Steven

“Over the years, Midtown has remained present in the neighborhood, learned how to serve its neighbors, and exists for the neighborhood. However, with the demographic pressures facing many congregations, urban and otherwise, this does not seem to be enough. Shrinking budgets and aging members beg another question: Can Midtown learn presence with the neighborhood? This remains a critical question, not only for Midtown, but also for the broader field of missiology. When congregations remain within the neighborhood they seek to serve, they will find themselves shaped by the neighborhood in a variety of ways. Learning to live “in” and “for” an urban neighborhood necessitates presence with. Mission precipitates a crisis for congregations, where they learn to bear witness to the gospel not only by serving the neighborhood, but also by suffering in solidarity with it.”
― Scott Hagley, Eat What Is Set Before You: A Missiology of the Congregation in Context

“The reign of God that the church proclaims is indeed present in the life of the church, but it is not the church’s possession. It goes before us, summoning us to follow. The practical implications of this will be discussed in a later chapter. Here it is enough to say that the picture given us in the Acts is one that is constantly being reproduced in the missionary experience of the church. It is the Holy Spirit who leads the way, opening a door here that the church must then obediently enter, kindling a flame there that the church must lovingly tend.”
― Lesslie Newbigin, The Open Secret: An Introduction to the Theology of Mission

“In the postmodern West, people want to know more than how big the church is. They want to know whether the church has anything of substance to offer. They want to know whether the Christian God is impotent or indifferent. They want to know whether Christians are truly different; whether we are the called-out ones, sanctified and made perfect in love for God and ministry to one another and to the world. They want to know whether the church is a place of spiritual stagnation or genuine spiritual growth.”
― Jason E. Vickers, Minding the Good Ground: A Theology for Church Renewal

“As Jürgen Moltmann puts it, In the movements of the Trinitarian history of God’s dealings with the world the church finds and discovers itself, in all the relationships which comprehend its life. It finds itself on the path traced by this history of God’s dealings with the world, and it discovers itself as one element in the movements of the divine sending, gathering together and experience. It is not the church that has a mission of salvation to fulfill in the world; it is the mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that includes the church, creating a church as it goes on its way.”
― Jason E. Vickers, Minding the Good Ground: A Theology for Church Renewal