The Need for a Missional Ecclesiology Part 1

Once again Dr. Brisco has an excellent post on the missional church. It explains why the leaders of so many churches are afraid to make hard decisions and think only of making the congregants happy.

In this post he quotes Hunsberger who suggests 3 views of church in the US and the West that have contributed to a consumer church. The first view he mentions is called the "Reformed Heritage" view, and it naturally developed into the second view which he call the "Contemporary Variation". Our Church falls into view 1 and because of our consumer driven culture have morphed somewhat into view 2. However, we are not alone--most churches in the West have developed form this reformed heritage. This is why I believe the church in the West needs to recognize and lament what it has become--see my Tears, Persecution, and Connection with god blog--so we can envision a new tomorrow and be the church God wants us to be: view 3 which Hunsburger calls "Missionary vision".

Here is Brisco's Blog:
http://missionalchurchnetwork.com/the-need-for-a-missional-ecclesiology-part-i/

Here is my Tears, Persecution, and Connecting with God blog:
http://davesmcmusings.blogspot.com/2009/06/tears-persecution-connecting-with-god.html

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Hannah's Song

So I was listening to this pastor preach on Hannah's Song in 1 Samuel 2. His premise was: Hannah could give her son Samuel away because of what she knew about God. He then proceeded to systematically expound the theology proper (theology about God) of the song in an abstract sort of way). I was bored. His contention was what we know determines what is in our heart and then determines what we do. I believe this pastor's message was soo boring because he emphasized the knowledge of God divorced from God's personal nature. It was all abstract theology. Hannah's knowledge of God was not abstract, however. She knew God, because of God's relationship with her and her relationship with him. Notice all the MY's in the begining of this song. The way to know God is thru relationship not knowledge. The quickest way to correct actions is thru a deep, and personal knowledge of God. Most of the time this type of knowledge is not systamatic. How often do we systematize the knowleged of our spouse? I could verbalize it in a systamatic expressin--but I prefer to know her and vervalize my knowledge of her in a much more relational sort of way.