The Church speaks the language of mission but uses more than one dictionary. Eckhard J. Schnabel observes this matter when he writes, “Many exegetical studies on missions fail to indicate which notion of mission is used or presupposed” (Early Christian Mission: Jesus and the Twelve, 11). Consider even the most […]
Mission
Yesterday marked St. Patrick’s Day, a date commemorating the death (461 AD) of the missionary to Ireland. If you were tracking with me this week, then you have already received several of the links below in your social media feed. For those of you who were not. . . 🙁 […]
Patrick of Ireland: Resources for You
Elders are the most influential people when it comes to churches going to the nations. However, such pastors are busy and often so focused on established church ministry they do not take time to develop the needed apostolic imagination. In this episode, I share 14 thoughts to help church leaders […]
Apostolic Imagination: 14 Suggestions for Pastors
One of the courses I teach at Beeson Divinity School is Contemporary Issues and Strategies in Missions. It is usually offered as a January class and began again today. After twenty years of training pastors and church planters, I have noticed that many struggle in the area of strategic planning. […]
5 Practices of Strategic Leaders
I return to the discussion of the apostolic imagination in this episode. The majority of evangelicals do not subscribe to an evangelistic priority when it comes to the Church’s missionary activity. The priority is no priority. This is a recent development in history. As twentieth century theologians returned to the […]
Apostolic Imagination: Rethinking Priority
I have been posting a great deal lately on matters surrounding the definition of mission, missions, and missionaries. Much of this is due to my present book project. If you are new here and curious, let me encourage you to check out the following posts: If Everything is Mission Rethinking […]