{"id":4872,"date":"2009-11-23T14:03:25","date_gmt":"2009-11-23T14:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/missional-mondays-tony-stiff-4.html"},"modified":"2009-11-23T14:03:25","modified_gmt":"2009-11-23T14:03:25","slug":"missional-mondays-tony-stiff-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/missional-mondays-tony-stiff-4.html","title":{"rendered":"Missional Mondays: Tony Stiff 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Missional.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

The ecclesiological shift <\/i>is found in the church renewing its missional identity in practice as well as in theory. Moving from merely a sending church that sends a few professional missionaries to a imaginatively exploring and living as a sent people who live out mission daily. <\/i>The West is growing more and more Post-Christian which may sound like all<\/i> bad news. This shift can however contain promise in it for the Church in the Post-Christian West in offering it a purifying challenge. Today there is a huge opportunity for the church to develop a missiology of Western culture and be what by nature she is called to be: A sent people, a missional church.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tim Keller speaks about the failure of the modern church to appreciate this and its need to make this ecclesiological shift in a holistic way instead of just changing one dimension of its life or enacting merely a new program of evangelism while the rest of the churches life stays the same:<\/span><\/p>\n

“…the church in the West had not become completely ‘missional’–adapting and reformulating absolutely everything it did in worship, discipleship, community, and service–so as to be engaged with the non-Christian society around it.  <\/span>It had not developed a ‘missiology of western culture’ the way it had done so for other non-believing cultures.” <\/span><\/i>The Missional Church<\/span><\/u><\/span><\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\n<\/p>\n

Later in this same article Keller shares the four
\nkey characteristics of missional churches who’ve made the ecclesiological
\nshift;<\/span><\/p>\n

1.   
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Discourse in the
\nvernacular:<\/span><\/i> Missional churches avoid tribal language, we-them language, talking
\nas though non-believers weren’t present in our churches. We must learn to
\ndiscourse in the local vernacular’s our churches are situated within<\/span><\/p>\n

2.   
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Enter and re-tell
\nthe culture’s stories with the gospel: Missional<\/span><\/i> churches enter
\ninto their culture by showing sympathy toward and deep acquaintance with the
\nartifacts of the culture (music, art, literature, food, etc.) acknowledging the
\ngoodness of culture because of common grace and the image of God in all
\nhumanity; missional churches are able to re-tell their cultures stories in
\nlight of the biblical story which shows us how in Christ we can have freedom
\nwithout slavery, embracing the ‘other’ without injustice. <\/span><\/p>\n

3.   
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Theologically
\ntrain lay people for public life and vocation:<\/span><\/i> Missional
\nchurches train everyone to ‘think Christianly’ about everything and work with
\ndistinctive’s shaped by the biblical story; people are encouraged to renew and
\ntransform culture through a theology of work; and to become culture-makers;
\nmissional churches encourage people to demonstrate love and ‘tolerance’ in the
\npublic square, under cutting intolerance as a common defeater of the gospel in
\nthe Post-Christian West.<\/span><\/p>\n

4.   
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Create Christian
\ncommunity which is counter-cultural and counter-intuitive:<\/span><\/i> Missional
\nchurches seek to empower and equip the body to show the surrounding culture how
\nradically different a Christian society is with regard to sex, money, and
\npower; and missional churches practice holistic mission because the world is a
\nholistic mess because of sin and God has provided a holistic answer in Christ;
\nthey do this through word and deed, through the proclamation and presence of
\nthe Kingdom of God.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ecclesiological shift of the missional church is a
\nholistic shift. A shift made for the sake of reaching, in incarnational way,
\nthose without Christ in the Post-Christian West. As Harvie M. Conn said long
\nago,<\/p>\n

“The most difficult step for many
\nmissionaries and urban church planters in the United States to take is to
\nrearrange our lives. Jesus rearranged His life for us, and it is imperative
\nthat we rearrange our lives for the people he died for.”<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Discussion Questions:<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

1.    
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Is it only bad news that the West is growing more and more
\nPost-Christian? What benefit could this new setting bring to the church?<\/span><\/p>\n

2.    
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span>Are missional churches the only viable expression of the church in
\nthe global setting of today? <\/span><\/p>\n

Thank you everyone for commenting and contributing. I have learned
\nmore from all of you than you have no doubt learned from me. Here are a few
\nresource suggestions to continue considering the Missional Church;<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Best short article; <\/span>The Missional Church<\/span><\/i><\/a>, by Tim Keller<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Best book; <\/span>The Missional Church: A vision for the sending
\nof the Church in North America<\/span><\/i><\/a>, edited by Darrell Guder<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/span><\/p>\n

Helpful video short: <\/span>What is the Missional Church?<\/span><\/a>, by Tony Stiff<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ecclesiological shift is found in the church renewing its missional identity in practice as well as in theory. Moving from merely a sending church that sends a few professional missionaries to a imaginatively exploring and living as a sent people who live out mission daily. The West is growing more and more Post-Christian which may sound like all bad…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-missional"],"yoast_head":"\nMissional Mondays: Tony Stiff 4 - Jesus Creed<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jesuscreed\/2009\/11\/missional-mondays-tony-stiff-4.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Missional Mondays: Tony Stiff 4 - Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ecclesiological shift is found in the church renewing its missional identity in practice as well as in theory. 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