I read this morning…
“Anyone who knows Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour must desire ardently that others should share that knowledge and must rejoice when the number of those who do is multiplied. Where this desire and rejoicing are absent, we must ask whether something is not wrong at the very center of he church’s life”.
1st – guess the author?
2nd – Is the missional movment enhancing the idea of conversion to Christ or is it muting it?
Discuss!
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Strong might be…well, a bit strong, but he has a friend. 🙂
Rob! Thanks. I appreciate it! Great to connect and network with fellow Anabaptists. Good to see BD has another strong Anabaptist influence. 😉
Yeah, that really is what I was moving toward and yes, maybe a sit down to explore… When? How?
Yeah, I understand the need for decision, in fact it’s something I think we need to push more. I know Ryan and I have talked about that there’s an abrasiveness to the Gospel that pushes for decision.
I think what I’m commenting on, is at least in my experience growing up, the only means of conversion was shaped by the big tent evangelist, whip them up into an emotional frenzy to (usually not even convert, more to come back to Christ) make a decision. We’re doing a terrible job of conversion if that’s the case. Which bears the question how do we move forward with a healthy understanding of how to call people towards conversion. I think that’s something that would be great for a number of us to sit down and pray and share and explore.
Thanks Chris. I agree with you. There is a tension. I am certainly glad to be journeying with folks like you and Eric and Jamie and BD and many others who are doing the hard work in the tension filled gap.
BTW – checked your blog. Nice! A fellow anabaptist!
Yes…… I commit to continuing. 🙂
Well, Newby and Schaefer were both Reform.
I like and endorse the broadness that the Missional Convo has fostered. What I am poking at is the potential loss of what has been some historical (and from my perspective, Biblical) ideas. Conversion is not necessarily a by-product of modernity. The idea is deeply ensconced in the history of us. My hope is that we are not still reacting to something that, at least in my world, does not hold sway…and along the way, we don’t see people convert or cross the line or repent or whatever becoming a follower is to be called. In real time, it seems like the thing that has been re-captured is the marriage to Christ. I simply don’t think you get married without decision or volitional choice. In other words, you have a wedding. Ramble, ramble, and more ramble…
BD – thanks for your thoughts and thinking!
I find myself pitted against a Christ culture that has made evangelism awkward. Capitalist cultural injections that seek to save souls for numbers sake rather than relationship and discipling has firmly cemented my avoidance of evangelism. I don’t want to be the guy doing the evangelism thing… but at the same time I do, as much as it pains me. Not in the awkward sense, but in the sense that explore relationality beyond the barriers of contemporary evangelistic strategies.
The missional conversation is a broader conversation than mere social justice, etc… unfortunately it is not represented this way in some circles of missionality. However, the theological foundations of ‘missional’ give us a healthy place in which to pursue the nature of a relational evangelism. It is the task then of those who claim to be missional or whom participate in this conversation and praxis to venture into this seemingly unchartered territory.
I think it is fair to say that there is a pervasive dynamic in many missional circles where conversion (and the celebration thereof) is muted. It is an understandable response to unhealthy dynamics common in our Western expressions of evangelicalism, such as triumphalism, paternalism, etc.
However, as understandable as it is, it is also somewhat inexcusable. It is a tragedy that we have a hard time knowing how to desire & celebrate conversion in ways that are also humble, mutual and full of grace. We need to rediscover this. And that, I think, is where the missional conversation needs to continue.
1. You already answered it but I was going to guess Schaeffer.
2. I think the missional movement has changed the matrix on conversion in a healthy discussion. A lot of us have seen that the Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God or turn or burn approaches only create one type of conversion. As such for me the missional movement has meant a new awareness to the broadness of the Gospel, not just about souls and hell but placing sin and God’s dealing with sin within the framework of a broader understanding of Jesus putting everything back together. That makes me suspect that were in an inbetween phase where we don’t yet quite know what conversions look like, but we do know that it has to be more than guilt tripping someone into the kingdom and has to be lived out – that what we live has a lot to do with someone being drawn to the way of Jesus. Experiencing freedom from a means of evangelism that many of us found to not necessarily represent our experience of Jesus may for a time appear to be a muted emphasis on conversion. But I think the life that’s found in the way of Jesus and the Kingdom over time changes how we talk about Jesus and if we really are in love with Jesus and what he’s doing, even if we try to avoid talking about it at some point we’re going to screw up and let the cat out of the bag so to speak. And I think that’s where evangelism really happens – living the way of Jesus and talking about it because we really want to, not because we think we’re expected to.
Actually, scrap my previous reply.
The more I contemplate this, the more I think that Christians reflecting God’s love in our everyday lives (by being intimate with Him: filled up & overflowing naturally from this) will automatically draw in those open to Christ; it’s not a movement, technique, or something forced or worked at with the intention of conversion (which means to change, and who are we to judge what others should change when we have our hands full with our own walks with God; plus forcing even something good can lead to burn out & resentment): a Christian who just loves God and others (it seems to me) will see conversions happen if & where they’re meant to. 🙂
*sure… not sure where I learned to spell.
1. Not surs, but I’d love to know.
2. Well that depends on the method of the missional movement (or it seems to me). If the movement isn’t forceful, but shares God’s love in a means that draws others, then yes it is effective; if it attempts to bully, force, or manipulate, then it may draw some, but (from my experience, having started out as a Christian in a church that drove myself and others with a fear of condemnation and guilt) it creates more problems in evangelizing then conversions of souls.
Ok, no the Pope did not say this. It was Newbigin. 2ndly, I agree with you (as usual). I do think that the missional conversation has opened up many to the idea of serving and loving others for Christ sake in the world, but I am fearful that it has unintentionally exempted many from verbally and persuasively telling the story. Declare and Display – inseparable from my perspective.
1st. The pope?
2nd. I think there ican be a default posture of presenting Christ without conversion. Trying to balance out the declare and decide posture has produced a too far lean to the other side.
This is one part of the neo-reformed movement that is attractive to many.