Missionary Churches in a Non-Christian World

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Missionary Churches in a Non-Christian World
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What saved my marriage
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What saved my marriage
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What saved my marriage
Recalculate!
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Recalculate
Recalculate for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
Matthew 4

• Use the right map

• Orient

• Lets Go

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Which city?
Which map?
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Using the Right Map
Three different worlds (contexts) in which we
live and serve as Gods people
Pre-church Churched Post-church
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Three Mission Contexts Three different Maps
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Using the Right Map

• Each mission context has its set of

Cultural Insiders
Cultural Outsiders
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Using the Right Map
Who?
Where?
When?
Whats the starting place?
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Using the Right Map

• It is essential to know which one we are in
  order to serve effectively
• Are we cultural insiders here?
• Are we cultural outsiders?

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Pre-Church Map
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Using the Right Map
Church has no identity, thus no credibility
Non-Christians are Cultural Insiders
Missionaries begin as Cultural Outsiders
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The Pre-Church Map
First step in mission work is to become
permeable
To remove as many foreign or outsider
elements as possible
Learn the Language and Culture of the insiders
Share life experiences Get to know and be known
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The Pre-Church Map
Three steps in permeation

• Learner

• Trader

• Story Teller

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The Pre-Church Map

• Note The missionary might never become a
  cultural insider

• Get Gospel communication into the
• hands of cultural insiders ASAP

Missionaries focus on multiplying cultural
insiders who speak the Gospel
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The Pre-Church Map

• Cultural insidership of the Non-Christian
  continues to play a critical role in the
  propagation of the Gospel

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The Pre-Church Map
Focus on the unchurched High engagement with the
unchurched Maintain a porous boundary with
unchurched
Operate with Several Word gifts (Eph. 4)
Unchurched ? evangelist Churched ?
pastor/teacher Both ? apostle, prophet
Develop Little structure Vocational Organization
al
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The Pre-Church Map

• Potential impediments
• Professionalize the witness
• Over structure
• The porous boundary between church and community
  thickens, eventually becoming impermeable.
• Cultural insidership of the unchurched
  community gives way to the cultural insidership
  of the churched community

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The Churched Map 
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The Churched Map

• Church is essential to the community

The churched are Cultural Insiders

• The unchurched are cultural
• outsiders

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The Churched Map
The churched are now the cultural insiders.
Church has great credibility Central to the
shared story of the culture Know (shape)
language and culture Socially and culturally in
charge
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The Churched Map
Who? (Communicates) When? (It happens) Where?
(It happens) What (is the starting place)?
These questions are now answered by the church.
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The Churched Map
The unchurched are now the cultural outsiders
Their relationship to the church Share the
church influenced language and culture Value
the churchs role in the society Might be
attracted to the church (cultural value)
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The Churched Map
The unchurched are now the cultural outsiders
The churchs relationship to them The
unchurched are Invisible (assumption that
everyone is a Christian) Possibly suspicious
(non-Christians hold something against the
church or God)
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The Churched Map

• Pastor is a cultural insider (holds high
  credibility)
• Knows the language and cultural at a high level
• Considered the guardian of the culture
• Local outreach (Jerusalem, Judea) is the
  vocation of professionals
• Respected by unchurched

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The Churched Map
Focus on the churched Non-Christians will come
to church to hear the Good News
Operate with Fewer Word gifts (Eph.
4) Unchurched atrophy Churched consolidate ?
pastor/teacher
Build permanence (structure) Structured social
systems Structured vocations
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The Churched Map

• Potential impediments to Gospel spread
• Increased professionalization of the witness
  (only the pastor can do this)
• Preoccupation with church permanence (structure)
• Increased concern for the needs of the already
  churched concern for the lost slowly
  atrophies.

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The Post-Church Map
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The Post-Church Map
The community around the church is increasingly
unchurched, more and more reflecting the
pre-churched context of ministry.

• At the same time, the church continues to operate
  with the assumptions of a churched society or
  context.

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Which Map?
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Which Map?
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Which Map?
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Which Map?
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Which Map?
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Which Map?
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Theological Education In A Post-Church Era
Formal
Acculturation--Building cultural insiders
Structure
Non-formal
Informal
Life Contexts Experience
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The Post-Churched Map
Recalculate!
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Discussion

• What contextual conditions are assumed in your
  congregations future planning?
• Pre-Churched
• Churched
• Post-Churched

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Discussion

• How would your congregation look at itself if it
  were a New Testament congregation, that is, a
  small church located in a non-Christian community
  possibly hostile to the Gospel?

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Discussion

• What pastoral roles are assumed by the members of
  our congregations?
• What lay roles are assumed?

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This presentation is shared by permission of Dr.
Robert Newton, President of the CNH District of
the LCMS. If you have any questions or comments
concerning this presentation, please direct them
to Dr. Newton at prescnh_at_cnh-lcms.org or call
925-245-4000