Public Presentation Lost in Reception Recovering the rest of what it means to be missional
“Christianity in North America has moved away from its position of dominance as it has experienced the loss not only of numbers but power and influence within society.” Darrell L. Guder, Missional Church
The church in the West is no longer merely the sender of missionaries, it is the one sent into its own post- Christendom setting.
The World Evangelism The The Common Good Church The Church’s Conversion? S o c i a l J u s t i c e
The Life and Times of a DMin Project: The DMin Project began as a missional approach to adult education that became something greater.
The Life and Times of a DMin Project: Shaping the congregation educationally in a non- siloed way required me to explore liturgical formation.
The Life and Times of a DMin Project: Was there a way to explore the intersection between adult education, liturgical formation, and missional ecclesiology for Evangelical congregational leaders?
My DMin thesis argued that many Evangelicals have embraced only part of what it means to be missional. They are missing one of the essential practices of Lesslie Newbigin’s original vision of missional ecclesiology, the practice of liturgical worship.
Allowing Lesslie to be heard in his own words
The Significance of Newbigin for the Missional Church Conversation
“He has turned the thinking of the churches of the West to a recognition of their lost heritage of missional identity by raising to view the missionary encounter of the gospel with their culture. ” George Hunsberger “What had once been a Christendom society [in the West] was now clearly post-Christian, and in many ways, anti-Christian… His conclusions have mobilized Christian thinkers and leaders on both sides of the Atlantic ” Darrell L. Guder “Newbigin remains the recognized father and, for many, the tacit authority in much missional…church literature ” Michael Goheen
1936-1974, 1974-1998, South India (with breaks) England
Newbigin never wrote a book on liturgy or considered himself to be a liturgical scholar. Nevertheless, his ministry and theological reflections were deeply invested in a liturgical-missional view of the church.
“The Church is both the means and the end, because it is a foretaste…The Church can only witness to that inheritance because her life is a real foretaste of it, a real participation in the life of God himself. Thus worship and fellowship…[are] essential to the life of the Church.” The Household of God , 1953 “The whole life of the Church, rightly understood, is thus the visible means through which the Holy Spirit carries on His mission to the world and the whole of it thus partakes of the character of witness. The whole life of the Church thus has a missionary dimension… Thus the Church's worship, the perpetual liturgy in which she is joined to the worship of the heavenly hosts, is directed wholly to God for His glory; and yet it has a missionary dimension, and may in certain circumstances (as for instance in the Church of Russia to-day) be in fact the most powerful possible form of witness.” One body, one gospel, one world, 1959
“Christian worship is a testimony to the reality of the living God in the midst of the world which does not know him….The center of all our worship is that act of remembrance…when we remember and proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.” The Good Shepherd: Meditations on Christian Ministry in Today’s World , 1977 “The day-to-day worship and work and witness of the local church has to be developed in relationships to all of these in such a way that it becomes credible to the inhabitants of the local culture as sign, instrument, and foretaste of that one universal reign of God which is the true origin and goal of this and every human culture.” The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission , 1978
“Tradition is a living reality insofar as those who are committed to Jesus meet together to remember and retell the mighty acts of God, to relive the biblical story and the words and deeds of Jesus, and to offer their praise and prayer to the Father through him. It is in the Church’s liturgy that the biblical story becomes a living tradition, remembered again and again…reinterpreted and applied to contemporary situations…Out of such liturgy there arises action in the life of the world that faithfully embodies the understanding of God’s purpose for the world, which is revealed in the biblical narrative ” By what authority?, 1988 “The true end, the real goal of history. That has been embodied once for all in the events which form the substance of the gospel and which – remembered, rehearsed, and reenacted in teaching and liturgy – form the inner core of the Church’s being.” The Gospel in a Pluralistic Society , 1989
“Through the liturgy and preaching of the church and through all the avenues of art, drama, and popular festival, it provided the framework through which the world and its affairs were understood. And, of course, this understanding was not merely an intellectual affair. It was part of a total way of life, corporate and individual…As a continually lived narrative, of which contemporary life was a part, the narrative gave shape to public life.” Proper Confidence , 1995 “The most obvious public thing that the Church does is worship on Sunday mornings. That has been so from the beginning… Worship is at the very heart of the Church’s life, and it is public worship because we believe that it should be the heart of all human life.” Unpublished paper “Worship,” Cadbury Research Library
Listening to the leaders of liturgical- missional churches describe their vision in their own words
“As I put together the liturgy I am intentional that everything serves a missional end….People I have cared for have had narratives come undone in their lives and they have run into addictions and bad relationships…What I do is help them realize that the narratives they were living from were real but misplaced, and that the only narrative that can give them wholeness is the Story of God.” An Anglican Priest near Sacramento, CA “Our worship services assist them in realizing that life throughout the week is a formative process….We help them see God’s grace amidst the mess and busyness of life….We are becoming more self-consciously Newbigin-ish. We are learning to understand our neighbors idols, hopes, stories; and we are learning how God as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit speaks into them.” Two CRC Pastors near Sacramento, CA
“We see the historic liturgies of the Western Church as a tool to re- narrate peoples lives…The Liturgical Year shapes our worship services….Following the Liturgical Year also shapes what we do with mission, we seek to help our congregation give into things that relate to the part of the Liturgical Year we are in.” An EPC Pastor at a multi-site church in Berkeley, CA “Worship is formative…Liturgy is important because it is a story, our story…liturgy is significant because it reminds us that we are not along. It tells us that we are part of an ancient-future faith. In worship, Lesslie Newbigin reminds us, it is "not only the congregation present that is involved, but is the act of the whole universal church, in earth and in heaven." Liturgy reminds us that we are not rootless, we're connected. ” A group of RCA Pastors in San Francisco, CA
How to facilitate meaningful conversations about liturgy and mission in your congregation
One Suggested Resource: A Guidebook • Designed as a Place to Begin a Process of Reflection on Worship • Small Group Discussion-Oriented • Discovery Exercises & Action Steps
Group Discussion Questions, criticisms, suggestions…
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