Church and Its Vocation , livre ebook

Cover
Endorsements
“Goheen’s introduction to Newbigin’s missionary ecclesiology is the resource ministers and churches today need. It is all here: the Bible for the people of God, the gospel in a pluralist society, healthy church structure, biblical church leadership, differentiating mission from missions, the shape of real ministry, and the future hope of the church. A towering theological light in the twentieth century, Newbigin casts a rich theological vision of the church that is biblically rooted, centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ, deep, reflective, and immensely practical. Goheen has spent a lifetime learning from Newbigin, and this fruit of his labor is for the good of the church.”
— Heath A. Thomas , Oklahoma Baptist University
“There is no theological voice more necessary to today’s world than Lesslie Newbigin’s. And I can think of no one more able to represent Newbigin to the twenty-first century than Mike Goheen.”
— Tyler Johnson , Redemption Church, Arizona
“Once again, Newbigin is a prophetic voice during a turning point in the history of the church. Newbigin’s vision for the church brings fresh direction, vision, and purpose for the church in our increasingly secular world. Newbigin’s work is profoundly relevant and an essential read for all who want to regain their passion for the church’s mission in the world. Goheen’s book masterfully and thoughtfully brings Newbigin’s ecclesiology to life for ‘such a time as this.’ Many books pick up parts of Newbigin’s ecclesiology— missio Dei , public theology, emerging church, etc.—but this book places each of these discussions into the context of the whole of Newbigin’s vision for the church. Goheen brings together the flow of Newbigin’s ecclesiology from several sources, starting in the biblical narrative and rooted in Christology, to highlight the missional purpose of the church for restoration and shalom. Goheen’s thorough treatment of key themes enriches current discussions on the direction and purpose of the church in the world. This is a must-read for anyone who wants a fresh, relevant, challenging vision for the church today. The most exciting and thought-provoking book I have read all year!”
— A. Sue Russell , Asbury Theological Seminary
“In this important book, Goheen channels his love and deep knowledge of Newbigin into a clear and compelling systematic reflection on the church as missionary. This is a must-read for every missiologist and ecclesiologist and for anyone who has been captivated by Newbigin’s generous spirit and powerful intellect. Today’s church and the church of the future must be missionary—the gospel demands it, and the world needs it. Leading us through Newbigin’s many works, Goheen shows how it is possible.”
— Steve Bevans, SVD , Catholic Theological Union
“Goheen effectively captures Newbigin as a passionate thinker, communicator, and leader. The fact that Newbigin continues to be read and discussed two decades after his death testifies to the continuing force of his vision, ideas, and convictions. Goheen mines Newbigin’s voluminous writings and presents the major themes that compose his dynamic ecclesiology, which is rooted in his vision of God’s mission to the world. The biblical narrative—the election of Israel, the incarnation, Christ’s death and resurrection, the commissioning of the disciples to follow Jesus Christ in his mission to the world, living toward the eschaton—invites the participation of all disciples. In each generation the church must discover its vocation, under the lordship of Christ, as a witness sent into the world. The many years Goheen has invested in thorough study of the Newbigin literary oeuvre yields rich insights in this book.”
— Wilbert R. Shenk , Fuller Graduate School of Intercultural Studies
“Goheen is a superb interpreter of Newbigin. In this inspiring and highly readable book, Goheen invites us to rediscover Newbigin’s missional ecclesiology for this generation. This book makes a convincing case that Newbigin’s responses to crucial questions—What is the gospel? What must we be as God’s people? How should the church encounter Western culture?—speak to the church today more than ever. I appeal to pastors, students, teachers, and local church leaders: read this book! It will shape your understanding of the church’s missional vocation in the world.”
— Dean Flemming , MidAmerica Nazarene University
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2018 by Michael W. Goheen
Published by Baker Academic
a division of Baker Publishing Group
PO Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakeracademic.com
Ebook edition created 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-1584-7
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture quotations labeled KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Dedication
To Marnie, Erin, Ben, Brittany, and Brielle with affection and gratitude
Contents
Cover i
Endorsements ii
Title Page iii
Copyright Page iv
Dedication v
Foreword N. T. Wright ix
Preface xiii
Introduction 1
1. The Biblical Story as Universal History 15
2. The Good News of the Kingdom and the Missionary Church 41
3. The Missionary Church and Its Vocation in the World 67
4. The Missionary Church and Its Life Together 105
5. A Missionary Encounter with Culture 137
6. A Missionary Encounter with Western Culture 163
7. Lesslie Newbigin’s Legacy for Today 197
Index 217
Back Cover 221
Foreword
N. T. W RIGHT
Like many, I have personal reasons to be grateful to God for Lesslie Newbigin. I don’t remember which occasion it was when I first met him, but he was already a legend in his own lifetime; I was like a teenager suddenly meeting a rock star. He had, after all, been a missionary in India, working through all the issues of missionary theology and praxis, and had been secretary of the body that drew up the founding charters of the famous ecumenical experiment we know as the Church of South India. I think Lesslie quietly relished the fact that he, a lifelong Presbyterian, was called to be a bishop: God’s sense of humor, he might have said, or (perhaps better) the way in which the sovereign grace of God overrules our small human attempts at organization. He had been involved in the founding of the World Council of Churches (in the heady days after the Second World War when people were looking for signs of new hope) and had sat around the table with Karl Barth and others. And, being Lesslie, he was completely unaffected by it all. Quite short in stature, but with a strikingly handsome face and a quiet composure and poise, he was the very antithesis of the highly strung, self-promoting rock star. He gave every impression, not that he had gotten life figured out, but that he knew God had it figured out and that he was totally content just to trust him.
Mike Goheen, in this fine study that opens up the heart and breadth of Lesslie’s thought, has told the story of how I had invited Lesslie to preach in Worcester College Chapel, Oxford, and how his mere arrival that evening transformed my mood from one of nervous anticipation of the new academic term to one of readiness for the challenges and possibilities that would come. I remember telling that story to a friend who had worked in India, in the area where Lesslie had served as bishop. My friend at once told me that in that part of India one could go from town to town and admire a school, a hospital, a church building, only to be told, “Bishop Newbigin encouraged us to build this, and told us who we should employ to get it done.” Lesslie was, in other words, a walking model of the theological truth that lay behind all he did: a quiet confidence in the sovereignty and loving purposes of God, not such as might make you sit back and shrug your shoulders, but such as would make you think that it was therefore going to be a good idea to discern your own vocation within that purpose and steadily set about whatever tasks such a vocation might entail.
This same doctrine of divine sovereignty undergirded Lesslie’s sense (strongly reinforced by his reading of Michael Polanyi) that if all truth was God’s truth, then there was no area of life over which human research could claim absolute rights; in other words, there was no such thing as neutrality or “objectivity,” no such thing as a God’s-eye view of reality available to us. All the truth we see, in whatever sphere, comes with strings attached: worldview strings having to do with our own motivations and mind-sets, and not least with our wider culture. In the wrong hands, this might have meant the collapse of all truth statements into a subjective morass. But with Lesslie’s strong view of the world as God’s creation and all human vocations as located within God’s purposes, it meant that all human research would ultimately belong within the celebration of God’s good creation and the humble obedience to his redeeming purposes. I well remember the anger expressed by one chemistry professor who heard Lesslie preach on that occasion in Worcester College Chapel and felt that his own professional integrity as an “objective” scientist was being undermined. Interestingly, it was his fellow scientists, atheists all, who put him right. Yes, the experiments can be repeated on the other side of the world; but, excuse me, why were we doing these experiments in the first place? It doesn’t take long to get back to the culture-conditioned h