WHATEVER and Missio Dei

Update: Last Friday I spoke on Missio Dei at Resource. About 40 students (nice to meet you all!!!) One of the themes was being Found (rather than finding) – thanks to the Kairos crew for a powerful Sigur-Ros video on that subject – dang – the Sigur Ros videos are stunning. Sigur Ros must be my very very favourite Icelandic multimedia band. Much better than . . umm . . other Icelandic multimedia bands.

The other theme that emerged was that of “WHATEVER”. Its a word that annoys me and I tell my kids off when they revert to “WHATEVER!!” as a response to my statements. But in Missio Dei, the word WHATEVER” helps us move beyond an overly humanistic understanding of salvation that lacks a biblical cosmology

Our ministry of reconciliation is focused on WHATEVER needs reconciling. Jesus came to seek and to save WHATEVER was lost – its more than just humans that need reconciling. WHATEVER was alienated, WHATEVER was broken must be reconciled. God’s character demands it. He is holy, wholly, complete. He brings his creation back under his care. Missions is no longer a program of the church. It flows from the missional heart of God. God’s mission is all encompassing. It impacts every area of life – economic, political, environmental, social. The mission of God flows from his attributes, as the Truine God. And a trinitarian missiology is at the heart of the emerging-missional church. It opens up missiology to all branches of the family of God. All streams have something to contribute. The charasmatic/pentecostal stream adds to the missio dei through a missional pneumatology. The Reformed bring the sovereignty of God. Evangelicals bring a strong Christology and soteriology to the table. Piece by piece, as we listen to each other, the fulness of God’s mission is being revealed to us and no particular stream of the Christian family seems to have a monopology.

Because it is God’ s mission and not ours, and because we are just participating with God in what He is doing, our load is light and bearable. Thats good news.

Here are some good links to follow the conversation about Missio Dei from the past and into the future. Some of these I quoted on Friday:

Anglican Identity and the Missio Dei

Summary and Conclusions from Willingen (2002, Jacques Matthey)

Reflections of “Mission” and “Mission in Unity” (Jacques Matthey)

(Original Post) This Friday night at ReSource (Sheffield) I am talking on Missio Dei and the emerging-missional church. On Sunday night I get to speak at Kairos, a new young adult congregation that is connected to St. Thomas Crookes.

I had a huge post written on the history of Missio Dei (Latin for “Mission of God”) back to the Willingen Conference (1952) and the Trinitarian thinking of Barth and Hartenstein (1930’s), as well as the connection between Missio Dei and “Missional Church ” (preferred by Americans) and “Mission Shaped Church” (British).

HAD written . . . that is . . it somehow got deleted along with all my links and tedious research . . .. DANGITT!!!! And I am telling you this now so that it was not a complete waste of time. If i get a chance, I will come back here and post a link to the handouts from my session on Friday.

Technorati Tags: emerging church, missio dei, mission