The Vegas Missional Outpost

What's in a name?

This has been the hardest idea to develop so far. CORE VALUES have been a piece of cake compared to this. Location has been a piece of cake compared to this. Preaching should be a piece of cake compared to this: picking a name for the church.

Let me explain by way of analogy. See, I would like to get a tatoo. I think tatoos are cool, missional, and can really add to one's persona. My buddy Kenny has a ton of tatoo's, and it makes him look like an even bigger bad ass. My buddy Wojo has tatoos that tell the story of his life. I have another friend who was saved by a parachurch organization and got the organization's logo right on his shoulder. This was great, until he decided he wasn't going on staff with them anymore. That, due to the fact that I would never get a logo for a tatoo, isn't my reason for not getting a tatoo. My reason lies with my wife's scrapbooks and photo albums. When looking back at photos of myself from 1, 3, even 5 years ago I keep asking myself questions like, "Why was I wearing that?", or "What in the world is wrong with my hair?" So quite frankly, the reason I cannot bring myself to get a tatoo is simple: I don't trust that I have good enough taste to last the test of time.

AND NOW I HAVE TO NAME A CHURCH THAT I PLAN ON BEING AT FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE.

Many churches have wished they thought more seriously after naming themselves after a particular street, and then moving to a different street. I know of Churches named after things that you would never find in that particaular area. I have seen churches here in Vegas whose logo has streams of water in it. "Where is that in this town?" I often wonder. This has all weighed very heavily on myself, and a few close friends as I have asked them to lend as many suggestions as possible. Before getting into my reasoning for picking a name (and the name for that matter) I would like to share some of the proposed names that
didn't make the cut:

- Jesus Church: while simple and to the point. It was decided that this would be confusing in a town with a high Mormon population.
- Christ Church: see above.
- Imago Dei: if only that one guy didn't write that one book, then we could totally steal this well fitting name.
- Penthouse Church: I personal favorite. This sprouted out of the "Upper Room" being mentioned. I tried to contexualize it by translating it to Vegas, but then it came out sounding like a brothel.
- Rock of Ages: this was my brothers selection. Don't get too weirded out, this will eventually be the name of his rock climbing gym.
- Pure Church: those of you familiar with this blog will understand where this came from. Those of you that aren't, CLICK HERE to read why.
- Light Church: At this point we were just taking club names and adding church to the end (how's that for missional). But at the end, I just kept thinking of Light Beer everytime I said Light Church. That is a connection I hope is never made with our church.
- Aduro Church: my wife said it was Latin for something spiritual, and she loved it. But everytime she said it I kept thinking she was saying "a burro church". Which, when translated from spanish to english means: ass church.

In the end there were two main factors that helped us choose a church name. MISSIOLOGY and THEOLOGY. We wanted the name to be catchy, culturally relevant, and easy to say.

MISSIOLOGY
Vegas loves the short one word names for things: PURE, LIGHT, TRYST, WYNN, BELAGGIO, PARIS, LOVE, "O", the STRIP, etc. So from the beginning we wanted our church to have a short, simple name that could easily roll off the tounge. So names like Emmanuel Baptist Church on 5th Street were out of the question. We were so particular about this that in the end, we would throw out any two word phrases to put before church.

THEOLOGY
Really, you want your church to have deep theological meaning. And since you are deciding on a name from nothing, this process requires a ton of praying and seeking scripture. Granted, this process made me realize why I am against topical sermons (decide what you want to preach on, and then find the verses to back it up), but in the end it proved very fruitfull.

THE NAME
"In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 2 Corinthians 4:4-6

When we examine the city of Las Vegas, we see many people of whom Satan has blinded their eyes from seeing "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ". In a city full of lights, most people are blind to the real light: God's glory shining in the face of Christ. This is why Jesus said he must be lifted up as Moses lifted the snake, so that his glory may shine, and that people would thusly be saved. Since this what we will be doing, our name should fit.

                                                               

DOXA

DOXA means "glory" in greek. By using the greek word for glory we are able to meet our missional qualifications for the name. It is short, sleek, easy to say, and very similar to the one word names already in use all over the valley. In this way we are also able to contain the bleeding heart of our mission in one word. We are very pleased to call ourselves DOXA Church. Well, unless there already is a DOXA Church, at which time we will just be DOXA, or DOXA Baptist Church of 5th Street.

Comming over the weekend: the CORE VALUES of DOXA

Drafting the BLUEPRINT

If you were to start a church what would it look like?

Where would you have it? Who would preach? What would they preach about? What kind of music would you have? How often would you do communion? Why? What would you call your church?

And another question, the most important in fact: why did you decide on these things? What were the convictions that made these your decisions?

These are all questions that, over the past few weeks, I have earnestly sought God for the answers. The reality is that there are very strong convictions that have brought my wife and I back to Las Vegas. What I have attempted to do over the past few weeks is flush those out into CORE VALUES. So that in this way, there will be four distinct CORE VALUES that determine everything the church does. They will determine the preaching, the community, the service, the impact, the details, the vision; EVERYTHING.

Over the next few days it is my desire to share here where these CORE VALUES have come from, and how they will shape the church community we are starting. To be specific, these core values will directly affect the church's MISSIOLOGY (how we live out our mission) and ECCLESIOLOGY (how we do church). A quick primer on the two, and some examples regarding the Vegas culture.

MISSIOLOGY: What will shape our mission?
On a large scale, world domination would be nice. But since Jesus is taking care of that when he brings his kingdom, like Paul, we'll just focus on a influential city. When determining what the mission to the city should look like, three questions can help form a basic framework:
- Where is God already working in the city?
Are there blatant forms of mindless or senseless worship? Is there a segment or part of the city that is becoming aware of its sin, and would be open to hearing about Jesus immediately? Are there openings in the nomenclature or media to discuss truth, or even God? Would the city consider itself spiritual, apathetic, or something else? Has God raised up specific persons of peace to help connect you to the culture?
- What about the city can we receive?
What forms of entertainment are generally neutral? Do people eat together? Other examples include: youth sports, recreation activities, art, music, marriage, community service, community awareness.
- What about the city must we reject?
A point must be made here that many times the church instead of just rejecting aspects of the culture has both rejected, separated, and condemned. To be very clear, our community will only reject, and will not separate from or condemn the culture. There is a huge difference between condemning, and calling people to repent. We believe in the latter. Some example of things we reject: We accept marriage, but we reject adultery and divorce. We accept men adoring naked women, as long as they are their wives and not strippers. We accept women making themselves beautiful, we reject low cut shirts and bandannas used as skirts. We accept people being in community, we reject swingers clubs. We accept that owning a home is a good, we reject shady real estate dealings. Our community cannot accept things that God does not accept, and we will trust that God will grant repentance to those in our community as we show them his kindness.

As we ask continually ask ourselves these questions in regards to our community, we have no doubt God will help shape our mission.

ECCLESIOLOGY: What will shape our church?
The long answer to the question would take up hundreds of pages, and by the time by-laws and memoirs are written, it probably will. The short answer is much more simple: Jesus.

The person and work of Jesus Christ will, more than anything, shape our church. Jesus said it best himself: “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Jesus here is calling himself Jacob's Ladder. He is saying that it is he that connects people to God. Since the entire point of church is to connect people to God, we might want to take what Jesus said seriously. With this is mind, our church will bring everything back to the person and work of Christ. Our preaching will always be brought back to Jesus. Our worship will always be brought back to Jesus. Our community will always be about Jesus.

Jesus defined his mission of connecting us to God even more narrowly: "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” And how did he accomplish his mission: "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus connects us to God through his atoning sacrifice on the cross. Whereby God's wrath was propitiated, all the filth and guilt of our sin was taken from us and put on Jesus, we were redeemed from our life of sin, we were justified in the sight of God, and all of this so that we could be reconciled to God. Because of this we will not lift up any Jesus other than the one who lived a sinless life, was crucified dead and buried, who rose to reign as King of Kings, and who is coming back to bring the Kingdom he purchased through all his work. A few points of how having this picture of Jesus shapes a church:
- communion is done weekly. This makes the cross central and the focal point  of everything we do.    Also, Jesus said to do this as often as we remember him, and we want to remember him often.
- we preach through the Bible. Since the entire Bible is about Jesus, and as Devin Hudson says, "there is a shadow of the cross over the entire Bible", preaching through books of the Bible should give us a big picture of Jesus.
There are obviously more factors, these two happen to be paramount.

A church plant hangs on it's MISSIOLOGY and ECCLESIOLOGY, and the missiology and ecclesiology depend on a good Christology (a right understanding of the person and work of Jesus). So, all that to be said, my aim is to be a close and learn as much as I can about Jesus, and let the church form from there.

Tomorrow I will discuss how all this plays into coming up with the CHURCH NAME. Which also means I will reveal the name for the church. I know you can't wait.

Matt

Christian Blogging

Here is a must read article my buddy Ryan Kearns has written on Christian blogging.

"Good grief. I am glad I don't read the web very much. I would sin with anger too much. "Roaring debate" !-- these people have too much time on their hands."
                                                                             John Piper

It has been some time since I have thrown a post up. Honestly I have just been bombarded in life over the last few weeks. Usually when this happens my natural instinct is just to go into survival mode and just try to keep my head above water each day. My semester has turned out to be quite back loaded and I am really paying the price for that right now. I have a few more weeks in which I really need to run hard and finish strong and then I can begin to catch my breath. In the midst of all this I have been trying to keep first things first and consistently hang out with Jesus. I have been praying a lot recently and just wanting God to stir my affections for him. My heart is easily hardened and when it is the rest of me suffers because I have stopped battling sin, replenishing grace, and finding rest in Jesus.

Along that note one of the most harmful things I think we can do at times is blog. This could be writing on one's own blog, as you try to think of something creative and funny to say. This could be reading blogs that you like/dislike/why the hell am I reading this? as doing so can take your focus away from the good works that God has prepared for you to do. And last you can even post comments on blogs, this is hardly ever goes well. I imagine it is a lot like what frat guys think when they have a one night stand with the crazy needy girl who they know they should stay away from. That night with the cheap beer flowing and the beer goggles in full effect you throw caution into the wind and say "ah this won't end so bad, in fact I think this will turn out well." This is foolish thinking. The frat guy wakes up in the morning with a raging headache wondering what the hell he just did, and a crazy girl who is making his life miserable. This can be like commenting on blogs especially if it is on something controversial. Then you are just asking for it. You may as well just schedule your STD test down at the free clinic right then.

Anyway, I am re-thinking blogging in many ways because of experiences like this. I have a few conclusions that I have come to. No matter what the form of communication that blogging is, automatically gives to people distorting and manipulating another person's words in order to make their point. Yeah yeah I know this should not happen on Christian blogs, but it does there more than anywhere else probably. On secular blogs you can just say "Hey F@#k you!" when you do not like what someone says. In the Christian blog world you have to be much more sly then that. You have to be passive aggressive make the other person out to be an idiot pull quotes out of their comment and then find ways to deconstruct them. Oh yes this is Christian blogging when it comes to controversial matters. In many ways I think I would just perfer the "F@%K you!" on a secular blog. These threads will then begin to just spiral out of control and fall way off course of what they were intended to discuss. One more thing unless you are bald guy in your fifties, and have a docile personality do not speak of being "generous" either. Giving people grace, and trying to really use our brains to understand what they are saying is too much to ask for.

So I conclude what should Christians who want to love Jesus and advance the Kingdom do? Well I think it to be unwise to just retreat from blogdom this is what the Amish and quakers do when they do not like how culture and its communication forms evolve, they just say, "Hey F&$k it, we are just going to make butter and wear overalls." Sometimes I think I can understand this mentality and wonder if it would be so bad to just be Amish. Then I remember that we can not run from the world and times that God has placed us in. Blogging is here to stay, it is a reality that we as pastors will have to interact and deal with for the rest of our lives and ministry. Yet I think since it is so hostile to good honest dialouge we should be slow to participate in the mayhem (I am mainly speaking to myself here.) Becasue blogging has this tendency to bring out the worst in a lot of Christians. There is no way half of us would say to another person face to face what we say on a blog. I think this should be a rule we try to abide by as we blog, "Would I say this to their face?" If we can answer yes then I think we are doing pretty good. There is much more to throw out there about this subject but this is just some stuff of the top of my head. I threw the Piper quote at the top because it made me realize that Piper does not even blog but still knows more about it than most of us who do, and because I could just imagine him dropping F bombs as he furiously rebutted stupid people all across Christian blogdom."

Amen Ryan, Amen.

Blessings,
Matt

PURE TUESDAYS

Every Tuesday my wife and I go clubbing. We get dressed up, leave the house around 9:30pm, and head to the PURE nightclub in Las Vegas. Why do we do this? A few reasons.

-Tuesday night is PURE's slowest night of the week, so the bartenders are required to have a certain amount of people show up on their guest list. Vicky's cousin and her boyfriend are both bartenders there, so we want to help her out and show her some love. This has given us a great chance to know her and her boyfriend better.
- Our vision is to reach all of those crazy young adults who go to PURE, and other clubs, with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is incredibly refreshing, humbling, and sad to have the sin of a generation on stage before our eyes (some Tuesdays have even involved tears).
- We listen to Mark Driscoll on the way down, so its kinda like church, like PURE Church (not to be confused with Thabiti Anyabwile's Pure Church). I reiterate; kinda.
- We usually spend the ride home praying for our city, hoping that God will help us understand the best way to contextualize the gospel to this city.
- The upstairs of the club is outside, and it is phenomenal to be all dressed up, next to my beautiful wife who is dressed up, out on the town.

All but the last reason have done nothing but enlarge our hearts for reaching this crazy city with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Last night Vicky and I were able to have dinner with her cousin and her boyfriend, and were able to pick their brain about all kinds of missiological information:

What time would a church service be best for someone like you?
"Probably between 2-4pm on Sunday. Right after we wake up, and it would be great. People could go to church, and then catch dinner after. That would help it become a routine for them."
- From Nick

Do you feel like church is relevant to you?
"Not really. It's too formal, and I feel dumb sitting in the back row with all these kids running around me"
- From Beth

So we are still prayerfully engaging this culture that we love, and still prayerfully considering how to best live out the gospel as a church one day. Please continue to pray that the Lord would give me wisdom, and keep me PURE, as we continue to love and serve this city. Also, if you live in Vegas and want to come out some time, shoot me an e-mail, and be a VIP for a night.

Preaching Jesus

Tomorrow I will preach on my favorite Bible verse 2 Corinthians 5:21. For me, this has been the hardest sermon to ever prepare for. See, I had the coin drop in regards to preaching the gospel this past week. I heard two different gospel presentations within 2 days of each other, and had the, "Oh, wow. I GET IT!!!" Tim Keller says we don't really get the gospel when we get saved, and we only perpetually grow in our understanding of it. Every athelete gets this. The marathon trainer who can't seem to get past 8 miles, then one day is able to do 13, and never looks back. The hitter who is having a hard time figuring out the difference between a two-seam and four-seam fastball, and then one day in a Ted Williams way, sees the difference, and never looks back. Or like my wife, who is now at a level of decorating that she would have never thought possible, yet she stills laughs at pictures of our first apartment (we had a construction themed bathroom!). Well, I had a moment like that this week while hearing the two gospel presentations.

The first presentation was a simple, and excellent exegesis of Romans 6:23. It went over the wages of sin, and the gift of eternal life. It was written out and plain to see, arrows were drawn connecting sin to death and life to God. No one could walk out of that meeting without a clear understanding of what the gospel was. This education on the gospel was great, and I nodded my head many times. I was glad that many young Christians, and non-Christians were there to hear that.

The second presentation was audio, was far from simple. It was long and drawn out, and carried many facets. One struck me like a 2x4. The pastor started in to my favorite Bible verse about Jesus becoming sin on the cross in our place. I have loved this verse for so long because it is the essence of the cross, and reminds me of the lengths Jesus went to to save me. The night I heard this presentation I was saved again. To explain it in the simplest way possible, the pastor made sin personal. Not just personal to me in a Bible thumping, finger pointing, guilt inducing way. Instead he was sitting there Bible thumping, finger pointing, guilt inducing my sin: onto Jesus.

Am I being clear? In this gospel presentation, all my sin was named by the pastor (he tried to name as many in the audience as he could gather), and was thrown not at me, but at Jesus. This made me not only aware of how personal my sin is and how guilty I am, but it made me aware of how my sin personally affects God. It made me aware of how my sin personally affected Jesus on the cross. I walked around in a daze that night. Actually, Vicky and I were visiting her cousin at the club PURE at Cesar's Palace that night. There were girls dressed pretty scandalously that night, and my wife repeatedly asked me if I was doing okay with that. Honestly, I couldn't get my mind off the fact that Jesus became a pervert to God in my place. That Jesus became an arrogant jerk who is mean to his wife, in my place.

He did this so that I might become, in him, the righteousness of God. So that I could be clean, and right with God. The implications of this have left the gospel much more that a theory that floats above my head all day. For a while now I have understood that the gospel needs to be central to my daily life. Now, when temptation comes I am reminded of Christ's willingness to become my sin, and become guilty in my place. It is God's kindness that leads us to repentance. And at the end of the day, this gospel realization makes God's love much more personal to me. "Christ died for me" now produces emotion in me when I hear it. "God so loved the world" makes me more emotional and responsive than ever before.

This has made sermon preparation much harder becuase one doesn't just wake up and run 13 miles easily. In reality, I have been much more aware of my sin, and the battle of my flesh has seemed much more real in the past few weeks. I am only 25, and I want to preach like men who have walked with Jesus for 20-30 years. Men who have walked the darkside of their depravity, have learned to repent, and who are personally close to Jesus as a result. These men can preach Jesus personally becuase of the road they have walked. I have prepared my sermon this week in the midst of learning the gospel deeper, and deeper. I don't have 20 years of scars, I only have 7. Nevertheless, Jesus still became the sinner I am on the cross, and the tomb has been empty for 2000 years.

My prayer is that I would be able to preach the gospel tomorrow in a way that makes sin personal to my hearers. So that Jesus death on a cross in their place becomes more personal. So that God's love towards them becomes immensely personal. After all, Rick Warren says we are meant to be best friends with God. That's pretty personal.

Matt

On Mission - Just Like Jesus

Let's talk about the Incarnation for a minute.

You know, the incarnation of Jesus Christ. The event in human history when God left heaven, was born to a virgin in a town where every loves Toby Keith and Skoal, lived for roughly thirty-three sinless (and righteous for that matter) years, to seek and save the lost. Let's talk about that.

Here in Jesus, whose mission was "to seek and save the lost" we have our prototype for incarnational mission work. We have the ultimate example of someone leaving a comfortable place for a tough place in order to see the gospel change a culture. Only in this case that someone is God, that comfortable place is where he dwells in sinless harmony of the Trinity, that tough place is our world (filled with ghastly people like liberals and right wingers), and that culture is the entire world. Really if our idea for incarnational ministry is founded in anything other than the person and work of Jesus Christ, it is at best incomplete, and at worst incredibly damaging for the sake of the gospel.

We can talk up and down about how Jesus did incarnational ministry. How he lived in an industrial town, so he swung a hammer for a few years. How he used common examples for the kingdom of God. Things such as seeds, plows, sand, vineyards, and so forth. How he ate and hung out with the marginalized and poor. How he taught in the religious institutions. How he used public speaking, small group, and one on one forms of teaching. How he chose to live in a specific culture (Jewish), and practice that cultures traditions (but never in a legalistic way), so that he could save a group of people in that community. In all of this Jesus is our great example of incarnational ministry.

There is a great aspect of Jesus' incarnational ministry that is often overlooked. A part that is so foundational, that if missed or marginalized, one's attempt to be incarnational to a specific culture with the gospel will fall short. Theologians have rightly asserted that Jesus was our example of what it means to be spirit-filled in sharing the gospel and interacting with the culture. What is often neglected when referring to how Jesus did incarnational ministry is his motive. What was his motive for seeking and saving the lost? What motivated Jesus to leave the fellowship of the Trinity, come to earth to seek and save a people who didn't want anything to do with him in the first place? If Jesus is our example in how we do ministry, and for being empowered for ministry, then he must also be our example in what motivates us to do ministry!

So what is the motive? The answer comes to us in the Gospel of John,

"My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work."

Quite simply, Jesus was sent by God to do a specific work. Accomplishing this was the food of Jesus. This was not simply a motive, but it was what he hungered for. The only thing that could satisfy Jesus is accomplishing what God has sent him to do. For those of us who seek to do incarnational ministry just like Jesus, this has serious implications:

1. Like Jesus, you must be called of by God.
Ministry is not a profession. Recently a pastor friend of mine laid out for me a great ten year plan for me to plant a church. He talked about me getting my feet wet in ministry, paying my dues, and working my way up the corporate church ladder. I have another friend who is getting his seminary degree so that he will have the most career options in the pastorate. Now don't get me wrong, paying your dues, and a good Bible education are absolutely vital for the man who wants to be incarnational like Jesus. Yet they are nothing more than extra pieces of flair on the 35 year old TGIFRIDAY'S worker, if God has not called you. Before jumping into ministry, like Jesus, you must have a clear sense of calling from God (usually a specific call to a specific place). If not, then what is your motive? What is your food?

2. Like Jesus, you must lift up the Scriptures
"My teaching is not mine, but is his who sent me." You must be a Bible guy who elevates the Scriptures. It is God's word that changes people. More than best practices, more than lofty speech, more than feel-good self-improvement talks, it is the word of God that changes people. Everyone wants to have the next cool theology. Be the next Andy Stanley, the next John Eldredge, or Mark Driscoll. How about just being a Bible guy. It was good enough for Jesus, it should be good enough for you. If you spend more time learning new ways to be incarnational, to be a good leader, or to do church in your culture, then you will ultimately fail in all of those areas. If you aren't, like Jesus, a Bible guy, then you are not going  to truly be incarnational, or effective.

3. Like Jesus, you must love the glory of God above all else
"The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory, but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood." When it comes down to the nitty gritty, the glory of God must be the chief motivating factor in all you do. This will ultimately be what motivates you to be a Bible guy. This will be what allows you to be close enough to Jesus to hear his call on your life. Those who know they are called by God have piles of verses that confirm that calling, and they are humbled by them. Their motivating factor is the glory of God, because they know that when it is, then God will use them to reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you truly want to be incarnational, like Jesus, and the glory of God is not your bedrock of factors, then unlike Jesus, you will fail to be incarnational and save people.

Jesus is our great example of how to enter a culture and influence it with the gospel. My prayer is that for myself, and for you, that we would be motivated by the same things Jesus was motivated by.

Blessings,
Matt

Make This Book Happen

No one has affected my idea of missiology more than Ed Stetzer. Ed is pretty much the man when it comes to having a Biblically sound idea of being a missionary to North America. Well hey, don't just take my work for it:

"Ed Stetzer is one of the best informed, practically minded, and field tested church planters that I know." -Rick Warren, author of Purpose Driven Life.

"Ed Stetzer has written the new standard in church planting books." -Steve Sjogren, author of Conspiracy of Kindness

Probably Ed's best stuff on doing Missiology in the North American culture is his new book, Breaking the Missional Code. I have been deeply affected by what is in that book, and by his teaching at the Reform and Resurge conference this past spring. The book basically serves on a primer for missiology, and gives a basic application process for those desiring to be missionaries to cities in North America.

Well this is pretty convenient for myself and lead planter of Grace Point Church Devin Hudson, because both of us  consider ourselves missionaries to Las Vegas. Devin and I met at the Reform and Resurge conference, and most of our conversation then, and ever since is how to take the unchanging gospel of Jesus Christ, to the crazy culture of Las Vegas.

I couldn't have been more excited when Devin told me he wanted me to make Breaking the Missional Code a reality in Las Vegas. This means that I will be spending a ton of time doing interviews, research, and praying, as we figure out everything we can about the Vegas culture. Our hope is that this Will result in AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLY HEARING THE GOSPEL IN A CULTURALLY RELEVANT ENVIRONMENT, so that AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE MIGHT MEET JESUS IN LAS VEGAS.

Yeah Baby.
Matthew Hudgins

 

What is Missiology?

What is Missiology?

It is very important to define missiology, primarily because it is my new job. For the last decade or so it has been the trend in churches to call "ever member a minister". Lately, the trend has been to call every member a missionary. If a church goers considers themselves a missionary to their neighbors and co-workers, that person is considered missional. But what is Missiology?  Simply put: Missiology is the work a minister does as he considers himself a missionary to the city?

North American Church planters have recently been taking their cues from the foreign mission field. That is, when they come into a city they realize two things to be true right off the bat. 1. They have an unchanging gospel that God has called them to share with a specific culture, and 2. The specific culture God has called them to is not the same as the culture they have come from. Because they come in with this mindset, they don't try and replicate the First Baptist Church of Savannah, Georgia in Botswana. "Well of course they wouldn't!", you say. Let me ask you this question, "How similar are the cultures of Montgomery, Alabama and Oakland, California."

Saint Paul said that he became all things to all peoples so that he might win as many people do Jesus as possible (1 Cor. 9). It must be noted that even though these people Paul is talking about lived in the same countries, they had different cultures that required different ways of contextualizing the gospel. The best examples of this are found in Acts, when Paul shares the gospel with Jews and then when he shares the gospel with Greek philosophers. In examining Paul's contextualization of the gospel to the Greeks three things stick out: 1. Paul spent time studying the culture of the city, 2. Paul became aware of the cultural influencers such as the theater, 3. Paul was able to take the unchanging gospel and share it by referencing city monuments, and Greek plays, but not the Old Testament (which he quotes several times when sharing the gospel with the Jews).

Doing Missiology is doing what Paul did in Athens. It is going into a city without pre-conceived notions. It is examining the culture of the city, the things that influence the city, and the people who live in the city. Pastor Mark Driscoll says a missionary must ask three questions when examining the city God has called him to reach; 1. What can we receive? 2. What must we reject? 3. What can we redeem? (Missional Ministry, 6.11.2006). Things that can be received are things such as musical instruments, buildings, people, and technology. Things that must be rejected are polygamy, spousal abuse, drinking goats blood, and country music. Things that we must redeem are the family, sex, how we eat, people, the image of God. A good missionary knows that in every city there is a unique culture that God is working in, and it is his job to connect the gospel to that culture.

This is why church planting is focusing on Missiology.

Matt Hudgins