Hirsch and Frost #4

Continuing with Apostlic Genius Micahel Frost explains...

• Missional Incarnational Impulse
• Reforming the whole church around a new agenda. The problem is..
• Gospel reduction is primarily information on how to go to heaven after you die.
• With a footnote about increasing your personal happiness and success through God.
• With a small footnote about character develop.
• Smaller footnote about spiritual experience.
•  With a smaller footnote about social/global transformation.
• Newbigin- the MII is an” invitation to join with God to bring about his transformation for the world.”
• Bosch- “mission is more and different from recruitment to our brand of religion, it is alerting people to the universal reign of God through Christ.”
• God’s reign and rule is complete and total!
• Mission is the announcement of the universal reign of God in Christ and the demonstration of the universal reign of God in Christ.
• We need to create a foretaste of this universal reign.
• Demonstration is as legitimate as announcement.
• Both are equal
• It is the good news of God’s love incarnated in the witness of a community for the sake of the world.
• The source of the MII is the Missio Dei
• Mission is derived from the character of God and not what he church does.
• Trinitatian
• The Father sending the Son and the Father and the Son sending the Spirit and the Son sending the church with the Spirit.
• The goal of Mission is salvation and justice.
• The Gospel is the work of God to restore humans to union with himself and communion with others in the context of a community for the good of others and the world.
• You can’t have a mission-less church or a church-less mission.
• Mission is the catalyzing function of the church.
• What would the church look like if mission catalyzed disciple making, community and worship
• In actuality they should catalyze each other.
• Evangelism is an announcement
• Words are required
• The message is indeed necessary. It is unique. It cannot be replaced by unexplained deeds.
• Sorry St. Francis!
• Words must be backed by action
• Church membership cannot be the primary aim of the announcement.
• There needs to be acknowledgment of the rule and reign of God in Christ.
• There are no perfect set of words that capture the gospel.
• Do we need to find a new entry point for the Gospel?
• In this generation there is not an existential sense of shame.
• Appealing to their sinfulness may not be the best inroad.  Understanding sin is still an important issue, but maybe not the most effective place to start.
• What if we invited them into a movement that will change the world (not to mention their lives).
• Mission is the “out” and incarnation is the “in.” 
• There needs to be a depth in relationship.
• The myth is “contact is contamination.”
• Consent is condoning.
• Go and serve, but live among too!
• We have to reexamine Jesus
• His sinlessness and his holiness

• Questions Missional Churches Should Ask
• To whom have we been sent?
• Be focused
• Neighborhoods- geographic
• Subculture -affinity
• Subculture- ethnicity
• Subculture- socioeconomic
• Home groups- to whom has God sent you?
• Who will go with us?
• Don’t go alone.
• Go collectively
• The church is a body
• Where will we meet them?
• First place (home)
• Second place (work)
• Third place (frequent interaction with the same people)
• Wendell Barry- location and proximity
• What does the universal reign of Christ look like here?

• Communitas (Victor Turner)
• Community catalyzed by ordeal
• Expel- Liminal- Re/entry
• Mission as a luminal experience.
• The whole group is diminished or let down if one member is absent.
• Leadership should model communitas as a mini version of what it expects the church at large to be.

Quote of the day: "Alcohol can be a great social lubricant for the Gospel."