Paul Beasley-Murray on Salty Christians

Paul Beasley-Murray, ‘Salty Christians’, Ministry Today 3 (1995).

Okay, I think the title might make a bit too much of the reference in Matthew 5:13, but this is a terrific article (from a paper first presented to a Baptist Assembly Seminar at Bridlington, on 27 April 1994) which resonates with many of our concerns here at the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

Beasley-Murray lists some of the ways we keep the salt in the salt cellar, essentially keeping people in the religious ghetto of the church – by our preaching, our teaching on stewarship, the activities we lay on and expect people to attend, our concept of mission, and because the ‘close identification of many a ministerial ego with many a church has created a psychological need to emphasise the church over the kingdom’.

Then, more positively, he writes about ‘mobilising salty Christians’ – through preaching and teaching, in the leading of public worship, in decision-making meetings, in Bible studies, in support groups for particular occupational groups, in running a stewardship campaign with a difference, in running church membership classes differently, and in giving people time to live in the real world.

Lots and lots of practical wisdom, much of which still bears repeating.

Mission Frontiers

Mission Frontiers is billed as ‘the news and issues journal from the U.S. Center for World Mission’. Themed issues are published and available online very two months, with the following being among the more-recent ones:

July-August 2011 – Overcoming Poverty

May-June 2011 – Jesus Movements

March-April 2011 – Church Planting Movements

January-February 2011 – Discipleship Revolution

November-December 2010 – Going Radical

Matt Chandler, Michael Horton, and Tim Keller on the Church in Culture

For those who are following, or even vaguely aware of, the ongoing debates about the role of the church in culture – especially the lines being drawn in the sand between so-called ‘Two Kingdoms’ advocates on one side and so-called ‘Cultural Transformationists’ on the other side – this is a really useful 10-minute trialogue between Matt Chandler, Michael Horton, and Tim Keller.

Keller begins by asking: ‘What’s the church’s role in culture?’

To make it more granular, he asks: ‘What is the church’s job in equipping its members to carry out their callings in the world?’

In line with his recent published work on the gospel and the great commission, Horton speaks about culture (in this context) being about the ‘myriad callings’ we have as husbands, fathers, plumbers, teachers, etc., rooted in creation. But, he says, we have another calling in the great commission. Here, he deploys a distinction influenced by Kuyper between the church as an ‘organisation’ and the church as an ‘organism’. As an organisation or an institution, the church (for Horton) doesn’t have any calling to transform culture; but in terms of being an organism, the church as a people is scattered into the world to pursue their callings.

Chandler speaks about the mission of the church being ‘to proclaim the good news and make disciples’. But part of that process, he says, is training and releasing Christians to be faithful in their domains of society, to empower them to see themselves in their neighbourhood, hobby, workplace, etc. – the ‘units they do life in’ – as being a faithful presence and witness in those areas. Disciplemaking needs to go beyond emparting knowledge.

Keller judges that there is probably not much difference between the practice of Horton and Chandler. He says he hears them saying the same thing but not wanting to say it the same way. It’s not the church’s role, as the church, to change the social structures, but to equip the people to make a difference. Keller muses that it’s not the job of the pastor to lead a church to change a culture but to create a culture-changing people.

10 minutes well spent.

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).

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.

Missional Journal 5, 2 (May 2011)

After more than a decade of analysis about the missional church, David Dunbar asks (in his latest Missional Journal), ‘Where’s the beef?’

On reasons for the seeming lack of ‘concrete results’, Dunbar begins by citing the ‘residual influences of Christendom’:

‘Although the cultural situation in much of North America may now be described as post-Christendom, many remnants of Christendom are still with us... not least in the thinking and practice of many Christians. Thus many of us assume a building-centered approach to church, ministry, and evangelism. We assume that we can speak and act from a position of cultural favor and influence. And we remain deeply shaped by a clergy-laity distinction that was powerfully rooted and formed in Christendom (even though the beginning of the distinction predates Constantine).’

Change is only likely to come about, he says, by ‘regular and repeated teaching around the themes like the mission of God, the gospel of the kingdom, and the sending of the church’, by missional leaders finding ‘congregational allies – “early adopters” who will share the vision for mission and help them hold course in the face of opposition or discouragement’, and by reaching out to ‘other congregations on the same journey for wisdom, encouragement, and partnership’.

He also suggests there has been ‘an absence of models available to help churches think concretely about what it might look like follow Jesus into the world and how leaders could actually process congregations through this change’.

In addition is the challenge of formation, the fact that ‘missionally focused churches face the same problems that other groups do: forming mature disciples is a tough row upstream’.

He concludes:

‘Missional is not just another program for busy people – it is a divine call to be a different kind of people, a people formed by the gospel to embody the gospel in the totality of their daily lives. That’s where the beef is! And this is the challenge before us – it will require time, energy, wisdom, and focus to move the theoretical discussion to incarnational reality.’

Chick Yuill's New Book Released Jan 2011

Too many people find their experience as Christians incomplete and unsatisfactory...

Jamal enjoys his voluntary work with down-and-outs but finds church irrelevant.

Jack believes he's going to heaven but isn't sure what difference Jesus makes to him now.

Aimee loves being part of a lively church but at work no-one would know she was a Christian.

They're all missing something. But life with Jesus is meant to be an all-encompassing adventure. In this dynamic and punchy book Chick Yuill explores the four concentric circles that make up the authentic Christian life:

• walking in the company of Jesus
• growing in the community of believers
• engaging with the culture of the times
• looking to the coming of the King

Moving in the Right Circles is published by IVP in January, 2011. Read the prologue here... or order a copy here...

Jonathan Lunde on Following Jesus

Jonathan Lunde, Following Jesus, the Servant King: A Biblical Theology of Covenantal Discipleship, Biblical Theology for Life (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, forthcoming 2010), 320pp., ISBN 9780310286165.

Lunde’s book will be the second volume released in Zondervan’s ‘Biblical Theology for Life’ series (the first by Chris Wright on The Mission of God’s People is already out).

A short excerpt of this one is available here, which includes the table of contents. It looks as if the main theological drivers in Lunde’s discussion of discipleship are covenant (its grace and its demands) and christology (Jesus as the Servant King).

Equip to Disciple

Equip to Disciple is a useful quarterly publication, produced by CEP (Christian Education and Publications), an agency of the Presbyterian Church in America.

CEP describes itself as seeking ‘to glorify God by equipping, training, and encouraging believers, particularly leaders and teachers to make a difference by proactively living redemptive Christian lives and making disciples in the Kingdom of God by:

1. knowing the Lord,

2. knowing and obeying the Word,

3. knowing the world,

4. knowing themselves,

with a commitment to understand and interpret the truth in different cultural settings from a biblically reformed worldview that enables them to serve the Lord with a global vision by: penetrating this generation with the prophetic presentation of the Gospel, building strong relationships through which Christ builds His church, extending the Kingdom of God in every area of life and equipping people for actual ministry.’

Archived copies of Equip to Disciple are available here.

Whole Life Discipleship is not new!

A recent article by Gene Veith recalls us to the Reformation concept of vocation. Interesting that the emphases on scripture and justification by faith became so central for Protestants, whereas the equally significant call for people to recognise their whole lives as vocational got lost, or at least limited to the church ministry or the caring and teaching professions. The article has some great quotable sections: 'Vocation is nothing less than the theology of the Christian life. It provides the blueprint for how Christians are to live in the world and to influence their cultures. It is the key to strong marriages and effective parenting. According to the classic Protestant theologians, our multiple vocations—in the family, the culture, and the workplace—are where sanctification and discipleship happen.' Yes, yes, yes