Jan

Friday Morning Video – Michael Frost on Missional Church

Posted by Steve Published in Empowered Living, Leadership, Mission, Theology, Video, _samp

Thoughts?

Friday Morning Video :: Caine’s Arcade (April 13th, 2012)
Why Impostors Love the Church (March 12th, 2012)
Friday Morning Video: Jessica Smith Testimony (March 2nd, 2012)
Blind High School Wrestler Qualifies for State Tournament (February 29th, 2012)
The Passing of a Truly Wonderful Lady (February 24th, 2012)

4 users responded in this post

Subscribe to this post comment rss or trackback url

Richard Yale said in January 8th, 2010 at 5:53 pm

What the short snippet didn’t get to is that this mission that is the organizing principle of the Missional Church is the very mission of God, the missio Dei. It is grounded in a trinitarian understanding of the faith than God has a mission to restore the world under his gracious rule through the sending of Jesus Christ and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It is in pursuing that mission that the church is formed and has its being. Thus mission is not some distinct practice of the church added onto all the other aspects of parish life. It is central.

I am coming to think this is true. It is what we mean when we say the church is Apostolic – sent out.

Missional is not a new program or church growth by another name, it is a rediscovery of why we exist.

Now I do believe that Frost and his colleague Alan Hirsch are too quick to jettison anything in the tradition of the church that does not readily conform with their particular view of the missio Dei, but what they are experimenting with challenges me beyond making cosmetic changes to Anglican life as we know it, scotch taping the word “Missional” onto our church buildings, and calling it a day.

I want to explore what truly missional Anglicanism looks like in our culture.
Richard Yale
Chico, CA

Dave said in January 9th, 2010 at 10:54 am

I find it fascinating that our culture’s soil, where the missional church is to be planted, IS to package it as a way to success. So it becomes a program or an upgrade.

I’m still chewing on what was said in the video yet I have to believe that the missional-ness of the church will be a wonderful and natural symptom of the Gospel being proclaimed resulting in hearts being transformed to the likeness of Christ. Jesus after all was the only person to ever live who was completely and perfectly on mission with the Father by the power of the Spirit dwelling in him.

It’s also got me thinking as of late of the connectivity between the great commandment to love God and love one another. You can’t truly love God with out loving the things he’s about and you can’t truly love others without sharing that which one loves most… God. It’s quite a missional circle.

Greg Smith said in January 11th, 2010 at 5:14 pm

I do believe that Frost and his colleague Alan Hirsch are too quick to jettison anything in the tradition of the church that does not readily conform with their particular view of the missio Dei,
— — —
Having spoken with Frost, I know that he does not believe Anglicans (his experience being Sydney!) can be truly Missional because of their traditions.

I like what he’s trying to say, but he goes too far…

Steve said in January 14th, 2010 at 12:34 am

Thanks, Richard & Greg. Two things: I’m not sure Alan Hirsch, though he has worked with Frost, is as oppositional as Frost. I think Hirsch is much more a theoretician as opposed to a practioner. The consequence is that he provokes and advocates while leaving the actual working out of the theology/philosophy to others. Secondly, based on actual results of Anglicanism in the west – or western influenced cultures – I would agree with Frost’s lack of optimism for Anglicanism. And, in more recent history, Calvinists (Anglican and otherwise) don’t have a great track record of mission/evangelism. I, too, am very interested in creating a missional Anglicanism – and have sought to gather and work with other like-minded Anglicans, sadly, even in the face of massive collapse, there aren’t many. Though there are more than a few worried about their man-lace and which candle gets lit first.