Part of the difficulty in attempting to synthesize a philosophy of missional worship is that many different groups have adopted the term missional to describe their approach to church ministry, not all of which ascribe to the fundamental characteristics of the missional movement. For example, while missional church advocates discussed in this series repudiate an… Continue Reading
Flowing naturally from the idea that God has an overarching mission for mankind, thus rendering that mission God-centered, is the assertion that the church, as one component of that mission, is sent by God to help accomplish the mission. Newbigin saw a natural flow from the idea that mission begins with God’s purpose of reconciling… Continue Reading
The first principle that drives the missional church is what it considers the biblically-mandated missionary imperative. But while the evangelical church has traditionally considered evangelism and missions a critical reason for its existence, the missional church understands such an emphasis as not just one ministry among many but as the overarching idea of what it… Continue Reading
Most church leaders readily recognize that God has tasked the church with several different purposes, yet how those purposes work together has equally mystified them. One of the most potentially difficult ministry relationships to reconcile has been of that between worship and evangelism. The church growth movement answered the question by insisting that the church’s… Continue Reading
I appreciate Joel Beeke, the pastor of the Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregation of Grand Rapids and the President and Professor of Systematic Theology and Homiletics at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, for his ability to combine sound theology with warm devotion, while not undermining the former or distorting the shape of the latter. If you have… Continue Reading
Few passages of Scripture are more popular among contemporary Christians than 1 Corinthians 9:19‐23. Especially fashionable is Paul’s line in verse 22 about becoming “all things to all men.” This passage is commonly taken to mean that effective e van gelism requires Christians to imitate the people around them. Many evangelicals cannot even imagine this… Continue Reading
The purpose of culture is not to reach the lost or give authentic expression for Christians; it is to express and cultivate right worship. In my last article I addressed the argument for using contemporary music forms based on a missions philosophy that stresses indigenous ministry. I suggested that such an argument is based upon… Continue Reading
How important is it that we worship God and him alone? Deuteronomy 13:6-11 is one of those passages that jars our modern sensibilities as a stark reminder that God will not be trifled with: [6] “If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or… Continue Reading
The dethroning of the Church by Reason and the creation of pop culture left the Church in an awkward position. Its cultural influence was non-existent. As the culture around it plunged into sanitized paganism, the Church’s traditional forms became foreign. The Church was in Babylon, yet it was free to worship as it pleased. So… Continue Reading
This series is available in booklet format. Audio versions: Biblical Contextualization The First Principles of the Gospel Responsibility and Sovereignty in Evangelism The Power of the Gospel Introduction Audio Version There is a popular thought today in evangelicalism that says that if we as Christians are going to reach unbelievers around us, we need to… Continue Reading
The danger with most discussions of contextualization today is that the imply that the work of evangelism is entirely up to us. In other words, if we can just figure out the best way to communicate the gospel to our culture, we can convince people to accept the gospel. This fails to correctly recognize that… Continue Reading
Paul did, in fact, contextualize the gospel. He presented it differently with the Thessalonican Jews than he did with the pagan Athenians. But in so doing, we noticed two principles that characterized his relationship to their culture: 1. Paul didn’t approve of the culture, he was repulsed by it. 2. Paul did not immerse himself… Continue Reading
There is a popular thought today in evangelicalism that says that if we as Christians are going to reach unbelievers around us, we need to be more tuned into contemporary culture. If we want people to accept our gospel message, they say, then we need to present the gospel by packaging it in the language… Continue Reading