Soteriology?
Atonement Theories:
- Substitution/Satisfaction
- Christus Victor
- Moral Influence
Whereas traditionally evangelicals have sent evangelists out from the church with the message of the gospel, this evangelism requires the church itself to become the message. - p. 50
For the postmodern world, justification cannot be separated from sanctification and sanctification cannot be separated from a living people of God. The basis for a compelling Christian account of salvation in postmodernity is a changed life among a living community of Christ. - p. 59
...we will make the church, the living body the vortex of evangelism. We will no longer impart universal truths to individual minds outside the church. We will live truth together so as to compel the lost to come and see his lordship in full display in a worship service. Salvation is more than a matter of one's individual status before God. It is the victory of Christ over sin and death into which Christians invite strangers via the forgiveness of sin and the infilling of the Holy Spirit. Our evangelism then strives not to make the gospel relevant to the categories of the post-Christian generation outside the church. It strives to embody the gospel in the church so that all else becomes irrelevant to the stranger who walks in. In a world where the truth that "Jesus is Lord" is viewed as irrelevant, the task of evangelism is not to somehow make his lordship relevant to that world but to live his lordship so truthfully that it makes it impossible for alternative worlds to ignore. In this way, the church becomes surpremely relevant to Christians in the work of evangelism. - p. 67
In summary, when evangelizing postmoderns, evangelical churches cannot do evangelism within churches that act as franchises selling goods and services of Christ. Our evangelism cannot be separate from the living body and sell his wares. Evangelizing postmoderns requires a colony of the King, full of his culture and life into which the Christian can invite those starved for life and meaning. - p. 69
Human effectiveness is not what we seek. The kingdom of God is not ours to control. Some things can be learned from American business, government, and what it means to be human. But the direction of the learning must go from finding who we are in Christ as his body to seeing if there is anything we can learn in American business and government that we can then bring into the captivity and lordship of Christ. It is only in the enlightnement of his Spirit through his Word among his people that we can then see what is worthy of God outside the Church. - p. 79
In addition, the pastor-formed-into-effective-leader acquires character prone to moral failure, because the effective pastor-leader's desires are shaped toward success in ministry not personal faithfulness to Christ. Effectiveness is derived from setting goals and outcomes. Carefully couched in the language of piety, pastors seek effectiveness in bringing "souls to Christ"... As a result pastors fail because they have character molded for success more than character for following Christ in marriage, work, ministry, and every other calling in life. And because their character is trained toward effectiveness, effective pastor-leaders are prone to deep emotional lows and emotional egotistical ecstasies with each failure or success because their emotions are formed in relation to success not faithfulness. - p. 83
We just do not think in terms of defining good worship by the way that it forms people into good Christians. Instead, we look to the level of the worshiper's emotional involvement as a sign that we have worshiped God well. So when we plan our worship, we end up pursuing the arousal of emotions and the "worship experience" as an end in itself, which inevitably turns narissistic... I wish to suggest that our worship services should be ordered so as to form our emotions and our experience into emotions and experiences that are faithful to God... - p. 96
1. IW Removes the Self from the Center of Worship: "The Liturgical Necessity"
2. IW Requires Art:
Toward Truth as Beauty
3. IW is Formative (p. 110-112)
4. IW is What Happens via
the Alive Body (p. 113-114)
Three Functions Doctrine: (p. 113)
- Propositional
- Expressive-Experiential
- Cultural-Linguistic
Worship as learning to
improvise the missing
"fifth act" - Creation, Fall,
Israel, Jesus, ________, Eschaton
ACTIONS
IDENTITY
VALUES
CONVICTIONS
Narrative Preaching
Three Questions:
1. What's the Problem?
2. What's the Solution?
3. How do we respond?
Chapter 6:
Justice
If we do not practice justice among oursleves as Christians under Christ's lordship, we will not have the skills to discern it out in society either. Inevitably, we will be influenced by a formula for justice that comes from some place other than the body of Christ. In the case of evangelicals, this place often proves to be America's own liberal democracy and capitalism. The social politics of democratic capitalism ends up determining the way we do justice more than the politics of Christ. This then renders our justice unrecognizable as Christian justice in the world... And if we do separate our justice from society's, our justice becomes just another disingenuous argument without a living visible representation of what justice looks like among a people of God. In either case, we end up "giving away" the justice of Christ to forces external to the church. - p. 154
Two Traditions
on Abortion
Democratic
Liberalism
"Rights"
Christian
Faith
"Sacred Connection"
Both "Rational"
Dependent Upon
A Community of
Coherence
Salvation:
Exodus (Paradigm)
Faith/Trust
Baptism
Sin
Bondage
Deliverance
Red Sea
Wilderness
Renewal
Slavery
Bondage
Spirit
Discipleship
Sanctification
Light to
the Nations
Torah
Land
The Church
Body of Christ
Salt and Light
New Creation
Paul's Theology:
Cross &
Resurrection
Eschaton
Fallen Creation -
History of Principalities and Powers
Resurrection
Judgement
Modern American Christianity:
[Sanctification?]
Heaven
Faith Decision
Justification
Substitution
George Lindbeck
Hell
Immersive
Worship
Epiphany
Traditional:
Lecture Hall
Different Option
Advent
Key Leadership Practices:
1. Reinvigorate Ordination
2. See seminaries as places of servant formation
3. Confessional/Accoutability groups for pastors
4. Develop emerging leaders (bi-vocational) ministry
5. Establish multiple leadership structures
6. Grow authentic leaders
Chapter 4:
The Production
of Experience
Church Year
Two options that have
dominated worship
Pentecost
Contemporary:
Emotional
Evangelical: the denominations and association of churches in North America who claim to:
1. Uphold a propositional view of Scripture
2. Subscribe to a "personal" and individual relationship with God through Christ.
3. Who maintain a primary allegiance to "justification by faith"
4. Hold a substitutionary view of the atonement as the primary definition of salvation in Christ.
Easter
Chapter 3:
Leadership
Defining
Terms
Introduction
pp. 13-26
Postmodernity
Modernity
Capitalism
Liberalism
Post-Christian
p. 23
Chapter 5:
Preaching of
the Word
The thesis of this book is that evangelicalism has "given away" being the church in North America. Simply put, evangelical churches have forfeited the practices that constitute being the church either (a) by portioning them off to various concerns exterior to the church or (b) by compromising them so badly that they are no longer recognizable as being functions of the church." - p. 13
2 Shifts:
1. Philosophy of Science
2. Failure of the Enlightenment Project
4 Key Evangelistic Practices:
1. Hospitality
2. Prayer, Mercy, and Justice
3. Community
4. Baptism
Chapter 2:
Evangelism
Chapter 1:
Our Definition
of Success
Modern Quality: Effectiveness
"... as the criticizers of modernity teach us, effectiveness can itself become a value that may be at odds with the purposes of the church. Effectiveness and efficiency draw their agendas from American cultural forces that define success in terms of numbers, size, and capital. This kind of effectiveness may be alien to Christ's church. We therefore need to reexamine what is effectiveness in terms of faithfulness to God's call to be the church and why we are so attracted to big numbers." p. 28
7 Habits of Effective Preaching/Teaching:
1. Let the text do the driving
2. Think/pray ahead
3. Do good research
4. Read the times
5. Work hard at communicating
6. Have a point (a communal one is best)
7. Respond with our bodies
Individualism
Business
Oriented
Organization
The church is a culture as
opposed to a company... p. 42
Whose Justice,
Which Rationality?
Robert Bellah
American's Two Dominant Relational
Language Systems:
1. Utilitarian Individualism
2. Expressive Individualism
It does not make sense for the church to seek decisions for Christ as an end in itself apart from being his visible body on earth, which makes it possible for people to make such decisions. The church is much more than the machinery that produces decisions for Christ. It is the social space, under the lordship where the Holy Spirit works to build up believers and equip the saints. p. 39-40
American's Two Receding
Relational Language Systems:
3. Citizenship
4. Covenant