Christology: Missional Jesus (Gordon Cotterill)
Discussion Point #1
Priorities were mentioned:
- Jesus' Missional Message
- Jesus' Missional Motive
- Jesus' Missional Life
posted by ETLnetwork at 4:10 AM
Monday, February 20, 2006
Priorities were mentioned:
16 Comments:
I find myself wondering why there is such a rejection of the gospel in the west. The 'thanks but no thanks' culture we are in certainly means that evangelism needs a strong basis of authenticity. How to get our culture to lisyen to the gospel certainly is a challenge. t
I believe we could add the need for Jesus. The World needs God. When God is pushed into the background and people think they do not need God there is always evil things that fill the void left by God (Although I know God is still there)In first century Palestine Christ showed Jew and gentile that they needed to repair their relationship with God. God knew His people were weak and unable to remain sin free without direct help from God . Christ came to give that direct help through Salvation and through Holy living in Gods Kingdom on Earth . A new covenant. In our post-modern secular world there is as much need or even more need for Christ . Many are trying to understand their spiritual needs and the time is ripe for Christ .
Chris Hall
I understand ‘Mission in Practice’, your statement of getting our culture to listen to the gospel being a challenge but yet as Chris mentions there is a great need in this post-modern culture for Christ. Tom Wright in ‘The Myth of the Millennium’ looks at the spiritual yearnings of humanity, with people searching through new age mysticism, horoscopes, angels, nature worship, and other religions all hoping to find fulfilment. We use the phrase ‘pick ‘n’ mix’ spirituality where people try a little of everything on offer. If in this post-modernity age people are spiritually yearning, then there can be no better time to share the Gospel message. My question is, are churches ready for the spiritually seeking post-modern people to join them in worship?
Sorry to use Newbigin again but I have been challenged through this book! He speaks of mission being wrongly understood if it is seen primarily as a task laid upon us. Instead, he goes on to say that, it is primarily a work of the Spirit, a spill over from Pentecost. I cannot do any of this work ‘effectively’ without the Holy Spirit and therefore this must be a priority added to the list.
Carol Skene
If the post-modern world view is suspicious of institution and meta-narratives - how do you suppose we engage with such people? We base our lives on a meta-narrarive and expect people to come and belong to an institution to work it through!
Gordon
Jesus' missional practice - what Jesus did in his life was looked at in jesus missional life but maybe we need to look at how he did it ie. - in the power of God, with the authority of God, with the love of God. For our own practice we need to be people who attract others to the gospel remembering these things. It is through God's power at work in us as Gordon said that we can achieve God's mission.
I believe if we are bold enough to love the unlovable, challenge the ideals of today and offer a better alternative then we will see people turn to Jesus.
I believe too that these people the poor, the neglected and the despised are not so far away as Gordon suggested. They are sometimes within our local communities living in so called middle class families!
Carol
We may well in theory base our lives on a meta-narrative but actually, it is more than that. Our journey with Christ is through a living relationship with Him and not just a factual story. With that in mind, those spiritually seeking have the ‘benefit’ of the Truth of the meta-narrative and the experience in the living relationship.
This quote me think a little more: ‘There is church because there is mission, not vice versa (Aagaard 1974: 423 - Bosch pg 390) and to support it Newbigin (pg 34) says, “If we are faithful in mission we must recognise that Christianity is something that is always changing . . . we do not have to re-invent the gospel in each new generation, for the gospel is news of what has been done once for all . . . the Holy Spirit through the faithful witness of the church to the gospel, teaches the church new things and brings it . . .” Hallelujah!
Carol Skene
I was challenged by the concept of looking in the wrong place. This is exactly what we do so often. Organisational expectations are that so often the leaders' purpose is to drive programme. We need to continually question why we do things? Is it Jesus centred? If not, then why do we do it? We need to find that sense of release within ourselves to not just do the things that so often are expected of us. Part of my role, I believe as a Christian Leader is for people who may have been carried along by the concept of church, and all it's associated activity, to rediscover Jesus.
Carol makes reference to the 'Authority of God' - we need to makes sure that that is not misinterpreted in us as authoritarian as this is often a criticism that the church comes under.
Jesus' Grace - I think that when we look at Jesus' missional life and the fact that we must try and live incarnationally, we must recognise that we do so in the humbleness and grace Christ showed. As I write this in the office, I have just dealt with two volunteers from our charity shop who have had a bad Monday morning and have taking it out on each other! How would Christ have dealt with this scenario? No doubt far better than Sandra here! It is essential when trying to show God's love in the way that we live, that we show God's grace. In some respects living incarnationally means showing the love and grace of God in our lives at all times. But how many of us can trully say that we always achieve this?
I think that life is too comfortable for us today. People are quite content with what they have that there is no need for God in their lives. They are managing quite well without him. It's only when a crisis happens within their lives that they begin to look further afield for some answers. They want to try and understand why things are going wrong for them.
When we have nowhere else to go, the only place/person we can go to is God! All the time that people can provide for themselves they don't need to depend on God. This is why I think we see more people coming to faith in places like Africa and the Caribbean.
What we need to do is make sure that our lives are transparent and authentic so that they know where to come when they make that realisation for themselves.
If we are in the world and of the world then the boundaries become smudged and we blend in with the other people that are around us. We need to be set apart. We need to be easily identified among other people.
If I'm honest, I know when I am set apart and when I'm not. And when I am I am so much more effective for God.
We find it hard to lead people to Christ sometimes; not always because they reject our efforts at offering Christ to them, but because we think that they will reject them anyway, so we don't bother offering them in the first place.
However hard it is to make converts, it's even harder to make disciples. It struck me just recently that during his time on earth, Jesus only made twelve disciples and he spent every minute with them for two years. It is going to be harder for us and there can be a tendency sometimes for us to think...What can I do? What difference can I make? I hate to tell you this 'you can't'...BUT God in you can make all the difference to somebody's life!!!!
I think these three priorities do contain the most important priorities.
I thought about the implications of Jesus' missional message and the way he lived. He was truly able to identify with others. This ability is very crucial I think and Church (as an institution) was not always able to identify with others. In one way it is a 'gift' from God (through the Holy Spirit) to be sensitive what others need. On the other hand it is sometimes simply about learning, studying, working hard and spending time with people to fully understand their heart.
Gordons remark about the post-modern world being suspicious of institution and meta-narrative is very interesting. I do observe the same tendency in the Netherlands. This is a challenge for the Church today. I know from different surveys recently published, that a large number of post-modern people believe in God, but without church-involvement. So how can we be church, without being institutionalised? I think this is the point where cellgroups and housegroups enter church-life. Because in a 'homely surrounding' the institution is left out. Especially for the Army a big challenge with our structure and hierarchy. With regard to the suspiciousness of meta-narratives: I do think people do not want to hear great stories: they want to see and live great stories! And I do believe that people want to be part of a great story. To me, the Kingdom of God is the great story and where ever I can, I will show or let people know that they can be part of it, simply by placing their life into the story of God, as revealed in the Bible and my own life.
Reading through all the comments I believe that all is said. More and more I believe that the examples of Jesus are in the ordinary. I think one of the main themes of his life could be: "Miracle in the Ordinary".
That is a good theme for a missional church as well I presume.
Ann Morisy expresses this concept in 'Journeying Out' in her last chapter (Coda).
I think this also answers the question about why christianity is so rejected in the West. There are a lot of social reasons, but the church itself has also something to do with it:
One of those reasons could be that we have lost grips on one of the two parts in my theme, or even possible both: Sometimes the miracle has left the building and sometimes the ordinary is no longer in view.
When one of the main themes in Jesus' life was "Miracle in the ordinary", what is the main theme of the church today then?
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Mariska/ Mark - there is a wonderful irony in that Kingdom living as a meta narrative is counter cultural which is very attractive. I still think the institutional church has much to offer if it can live out its existence as a verb.
Mmm, I think that it is very hard for someone or something that is 'instituted' to continue trying to be a 'verb' at the same time. Almost sounds like a paradox....
Writing after so many comments most things I came up with have already been added. Reading Mariska's comments I agree many people say they believe in God without the need of chruch involvement. However, I do feel that for these people to be able to grow in their faith they do need to have the involvement of some kind of christian fellowship whether that be mainstream Church home church, or cell church in this post-modern age there should be somewhere for everybody to feel they have found their spiritual home. Without continued teaching how can people receive Jesus' missional message so they can go deeper into faith with him.
Suzanne - I see your point but at what point does the priority of the church become more inward rather than outward?
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