A Lutheran Contribution
edited by Richard Bliese and Craig Van Gelder
In helping to establish a foothold from which to set off on this quest, the authors assert that it is the very gospel itself that needs to be the center. The Lutheran church, well known for holding the gospel in high esteem, needs to let the good news of the gospel sink in and drive its life. This means realizing the wonder of the gift it has been given, and seeking to tell others about it, to give this gift away.
The gift is a call. That is the rallying point for understanding the vocation of the church as one of evangelizing. The good news of Jesus Christ isn't just news of a status-change before God, instead the gift of grace is a call to believers to follow. Echoing Bonhoeffer and Kierkegaard, the authors seek to clearly put out the call to all Lutherans that what they have is worth giving away. Truly treasuring the gospel means sharing it. The authors confront the reader with the question "So what?" What about this gospel. They assert, "Christ has given us a most wonderful gift. So what? So that we can really live! The gift Christ gives is not a blanket of forgiveness that we can wrap around us to keep us warm and dry. The gift Christ gives is a wake-up call! It is a call to a new life. To reject this call is to reject the gift. To ignore this call is to ignore the gift. The two cannot be saparated" (13). As an essential part of this understanding of the call, the authors assert that the call is a call to join God in God's work. The gospel message is the proclamation of what God is doing here among us. We as believers must be attuned to listen to God's moving and seek to become part of it. They leave the reader, and the church, with a poignant question, "If someone does not accept or answer the call, have they received the gift at all?" It may be a hard question for some people and churches to face, but it is essential that it be asked and pondered.
Another critical understanding that proves central to the constructive work of the group is the notion that the gospel is for "everyone everywhere." The gospel has not just been given to a few, and we must not rest contented but must be called to action to spread this good news to all. None are exempt from the scope of this wonderful message.
One of the most important aspects of the work done by this group is their clear and perceptive vision for the emergence of a new culture in the Lutheran church. They enumerate a number of areas in which change must take place if the church is to respond to the call of the gospel. The first of these is the need to reclaim the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Sharing the good news shouldn't be restricted to a ten minute homily at the designated point during the worship service. It definitely shouldn't be thought of as the pastor's job. Instead, the Lutheran church must reclaim the ministry of all the baptized. Each of us, and all of us collectively, have been given the gift and the call of the gospel, and it is the duty of each of us as part of the body to play a vital role in the living of the new gospel life. A second cultural change that the authors advocate is a fuller understanding of the means of grace, traditionally considered to be "Word and Sacrament." Instead, they authors want the church to realize that grace comes in "Word, Sacrament, and Christian community." We as a church embody the grace of God in our words, in our interactions, in our lives. We must be vehicles of God's grace. This is a call to live out the gospel to those we meet. This is done in the realization that the church is the body of Christ, and it is Christ's presence in and among us that is the power at work in the world.
A final emphasis that sums up the vision of the book is embodied in the title of the last chapter, "After the Death of Evangelism-The Resurrection of an Evangelizing Church." Evangelism, understood as one ministry among many, a disjointed proselytizing, must be done away with. Instead, the church must be evangelizing, that is, it must in all of its ministries, in all of its actions, the church, the body of believers, must be always seeking to live out the call of the gospel. We must liberate evangelism from a committee and make it the domain of the entire church, all the time.
I am excited about the prospects for the Lutheran church if they heed the clarion call that goes forth from these pages. The authors have centered their understandings on Jesus Christ, anchored their reflections in Scripture, and have carefully considered the Lutheran confessional heritage. This is a book for Lutherans (and for many others as well), but in one of the most important moves in the book, the authors seek to draw constructively on the strengths of other traditions (the urgency of Evangelicals, the Spirit-focus of Pentecostals) as informative to how the Lutheran church can move forward. These authors don't look at declining enrolment and see the need to get people in the door. This book isn't a call to grow the church. Instead, it is a call to reflect constructively on declining numbers and see the opportunity to reinvigorate the life of the church. This can't help but grow the church, but that must be secondary, an emphasis that comes clearly across through these pages. Instead, the primary concern is getting on board with God's working in the world, hearing and answering the call of Christ. We are not responsible for the results, we are responsible to be faithful and obedient. It is Jesus Christ in his Spirit that is doing the work, for it truly is God's work. But the Lutheran church is called to get on board.
This book is a surprise coming from a Lutheran group. One would not typically look to Lutherans to articulate a clear and exciting theology of mission, but that is exactly what they have done. This book makes sense as an outgrowth of the Lutheran heritage, and claims the best of that tradition as its own and reinvigorates the Lutheran love for the gospel of Jesus Christ. One shortcoming in the book, though, is the careful footwork around the postmodern question, that is, what about other faiths. If we don't believe that Jesus Christ is the only way, why go out there at all? Shouldn't we just leave people alone, especially because intolerance, as evangelizing is often perceived to be, is almost the only inexcusable thing in our culture. The chapter "Navigating Difficult Questions" deals carefully with just these questions, the questions that have been at the heart of the erosion of the evangelical fervor in the Lutheran church. There the authors reaffirm their central message that the message is one to be shared, but they are in danger of losing the ground they have gained, when they call the gospel ones "deepest religious convictions." It sounds as if we're sharing our opinions on politics. Instead, we must reclaim the truth of the gospel, for if we don't believe it is the truth, for everyone everywhere, there isn't any reason to share, and clearly, the gospel is a message to share. Yet, even with that concern in mind, the authors do helpfully assert the need to enter into dialog with our neighbors of different faiths, sharing our faith with them, and relying on the Holy Spirit, the one who truly is the actor. For it isn't our job to save any; that is the work of Jesus Christ in his Spirit.
Boyd, Greg and Paul Eddy Across the Spectrum
Grenz, Stanley Renewing the Center
Kaufman, Gordon In the beginning . . . Creativity
Kierkegaard, Soren For Self-Examination
Kierkegaard, Soren Practice in Christianity
Mannermaa, Tuomo Christ Present in Faith
McGrath, Alister Scientific Theology, vol. 1, Nature
McGrath, Alister Scientific Theology, vol. 2, Reality
McGrath, Alister Scientific Theology, vol. 3, Theory
Padgett, Alan Science and the Study of God
Pinnock, Clark Most Moved Mover & The Openness of God
Vanhoozer, Kevin First Theology
Science & Theology
Soren Kierkegaard