emergent missions

From Emerging Churches on the mission of the church, "The church has no separate mission of its own. God already has a mission, and the church has the opportunity of participating in God's mission." This is reminiscent of Blackaby's Experiencing God and I like it. Ben Edson is quoted as saying,

... God is already working in the world. Our role is to discover where and then to stand alongside God. Many evangelicals believe they are taking God to the world. I do not like the dualism associated with that kind of theology.

Our role in missions is "identifying with [people] in their world to discover in what ways God may already be at work in their lives." God will build His Church. If we really want to be missional, we need to be alert (i.e., see the kingdom of God) and then join with Him - as opposed to going to conferences to learn outreach strategies to build our own programs.

One of the things underlying the ability to see the kingdom is to be in relationship with those He is working in.

Technorati Tags: Emerging Church, evangelism, Kingdom of God, missional, outreach