Tag Archives: Missional

Quote of the Week – Brister on Parking the Great Commission

Posted on July 8, 2009 by Andrew J. Nicewander| 19 Comments

I’m led to believe that people are not as persuaded by those things as we think they are. What they are convinced by is the love of Christ communicated in real, tangible ways as they behold the church in action as well as being witnessed to in word and in deed.  A resurgence of the Great Commission does not need to be propped up by programs, personalities, or principles of church growth; rather, it needs a passion for the gospel, the mission, and the lost that provides more than what money can buy and points them clearly to Jesus our Treasure and Savior.

Keep it simple, centered, and strong, and park the Great Commission at the heart of the church.  Jesus will send you to the heart of your city where darkness needs light, despair needs hope, and death needs life.

-Tim Brister (http://timmybrister.com/2009/07/07/parking-the-great-commission/)

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Posted in Quote of the Week, Quotes

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Book Review – “The Celtic Way of Evangelism”

Posted on May 23, 2009 by Andrew J. Nicewander| 657 Comments

“The Celtic Way of Evangelism” by George G. Hunter III is an interesting, somewhat informative, trite and simplistic study of early Celtic Christianity and its historical role in missions and evangelism.

The book begins strong with a solid synopsis of Patrick, the “Apostle to the Irish” and does a decent job of telling the high points of Patrick’s life and ministry. Hunter does an equally good job in describing the community and lives of early Celtic Christianity, expressed in their loves for men and in their hospitality towards strangers. Hunter additionally goes to great lengths to articulate the Celtic Christian’s superb ability to relate to the culture around him and to contextualize the Gospel of Jesus to a lost and dying world. He describes the Celts’ love for art, music and story and he speaks of the Celtic Christian’s ability to craft music and narrative in such a way as to present the Gospel message to the barbarians of their day in the British Isles and to the lost on the European Continent in a meaningful and powerful way.

Hunter spends much of the last half of the book postulating how contemporary Christianity can communicate the Gospel message in the Celtic Way. By itself, this is not a bad goal. Hunter rightly notes the emergence of the post-Christian “New Barbarians”, making a semi-direct correlation between the New Barbarians of today and the barbarians of yesteryear. He notes in these New Barbarians the same worshipful regard for nature, the same disbelief in the God of the Bible and the same self-destructive behaviors of the barbarian. This is not necessarily a wrong correlation to make nor is it unwise to not only learn from past mistakes, but to learn from past successes and ask ourselves how we can use those means to communicate the Gospel. The problem in this book is with Hunter’s approaches to evangelism and Gospel Communication. Instead of asking himself first what the Bible says about missions, Hunter considers the task from a uniquely American and Pragmatic standpoint and asks the dangerous question: “What Works?”.

This faulty approach leads Hunter to trivialize the comparison of the Celtic vs. Roman ways of Christianity and because the Celtic Way “worked” in the British Isles, in Hunter’s mind it so dominates Roman means so as to leave Roman methodologies impotent to affect true change (no matter that Roman Christianity ended up winning and “working” in the long run). Hunter does make a valid point in his comparison, namely that it is better to aim for a people’s heart rather than the outward trappings of culture and society. Yet his pragmatic approach to applying the Celtic Way negatively colors his valid points and leaves the reader feeling his postulations are somewhat lacking.

The book is a good read and is, at the beginning especially, fairly thought-provoking. Hunter’s analysis of the Celtic Way is beneficial and it will cause the reader to desire to study the topic further. Still, the lack of thought given to the Biblical Way of evangelism and Gospel communication is disappointing at best and a dangerous precedent for the serious evangelist.

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Posted in Book Reviews

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Music Wednesday – Send Me

Posted on September 3, 2008 by Andrew J. Nicewander| 513 Comments

This music video was put together by the guys at History Makers.  The artist is Lecrae.  The song is “Send Me”.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjAJn7mLn-s]

send me I’ll go,
send me I’ll go,
lemme go lemme go!
(repeat x4)

i seen it with my own two,
there’s no way i can show you
a perfectly poverty stricken people with no view.
And i bet you can’t believe this,
they never heard of jesus.
Heard young butler, lil wayne, and young jeezy.

No one’s signing up to go on missions this summa.
Rather sit at home and watch exibit pimp in a humma
while a nine year old is shot down.
No one’s screaming ‘stop now!’
no bridge illustrations for criminals who on lock down.

People deep in africa
looking for an answer bra’.
In china man,
they’re dieing man,
until they know who died for sins.
So look what grace did.
Not for us to stay here
inside our comfort zones
at home in mama’s basement.

Get out on the grind y’all.
Ain’t no better time doll.
I know y’all read the great commission.
Let me just remind y’all:
make disciples of the nations.
Teach’m to obey the lord.
Have to lead someone to christ before i face the lord.

Send me I’ll go,
send me I’ll go,
send me I’ll go,
lemme go lemme go!
(repeat x4)

hey! After, 1,000 years in the west and the churches
get’n bigger daily without understand’n worship. (say what?)
Some regenerate but a lot ain’t saved.
You walk outside and be surprised cuz the block ain’t changed.
And the numbers they be get’n me.
Something just ain’t hit’n them.
America ain’t christian they practice’n the ritual.
That’s why we should be mission though.
Hey, what you think i’m spit’n for?
The united states is die’n
and in the east is looking pitiful.

Some places if they catch you
they’ll arrest you.
They’ll serve you,
but they still need the word too.
The gospel should be heard too.
We claim we ain’t ashamed,
but we ain’t hit the block up.
Were in our christian bubble,
while our brotha’s get’n locked up.
Lord i wanna stock up,
pack a bag and walk up
in a country where my faith may get me shot up
anywhere i go, whether my city or far abroad,
i just wanna show’ christ the risen holy god.

Send me I’ll go,
send me I’ll go,
send me I’ll go,
lemme go lemme go!
(repeat x4)

i know they’re die’n in the streets over in the middle east.
Some kids sink in piece
others hold’n up a piece.
If the violence doesn’t cease,
then at least the deceased
might know jesus as their savior as their bodies hit the streets.
And i know this is a graphic view.
And i pray that it’s attack’n you.
Track’n you to act and do
what you see in the back illusion.
Mathew twenty-four and fourteen.
We should read it twice
before we think that life is just a battle
see we free in christ!
Look dawg! Life is more than church work and football!
What if you were dead and seen that christians overlooked y’all!
This is why we leave the couch
and leave the comforts of our house
to show a die’n world a god they’ll probably never read about.

The great commission says make disciples of all nations.
Have we even made them in our own nation?
Come on christians!
Missions exist because worship doesn’t.
People don’t worship the god who made them.
We’re ambassadors.
Let’s go!

Send me I’ll go,
send me I’ll go,
send me I’ll go,
lemme go lemme go!
(repeat x4)

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Posted in Music, Music Wednesday

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Music Wednesday – Lecrae

Posted on July 16, 2008 by Andrew J. Nicewander| 466 Comments

Last week I posted a video by Lecrae singing “Send Me” at Mars Hill Church.  Since then, I’ve come across a video of this song put together by History Makers.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhIKUSU6m8w]

Also, I found these videos be Lecrae of him singing “Fanatic”.  The first video has a great clip of him talking before the song, but the song itself has a fairly poor quality.  So, I also found a video from what looks like the same concert that is a little better quality (without the pre-song chat).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwmmZvivMCM]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OffoCr-Yl8I]

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Posted in Music, Music Wednesday

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