10.10.06

Church and Mission

Had a really good Fuel group last night. Lots of discussion and prayer on the Church. Here are some good quotes we came across:

"Any theology of the church must ultimatley be rooted in the being and acts of God: the Church is first and foremost the people of God, brought into being by god, bound to God, for the glory of God"

"It is not the church of God that has a mission in the world, but the God of mission who has a Church in the world"

"The mission of the church is the gift of particiapting through the Holy Spirit in the Son's mission from ther Father to the world"

"In a world of ever increasing social complexity the church cannot simply adhere to fixed traditional forms. It must reach more and more deeply into its own realities and dynamics within the purposes of God for the world, and invite the Holy Spirit to stir its heart, mind, soul and strength. If it does so, it will learnt o participate more fully in the energy of the Spirit of Christ by which God, through his church, is drawing all human society to its fulfillment in the kingdom of God"

(Taken from "Mission-shaped church"- sorry dont have individual references)

2 comments:

Jakes said...

"As fire exists as burning, so the church exists as missional"
- Emil Bruner

(Apparantly often misquoted "As the fire exists BY burning, so the church exists BY mission")

lucy ar said...

I have only heard the misquote. And misquoted it myself. Rats.

But both are pretty strong calls eh? Cos what it comes to is, if a church isn't doing mission/being missional by nature it doesn't have the right to call itself a church.