"Church After Christendom" by Joshua P. Smith

I've just finished reading an article written by Joshua P. Smith entitled, "Church After Christendom: A Gospel-Centered Proposal for Post-Chris...", published in the current edition of the Journal of Urban Mission.  Here are a few quotes that may help in translating the 'missional' perspective within your own community:

"The church cannot seek community on its own terms, but only on God’s. And that will require a biblical, missional love for God and for neighbor that seems to have grown cold in many Western congregations."

 

"Since the fall of humanity, God has been calling into existence a missional people for His own glory and for the salvation of the nations. Although it is often forgotten in the midst of all the Old Testament Sunday School stories and history lessons, this was one of the primary purposes for which God called into existence the nation of Israel, so that it might be a blessing to the nations."

 

"Missional identity is a corporate calling to bring the gospel to bear on all of life. It involves every church member and rejects the unbiblical distinctions between the secular and the sacred in the Christian life."

 

"Genuine missional living is a powerful force that is capable of calling into question established religious traditions–whether they be culturally dominant or self-imposed–by contrasting their spiritual weakness with the actual transforming power of the gospel as seen in a community of transformed people."

 

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  About the Author - Joshua P. Smith

"From 2002 to the present, Joshua P. Smith has served in Pamplona, Spain, with EFCA ReachGlobal, where he has been engaged in church planting, evangelism, leadership training, church-based education, preaching, and small group development. Since 2006 he has led a team planting missional house churches in a largely unreached area just outside the city."

You can read Joshua's article at the Journal of Urban Mission by clicking on "Church After Christendom".