Thursday 16 June 2011

Anvil


Anvil – ‘an Anglican Evangelical journal for theology and mission’ – has been relaunched as an online journal.


New material is available for free (following a pain-free registration process), and in time it is hoped that the whole Anvil archive will be available online.


According to the website:


‘Anvil is an Anglican evangelical journal of theology and mission. It aims to encourage clear and creative thinking and practice in theology and mission, through open, scholarly debate. While the journal stands clearly in an Anglican evangelical tradition, it seeks to engage constructively with other other Christian traditions both within and beyond the Anglican Communion. Anvil has a particular concern to reflect the unity and diversity of the church worldwide.’


Issue 27, 1 (2011) is available here. In addition to book reviews, it contains the following articles on the theme of ‘Fresh Expressions’:


Jonny Baker

Curating Worship

Drawing on many years involvement in ‘alternative worship’ and in particular on interviews for his recent book Curating Worship, Jonny Baker offers reflections on worship as curation and highlights a number of key themes arising from this creative liturgical and missional movement that are of value for the wider church.


Graham Cray

For the Parish by Andrew Davison and Alison Milbank – A Response

In their recent book, For the Parish, Andrew Davison and Alison Milbank offer a strong critique of Fresh Expressions and Mission-Shaped Church. In this response, Bishop Graham Cray highlights and responds to six of their criticisms, arguing they seriously mislead and misrepresent both the report and Fresh Expressions. He identifies contrasting approaches to the gospel and culture as underlying many of the differences before noting three areas of shared concerns.


George Lings

Evaluating Fresh Expressions of Church

One of the big questions we face today, particularly in relation to Fresh Expressions, is what we mean by ‘church’. In this article George Lings provides us with an overview and some critique of a number of existing lists and criteria on offer to evaluate church. He then explores in more detail the additional question of what it means for a church to be Christian, offering four distinctive characteristics. Finally, he critically explores the deeper question of our image of church and tracks four paradigm changes in this over recent years before concluding with a reflection on how the interpersonal paradigm can combine with the distinctively Christian features of church to assist in evaluating fresh expressions.


Eleanor Williams

Urban Fresh Expressions: Sustainability in the Mixed Economy

Drawing on parish experience and on research interviews conducted in preparation for a written project on the viability of Fresh Expressions of Church in urban deprived settings, Eleanor Williams surveys the findings of the research, drawing out key insights. She concludes by raising some challenging questions about the sustainability of new forms of church at the margins of society, and the meaning of the concept of ‘mixed economy’.


Select articles from earlier issues of Anvil are available here.


Wednesday 8 June 2011

Brian Stanley on a Vision for Mission


The text of the 2011 G.R. Beasley-Murray Lecture, delivered by Brian Stanley (Professor of World Christianity at the University of Edinburgh) at the 2011 Baptist Assembly in Blackpool, is available here.


Its title is ‘Renewing a Vision for Mission among British Baptists: Historical Perspectives and Theological Reflections’.


Stanley does a nice job, in my opinion, of weaving together historical discussion with theological reflection around the topic of mission, under three main points:


• Rediscovering the missionary purpose of God

• Restoring the centrality of missionary discipleship

• Re-envisioning the shape of missionary fellowship


Here are some highlights:


‘[B]y “renewing a vision for mission” I mean, not simply expanding and deepening our commitment to evangelism within Britain, but, more fundamentally, bringing into the very centre of our church life a passionate absorption with the theme of God’s missionary purposes for the world’ (1-2).


‘The mission of God is an overflowing of the incessant dance of selfgiving in relationship... which characterizes the inner life of the triune God, into the community of the people of God, and from them into the world’ (6).


‘The missionary responsibility of the church is to make not converts, but disciples whose communal life together will be a visible embodiment of “all that I have commanded you” – in other words, the mind of Christ and the values of his kingdom. Hence the church as a missionary community is called to be what Lesslie Newbigin loved to refer to as “the hermeneutic of the gospel”, an icon or exemplification of what the gospel of the kingdom is all about’ (9).


Wednesday 1 June 2011

Lausanne World Pulse (June-July 2011)


The themed articles in June-July 2011’s Lausanne World Pulse are devoted to ‘the power of discipleship’.


Sara Singleton

The Gospel within Discipleship: Spiritual Formation

God calls us to learn, listen, and to live in the light as we grow to be his disciples and disciplers of others. The change that comes from the renewal of our inner life leads to an irrepressible love for God and others.


LaNette Thompson

Discipleship at Arm’s Length? Not Possible

Cross-cultural discipleship should include mentoring in four areas – purpose, relationship, knowledge, and rituals and powers.


Knud Jørgensen

Discipleship: Shallow Lake or Deep Waters? A Nordic Look at Church

A life without discipleship will always be a life without Jesus – an idea, a myth, a folk religion, without Christ as the center. The author discusses how this plays out in Western Europe and calls for a church that both supports people (gives to, takes care, welcomes, carries) and challenges people to discipleship and obedience.


The Executive Summary is available here, and the full version here.