a pastor in Austin
Posts tagged as:
I’m not sure if I would have read On the Side of the Angels, by Joseph D’Souza and Benedict Rogers, if I hadn’t been sent a review copy. Heck…I hadn’t even heard of it. After reading it, I hope that neither of those statements will be true for others.
The subtitle is Justice, Human Rights and [...]
{ 0 comments }
The picture to the right is Lesslie Newbigin. It’s not exactly the kind of picture that will score an author a big book deal these days. Glance at the back cover of the best sellers rack, and you’ll see lots of hip, yet pensive, looking people. Or perhaps pensive, but hip.
Lesslie doesn’t really look [...]
{ 0 comments }
(This post is part of a series reflecting on David Bosch’s six distinctives for a missiology of Western culture. See the introductory post for a little background.)
A mission to the West will have to be ecumenical.
Yesterday, I sat in a room full of Austin pastors, most of them in recently planted churches. I have come [...]
{ 3 comments }
(This post is part of a series reflecting on David Bosch’s six distinctives for a missiology of Western culture. See the introductory post for a little background.)
a mission to the West must be countercultural, though not in an escapist way
I wasn’t planning on spreading the posts in this series a week apart. But, maybe it’s [...]
{ 3 comments }
(This post is the introduction to a series reflecting on David Bosch’s six distinctives for a missiology of Western culture. See the end of the post for links to the rest of the series.)
David Bosch was a missiologist in South Africa who died in 1992. A car accident took his life only a year after [...]
{ 12 comments }
Many of my conversations with other church planters of late have centered around worship services/gatherings. I am usually the one raising the topic as I have been curious to learn from the experiences of others as we shape our strategy for Austin Mustard Seed.
One thing has been significant in these conversations. I’ve talked to several [...]
{ 5 comments }
As we call people (back) to faith in God through Jesus Christ, we must help them to articulate an answer to the question ‘What do we have to become Christians for?’ At least part of the answer to this question will have to be: ‘In order to be enlisted into God’s ministry of reconciliation, peace, [...]
{ 1 comment }
‘Mission’ is a word that spans the total distance between God and the world’s salvation. The whole dynamic of the church’s life may be conveyed by this single verb.” — Paul S. Minear in Images of the Church in the New Testament
{ 0 comments }
“The goal of our missional life is not to grow churches. The goal of church is to grow missionaries. The goal of the gospel is not to get people to church. The result of the gospel is that people will find each other and gather because of the deep meaning of a common experience.” (pg [...]
{ 4 comments }
Belong. Believe. Become.
I think it was first in
{ 0 comments }
Some books read like a light snack…maybe a small package of pretzels on an airplane. Snacks aren’t bad, but sometimes you need a hearty feast. Transforming Mission satisfies the belly and fills the mind with memories and Ideas to revisit.
This book is a classic on mission, and rightfully so. David Bosch traces the [...]
{ 5 comments }
This week, I finished reading The Forgotten Ways, by Alan Hirsch. With the forming of a new faith community in our near future, this will likely be one of the most important books I’ve read, and it will be one I revisit often in the next few months.
Hirsch makes a call to the church to [...]
{ 1 comment }
Contextualization, on the other hand, suggests the experimental and contingent nature of all theology. Contextual theologians therefore, rightly, refrain from writing “systematic theologies” where everything fits into an all-encompassing and eternally valid system.
— David Bosch, Transforming Mission
{ 1 comment }
I probably only read 2-3 fictional titles a year. Reading a book like The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, reminds me that this is a genre I should probably dive into more.
The use of language is exquisite. Several times, I found myself rereading sentences just so I could appreciate how her words formed images and [...]
{ 4 comments }
Last month, I read Exiles by Michael Frost. I resonated with his prior writing, The Shaping of Things to Come, a collaboration with Alan Hirsch. I was hoping that Exiles would pick up on some of the ideas from Shaping and help to take them further, and it was what I hoped for.
Exiles is [...]
{ 5 comments }