Radical Reformission

For my first post on my new blog, I'm going to re-create my last xanga entry. Enjoy!
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The following is a (rather long) excerpt from Mark Driscoll’s first book, Radical Reformission.

But first, let me pause to explain the word “reformission”: it is a “radical call to reform the church’s traditionally flawed view of missions as something carried out only in foreign lands and to focus instead on the urgent need in our own neighborhoods, which are filled with diverse cultures of Americans who desperately need the gospel of Jesus and life in His church. Most significant, they need a gospel and a church that are faithful both to the scriptural texts and to the cultural contexts of America” (Reformission 18).
Second, for those of you who aren’t familiar with Driscoll, let me say a word about him: he’s fabulous. He’s the founding pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle (www.marshillchurch.org). He is theologically conservative and culturally liberal, seeking to take the gospel into the culture: “…the gospel must be contextualized in a way that is accessible to the culture and faithful to the Scriptures, [and] God’s people must continually review their presentation of the gospel to ensure that the form in which they present it is the most effective one” (Reformission 56).

And lest you be concerned that contextualizing the gospel to be accessible to a certain culture is a bad thing, let me point out, as Driscoll does, that the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were each written to a different culture. Matthew was written by a Jewish Christian to Jews. Mark was written by a Jewish Christian to Romans. Luke was written by a Gentile Christian to Gentiles. John was written by a Jewish Christian to Greeks. And while some critics of Scripture point to the differences between the gospels as contradictions, it is clear that each of the four accounts display the same gospel, only presented by different people in different ways. “It is vital,” Driscoll says, “that we continually look for ways of presenting the gospel that will be best suited for the people we encounter so that they can journey toward Jesus” (Reformission 58).
So below I have copied a part of a chapter in Radical Reformission in hopes that someone will read it and be challenged, as I was. Let us commit to bringing the gospel into our culture, but let us do it wisely:
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Reformission therefore begins with a simple return to Jesus,who by grace saves us and sends us into mission. Jesus has called us to (1) the gospel (loving our Lord), (2) the culture (loving our neighbor), and (3) the church (loving our brother). But one of the causes of our failure to fulfill our mission in the American church is that the various Christian traditions are faithful on only one or two of these counts. When we fail to love our Lord, neighbor and brother simultaneously, we bury our mission in one of three holes: the parachurch, liberalism, or fundamentalism.

Gospel + Culture – Church = Parachurch
First, many Christians become so frustrated with the church that they try to bring the gospel into the culture without it. This is commonly referred to as the parachurch, which includes evangelistic ministries such as Young Life and Campus Crusade for Christ. The success of these ministries is due in large part to their involvement in culture and in loving people, whereas the church often functions as an irrelevant subculture. But the failure of such ministries is that they are often disconnected from the local church, connecting unchurched people to Jesus without connecting them to the rest of Jesus’ people. This can lead to theological immaturity. Once someone is saved, he or she is encouraged to do little more than get other people saved.
Also, since parachurch ministries are often age-specific,they lack the benefits of a church culture in which all generations are integrated to help people navigate the transitions of life. This further separates families from each other if mom, dad and kids are each involved in disconnected life-stage ministries outside of their church, rather than in integrated ministries within it.

::The parachurch tends to love the Lord and love its neighbors, but not to love its brothers.


Culture + Church – Gospel = Liberalism
Second, some churches are so concerned with being culturally relevant that, though they are deeply involved in the culture, they neglect the gospel. They convert people to the church and to good works, but not to Jesus. This is classic liberal Christianity, and it exists largely in the dying mainline churches. The success of these ministries lies in that they are involved in the social and political fabric of their culture, loving people and doing good works. Their failure is that they bring to the culture a false gospel of accommodation, rather than confrontation, by seeking to bless people as they are rather than calling them to a repentant faith that transforms them. Often the motive for this is timidity because, as Paul says, the gospel is foolish and a stumbling block to the unrepentant. Liberal Christians are happy to speak of institutional sin but are reticent to speak of personal sin because they will find themselves at odds with sinners in the culture.

::Liberal Christians run the risk of loving their neighbors and their brothers at the expense of loving their Lord.


Church + Gospel – Culture = Fundamentalism
Third, some churches are more into their church and its traditions, buildings, and politics than the gospel. Though they know the gospel theologically, they rarely take it out of their church. This is classic fundamentalism Christianity, which flourishes most widely in more independent-minded, Bible-believing churches. The success of these churches lies in that they love the church and often love the people in the church. Their failure is that it is debatable whether they love Jesus and lost people in the culture as much as they love their own church. Pastors at these churches are prone to speak about the needs of the church, focusing on building up its people and keeping them from sinning. These churches exist to bring other Christians in, more than to send them out into the culture with the gospel. Over time, they can become so inwardly focused that the gospel is replaced with rules, legalism, and morality supported with mere prooftexts from the Bible.

::Fundamental Christians are commonly found to love their Lord and their brothers, but not their neighbors.


Reformission is a gather of the best aspects of each of these types of Christianity: living in the tension of being Christians and churches who are culturally liberal yet theologically conservative and who are driven by the gospel of grace to love their Lord, brothers and neighbors.