5.10.2007

A New Kind of Missionary...

A couple years ago I read the book The Emerging Church by Dan Kimball. Kimball is the pastor at Graceland in Santa Cruz and is a leading voice among those seeking to reach the emerging and postmodern generations that the church seems to be missing in today's society. I was looking back over it today when I came across this section that I highlighted:

"Our (the United States) unchurched population is the largest mission field in the English-speaking world and the fifth largest globally...As we approach ministry to the emerging culture - a post-Christian mission field - we need to use the same approach we would employ entering a foreign culture. We cannot go on seeing ourselves simply as pastors and teachers; we need to see ourselves as a new kind of missionary. And we must train people in our churches to do the same. We must dream missionary dreams. We must bleed missionary blood. We must pray missionary prayers."

That makes me think of the words of Jesus:
The harvest is PLENTIFUL but the workers are FEW. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. - Matthew 9:37-38

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you really do understand the heart of the book and how we should be living missional lives every day. May we never forget that!

Dan