what is the church's mission?

During drive time I'm listening to What is the Mission of the Church? Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom and the Great Commission, by Kevin DeYoung & Greg Gilbert.

Very thankful to ChristianAudio.com for their offer of a free download on this!

Here are some popular highlights, which will give a sense of the direction of this work:

We believe the church is sent into the world to witness to Jesus by proclaiming the gospel and making disciples of all nations. This is our task. This is our unique and central calling.

God does not send out his church to conquer. He sends us out in the name of the One who has already conquered. We go only because he reigns.

We are concerned that in all our passion for renewing the city or tackling social problems, we run the risk of marginalizing the one thing that makes Christian mission Christian: namely, making disciples of Jesus Christ.

If there are missiological implications from Genesis, their emphasis is not “go and bless everyone” but rather “go and call the nations to put their faith in Christ.”

We’d do better to speak of living as citizens of the kingdom, rather than telling our people that they build the kingdom.

We want the church to remember that there is something worse than death and something better than human flourishing. If we hope only for renewed cities and restored bodies in this life, we are of all people most to be pitied.

If you are looking for a picture of the early church giving itself to creation care, plans for societal renewal, and strategies to serve the community in Jesus’s name, you won’t find them in Acts. But if you are looking for preaching, teaching, and the centrality of the Word, this is your book. The story of Acts is the story of the earliest Christians’ efforts to carry out the commission given them in Acts 1:8.

Comments

Mark said…

Thanks for posting this--I immediately went to download the free audiobook. I've been interested in this book ever since I saw what seemed to be a rather ungenerous review by Stetzer (whom I normally like). It made me want to read the book even more!

November 16, 2012 at 11:15 PM

Sandy said…

I like what DeYoung & Gilbert have said so far, about 5 chapters in.

November 17, 2012 at 2:07 PM

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Bible reading for weekend Nov 1 -- 2 Nov 1 -- Hosea 7 and Psalms 120-122 Nov 2 -- Hosea 8 and Psalms 123-125 ================ "Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands, they would be regarded as a strange thing." (Hosea 8:12) THE RESULTS OF SIN (ch 7-8). Notice the words and metaphors to describe Israel's sinful condition: they are surrounded with, and proud of, their evil (7:1-3); like adulterers in the heat of passion (7:4-5); their anger is like a hot oven (7:6-7); they are like a half-cooked (one side only) cake (7:8); their strength is gone (7:9); they are like silly doves easily trapped (7:11-12); they are undependable like a warped bow (7:16). In spite of all of this they are so proud of themselves! (We might say they have a strong self-esteem.) They have spurned what is good (8:3); they sow to the wind and have no real fruit (8:7); they are a useless vessel (8:8) and a wild donkey wandering alone (8:9); they regard God's law as a strange thing

bible reading dec 3-5

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