Wednesday, April 04, 2007

how is missional different from the others?



I posted this particular Desiring God National Conference 2006 video because my previous post "the missional switch" raised some very interesting observations in the comments section. Here Mark Driscoll, a key note speaker at the conference, makes the distinction between missional churches from other emerging movements.

Like Mike, I am beginning to have a distaste in my mouth for the term incarnational. While I agree mostly with the missiological method associated with the term ...

living as Christ among a culture, contextualizing one's witness removing cultural stumbling blocks so that the Gospel might be clear to those within a particular culture

... my discomfort with the word lies in its definition which I believe is best understood as referring solely to the Divine becoming human in Christ.

Perhaps a different term can be devised.

Fall of 2006, Desiring God hosted their annual conference in which modern-day heros discussed "The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World".

Desiring God National Conference 2006 videos may be viewed here or downloaded from iTunes.

Audio of conference peakers John Piper, D. A. Carson, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, Vodie Baucham (I wish he was scheduled to preach here before I leave in May.), and David Wells may be accessed here.

(Great! Now Mike's going to be disappointed all over again because I did not attend the conference.)

The above is largely the result of a late-night conversation between Mike and me.

3 comments:

Truth and Zeal said...

That conference was sooo last Fall... (sorry Christine, you're just a wee bit behind), but it was a very good conference. It's now available on DVD.

When you say that a "different term can be devised", are you waiting for someone to suggest a better term or perhaps you can suggest a better term for us?

Congratulations in advance for your wedding and God bless you both.

ckjolly said...

i know, totally, right? i was trying to explain to someone how the missional concept is unique in the emerging conversation ... and those videos that DG put out leading up to the conference came to mind. But at least it's not as bad as pegged pants, right?

I like the term "inculturation" which Wikipedia defines as

"the adaptation of the way the Gospel is presented for the specific cultures being evangelized"

Patrick essentially did this very thing with the Celts on the emerald isle.

Truth and Zeal said...

Pegged pants were sooo last decade and then it was the MC Hammer "baggy pants". I've been noticing that the 80s style is coming back into fashion. Next year is supposed to be more of the 90s fashion.

"Inculturation" sounds like a great term, but there are so many new terms, it's difficult to follow. Just the other day, I first used the word "Kentuckian" in a conversation. Supposedly, that's actually a valid word among the constituents of Kentucky.