What is the Missional Gospel? Part 5: The Evangelical Missional Church
By Keith Whitfield
At a recent conference, Tim Keller addressed the challenges of evangelism in a post-modern context and gave six principles on how to pursue evangelism in this context. The first principle was “Gospel Theologizing,” and what he meant by this is phrase that all theology should articulate the gospel message. He says our theology should be an exposition of the gospel, and our presentation … [Read More]
What is the Missional Gospel? Part 5: The Evangelical Missional Church
What is the Missional Gospel? Part 4: The Emerging Missional Church
What is the Missional Gospel? Part 4: The Emerging Missional Church
By Keith Whitfield
Brian McLaren announced in 2004 at “The Billy Graham Center Evangelism Roundtable” that “we are in need of radical strategic rethinking of our current strategy as gospel-oriented Christians seeking to follow the Great Commission” (“The Strategy We Pursue,”). He argues that this need is urgent and apparent given the low church attendance by people in our culture, the number of Christian kids dropping … [Read More]
What is the Missional Gospel? Part 3: The Ecumenical Missional Church
What is the Missional Gospel? Part 3: The Ecumenical Missional Church
By Keith Whitfield
The ecumenical missional church arises from a growing dis-ease with an approach to church that they claim was inherited from Christendom. Their concern with this approach to the church is that it views the church as a place and a “vender of religion.” Breaking from this, they attempt to return to the gospel to set forth a new vision for the church and … [Read More]
What is the Missional Gospel? Part 2: A Brief History of the Term “Missional”
What is the Missional Gospel? Part 2: A Brief History of the Term “Missional”
By Keith Whitfield
The “missional” phenomenon is rooted in a broad movement to engage culture with the gospel. From Vatican II, the ecumenical movement, the rise of the megachurch, and seeker-sensitive churches, to the Gen-X churches of the 1990s, engaging the culture with the gospel is a defining mark of ecclesiology over the last sixty years. In the last twenty-five years, particularly in … [Read More]
What is the Missional Gospel? Part 1: A Survey of Perspectives
What is the Missional Gospel? Part 1: A Survey of Perspectives
By Keith Whitfield
An adjective is causing a controversy. The adjective “missional” has become a popular description of the church and its ministry for many people in recent years. The use of this modifier has attracted concern and criticism from more than a few people.
Some have expressed concern because it seems faddish. It might be. No doubt, there is a certain danger with fads in that … [Read More]
What Does It Mean To Be Missional?
English-speaking Christians, including many Southern Baptists, have increasingly used the word missional in recent years. This adjective has been used to describe individual believers, local churches, the church universal, and even God himself. The term has also elicted much controversy, in part because there is such a wide variety of churches and thinkers who embrace the missional label. Some Southern Baptists have been very hesitant to use the term, while others have unashamedly owned it, … [Read More]
Messenger Insight Podcast with Alvin Reid
In the most recent Messenger Insight Podcast, Baptist Messenger editor Doug Baker talks with BtT contributor Alvin Reid about his new Evangelism Handbook, what it means to be missional, contextualization, and the future of the SBC’s North American and international mission efforts. They also discuss the recent numerical decline in the SBC, a historical reality that is denied by some observers. You can listen to the podcast at the Messenger Insight website.
Aspect 2: A Mission Based Upon God’s Mission
(By: Danny Akin & Bruce Ashford)
Scripture and mission go hand in hand. Baptists have missional convictions because they are a people of the Book.[1] Our network of churches possesses a missional DNA. History informs us that the majority of the early Baptist networks arose from a need for interchurch cooperation in missional endeavors and that the SBC is no exception since cooperation in missions has been her raison d’etre from the very beginning.
In the following … [Read More]
Looking Back to Louisville, Part 1
As I’ve indicated over at my blog, I am moving my SBC-related blogging here to Between the Times. For better or worse, it will be all Baptist, all the time, when I am at Between the Times.
Though it’s hardly any secret that I’m a Southern Baptist, my blog has become a place where people discuss research, mission, and culture. It seems some Southern Baptists just love a good blog fight, but it seems strange to … [Read More]
Southern Baptist Identity: An Evangelical Denomination Faces the Future
This week Crossway has published a new collection of essays titled Southern Baptist Identity: An Evangelical Denomination Faces the Future. David Dockery edited the volume, which is substantially (though not entirely) based upon the two Baptist Identity Conferences held at Union University in 2004 and 2007. You can still listen to the audio presentations from those conferences by clicking here and here.
The contributors to Southern Baptist Identity include Dockery, Al Mohler, Stan Norman, Greg Wills, Timothy George, … [Read More]
