Podcast Download: Episode 18 - Missional Renaissance - Chapters 1 & 2

Download: Podcast Episode 18 - Missional Renaissance

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Bill Sloat and I will be at IMPACT in a few weeks with a breakout discussing Reggie McNeal's Missional Renaissance. Here is a 30 minute podcast on chapters 1 & 2. Hope you will join it.

Missional Renaissance by Reggie McNeal

Chapter 1 – The Missional Renaissance

Shift # 1: From an internal to an external ministry focus

Shift # 2: From Program Development to People Development

Shift # 3: From Church Based to Kingdom Based Leadership.

Today’s cultural phenomena
-altruism economy
-search for personal growth
-hunger for spiritual vitality – p 3

The missional church engages the community beyond its walls because it believes that is why the church exists. – p 6

When you combine this commitment to personal development with the rise of the altruism economy, you arrive at the missional renaissance. – p 9

The movement founded by Jesus was largely a marketplace phenomenon, an organic connection among people who were experiencing a way of life together. The early days of the movement focused on simple teachings of Jesus with particular attention to living lives of sacrifice and service to one another and to one’s neighbor. A church was not an event or a place; it was a way of life. It must become a way of life again. – pp 13-14

Chapter 2 – Missional Manifesto

‘A’ church is an institutional way of looking at church. ‘The’ church is a movement. ‘The’ church is a people… These are not just points in tension; they are irreconcilable in their implications for what people wind up thinking and doing. When we use ‘a’ instead of ‘the’ in front of ‘church,’ I think we miss the missional revolution in its true essence, by reverting to language supporting institutional implications… Missional followers of Jesus don’t belong to a church. They are the church. Wherever they are, the church is present. – p 19

The missional church in not a what but a who. – p 20

The missional church is an expression of God’s heart. It serves as an indication of his continuing commitment to his redemptive mission in the world. Because God is on mission, the people of God are too. God is a sending God. Just as he sent his Son and His Holy Spirit to the world, he is sending his people into the world. All sendings share the same redemptive mission. – p 20-21

Theologians: Darrell Guder (p 21), David Bosch (p 21), Leslie Newbegin (p 22), George Hunsberger (p 22), Craig Van Geld, Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch

The assumption is that Christian values permeate all of society so one goes to church to perform certain rites and then goes on with life in a way that will not be challenged by a hostile culture or deemed at odd with a Christian worldview and practice. – p 22-23

…rather than being attractional, it will be incarnational. – p 23

The missional church is the people of God partnering with God in his redemptive mission in the world. – p 24

It is a way of seeing oneself as partnering with God in daily life, executing the mundane as well as pursuing the sublime, with an intentionality of blessing people and sharing the life of God with them. – p 26

Bible: Genesis 12:1-3, Exodus 19:5-6, 1 Peter 2:9, John 3:16, Matthew 22:37-40, John 10:10b, Ephesians 4:13, 1 Peter 3:15b, Matthew 5:13-15, John 20:21b

People are created in the image of God. – p 34

God is on mission. – p 35

God’s mission is redemptive. – p 35

God’s mission is always being prosecuted in the world. – p 35

God doesn’t postpone his mission, waiting for the church to “get it.” –p 36

God is up to something new. –p 36

The people of God play an important role in the mission of God. – p 37

The Kingdom is a future that provokes a crisis. – p 37

The missional expression of church will require new metrics to measure its vitality. – p 37

Missional expression can grow out of the current church but it is not limited to the current church. – p 38