Okay, so maybe American missions work is driven by the same kind of pragmatism that characterizes so many American churches. Is that really such a big deal? Well, stop and consider the differences between planting pragmatically-driven churches in America versus planting them in most Majority World contexts. Such churches in America have the luxury of building themselves upon the foundations of a culture imbued with several hundred years of Christian influence and ethical norms. Fill a room with nominal Christians, as pragmatically-driven churches do, and you still have a dame that looks half way decent. She’ll dress up alright.
There’s some good thinking in this issue of 9 Marks, though I don’t agree with all of it.
2 comments
Comments feed for this article
July 3, 2009 at 3:12 pm
jstimages
Thanks for sharing Jonathan. The article on pragmatism by Jenkins had some good emphasis on the need to focus on to be biblical in understaning authority, establishing definitions and evaluating methods.
My problem with the article was that it was a call to pick apart what we see going on. There is a place for clear and objective critique in hopes of leading refining and redirecting back to gospel centered missiology but I get tired of the “my spiritual gift is that i discern how to deconstruct the failures and pitfalls of what you are doing.”
One of the things that I appreciate about your articles is that they are often centered in developing gospel driven means and approaches to doing the work of the church. It is very refreshing and I wish we would see more people invested in solutions instead of pointing out the problems.
This quote summarized the article for me. “I would suggest that we need to begin to have more conversations (verbally and in print) about the assumptions behind various methods and strategies. This will almost certainly seem rude. I suppose that’s one of the reasons we aren’t having them right now … It seems to me that we can no longer assume that formal affirmations regarding the Bible and the gospel translate into a God-centered, Bible-saturated approach to strategies.”
There is a throw-in line about the need for books and articles that are faithful, “We need more careful, biblical critiques and more books and articles extolling faithful methods deduced from the pages of Scripture.” but the over all emphasis in the article is that we need to critique what everyone is doing. I look forward to seeing more how ACL approaches missiology and the work of the church rooted in gospel faithfulness in your context.
July 3, 2009 at 10:34 pm
Jonathan Dodson
Thanks, man. I agree with you. We should be careful about our methods but even more careful about our gospel. Of course, at some point the gospel has to critique our methods, i.e. snake handling, or healing concerts, but most of the methods being used among evangelicals are typically within the bounds of the gospel.
I appreciate your encouragement. Pray for us, and thanks for sharing your fine photography! Culture making for Christ!