Prodigal Christianity Blog Tour- Signpost 7

“But all this prompts a very important question: Can we really seek Jesus all by ourselves apart from the practices of the church?”

Fitch, David E.; Holsclaw, Geoff (2013-02-01). Prodigal Christianity: 10 Signposts into the Missional Frontier (Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series) (Kindle Locations 3232-3233). Jossey-Bass. Kindle Edition.

I have been challenged, frustrated, and mostly thrilled by David Fitch and Geoff Holsclaw’s new book Prodigal Christianity: 10 Signposts into the Missional Frontier. The book picks up a conversation that has gone on for a decade or more and been brewing for about 2,000 years. You can read other posts in the Blog Tour series which began here and continued here, here, here, here, and here. It has been a great conversation already and I’m excited to join in. I was interested in the early Emergent conversation because key theological themes were actually being discussed in light of ministry today. Ancient sources were being accessed and discussed in dialogue with contemporary theologians, philosophers, and ministry leaders. It was exciting. But I lost interest in Emergent a few years ago when I stopped recognizing the Church as we find it in Scripture, history, and contemporary life in that conversation. Enter Prodigal Christianity. A book that seeks to refresh this conversation on missional terms: terms directly related to building/experiencing the Kingdom of God through the local church.

I’m a local church pastor and teacher of preachers. I find the combination inspiring. One thing I have become convinced of in the last twenty years is that worship (including preaching and the sacraments) is the key focal point for discipleship, evangelism, and mission. In fact, preaching and the sacraments are foundational to what it is to be the church. Forms and styles of worship aren’t really the issue. Worship in community feeds living the missional journey in community. The Communion Table, where we experience the Eucharist (often in response to proclaimed Word and as the culmination of worship) is the place where the Gospel collides with the Church (real people) and Grace empowers our mission. It is where we understand what God has done for us, what God offers us, and the fullness of Kingdom life, which God invites and empowers us to live. This is no place for “me and Jesus” theology or practice. We come to the Table together in obedience to Jesus’ invitation and we receive the Grace of God for mission. We are conscious of each other, our connection to believers around the world, those who have gone before us, those who will follow, and those who are not present but could be.

So for me, any conversation about the Church separated from local church practices, centered in worship, is an adventure in missing the point, to quote an early emergent author. That’s why I’m thrilled that Prodigal Christianity includes Signpost 7!

“The church is not merely the product of mission. Rather, the church is mission. In the same way that Jesus’s incarnation both proclaimed and made present the kingdom of God, so too the church proclaims and makes present the in-breaking of his kingdom. The church is nothing if not local, incarnational communities practicing the kingdom.”

Fitch, David E.; Holsclaw, Geoff (2013-02-01). Prodigal Christianity: 10 Signposts into the Missional Frontier (Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series) (Kindle Locations 3257-3259). Jossey-Bass. Kindle Edition.

Another key quote:

“These practices— the Lord’s Table, proclaiming the gospel, reconciliation, being “with” the least of these, being “with” children, the fivefold ministry, and kingdom prayer— have defined the church in the past. Unfortunately the church of the past has sometimes turned them into mere maintenance functions (or programs) for existing Christians. But as we hope to show, these inherently missional practices can be recaptured. In them, the kingdom becomes manifest visibly as a foretaste of the future. They shape us as Jesus’s body in the very middle of his mission.”

Fitch, David E.; Holsclaw, Geoff (2013-02-01). Prodigal Christianity: 10 Signposts into the Missional Frontier (Jossey-Bass Leadership Network Series) (Kindle Locations 3266-3270). Jossey-Bass. Kindle Edition.

I encourage you to read this book and dialogue with the authors. More importantly, wrestle with these epic theological questions in our present age. You will not agree with everything you read so you should discern God’s leading in community as always. But the authors point us to the right questions and more sustainable answers for our missional future. There is much at stake, but so much to be gained where we faithfully live our mission together by the Grace of our Ascended Lord.