Baptized into Mission Experiments for a Post-Christendom World

Baptized into MissionExperiments for aPost-Christendom

World

What is Christian Mission?

1) Answer for yourself.

2) Share answer with a friendly stranger.

Baptized into MissionExperiments for aPost-Christendom

World

1. Mission Through the Ages2. Baptismal Call to Mission3. Missional Experiments

19th and Early 20th Centuries

Mission in the wake of the Enlightenment made sense.

Western churches and their missions – overseas, on the frontier, in the city

>The “Churches’ missions’

Middle of the 20th Century

Emerging global Christianity shifts theterrain

Mission as the central calling of the Church

>The “mission of the Church”

Emil Brunner:

“The Church exists by mission as fire exists by burning.”

Stephen Neil:

“The age of missions is at an end; the age of mission has begun.”

Johannes Hoekendijk

Evangelism (mission) “is often little else

than a call to restore ‘Christendom …

a flurried activity to save the remnants of

a time now irrevocably past.”

“Evangelization and churchification are

not identical, and very often they are

each other’s bitterest enemies.”

Late 20th and 21st Century

The mission of God, the missio Dei, is God’s action in the world to bring about God’s Reign.

The Trinitarian God has effected a new order in which all people and all creation can find unity with God and each other in Christ.

Review

From: The churches’ missions

To: The mission of the Church

To: The mission of God

The Book of Common Prayer (page 855)

The mission of God in which the Churchis privileged to participate is …

“to restore all people to unity with Godand each other in Christ.”

Our Baptismal Call toGod’s Mission

General Convention of 1835

All Episcopalians, by virtue of baptismand not voluntary association, aremembers of the Domestic andForeign Missionary Society.

Baptism is our “co-mission,” commission in God’s mission.

The Baptismal Covenant …

Orients us as to the nature of Godand God’s mission.

Shows us how we, the baptized, arecommissioned “co-missioned”into the mission of God in theworld.

The Baptismal Covenant …

First three questions affirm the reality ofa triune God who is creator,redeemer, and sanctifier.

The Trinitarian God is the start of our life in God’s mission.

The Baptismal Covenant …

Five post-Creedal promises showus how to participate withGod in God’s mission.

Worship

Will you continue in the apostlesteaching and fellowship, in thebreaking of bread, and in theprayers? …

I will with God’s help.

Forgiveness

Will you persevere in resisting evil,and, whenever you fall into sin,repent and return to the Lord? …

I will with God’s help.

Proclamation

Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God inChrist? ..

I will with God’s help.

Service

Will you seek and serve Christ in allpersons, loving your neighbor as yourself? …

I will with God’s help.

Justice Making

Will you strive for justice and peaceamong all people, and respect thedignity of every human being? …

I will with God’s help.

• Worship• Forgiveness• Proclamation• Service• Justice Making

Every follower of Christ, through baptismand in the power of the Holy Spirit, iscalled, individually and corporately topursue these ministries equally.

Missional Experiments in aPost-Christendom World

We find our life in God’s missionby virtue of our baptism in the name of the Trinitarian God.

The work of mission belongs tothe laos, as the people of God.

Stephen Neill:

“once everything is mission, nothing is mission.”

The essence of mission is the crossing offrontiers from the known to the unknown, from the safe to thedangerous, from the comfortable to theuncomfortable.

The spirit of mission thus involves risk.

Risking ourselves as agents of the Trinitarian God’s desire andreality of restoration andreconciliation for all people andthe whole world.

2013 Gallup Poll of Most“Irreligious States”

1. Vermont2. New Hampshire3. Maine4. Massachusetts8. Connecticut13. Rhode Island

Dwight Zscheile

“Failing forward”

“Missional Experiments”

At your “Mission Region” tables:

What “missional experiments” canYou imagine undertaking in yourRegion?

Be specific. Which baptismal promise?

Risk! It’s not about the church!