Browsing by Subject "Mission"

This dissertation argues that, for Luke, universal witness belongs within a broader claim about the identity of Israel’s Messiah. Framed by Luke 24:46-48 (and Acts 26:22-23), the book of Acts narratively construes the unfolding universality of the Christian movement as the unfolding of the universality of Jesus’ Lordship. The “Lukan Commission,” rooted in a prophetic promise, prefigures the role of Acts in narratively unfolding the identity of Jesus as πάντων κύριος (Acts 10:36).

Universal proclamation of salvation in Acts—implicitly by Jesus and explicitly by his witnesses—narratively realizes the universality of Jesus’ Lordship. Luke’s second volume reconfigures the narrative sense of “presence” and “activity” on the basis of Jesus’ exaltation to heaven and Lordship by the Spirit (cf. 2:17-36). Especially as the “word” spreads beyond Jerusalem and the Jewish people, the Lord Jesus’ influence on the unfolding of universal witness becomes pronounced.

Though the apostles receive Jesus’ commission, their outreach is generally restricted to Jews in Jerusalem. Not until the Cornelius incident (Acts 10:1-11:18) does the universal vision of Jesus’ commission (Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8) intersect with apostolic witness, which is why Luke gives the episode almost unparalleled emphasis (cf. 11:5-17; 15:7-11). In this respect, the event proves paradigmatic for Luke’s coordination of christological identity and universal witness, establishing Jesus’ messianic identity as “Lord of all” (10:36). The full scope of Jesus’ identity is what participants in witness must discover in their encounter with the (ethnically) “other” (ἀλλόφυλος).

This theological breakthrough lies behind Paul’s outreach in the Diaspora and finds expression in the makeup of the Syrian Antioch community (11:19-26; 13:1-3), itself the basis for Paul’s outreach to Jews and Gentiles everywhere. In endorsing Antioch’s ministry, Peter, James, and the Jerusalem believers “model” for unbelieving Jews the proper interpretation of the salvation of the Gentiles in relation to Israel’s hopes (Acts 15). Jesus’ identity as universal Lord helps explain Paul’s “turn” to the Gentiles (13:46; 18:6; 28:28) less as a result of Jewish rejection than as a fulfillment of the Messiah’s work as outlined in scripture (1:8; 13:47; 26:23). The receptivity of Gentiles to Paul’s preaching provokes Paul’s Jewish audiences even as it models proper receptivity to the universality of Jesus’ Lordship. The present study confirms that for Luke mission is in part a means for expanding the witnesses’ comprehension of the scope of Jesus’ Lordship in light of God’s work among the Gentiles. Luke’s focus on the response of Jewish believers to this emerging reality in Acts reconfigures notions of χριστός in light of the (narrative) expansion of his identity as πάντων κύριος.

This thesis develops a practical theology for mission with Millennials. This theology engages in an Empirical Task as it gathers data; engages in an Interpretive Task as it reviews the multi-disciplinary conclusions drawn for that data; engages in a Normative Task of identifying theological norms; and engages in a Pragmatic Task of shaping a practical theological response. The method used for this task is described by Richard Osmer in his book “Practical Theology: An Introduction.” Millennials who are unaffiliated with the church are the subject of this project. The project answers the question, “How does the church engage in frontier mission with Millennials who are unaffiliated with mainline congregational ministry?” Three threads will be used in answering this question: the common narrative used by Millennials to describe their lives; the spiritual condition of “not being enough;” and the journey to adulthood.

In 1970, Robert Greenleaf coined the phrase, “servant leadership.” In his book of the same name, Greenleaf argues that leaders must demonstrate unconditional grace and acceptance toward those they lead. Greenleaf’s ideas are still popular today among leaders in both the business and social sectors, but especially in the church. Consequently, many pastors are reticent to use termination as a management technique in favor of attempting to rehabilitate problematic employees. The result, however, is that churches are hindered from achieving their mission by leaders who are more focused on either meeting the needs of their staff or maintaining pleasant relationships than on fulfilling the vision of the church. This thesis attempts to provide a new model of servant leadership that calls on clergy to be devoted to the wider mission of Christ.

The thesis begins by evaluating the crisis that servant leadership creates in the church and the subsequent anxiety that is introduced into the congregation. It then explores a survey administered to clergy across ten denominations that illuminates many of the internal and external barriers in the church that prevent pastors from terminating their staff. Subsequently, the thesis attempts to redeem some of the aspects of leadership that seem to be in tension with the servant leadership model, such as power and authority. Finally, the thesis outlines a new model of servant leadership that retains the best qualities of the servant leadership model but reorients the clergy’s service toward the ultimate mission of the church.

This dissertation suggests that a Methodist theology of evangelistic mission requires placement within an account of ecclesiology and the theological distinction of Church and world. It argues for a vision of the Church not as the environment for or instrument of evangelistic mission, but rather as a visible, practicing, and witnessing "People" in, but not of the world. Such a People appear as Christians engage both the practices of intra-ecclesial formation and extra-ecclesial engagement with the "other half of the reconciling event" in the world, at the same time, leaning both ways at once.

In this equipoise the Church pursues evangelistic mission along a path between ecclesial accommodation for the sake of cultural relevance in the world (understatement) on the one hand, and ecclesial self-absorption that locates witness in an aesthetic display of holiness to the world (overstatement) on the other. Constructively, I argue that the pursuit of this evangelistic mission along this paradoxical path is best envisioned as a practice of intercession. Intercession names the stance of the People of the Church between formation and mission, between tradition and innovation, between God and the world, leaning both ways at once. Throughout I argue that these concerns are not foreign to but stem from Methodist traditions of theology and practice and address a need in the contemporary United Methodist Church for deeper ecclesiological reflection and clarity regarding the shape of faithful evangelistic mission.

The argument begins in Chapter 1 with a review of several contemporary voices in Methodist theology of evangelism, considering the presence (or lack thereof) of the theological relationship of the Church and the world and identifying those who "understate" and those who "overstate" that relationship. In Chapter 2, I ask, "What is the agency of the world?" as a means to engage the lack of theological reflection on the formative influence of the principalities and powers in contemporary (understated) theologies of evangelism. Given the agency of the powers mediated through the example of the modern market-state, I argue for the crucial role of intra-ecclesial formation within contemporary Methodist theology of evangelistic mission. Anticipating the challenge that such a turn to formation tends to favor an overstated differentiation of Church and world, I turn in Chapter 3 to an engagement with John Howard Yoder and the Methodist tradition in order to answer the question: "What is the agency of the Church?" Resisting a reading of Yoder that locates the Church's agency for evangelistic mission in an (overstated) form of aesthetic witness offered to a watching world, I offer a reading of Yoder that locates ecclesial identity in a particular Peoplehood sent to the world to discern and name the alliances between Church and world that reveal the truth of God's reconciliation with the world through Christ. In the final two chapters, I seek to develop an account of Methodist ecclesial identity that "leans both ways" between being a "People called Methodist" formed by the practices of Wesley's General Rules (Chapter 4) and, at the same time, a People shaped via the evangelistic mission of intercession in the world, an image borrowed from the theological vision of Rowan Williams (Chapter 5).

Taken together, these chapters argue for a location of evangelistic mission in the Church as a Peoplehood, a politics constantly in formation, engaging the "other half of the reconciling event" and extending "unrestricted communion" as it serves an intercessory role, standing between God and the world. I conclude with reflection on the impact of such theological vision on the ecclesiology and missiology of the contemporary United Methodist Church in the United States, suggesting the expression of evangelistic mission in "intercessory ecclesial" terms as a guide to the development of new ecclesial communities, institutional expressions of Methodist connectional structuring, and extra-ecclesial partnerships for the sake of service and witness in the world.

The following doctoral thesis explores the Catholic Church’s New Evangelization movement as it relates to the rise of the western-secular (American) paradigm. In an attempt to infuse this evangelistic movement with an undercurrent of rupture, it pulls from modern continental philosophy to faithfully engage the secular age with innovation and holiness. The thesis counters various perspectives on what constitutes the New Evangelization today, arguing instead that 'new evangelization' cannot occur without elements of rupture and subversion towards certain distorted ideologies of secularism.

“Witness” is widely recognized as an essential descriptor of Christian life, in large part because of Jesus’ final words to his disciples Acts 1:8, and yet little agreement exists about what practices constitute Christian witness. Despite Acts’ pervasive interest in “witness” as the shape of apostolic life, no one has yet engaged its entire narrative in order to illuminate its portrait of “witness.” This dissertation fills that gap in Christian scriptural scholarship via cohesive and comprehensive narrative analysis that, following Acts’ lead, privileges a theological hermeneutical lens in order present the epistemic and political aims embedded in Acts’ vision of witness. In Acts, apostolic witness originates with God, and God’s character and power comprehensively shape witness as a communal life-pattern of integrated epistemology and politics that repudiates all forms of falsehood and violence and, instead, embraces truth, resilience, and creativity as exemplified in Jesus’ resurrection. Acts’ portrait of witness urges Christians today toward essential practices of truth telling as well as creative and resilient responses to injustice. This twofold exhortation offers both great encouragement and a strong corrective to Christians engaged in contemporary politics in the United States and beyond.