Introduction to By the Waters of Babylon
The following is an excerpt from By the Waters of Babylon: Worship in a Post-Christian Culture by Scott Aniol (Kregel, 2015). By the waters of… Read More »Introduction to By the Waters of Babylon
missional
The Mission of Worship: An Assessment of the Missional Church Movement’s Impact Upon Evangelical Worship Philosophy and Practice
The following is the paper I presented yesterday at the national meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society: PDF Audio Version Most church leaders readily recognize… Read More »The Mission of Worship: An Assessment of the Missional Church Movement’s Impact Upon Evangelical Worship Philosophy and Practice
The significance of worship for the Great Commission
This article first appeared on The Artistic Theologian, the online theological journal of Southwestern Seminary’s School of Church Music. The Lord Jesus Christ gave the church… Read More »The significance of worship for the Great Commission
Ultimate and Subordinate Ends
There is a lot of talk today about the Missio Dei–the mission of God. God is a sending God, the principle states, and the church–including its… Read More »Ultimate and Subordinate Ends
The Relationship Between Holy Culture and Unholy Culture Should be One of Witness
The sixth conclusion drawn from the idea that culture is behavior is that the relationship between holy culture essay order and unholy culture should be… Read More »The Relationship Between Holy Culture and Unholy Culture Should be One of Witness
The Missional Approach to Culture
The missional church movement is certainly not a monolithic group; yet characteristics of this movement are strikingly similar to characteristics of the transformationalist approach to… Read More »The Missional Approach to Culture
Scripturally, “Culture” is Simply the “Behavior” of a People
If there is any concept of the anthropological/missional idea of “culture” in the NT, it is the idea of “way of life.” A people’s culture… Read More »Scripturally, “Culture” is Simply the “Behavior” of a People
Are NT “Behavior”-related Terms Equivalent to “Culture”?
So far I have argued that neither “race”-related terms and “world”-related terms in the NT approximate the anthropological idea of “culture.” A third category of… Read More »Are NT “Behavior”-related Terms Equivalent to “Culture”?
Are NT “Race”-related Terms Equivalent to “Culture”?
The question before us is this: are there any New Testament terms that are equivalent to the contemporary notion of “culture”? At least three separate categories of… Read More »Are NT “Race”-related Terms Equivalent to “Culture”?
The Missional Understanding of “Culture”
Last time I argued that the contemporary idea of “culture” came to being within discussions of modern anthropology It was in this anthropological climate that… Read More »The Missional Understanding of “Culture”
Common Missional Definitions of Culture
Likely the most influential early evangelical definition of culture comes from Lesslie Newbigin who claims that culture is “the sum total of ways of living… Read More »Common Missional Definitions of Culture
The Missional Church and Culture
The missional church movement has significantly influenced the evangelical church in recent years, especially their philosophy of evangelism and worship (see my recent series on… Read More »The Missional Church and Culture
The Good and the Bad of Missional Worship
There is little doubt that the missional church movement has been influential in evangelical churches, and that it continues to grow. Having surveyed the history… Read More »The Good and the Bad of Missional Worship
The Incarnational Mode of Missional Worship
With regard to the missional movement’s understanding of Christendom, it is important to recognize that they saw what happened during this period as little more… Read More »The Incarnational Mode of Missional Worship
Twenty-first Century Western Post-Modernism as Missional Worship Context
According to missional authors, the Christendom model significantly affects how the average 21st century American church practices worship. During the Christendom period, the church dominated… Read More »Twenty-first Century Western Post-Modernism as Missional Worship Context
The Missionary Imperative of Missional Worship
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… Read More »The Missionary Imperative of Missional Worship
The Missional Philosophy of Culture
Inherent in the missional church’s insistence upon incarnation and contextualization is the idea that no aspect of culture is inherently sinful, or at very least… Read More »The Missional Philosophy of Culture
The Incarnational Mode of the Missional Church
If the “why” of mission is the fact that God sends the church, and if the “where” of mission is post-Christendom Western culture, then for… Read More »The Incarnational Mode of the Missional Church
The State of Mission Today
Missional authors argue that the church today has failed to recognize that the Christendom era has ended. It no longer enjoys the level of influence… Read More »The State of Mission Today
The Rise and Fall of Christendom
Understanding this missionary imperative for the church leads missional writers to ask the question, “Is the 21st-century North American church fulfilling its place in the… Read More »The Rise and Fall of Christendom