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The Kingdom of God and Holistic Mission

The Kingdom of God and Holistic Mission. IWMC 2016 Michael Goheen Surge and MTC, Phoenix. A glimpse at the staggering social and economic misery. 30,000 children die each day due to poverty 854 m. do not have enough to eat Gap between rich and poor is growing HIV-AIDS epidemic

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The Kingdom of God and Holistic Mission

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  1. The Kingdom of God and Holistic Mission IWMC 2016 Michael Goheen Surge and MTC, Phoenix

  2. A glimpse at the staggering social and economic misery • 30,000 children die each day due to poverty • 854 m. do not have enough to eat • Gap between rich and poor is growing • HIV-AIDS epidemic • Organised crime’s involvement in human trafficking, sex ‘industry’ and drugs rake in $1 trillion/year • Escalating war and proliferation of arms race

  3. A glimpse at the staggering social and economic misery • Mass migration caused by conflict, natural disasters, and poverty • Gender inequality leaving women vulnerable to violence, illiteracy, and poverty • Terrorism and escalating violence • Crisis in education and healthcare globally in conjunction with Third World debt • Two overwhelming crises that threaten planet: nuclear and environmental

  4. A glimpse into the staggering need for conversion to Jesus • Soaring population • Resurgent growth in world religions • Global spread of confessional humanism into urban areas of world • Only a third of the world’s population confesses the Christian faith at all

  5. Burning need for the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole person in the whole world!

  6. Obligation to bring gospel in word – evangelism! Obligation in deed – mercy and justice also?

  7. Challenge of the biblical story • Gospel of the kingdom • Much talk today of being ‘gospel-centred’ • Yet often reductionistic, individualistic, and otherworldly gospel • Gospel Jesus preached very different • Mark 1.14-15: Good news! God is acting in love and power in Jesus and by the Spirit to restore all of creation and all of human life to again live under his rule.

  8. Challenge of the biblical story • Gospel of the kingdom • Mission of Jesus • Announced the kingdom with his words • Demonstrated the kingdom with his deeds • Formed people to live as kingdom community and participate in his mission ‘As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ (Jn 20.21)

  9. Challenge of the biblical story • Gospel of the kingdom • Mission of Jesus • Nature of salvation • Restoration of creation/human life, not salvation out of it • Comprehensive, not simply human soul or individual people

  10. Very often people have come to the New Testament with the presumption that ‘going to heaven when you die’ is the implicit point of it all. . . . They acquire that viewpoint from somewhere, but not from the New Testament. • - N. T. Wright

  11. Comprehensive salvation in Luke • Economic • Political • Social • Physical • Religious/spiritual

  12. Challenge of the biblical story • Gospel of the kingdom • Mission of Jesus • Nature of salvation • Role of the church • Distinctive people in a particular cultural context for the sake of the nations • Foretaste, instrument and so a sign of kingdom • Church as gathered and scattered community • Witness to kingdom in life, word, deed: Be the gospel, say the gospel, do the gospel

  13. Conclusion: The church will be a community that makes the good news known in life, word, and deed across the whole spectrum of human life. This certainly includes commitment to pursuing mercy and justice.

  14. The mercy and justice we seek • Two theological pitfalls • Quietist withdrawal: Separate kingdom from history; salvation becomes individualistic and otherworldly • Uncritical triumphalism: Identify kingdom with history; ‘build God’s kingdom’ or ‘transform or redeem culture’

  15. Already-not yet coming of the kingdom • It is present. Already here: Matthew 12.28, Luke 7.21-23 • It is future. Not yet fully here: Matthew 7.21

  16. Rabbinic Expectation Messiah & Spirit Knowledge of God Love Joy Justice Sin Death Evil Satan OLD AGE AGE TO COME

  17. Gospels Powers of sin death evil Satan Power of Spirit’s renewing work in Jesus OLD AGE AGE TO COME

  18. Pauline Understanding Powers of sin death evil Satan Power of Spirit’s renewing work in Christ OLD AGE AGE TO COME

  19. The mercy and justice we seek • Two theological pitfalls • What do we hope to achieve with our lives and deeds of mercy and justice? • Threefold lens to view mercy and justice • Character of witness to presence and power of the kingdom • Hope in action • Enacted prayer for coming kingdom • Signs of the coming kingdom

  20. The mercy and justice we seek • Two theological pitfalls • What do we hope to achieve? • Threefold lens to view mercy and justice • Character of witness to presence and power of the kingdom • Expression of love and compassion

  21. The works of mercy, of healing, of liberation – all are part of the breaking in of a new reality. They are parts of it and therefore signs of it. . . . Jesus’ deeds of love were not part of a contrived programme with some ulterior purpose: they were the overflowing of love which filled his whole being. Just so, the Church’s deeds of love ought to be – not contrived signs but natural and spontaneous signs of the new reality in which we have been made sharers through Christ (L. Newbigin).

  22. The mercy and justice we seek • Two theological pitfalls • What do we hope to achieve? • Threefold lens to view mercy and justice • Character of witness to presence and power of the kingdom • Expression of love and compassion • Relieve the suffering (mercy) • Dismantle the structures (justice) • Long for conversion of person

  23. The mercy and justice we seek • Two theological pitfalls • Threefold lens to view mercy and justice • Character of witness to presence and power of the kingdom • Expression of love and compassion • More justice in the world • Transformation? • Proximate and penultimate • Part of our mission: confront structures

  24. Paul’s View of Evil

  25. Calling of the church • Be a communal sign itself of the justice and mercy it seeks • Justice and mercy initiatives from the local congregation • Vocations of believers

  26. For Newbigin it was lay Christians, in the context of their daily occupations and professions, that played a crucial role in communicating the public truth of the gospel in our culture. Because of this he was particularly concerned for the effective and ongoing equipping and support of lay Christians in their daily lives. Notwithstanding the various impressive ‘Christians at work’ initiatives around the world, I don’t think that this challenge has really been taken on board by pastors, theologians, Christian educators and Christian leaders in the professions. . . .

  27. Many Christians in professional occupations are godly, honest and caring people in their personal dealings with others, but they default to being technocratic humanists at a cognitive level. Given the enormous societal upheavals that are about to befall the planet, the human community will desperately need Christian community organisers, food producers, doctors, engineers, peacemakers, counsellors, inventors (to name just a few) inspired by the love of Christ and the public vision of God’s peaceable universal kingdom. - Ian Barnes

  28. What about parachurch organisations? • Arose where the church has not been faithful • Arose to meet specialised needs • Recovery of centrality of congregation in God’s story • How do they relate to congregation which is God’s chosen agent for mission in the world? What is their role in God’s story?

  29. What about parachurch organisations? • Thank God for faithfulness and become involved • Yet problems arise when separation: • Congregation does not own mission and can become concerned only with members • Nature of social action as sign pointing to gospel can be blurred when it doesn’t flow from congregation rooted in gospel • Need for agencies to enable, coordinate, train, challenge congregation with task

  30. If the church is to be faithful, there is a need to recover . . . . . . a willingness to suffer . . . a deepened spirituality

  31. . . . if the church is indeed to be Jesus’ agent in bringing his whole agenda to his whole world, it needs his own Spirit. Indeed, if the church attempts to do what has to be done without constantly seeking to be filled and equipped by Jesus’ own Spirit, it is committing blasphemy each time it opens its mouth. This is not a plea that all Christians should enlist in the charismatic movement.

  32. Rather, it is a plea that all Christians, particularly those involved at the leading edge of the church’s mission to bring healing and renewal to the world, should be people of prayer, invoking the Spirit of Jesus daily and hourly as they go about their tasks, lest they be betrayed into the arrogance of their own agendas or into the cowardice of relativism. - N.T. Wright

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