion (55). Sanneh suggest that “structures of faith did not come into being by law and order; they came into being often in spite of deliberate legal obstacles” (55). Sanneh concludes with the idea that the “Church is no obstacle to the native talen of any nation, but rather perfects it in the highest degree” (56).
Chapter 2
Just as Christianity was influenced by the Roman Empire, the Arab world affected global Christianity, and vice versus. In the early 300s, a man named Antony took Christianity outside of its Greek strongholds and into Egypt and Northern Africa like places in the Upper Nile and Ethiopia (66). where he inspired monastic communities which stabilized an uneven world and became “the motor of the Christian movement” (59) The Arab communities, as with all communities, strived to understand Christianity in its context. This led to choices such as the Greek Christ over the Jewish Christ because Chrisitan Theology “did not translate into Arab acceptance since it came in partly alien form and was harnessed to external interests which sought to impose themselves politically on a subject, or a hostage, people” (63). Without their own cultural Christianity, or a Bible in their own language, Arab Christians were in minority, especially against the Islam world. This lead to hasty theological decisions and even same-religion persecution (65). New communities moved up the Nile and into Ethiopia. Despite being isolated from Europe and amid Islamic power, small communities offered “a convincing rationale for established societies….[with a] revitalized moral code of social aide and public practice” (68). In the end, though, Islam took over by violent force, into Spain and other Mediterranean areas (71) influencing Christian communities and even the writing of Dante (78). On page 79, Sanneh describes how the Muslim world critiqued Christianity as being “adrift in the tide of cultural assimilation” (which is fascinating) and arguments about God’s true religion and the divine truth of the Bible versus the Qur’an (80). Either way, Christians were considered infidels with different societal standards, and had major cultural and governmental differences which further estranged the two religions. Christian Europe regained control and power over Muslim momentum, especially after the fall of the Ottoman empire and “resorted to modes of orthodox defiance, making religious polarization a legacy of intercultural relations” further expanding Europe’s “age-long resistance to Islam” (88).
Chapter 3
Europe took over the Muslim world by “colonizing distant societies in pursuit of global economic supremacy” (89). Europe declined cultural exchange and set rules, compliances and subordinates. Yet, within such dominations came small works of Felipe Huaman Poma de Ayala and that of Juan Diego. Diego’s “reported experience wrets Christianity from it metropolitan frame of the bishop’s palace and puts it firmly in the hands and hearts of the people” (94). These movements of missionaries helped break from of “crown control” and helped spread Christianity, but the dominating mindset of Europe remained causing tension between “crown-controlled” Christianity and culturally minded missionaries. Sanneh questions how long Christianity’s “civilizational mandate” should remain in light of Globalization, a force that wreaked “havoc on non-Western cultures and societies” (97), feasting on the weak, the nonwhite and the poor. This led to slavery in use of Christian cultures and others in Latin America and Africa. This trend, which was linked to Gold and Globalization (107), both helped the missionary cause and hurt it, as it thrust new people into new cultures, but as it proved that “saving souls was less appealing and less convenient politically than selling or using them” (111). Kings leaders that once promoted Christianity resorted back to old politics that sancitioned slavery (115). The slave trade led to movements for its abolition, and also movements of freedom and redemption for the marginalized, contextualizing Christianity (128).
Chapter 4
Sanneh speaks of the West as the dominating face of missions, a forced moral mandate, in the flavor of colonialism, with efforts like Catholic and Presbyterian missionaries relying on civic help (132). Missionaries attempted to figure out how to adopt “local idioms in Bible translation in place of Western forms and ideas” (135) and through local expressions and teachings as they “cultivated local sensibility” which “complicated the language of colonial control” (136). These efforts to separate from Colonialism and Western dominance helped move away from efforts that disregarded culture, language and world views for the sake of Western thought (136). The “West dispossessed and dominated the cultures it encountered” (138). Sanneh explains of efforts to speak against the powers of the West for the sake of the weak in Albert Schweitzer, Charles Domingo, and the contrast of Livingston to Rhodes (143). These ideas of a dominating West were “abandoned in deference to local realities for long-term security and stability” (149). The West fights back in their own defense, and some countries have a hard time stabilizing on their own (153). Missionaries created a monster by creating the Bible in unique languages, the West created a monster by claiming God as their own, and Africans wondered if the Christianity made by the West was too far from the Apostles and too unfit for Africans (159). Instead of shrinking with Colonialism, Christianity “survived to achieve global range in its post-Western awakening” (161).
Chapter 5
Charasmatic renewals started with the contrast and debate between Christianity and its use of the Western government powers. “For the people [of non-Western societies] the gospel meant freedom from domination; for Europeans it meant freedom to dominate” (164). The objection was not the imposing of Christianity, but the forcing of Colonial rule as Christian mandate (165). This issue is revealed in the struggle Africans have with believing the actual Gospel, not the “preshrunk Christianity” used upon them in deliberate and manipulating ways by the West for its own gain (166). This spurred Africa on to develop their own communities of Christianity, as unique and as African as they could (169), emphasizing what the European Christianity lacked in loving others, relationships, community, hospitality, and philanthropy (171). Independency, the idea of churches forming on their own, “will thrive at the boundary between establishment values and the ideals of a people in transition” (176). This freedom moved Christianity from an “extension of mainland Western norms….[to]…a religion with pre-thematic local resonance” (176). Africa comes out of the strongholds of the West relying on its value of common fellowship in a world church, a family structure that the West was lacking (184).
Lamin Sanneh writes an exhaustive account of the history of missionaries, the affect of the West on the developing world and how the approach of Christianity changed because of each element. A fascinating book on the affect of culture on religion, and the affect on religion on culture.
Lamin Sanneh
Intro
Lamin Sanneh has written an exhaustive account of the history of the expansion of Christianity from Rome to Europe and colonial expansion to non-Western societies in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Sanneh sets up cultural boundaries in religion “identifying a crucial feature in the history of religion, namely, religion as lawful custom enshrined in binding cultural practices” (4). Sanneh says that God is a cultural marker, and speaks of Peter signaling a new idea of God as “boundary-free truth” within the Christian faith (4). This book looks at how Christianity as gone across boundaries, across cultures and taken root, taken new shapes within new cultures, and established new worlds of its own.
Chapter 1
Sanneh explains how Christianity has “no inalienable birthplace and the church no territorial patrimony to defend. Jesus may have been born in Bethlehem, but he was no bred in the hearts and minds of believers anywhere and everywhere” (14). The centuries unfold with the works of Tertullian in North Africa who established the Latin language within the church (15) and Herod who integrated Christianity and government (16). Culture speaks of God in various voice, both the superior and marginal communities have a say in the religion it exists. “All have merit, none is indispensable,” Sanneh says, even saying that “original Christianity is nothing more than a construction” (25). Sanneh says that the bible was not written by Jesus, or in Greek, and “in any language the Bible is not literal; its message affirms all languages to be worth, though not exclusive, of divine communication” (25). This establishes an interesting idea that Christinaity spread “as a religion without the language of its founder” (25), or an original home, which is in contrast to Islam. Sanneh further explains the expansion into Central and East Asia (32) with Buddhist opposition (35), into England (36), and Iceland (41).
Sanneh explains ‘indigenous assimilation” as a way of witnessing to the truth of Christianity while in the midst of a culture. Augustine was instructed not to tear down old pagan temples, but to put new life into them with Christian relics. (45).
Sanneh recalls the work of Peter Brown who said, “We need to divest Christianity, if not of the baggage of empire and power entirely and of the accompanying guilt complex, then at least of the presumption of the advantage of civilization” and explains how Brown presents Christianity in the “antistructural” religion (55). Sanneh suggest that “structures of faith did not come into being by law and order; they came into being often in spite of deliberate legal obstacles” (55). Sanneh concludes with the idea that the “Church is no obstacle to the native talen of any nation, but rather perfects it in the highest degree” (56).
Chapter 2
Just as Christianity was influenced by the Roman Empire, the Arab world affected global Christianity, and vice versus. In the early 300s, a man named Antony took Christianity outside of its Greek strongholds and into Egypt and Northern Africa like places in the Upper Nile and Ethiopia (66). where he inspired monastic communities which stabilized an uneven world and became “the motor of the Christian movement” (59) The Arab communities, as with all communities, strived to understand Christianity in its context. This led to choices such as the Greek Christ over the Jewish Christ because Chrisitan Theology “did not translate into Arab acceptance since it came in partly alien form and was harnessed to external interests which sought to impose themselves politically on a subject, or a hostage, people” (63). Without their own cultural Christianity, or a Bible in their own language, Arab Christians were in minority, especially against the Islam world. This lead to hasty theological decisions and even same-religion persecution (65). New communities moved up the Nile and into Ethiopia. Despite being isolated from Europe and amid Islamic power, small communities offered “a convincing rationale for established societies….[with a] revitalized moral code of social aide and public practice” (68). In the end, though, Islam took over by violent force, into Spain and other Mediterranean areas (71) influencing Christian communities and even the writing of Dante (78). On page 79, Sanneh describes how the Muslim world critiqued Christianity as being “adrift in the tide of cultural assimilation” (which is fascinating) and arguments about God’s true religion and the divine truth of the Bible versus the Qur’an (80). Either way, Christians were considered infidels with different societal standards, and had major cultural and governmental differences which further estranged the two religions. Christian Europe regained control and power over Muslim momentum, especially after the fall of the Ottoman empire and “resorted to modes of orthodox defiance, making religious polarization a legacy of intercultural relations” further expanding Europe’s “age-long resistance to Islam” (88).
Chapter 3
Europe took over the Muslim world by “colonizing distant societies in pursuit of global economic supremacy” (89). Europe declined cultural exchange and set rules, compliances and subordinates. Yet, within such dominations came small works of Felipe Huaman Poma de Ayala and that of Juan Diego. Diego’s “reported experience wrets Christianity from it metropolitan frame of the bishop’s palace and puts it firmly in the hands and hearts of the people” (94). These movements of missionaries helped break from of “crown control” and helped spread Christianity, but the dominating mindset of Europe remained causing tension between “crown-controlled” Christianity and culturally minded missionaries. Sanneh questions how long Christianity’s “civilizational mandate” should remain in light of Globalization, a force that wreaked “havoc on non-Western cultures and societies” (97), feasting on the weak, the nonwhite and the poor. This led to slavery in use of Christian cultures and others in Latin America and Africa. This trend, which was linked to Gold and Globalization (107), both helped the missionary cause and hurt it, as it thrust new people into new cultures, but as it proved that “saving souls was less appealing and less convenient politically than selling or using them” (111). Kings leaders that once promoted Christianity resorted back to old politics that sancitioned slavery (115). The slave trade led to movements for its abolition, and also movements of freedom and redemption for the marginalized, contextualizing Christianity (128).
Chapter 4
Sanneh speaks of the West as the dominating face of missions, a forced moral mandate, in the flavor of colonialism, with efforts like Catholic and Presbyterian missionaries relying on civic help (132). Missionaries attempted to figure out how to adopt “local idioms in Bible translation in place of Western forms and ideas” (135) and through local expressions and teachings as they “cultivated local sensibility” which “complicated the language of colonial control” (136). These efforts to separate from Colonialism and Western dominance helped move away from efforts that disregarded culture, language and world views for the sake of Western thought (136). The “West dispossessed and dominated the cultures it encountered” (138). Sanneh explains of efforts to speak against the powers of the West for the sake of the weak in Albert Schweitzer, Charles Domingo, and the contrast of Livingston to Rhodes (143). These ideas of a dominating West were “abandoned in deference to local realities for long-term security and stability” (149). The West fights back in their own defense, and some countries have a hard time stabilizing on their own (153). Missionaries created a monster by creating the Bible in unique languages, the West created a monster by claiming God as their own, and Africans wondered if the Christianity made by the West was too far from the Apostles and too unfit for Africans (159). Instead of shrinking with Colonialism, Christianity “survived to achieve global range in its post-Western awakening” (161).
Chapter 5
Charasmatic renewals started with the contrast and debate between Christianity and its use of the Western government powers. “For the people [of non-Western societies] the gospel meant freedom from domination; for Europeans it meant freedom to dominate” (164). The objection was not the imposing of Christianity, but the forcing of Colonial rule as Christian mandate (165). This issue is revealed in the struggle Africans have with believing the actual Gospel, not the “preshrunk Christianity” used upon them in deliberate and manipulating ways by the West for its own gain (166). This spurred Africa on to develop their own communities of Christianity, as unique and as African as they could (169), emphasizing what the European Christianity lacked in loving others, relationships, community, hospitality, and philanthropy (171). Independency, the idea of churches forming on their own, “will thrive at the boundary between establishment values and the ideals of a people in transition” (176). This freedom moved Christianity from an “extension of mainland Western norms….[to]…a religion with pre-thematic local resonance” (176). Africa comes out of the strongholds of the West relying on its value of common fellowship in a world church, a family structure that the West was lacking (184).
Lamin Sanneh writes an exhaustive account of the history of missionaries, the affect of the West on the developing world and how the approach of Christianity changed because of each element. A fascinating book on the affect of culture on religion, and the affect on religion on culture.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Thoughts on Class - 11.23.09
Today we talked about how the creation of the bible in local language was the start of individualism in faith. When communities began to emphasize personal reading of the bible, the focus began to shift to a personal faith, and a personal salvation. The protestant revolution shifted the focus to personal salvation which has been both good and bad for the Christian faith. This has been heightened by the "McDonalidization of America," an idea by Georg Ritzer, which is like a cultural virus that infects all it touches with ideas of capitalism, mass producing and materialism.
These ideas are fascinating on how the church has been shaped by culture, on how we approach the church within this culture, and how the church approaches this culture.
These ideas are fascinating on how the church has been shaped by culture, on how we approach the church within this culture, and how the church approaches this culture.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Thoughts on Class - 11.18.09
Today we talked about New Monastic communities, especially with Shane Claiborne. Claiborne has a quote that he found on a t-shirt that simply says, "Everyone wants a Revolution, but no one wants to do the dishes." I think that thinking is healthy and inspiring to both go after what you want, and to be willing to do the work for it.
The issue with the idea, is that people groups have drastically different views of what a revolution is, what it looks like, and what it achieves. So perhaps the point is not to work hard for a revolution, perhaps the point is to work hard? Perhaps the point is not to work hard so your view point, or theories, or ways of life are cloned and broadcast around the world, but that you find satisfaction of working hard, working towards what you believe and letting the revolution come from within?
The issue with the idea, is that people groups have drastically different views of what a revolution is, what it looks like, and what it achieves. So perhaps the point is not to work hard for a revolution, perhaps the point is to work hard? Perhaps the point is not to work hard so your view point, or theories, or ways of life are cloned and broadcast around the world, but that you find satisfaction of working hard, working towards what you believe and letting the revolution come from within?
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Thoughts on Class - 11.16.09
This class we talked about Matteo Ricci who was a missionary in China. He spent time with Nobels and became a Manderin Scholar for 20 years before even mentioning Jesus. It is a fascinatingly healthy form of being a missionary. The term we learned in class is called "Radical Contextualization – coming as scholars, not Westerners or people pushing a religious system. Not only is this the main point of our class, but hopefully this is the main point of the coming theories on missiology and church.
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