Missional Theology

1
Missional Theology

• Missional Theology
• Evolution or Revolution?

2

• In a post-Christian or beyond Christendom era do
  we need a new theology of mission?
• What does missional theology look like in the
  21st century?
• How does our theology of mission shape our
  mission?

3

• Frost and Hirsch rightly point out the shift in
  culture and context of the 21st century.
• There criticize the use of meta-narrative to
  suppress cultural identities.

4

• Much of what the church of Christendom called the
  meta-narrative is really a particular narrative.

5

• Although priestesses still control the islands
  relationship with the spirit world, their clout
  is waning, as churches sown by missionaries have
  taken root.
• When I get married it will be in a church,
  wearing a white dress and a veil, says
  19-year-old Marisa de Pina, who strikes a modern
  pose under the blond grass of her familys hut,
  wearing tight Capri pants and sequined sandals.
• She says the Protestant church she attends has
  taught her that it is men, not women, that should
  make the first move, and so she plans to wait for
  a man to approach her. To make her point, the
  teenager pops into her hut and returns holding a
  worn copy of the New Testament, its pages stuffed
  with post-it notes, letters and business cards.
• Top News- Women Choose Spouses on African Island
  - AOL News

6

• Frost Hirsch articulate these differences
  between Christendom and missional theologies.
• Incarnation vs. attraction
• Messianic vs. dualistic
• Apostolic vs. hierarchical

7

• Frost Hirsch approach creates false dichotomies
  that do not reflect out postmodern post-Christian
  context.
• The either or approach is more reflective of a
  modernist Christendom worldview rather than a
  both and postmodern worldview.

8

• The evolution versus revolution approach draws a
  line in the sand and dismisses everything on one
  side of it.
• It attempts to recreate the wheel assuming that
  nothing of missional substance existed before the
  latest iteration of the missional church.

9

• Key question (Hirsch) If you could start all
  again from scratch , what would you do
  differently?
• If you are digging a hole in one place, and you
  need to dog it elsewhere, you dont get there by
  digging in the same place only deeper. And yet
  churches, when they realise that the old
  attractional model isnt working seem to believe
  that if only they do attractional church better,
  it will work. (p.62)

10

• Incarnation vs. attraction
• Church does not exist at the center of the
  universe.
• Missional imperative is one of going to the
  nations.
• Being incarnational (representing the presence of
  God) to the world is attractive

11

• Messianic vs. dualistic
• There is not connection between faith and life.
• Faith is distilled to a set of doctrinal
  affirmations and adherence to a belief system.
• The everyday work, family, play is separated
  from spirituality

12

• Messianic vs. dualistic
• There is not connection between faith and life.
• Faith is distilled to a set of doctrinal
  affirmations and adherence to a belief system.
• The everyday work, family, play is separated
  from spirituality

13

• Apostolic vs. hierarchical
• Top down leadership and structure hinders
  missional living
• Organic structure more appropriate.
• Are organic and flat structures the same? Is
  there a biblical precedent for structure?

14

• My problem with many of these Emerging Church
  projects is that they are still attempting to
  bring church up to date by trainspotting some
  aspect of culture and making church fit it. I
  want to argue that in the Emergent Church the
  emphasis will be on being the train rather than
  trying to import it into the church and make it
  cool, we need instead to become wombs of the
  divine and completely rebirth the Church into a
  host culture.
• The Complex Christ, Kester Brewin