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Blogging NOC07: Leonard Sweet
By Jeremy | November 9, 2007
What God is Up to
Leonard Sweet The metaphor: God is defragging and rebooting the church's collective PC. After 2000 years of history, lots of downloads (e.g. reformation); lots of firewalls (schisms, gender, etc); lots of viruses (poverty, racism). God is defragging the computer to reboot the original operating system (Acts 2, Genesis 1-2) Difference between operating systems and interfaces "Emerging" and EPIC (Experiential, Participatory, Image-driven, Communal) is an interface designed to make the operating system user-friendly We don't have bookworms anymore. Instead "Videots," yet videots created Harry Potter phenomenon Video game industry is larger than Hollywood. Wii transformed the industry (not PS3 or Xbox 360) because it transformed the interface. We are "in the world, but not of it" (or out of it either). Ministry paradigm must move from APC to MRI (two medical acronyms). APC was how military treated "Aches Pains and Complaints" during World War 2. It was a pill that combined aspirin, phenacetine, and caffeine; in the short-run it cured most any symptom, but in the long-run it caused cancer and other serious health issues. Within the church, our APC is an "Attractional, Propositional, and Colonial" outreach model. It's half true, so don't repudiate what's good. But Jesus didn't say come follow my teachings. He said follow me by going into all the world. (Offered ABC as another acronym: "attendance, buildings, cash.") MRI is the church's "original operating system": "Missional, Relational, and Incarnational." It's what we see in Acts. It's embodied in the church's original mission statement as expressed by Jesus in the Great Commission: "Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations..." Churches have recently begun crafting mission statements (20 yrs after corporate America co-opted "mission" as a concept in the 80s because the church abandoned it in the 60s and 70s.) But we can't improve on the original, especially when too many church mission statements are "come." Jesus said, "Go." The Protestant Reformation was essentially a rediscovery of mission in "the priesthood of all believers." During the Reformation, baptism was seen as ordination into ministry -- that priesthood. Today was must return to that and also see it as the commissioning of missionaries out of our churches and into all the world. Churches must move from in-grab to outreach. Christianity is the only religion where truth is defined as a person -- Jesus -- not a proposition. All other religious leaders said, "Come, follow my teachings." But Jesus said, "Come follow me." He came to earth (incarnation) and died to restore relationship (his mission). Our mission needs to be lifting up that person within our culture.day pay virginia loans in faxlessdepartment federal loans of educationunsubsidized repayment stafford federal loans directpay loans grants federal to studentloan advance bank federal homeof dallas federal home bank loanlaw loans federal studentuse loans federal personal for MapTopics: evangelism | No Comments »
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