Dan Kimball seeks understanding of NonChurch folks, what about NonChurch Christians?

<p > </p >
Three quotes from Dan Kimball, author, from his book, 




They like Jesus 


but not the Church.

There is a lot of freedom that I believe the Scriptures give us in terms of how we go about being the church on mission. As we began listening to local people like a missionary would, we realized that we would need to break a lot of stereotypes about church and Christians and build trust. Santa Cruz is an extremely liberal and progressive town with younger adults and university students who don't have too much favor towards the church and Christianity. <p > </p >


"[T]he whole 'emerging church' world became understandably confusing, and I even stopped using the phrase." <p ></p>


A church can call themselves missional -- an author can even write about missional -- but I want to hear stories about how this is lived out. What are the names and stories of non-Christians who are in the lives of leaders?"<p ></p>

how about:

They like Christians

but not the Church.

For a video on Kimball's theme, go to refWrite's YouTube collection yUT2ube.


For a view that rabidly hereticizes Kimball, see here.




'NonChurch Christian' does not mean anti-Church Christian (not necessarily, altho some may use the phrase that way instead of as a simple honest descriptor); nor does it mean this position is permanent, nor perceived as normative, for a person stancing herself / himself this way.  It's not another sect, nor churchly ideology.   For a person of reformational Christian convictions it does  not exclude the possibility of participating in organized Christian witness and service thru Christian organizations at work in various spheres of life outside that of the institutional churches. 


Me?  I love the Lord Jesus Christ, but I'm outside all institutional churches for the time being, for the meanwhyld.


-- posted by Owlb

March 4-5 a missional event bringing together the themes of ''Reformed'' and ''Charismatic''

January 14th, 2011

Terry Virgo's Blog

http://blog.terryvirgo.org/reformed-charismatic-missional-conference/

Reformed Charismatic Missional Conference

I am delighted to be speaking alongside Jeff Vanderstelt (vice-President of Acts 29) and Elliott Grudem (from Mars Hill) at aconference combining some fascinating Biblical themes. Some would argue that ‘Reformed’ and ‘Charismatic’ could never live together, but I am reminded of an event in the life of the Apostle Paul when, confronted with the challenge of Corinth, a hostile city, he was encouraged by God not to be afraid, but to go on speaking.
\
I have many people in this city
It’s fascinating to see the combination of Reformed, Missional and Charismatic in this encounter. Paul was wonderfully strengthened by God with the promise that He had many people in the city. It might be asked, how God could say in advance that He had people in a city that Paul had barely started evangelising? But those who embrace the wonderful Reformed doctrine that salvation is of the Lord will be confident, knowing that God himself foreknows whom He will call and those who are ordained to eternal life. He can encourage Paul that, if he will continue to evangelise, God’s elect will be awakened by the gospel and will respond. Paul is ultimately a servant of God, and God’s purpose was to call from death into life those He had foreknown in Corinth.

If God does it, we can relax!But of course it is often argued that if we emphasise that it is God who saves we will encourage passivity in the church and cultivate congregations who neglect evangelism. If God is going to do it anyway why should we worry? Happily that was not the Apostle Paul’s response. Rather the opposite, Paul was encouraged by the certainty that God would act in partnership with him in saving the elect.

He found fresh courage to stay on in a hostile city for another year and a half preaching the good news about the Lord Jesus. Paul’s faith in God’s sovereignty in no way robbed him of his passion to preach the Good News. Nor did embracing that same doctrine prevent George Whitefield, William Carey or CH Spurgeon from being fervent and effective preachers of the gospel and being passionately committed to the mission.

You shall receive power from on highThe third ingredient in our conference is the Charismatic. How did Paul learn that God had many people in the city? God spoke to him in a vision (Acts 18:9), as he did to Peter in Acts 10 in connection with Peter’s commission to go to Cornelius’s house.

Peter tells us that this age will be characterised by men seeing visions (Acts 2:17). We are in the promised age of the Spirit and the Holy Spirit was manifestly involved in the mission, directing, encouraging, restraining, comforting, fortifying. He came upon the original Twelve, releasing them from the concealment of the upper room into the streets of Jerusalem and empowering them to stand boldly against the fearful authority of the Sanhedrin. His confirming signs and wonders authenticated their powerful preaching so that their hearers were confronted by the Word ‘with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven’.

The coming of the Holy Spirit upon these unlearned fishermen transformed them from being Christ-deniers into becoming Christ-proclaimers, demonstrating a boldness reminiscent of Jesus himself. Apart from the enduement of the Holy Spirit, it is incomprehensible that this feeble band of followers so scattered, so fearful, could earn the reputation of being men who were now turning the world upside down. They had skills and courage beyond anything they had known before.

Paul’s claim to the Thessalonians was that the gospel didn’t come to them in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction (1 Thess. 1:5) so that even though they received the word in much pain and pressure, they also knew the supernatural joy of the Holy Spirit (1 Thess. 1:6). Similarly the powerful gospel preaching of Stephen and Philip was accompanied by Holy Spirit activity.

How the 21st century church needs to rediscover its roots in the sovereignty of God, its call to be on a mission and the promise of the Holy Spirit’s power enabling them to fulfil the task. Maybe you should consider attending what should prove to be a very timely and fascinating conference, organised by Acts 29.

David Housholder's Journal, a new blog for our list of missionals, emergents, and various old-schools

Here's an approach to evangelical and charismatic life that sounds very 'missional' to me.

David Housholder;  'We believe in the future of planet Earth and God's creation. We believe that the world (which God so loves) is worth investing in. We believe on focusing on calling heaven into earth, not just in getting people to heaven. According to the Lord's prayer, the Kingdom is something that COMES not just a place we "go to."

'We believe that the Lord's message will transform the whole of creation and some day everything will be as it should be. There will be great hardship and tribulation on the path to this, but the church will prevail and be victorious.

'If you believe in your heart of hearts that the church will fail and need to be evacuated, Robinwood church will challenge your thinking.

'We believe in Grace. We do not believe that we can become holy by human striving. We can only become holy by giving control of our lives to Jesus Christ through his Holy Spirit (Romans 8). We accept everyone, since we are all broken, into fellowship. We invite the Lord to take over and make us holy. As Carrie Underwood sings: "Jesus, take the wheel..." Ephesians 2:8-9 are pivotal in this understanding.'

Martin Luther, Lutherans, 

Traditional Marriage, and Children

October 26, 2010 in Lutheran, politics, Theology-Philosophy | Tags: abortion, Birth Control, elca, Fertility, gay marriage, Genesis, LCMS, Lutheran, Marriage, Martin Luther, Natalism, Order of Creation, Ordination of Gays and Lesbians, sexuality,traditional marriage

We US Lutherans are weathering a scathing season of debate on sexuality.

Don’t want to pick that scab and re-kindle the same tired scripts on both sides of the debate.

But I am fascinated by how little mention (during the debate) has been made of Martin Luther’s landmark essay on this very topic.

In German:
Vom ehelichen Leben

English (Click on for Text) Translation:
The Estate of Marriage

Never the legalist, Luther sees (in crushingly potent typically Luther-esque prose) the establishment of marriage in the Genesis order of creation.

Far from being an idle academic treatise, Luther fully intends to re-make Europe around his new non-monastic ideas. His essay is an ideological invasion.

And he succeeded.

You don’t have to read the whole thing; but a few pages will give you the idea.

We have somehow lost the idea of to-be-promoted biologically generative procreation within covenant Adam/Eve marriage families with earthly non-disposability.

We have bought into the myth of overpopulation (i.e. more people is bad), and have embraced the overuse of birth control and abortion (1/3 of conceptions in the US) as corollaries.

Luther is earthy, alive, and strident in his essay. Vintage Marty. Seriously, I dare you to read it, no matter where you stand on things.

Meanwhile, we (and most Mainline Christian groups) are dying out, only to be replaced by more biologically assertive faith families, who actually believe enough in their way of life to see it thrive.

Follow me on Twitter @RobinwoodChurch

Please browse through my other essays on this page. We just crossed 47,000 downloads this week, and pass this link on to everyone in your sphere of influence.Like

One blogger likes this post.

Lutheran. Expressive, non-legalistic, missional–-but pretty dang Lutheran at the core

Here's an approach to evangelical and charismatic life that sounds very 'missional' to me.

Robinwood Church, Huntington Beach, California
We believe in the future of planet Earth and God's creation. We believe that the world (which God so loves) is worth investing in. We believe on focusing on calling heaven into earth, not just in getting people to heaven. According to the Lord's prayer, the Kingdom is something that COMES not just a place we "go to."

We believe that the Lord's message will transform the whole of creation and some day everything will be as it should be. There will be great hardship and tribulation on the path to this, but the church will prevail and be victorious.

If you believe in your heart of hearts that the church will fail and need to be evacuated, Robinwood church will challenge your thinking.

We believe in Grace. We do not believe that we can become holy by human striving. We can only become holy by giving control of our lives to Jesus Christ through his Holy Spirit(Romans 8). We accept everyone, since we are all broken, into fellowship. We invite the Lord to take over and make us holy. As Carrie Underwood sings: "Jesus, take the wheel..." Ephesians 2:8-9 are pivotal in this understanding.

David Housholder's Journal

Live from the Beach in California  here

''Lutheran. Expressive, non-legalistic, missional–-but pretty dang Lutheran at the core.''

Martin Luther, Lutherans, 

Traditional Marriage, and Children

October 26, 2010 in Lutheran, politics, Theology-Philosophy | Tags: abortion, Birth Control, elca, Fertility, gay marriage, Genesis, LCMS, Lutheran, Marriage, Martin Luther, Natalism, Order of Creation, Ordination of Gays and Lesbians, sexuality,traditional marriage

We US Lutherans are weathering a scathing season of debate on sexuality.

Don’t want to pick that scab and re-kindle the same tired scripts on both sides of the debate.

But I am fascinated by how little mention (during the debate) has been made of Martin Luther’s landmark essay on this very topic.

In German:
Vom ehelichen Leben

English (Click on for Text) Translation:
The Estate of Marriage

Never the legalist, Luther sees (in crushingly potent typically Luther-esque prose) the establishment of marriage in the Genesis order of creation.

Far from being an idle academic treatise, Luther fully intends to re-make Europe around his new non-monastic ideas. His essay is an ideological invasion.

And he succeeded.

You don’t have to read the whole thing; but a few pages will give you the idea.

We have somehow lost the idea of to-be-promoted biologically generative procreation within covenant Adam/Eve marriage families with earthly non-disposability.

We have bought into the myth of overpopulation (i.e. more people is bad), and have embraced the overuse of birth control and abortion (1/3 of conceptions in the US) as corollaries.

Luther is earthy, alive, and strident in his essay. Vintage Marty. Seriously, I dare you to read it, no matter where you stand on things.

Meanwhile, we (and most Mainline Christian groups) are dying out, only to be replaced by more biologically assertive faith families, who actually believe enough in their way of life to see it thrive.

Follow me on Twitter @RobinwoodChurch

Please browse through my other essays on this page. We just crossed 47,000 downloads this week, and pass this link on to everyone in your sphere of influence.Like

One blogger likes this post.

'Emergent' is out; 'missional' is in ...

Ed Stetzer's missiology:

 Long time readers of the blog are familiar with my Meanings of Missional series, but for those who have missed it here is where the conversation unfolded on the blog.

Meanings of Missional

The Meanings of Missional: Part 1
Where we ease into the word, missional. Where did the term come from, and do we really need it today?

The Meanings of Missional: Part 2
Where we begin to look at the relationship between the words mission, missions, and missional.

The Meanings of Missional: Part 3
Where we consider the sentness of the church as fundamental to the word "missional."

The Meanings of Missional: Part 4
Where we look at the role of the church and evangelism in the missio Dei.

The Meanings of Missional: Part 5
Where we consider the need to be God's missionary people, with a biblical definition of mission, focused on the missio dei.

Monday is for Missiology: The Eschatological Dimension of the Missional Church

Monday is for Missiology: The Church, the Kingdom, and the Mission

As I've said before, I believe it is very important to look at theological and historical roots of the missional conversation if we want to frame the current discussion with integrity. If we don't, we could easily make some of the same mistakes that caused the leftward trajectory in a theological direction during the missio Dei movement in the mid- and late-20th century. We want to be faithful to the Scriptures as well as good students of history.

Today we will look at a couple of caveats regarding the eschatological language (the coming Kingdom is "already and not yet") of mission. 


-----------------------  end of quote  --------------------------


Looks like its worth delving into, if you're interested in the missional movement in especially protestant life and witness for Christ.

Evangelical: Missional: Bob Robinson's incarnational-missional take on today's task

Bob Robinson

Incarnational - Missional Ministry

Says pastor Bob --


My passion is to invite people into the life and purposes of Jesus, and then equip them to live out what God intends for them in every aspect of this life, bringing God's good intentions into a hurting world.

I currently engage students with the gospel of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom on college campuses and serve as venue pastor for an experiential worship service.

Thus does missionary to students, Bob R, present his work and vision in core, current, invigorating words.  With his text, the pastor - preacher - teacher, presents a near-screenfull pix of himself.  here's the list of spheres of endeavor with which Bob identifies himself.  The link

that is strongest in attracting my curiosity about Bob and

his contribution -- incarnational and missional, in his own

conception -- is at the bottom of the blue list below.  Bob

Robinson refers us to the Friend of Kuyper website, 

preceded on the list by the website of Jackson Friends Church [in the Quaker tradition], particularly the experiential church service called the Gathering -- extensions of the Church thru its '" "college and young adult ministries."  The latter include sports activities of basketball, volleyball, softball baseball, and golf.  Programs for adults -- elders? -- too.  The pastor of the Jackson Friends Church is David Tobbs.  The rev presents himself and the church:


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