I think I have been a member of the Evangelical Missiological Society for 24 years. In 1988, Donald McGavran extended a challenge to David Hesselgrave to start an evangelical, missiological, academic society to address contemporary issues related to the advancement of the gospel throughout the world. Missiology had morphed to […]
Donald McGavran
In this post, I continue my Apostolic Imagination series with some thoughts on rethinking purpose and missions. You may find the previous two posts HERE and HERE. Biblical Purpose is in Biblical Language As long as we continue to use extra-biblical language to describe the work of the Church, we […]
Apostolic Imagination: Rethinking Purpose and Mission
The further we move away from biblical language to describe our actions, the greater the likelihood our actions will move away from biblical purposes. The further we move away from biblical models to guide our actions, the greater the likelihood our actions will move away from biblical purposes. Without the […]
Time to Stop Talking about Missions and Church Planting?
Language is powerful. Language communicates meaning. Language delivers theology. Language is supported by theology and language shapes theology. What we say means something–something more than just words. If I write the word “church,” you immediately have something in mind. This something may be a group of people, the called-out ones. […]
Time to Do Away with Missions?
What if the unreached people groups in our communities helped determine the international locations of some of our future short-term and long-term teams? A brother recently told me about a friendship developed in Birmingham with a man from Nepal. He shared the gospel with this man and their relationship continued […]
Your Bridge to the World may be in Your Backyard
Donald McGavran was one of the most influential missiologists of the twentieth century. He was a paradigm breaker and a paradigm shaper. He called the Church from one model to a new way of thinking about making disciples of all nations. While a doctoral student, I read most of his […]