Well, I haven't talked about Mark for a while. However, he's been to London recently and preached messages and worked with the Reformed/Charismatic New Frontiers Churches. HERE You can hear some of the messages. The message On The Missional Church is the message I listened to first. It's very informative. So a few questions. What kind of Church is yours?
1. A Mirror-reflecting your culture
2. A Parasite-taking from culture and giving nothing back
3. A bomb Shelter-staying away from the world
4. A City Within A City-The city of God. In other words, a counter culture.
I think his best idea is about getting rid of missions departments so that the entire church can be missions minded. His other idea is that we must all be well informed theologian and apologists. Even your 5 year olds must be on fire about church planting and missions. Wow. Listen and let me know what you think. (I have to admit, he talks about getting rid of Sunday School....ehhhhhhh.......how are they going to become better theologians and apologists without the extra time to go in depth in the time Sunday School affords? Maybe small groups?)
One more: FOR THOSE OF YOU SLEEPING AROUND MARK SAYS: Jesus Has a BRIDE not a girlfriend he sleeps with. If you're sleeping around, your preaching a false gospel.
A few more nuggets I picked up: media is a sermon with a message it wants to convert you to, preach the gospel often, multiple campuses, save money for church planting etc...
Getting rid of missions departments so that the whole church can be missions minded? Wow, that would be counterproductive.
ReplyDeleteSure everyone should be on fire for missions, but that doesn't mean that everyone is going to get trained as profoundly as a real missionary would. His proposal here sounds absurd.
Still, I should probably listen to his lecture since maybe I have merely misunderstood him. Is there any minor context I should know or should I just go "listen to it"? Thanks.
In context, he is talking about being missional to your culture. He also includeas ideas about church planting. However, as I noted, getting rid of Sunday school is not the best idea. I'm sure he doesn't mean we shouldn't have well trained missionaries. He does emphasize that we should all be trained in theology and apologetics.
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