mbjones

While in Vegas, I did find the time to start and/or finish three different books. The best of those three is actually the third book in the Church and Postmodern Culture series called GloboChrist: The Great Commission Takes a Postmodern Turn. It is the best short book on missiology I’ve read since Transforming Mission by David Bosch.

Within its pages, it looks at what the great commission means in light of the postmodern, globalized world that we live in (including the challenges to it and how it can shine, if the great commission is going to mean anything in the next age). It starts with an exploration of postmodernity and globalization and what it means to religion in general and how Christianity specifically should adapt. What intrigued me about this exploration was its use of Derrida’s idea that globalization marked a return of religion but instead of that return being in the form of Christianity, it has instead taken the shape of radical Islam challenging global imperial powers (as once the early church did with Rome). His summation of how a global, postmodern Christianity should look follows from this: decentralized, deinstitutionalized and indigenous (where universal concepts are understood in the light of specific circumstance — the cultures we all find ourselves in).

The book moves on from there to discuss postmodern ways of doing mission, the importance of incarnation, and specifically what a global, postmodern Christianity looks like (beyond the brief definition in the beginning pages of the book). On top of that, one of the most interesting chapters of the book looks at the challenge Islam poses to the Great Commission (and globalization/westernization/etc). I had not really considered Islam heavily as a major contender to globalization (or necessarily as the religion that the world was looking to, although I knew this to be more and more the case). He claims nothing short of a radical reinvention of itself will allow Christianity to triumph over radical Islam.

Anyways — when everything is tired together, this is a fascinating and thought provoking read. If you are looking for a good book to read on missiology/evangelism (in a broad sense), this is definitely one worth picking up. It will probably stay as a high recommendation of mine for quite some time (and I hope to be able to explore it more in this space as well). 5 of 5 stars, easily.

As many of you probably are aware of, I leave for 3 weeks in South Africa on June 4th. My team and I are really excited and have expectations of seeing God work in miraculous ways. That sense (and particularly its urgency) has only been heightened due to recent events in South Africa, which you may or may not have heard about on the news.

Lately, there has been a lot of unrest among the poor population and violence has been breaking out over the past couple of weeks. At first, it was relatively isolated to Johannesburg, but recent reports put it elsewhere, including Cape Town where we will be.

Now, to hopefully quell any fears (and perhaps guide your prayers), here is what is going on:

• A xenophobic spirit has fallen on many living in the poor townships. As a result, they are actively seeking out and attacking foreigners living amongst them. There are two things to be aware of here: the foreigners being attacked are Africans living and working in the townships (From Somalia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Nigeria). While I haven’t heard much about the root causes, my best guess would be that it stems at least in part from the gloom of recession that has fallen over our globe. You may or may not recall protests over the rising costs of food in mid April. Then, they acted non-violently but as the reality of trouble has settled in, reactions have become violent against what they feel is threatening them. What seems to gel this thought in my mind is that the violence is being directed primarily towards foreigners taking local jobs (be they labor, as in mines, or mercantile, as in local shops).
• Note that violence has not been occurring against foreign aid workers or tourists.
• Also note that the government has stepped in and is working to quell the violence.
• And finally, be aware that the violence is contained in the townships. We will be going into one of these every day but not living here.

As we go, one of our team’s prayers is that God would embolden us to directly confront the violence in the hearts of man with the peace that Jesus brings. Crazy? Probably. Needed? Definitely. For the past few months, we’ve already been praying for understanding of the deep rooted issues affecting lives (economic woes, alcoholism, sickness, paganism, sexual brokenness, etc) and the ability to speak to these areas in meaningful ways. And two verse sections we’ve prayed through as a team are found in Isaiah 61 and Revelation 22, both of which I think speak to this as well:

61:1 The spirit of the sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has chosen me. He has commissioned me to encourage the poor, to help the brokenhearted, to decree the release of captives, and the freeing of prisoners, 61:2 to announce the year when the Lord will show his favor, the day when our God will seek vengeance, to console all who mourn, 61:3 to strengthen those who mourn in Zion, by giving them a turban, instead of ashes, oil symbolizing joy, instead of mourning, a garment symbolizing praise, instead of discouragement. They will be called oaks of righteousness, trees planted by the Lord to reveal his splendor. 61:4 They will rebuild the perpetual ruins and restore the places that were desolate; they will reestablish the ruined cities, the places that have been desolate since ancient times.

Isaiah 61:1-4

22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life – water as clear as crystal – pouring out from the throne of God and of the Lamb, 22:2 flowing down the middle of the city’s main street. On each side of the river is the tree of life producing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month of the year. Its leaves are for the healing of the nations.

Revelation 22:1-2

If you weren’t aware, the verses from Isaiah are the same as the ones Jesus uses to announce His ministry. As His disciples, we want to continue walking in His direction, bringing good news to the poor, helping the brokenhearted, decreeing release to captives and freedom to prisoners and announcing His favor over the people. Additionally, it is our prayer to see both healing and release from demonic oppression. I haven’t really mentioned it prior, but this last one I think is particularly important. Another piece of information that a lot of you may not know that concerns this is that Cape Town is considered a hub of pagan activity because of the so called “spiritual energy” there. Be it pagan and be it spiritual then it is most assuredly demonic and we’d prefer to see it replaced with the light of Christ.

Well, I stop for now. This has kind of been a long and rambling note but perhaps it gives an idea for how to pray for South Africa and my teams time there…

Apparantely Haiti is on the verge of a coup d’etat. Incidentally that’s where my brother and sister-in-law are ministering. And they like prayer (particularly in times like these…).

It’s been awhile since I last posted anything. Primarily that’s because life has been busy. As a quick update, here is just some of the things going on:

• I’m going to Capetown, South Africa for most of June. Last week I finished up and started mailing letters (still got a few to do). For those that I might not have addresses for and that don’t live in Norman, here is a copy of the letter: Support Letter.
• I finished Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren and They Like Jesus But Not The Church by Dan Kimball. I’ll try to get both reviewed soon (hopefully).
• I’m about 2/3 of the way through Exclusion and Embrace by Miroslav Volf (and I’m really enjoying it!).
• I’ve started mapping out some other post ideas as well, so helpfully this space will fill up with new content soon.

That barely scratches the surface but suffices as an update for the time being. More is coming soon (hopefully).

Last night was celebration at church (the once a month meeting where EVERYONE is together). Not only was it celebration, it was also the “celebration for the nations” where focus was directed towards Norman Community’s involvement with missions. The summer trips were announced (Rome and South Africa, the latter of which I will try to go on) and our pastor, Ken, talked about the nations as pearls of great price.

Specifically he drew from Matthew 13:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure, hidden in a field, that a person found and hid. Then because of joy he went and sold all that he had and bought that field.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he found a pearl of great value, he went out and sold everything he had and bought it.

Matthew 13:44-46

A couple of salient points:

• One major aspect of the kingdom of God is how the “nations” relate to it. In truth, the kingdom is made up of those from ALL nations, tribes and tongues. Other passages in the Gospels and elsewhere make this clear enough (Ken drew from Revelations 5 — and at the cost of your own blood you have purchased for God persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation — and there are many like passages)
• The pearl is not without a price. Truth be told, both analogies make clear that it costs pretty much all that we have and all that we are. The price is worth it though.

I’m excited about the prospect of going back to Africa this coming summer. I loved Mozambique and look forward to the possibility of spending time with Floyd McClung and his Capetown to Cairo vision team.