INTRODUCTION
“The global image of the US has significantly deteriorated over the past 12 months, as the chaos in Iraq has deepened. And in 18 of the countries that were involved in previous polls, the slide in America’s standing has steepened.” This was the verdict of a BBC article reporting on a BBC World Service Poll which found widespread discontent among most of the world population toward the United States of America. While the US government may think it is offering the world Pax Americana through particular foreign policy efforts, those policies are viewed with contempt by the rest of the world and have resulted in a crisis of confidence in the American government, diluting its ongoing ability to influence the world. Already its mass exportation of American culture has pricked the ire of many Arab nations, resulting in such events as the USS Cole Bombing, 9/11, and the Iraq insurgency. With so much discontent with America in general, it is no wonder that the American Church’s influence is also waning, especially when it comes to missions. Rightly or wrongly, Christianity is linked with the West and specifically the United States of America. And as America continues its pseudo-colonialist endeavors in the interest of ‘national security’, the American Church’s influence will continue to dwindle unless it embraces a post-colonial posture toward the emerging South and East. As the Western Church grapples with Her role in global missions, She must be post-colonial in theology and missions if She is to make a continued difference in the world for Jesus Christ.
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INTRODUCTION
In his landmark book on the Church, Chuck Colson cast a convincing, hopeful vision for the Body of Christ. Throughout his book, Being the Body, Dr. Colson explored who the Body of Christ is and how She is the manifestation of God’s hope for the world. During this exploration, though, he also laid down a scathing indictment: the Church has lost Her effectiveness and must recapture an understanding of Her biblical identity. He is right. The 21st century American Church’s fascination with crafting slick worship events (complete with fog machines and rock-star quality light shows), building $93 million facilities (complete with a bookstore, cafeteria, gym, and Starbucks™) and fighting petty, alienating “culture wars” (complete with fear-mongering political attack ads) has seriously warped the Bride’s understanding of Her identity and mission. And in light of the postmodern, post-Christendom cultural shift the Western world is experiencing, we not only need to recapture our identity in general, but need to answer the specific question, “What has God called us to be and do in our current cultural context?”
In this post, I aim to help correct this understanding of the Church’s identity by addressing the question, “What is the mission of the Church?” The obvious starting point for this question is Jesus, who birthed the Church and commissioned Her for a specific function. Beyond the incarnation, though, we will also examine the mission of God and how the established organism of the Church fits into the Trinitarian framework of God’s missional, redemptive plan for Creation. Subsequently, the paper will examine a dual understanding of the Church’s mission as rooted in disciple-making and prophetic witness. In short, we will see how the mission of the Church is to be a community in which people are discipled in the Way of Jesus and embody and bear witness to the Reign of God within a Trinitarian framwork. And because the Church is the hope for the world, I hope this understanding of mission will help Her faithfully live as the organism through which God is accomplishing His mission for Creation.
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For my Biblical Hermeneutics class we were instructed to write a 3-5 page essay on the presuppositions and preconditions that color how we read and interpret the Scriptures. I thought I would share my thoughts and challenge you to think through your own. While it was fairly easy to point backwards to previous presuppositions, it was interesting to think through and codify current ones. How about you? What do you bring to the Text? What things from your story color how you interpret God’s words?
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Life is a progress, not a station.” Modern translation: life is a journey, not a destination. I would agree. Especially in my spiritual journey, the Great Progressor has taken me through a series of milestones that have influenced and shaped my Christian identity. Like any process, no single variable has contributed to my evolution, and not one area has been left untouched. In the area of biblical interpretation, for example, I can point to three “milestones” that have given me a few presuppositions and preconditions in regard to how I study the Bible.
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