Everyone should know what a missionary is … there is a relatively new (at least in the modern church) idea that everyone is a missionary in the culture around us. Paul demonstrated this through his preaching and we have gotten so far away from this that we have become irrelevant in the culture today. This ideal is represented by term coined by Mark Driscoll and that term is “reformissionary”
We all praise missionaries for going into foreign lands and learning their language and adopting their cultural distinctiveness’s (dress, food, govt, relationships) while we polarize ourselves from those who are in need of the gospel here in our own neighborhoods. This is not a biblical response to the need for evangelism.
Mark Driscoll has given me a few points to meditate on. One point is that we must have a even balance of focus in each of three categories in order to be a effective missionary in our culture. Those three categories are gospel, church, and culture.
culture + church – gospel = easy-believism, false assurance, universalism, which is completely man-centered and God-less
culture + gospel – church = para-church ministries with a disconnection from fellowship which lead to diminishing spiritual growth.
church + gospel – culture = sectarian fundamentalism that has no effective witness to the world through lack of love and understanding of needs
You can see how a proper balance of all three of these is needed to be a effective witness. Only when we have a proper balance of culture, church , and the gospel can we come alongside sinners like us and invite them to share with us in the riches that Christ offers through his love which he demonstrated by His life and consequently his death on the cross.
Another point that has stuck out at me is the terms “syncretism” and “sectarianism”.
Syncretism is what most fundamentalist are defending against. We “sync” up with the culture. It is what we become if we are influenced by the culture in such a way that leads to our being absorbed into the culture which has consequences of becoming worldly and sinful.
Sectarianism is the consequences of living in this fear and adhering to a “garbage in, garbage out” mentality and worldview as it relates to culture. Christians become part of a “sect” of society, no longer an interacting part of culture, but more like a mob across the street throwing rocks at the passers by on the other side.
Both of these extremes should be avoided if we want to be effective missionaries in our culture. We have to be able to reach out without selling out. We have to be willing to go into the world and preach the gospel that meets the needs of the particular people groups we are trying to reach.
from evangelical society’s review of Driscoll’s book Radical Reformissionary“…to people hurting from the pain of World War II, Billy Graham’s presentation of the gospel in terms of peace made a lot of sense. Likewise, talking about a personal, loving relationship with Jesus communicated well to the generation of the 60s and 70s. In other words, while both of these approaches are true and accurate pictures of the gospel, they may not be the most effective way of presenting salvation in Christ to our culture today.
Driscoll offers several “signposts,” or analogies, which he has found particularly effective in presenting the gospel. For instance, many people today come from broken homes, with no fellowship or love. The idea of salvation as an invitation to God’s family, or participation with God in life, is exactly what many people today are seeking. In a similar manner, emphasizing the life-changing power of salvation, along with the complete forgiveness of sin through the blood of Christ, is a powerful message to those whose lives are full of guilt, frustration, and anger. Just as each of the four gospels tells a slightly different collection of stories, and emphasizes a slightly different set of truths about Jesus and His offer of salvation, so we should know what method of communicating the truth of the gospel will be most effective for those in our culture.
But there is no way for us to know the language of our culture if we are completely separated from it. While there are certainly virtues to avoiding the moral depravity of our culture, if we are completely unfamiliar with the terms and the needs of the culture, then we are going to have a more difficult time communicating with the people around us. Further, only as we are involved in the culture will we be around those who need the gospel. Missionaries don’t just sit in their churches and write to foreign cultures about Jesus; they go to cultures and live in them. …”
I am steadily reminded of the need for Marks message among evangelicals. As I frequent the forum I am entrusted to moderate, I see replica’s of my worldview before being influenced by missonal thinking. I post many of my thoughts there to get some feedback from the active members who are willing to offer some insight into how they think. Sometimes it makes me angry to see the disservice that the Church is committing with the uncontextualized presentation of the gospel truth. Sometimes it makes me sad. Either way it motivates me to pray for guidance as I try to reach as many as possible with the gospel as possible without being irrelevant.
Christ in Community 