Re-imagining mission for a spiritual age

1. Re-imagining mission for a spiritual age Exploring the history of mission amongst other spiritualities

2. Interpreting spiritual experience • It all depends on your worldview • Jesus the Magician? • How do people see us? • Unspiritual and Immoral? • Do we view others fairly? • Listening to others experience vital • Assume God is at work • Assume not all spirituality is God at work

3. The ancient Pagan world • Background – Eden and Fall, Babel and cultural difference - Abraham called to be the start of a new people expressing God’s mission for all creation • Themes in mission • The need to be distinctive • Discovering God from a Pagan background – Genesis 14 Melchizedek; psalms (eg 48 God bringing thunder from Zaphon), Isaiah, Daniel Job etc BUT there are not many gods but one God who is creator, enemy of chaos and giver of all needed for life. • Challenging idolatry and evil practice • Is YHWH a tribal god or God of all the nations? The experience of invasion and exile – Jeremiah ‘be a blessing to the land you are in’

4. Jesus, mission and other faiths • The Vision of the kingdom of God (cf Luke 5-8) • Radical values of inclusion leading to transformation and reversals of status – the sinful, the unclean, women, the non-Jew ( in spite of Jesus claim to only be sent to the ‘lost sheep of Israel’) • The use of parables • Making disciples who will make disciples • The parable of the sower (Luke 8) followed by sending of The 12 (Luke 9) and 72 (Luke 10) as Jesus has been sent (John 17) (apostolic church). To make disciples in all cultures (Matt 28) • Weakness and vulnerability the marks of the missionary • Sent to be the guests of those they are to witness amongst • Becoming as servants and children (Mark 9) • The small things leading to great change – mustard seed and yeast in dough

5. Crossing culture - The Early Church • In Jerusalem • The Pentecost Sermon to Jews Acts 2 • The Jerusalem church Acts 4 • The Hellenists – fresh insight & Persecution • In Judea and Samaria • The dispersal of the Hellenists • Philip – the Samaritans & Ethiopian Eunuch Acts 8 • To the ends of the earth • Peter and Cornelius Acts 10 • The Church in Antioch Acts 11 • The Gentile mission from Antioch

6. Jesus is the expected messiah who will fulfil the prophets and law He was killed as a sacrifice but rose He has been appointed judge and we must now change the directions of our lives We are all searchers after God The God of the universe doesn’t live in temples That God has set a day to judge the nations so we must now change the directions of our lives The judge will be Jesus who was raised from the dead Paul’s two sermons Jews …….and…….Greeks? Mission in Christendom is like Jewish Mission

7. Paul in Ephesus - Acts 19 • Move from Synagogue to lecture hall • What might be our equivalents? • The place of healings and miracles • How did these influence Paul's mission? • The conflict with Demetrius • Why did this conflict happen? • How had Paul treated Artemis worship?

8. Paul does ‘double-listening’ • Acts 14 – Lystra • After healing a crippled man the crowd think Paul and Barnabas are Hermes and Zeus. • Paul reasons from nature not scripture to explain his faith….and struggles to communicate • Acts 17 – Athens • Paul goes round the temples learning about Greek belief – we see the results in his address to the Areopagus. • He debates with the philosophers in the market place….and struggles to communicate – they call him a ‘spermalgos’ – someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about!

9. Paul and Paganism • Following the Jewish legacy • God can be found in Pagan religion but is revealed to be more than those religions show and not all of it is to be accepted. • This can be used to aid mission • eg Lystra, Athens Ephesus • The issue of food sacrificed to idols (I Cor 10) • ‘Give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many so that they may be saved.’ (vs 32-33) • The Roman approach to religion must be avoided

10. Incarnational mission – Phil 2 Jesus as part of Trinity All must kneel before him Takes on the form of those to whom he is sent God exalts him How might this passage influence our thinking on mission?

11. Incarnational mission – Phil 2 • We take off our current form and put on that of those we seek to reach and affirm their culture • We die to ourselves in incarnation in order to be obedient to God • God will use this to exalt Jesus • All must come to accept Jesus as Lord and this will involve challenging culture as people become like Christ.

12. The limits to incarnation 1 Cor 9:19-24 • Though free I have become a slave in order to win people (Philippians model) • As a Jew to Jews, as a Greek to Greeks • All things to all people so by all means I might save some. For the sake of the gospel… • But • As an African to the Africans…as a Goth to Goths…as criminal to criminals…as a prostitute to prostitutes? • Jesus like us in every way but without sin

13. Evangelism in the Early Church • Roman Church • Jesus as Orpheus • Villas become churches • Greek Church • Paul uses poetry to Zeus • Greek Philosophy ‘a schoolmaster for Christ’ Justin Martyr - Jesus as the Logos • Coptic Church • the image of Isis becomes Mary • Celtic and Saxon Church • pagan sites as worship centres, pagan festivals become Christian • Celtic Church - Jesus the Druid (Columba) • Germanic Church - the Heliand

14. Evangelism in Christendom • Christendom one faith one empire • If all citizens must be Christian Evangelism ends within empire • The problem of Christian lifestyle – St Augustine and Pelagius • Changing attitudes to other religions • The Synagogue in Callicium and Pagan apologetics – St Ambrose • The missions of Boniface and Willibrod • Mission beyond the empire • Saxon armies travel with monks • Synod of Whitby - the date of Easter; monks hair • conquest of Scandinavia becomes model for mission by military conquest

15. Evangelism in modernity • The Reformation • A response to corruption in Christendom and to the Renaissance • Initially not evangelistic except for the Anabaptists • Evangelism recovered in Christendom • Wesley inspired by Moravians and personal renewal • Individuals called to belief in a Christian country • Aimed at intellectual conviction and crisis conversion • Colonial expansion abroad • Mission by military or economic conquest • Christianity tied to western culture • 20th Century – Cross Cultural approach recovered in foreign mission • Building on legacy of Jesuits and William Carey • By end of century seen as normal in foreign mission

16. Incarnation and syncretism • A history littered with mistakes? • Israel - The Pagan notion of God fighting for his favourites • The Early Church - The Classical notion that we are spirits encased in bodies that are evil • Christendom - The Roman marriage of religion and state • Protestantism - Modernist notion of faith as intellectual assent • Other significant examples? • The good news is that God works in spite of our errors!

17. Incarnational mission To the spiritual seekers I became like a spiritual seeker……….. To the New Agers Like a New Ager…….. To the Pagans like a Pagan……. I have become all things to all people that by any means I may win some 1 Cor. 9:20-23 (adapted)