Bosch emphasizes the importance of
future missions by demonstrating the shift of missions to the “South,” that is
to say Asia, Africa and Latin America. Because these parts of the world have
not experienced a lot of European influence in the ways of missions, these
parts of the world are looking at missions with a fresh perspective. The South
is focused on the “gospel of the kingdom” instead of the “gospel of salvation.”
This implies that the gospel is to be taken all over the world instead of used
just to save people who are like us. Another emphasis from these mission
thinkers is that of the regular people serving as a witness. It does not
require a minister or clergyman to bring the news of the kingdom of God to the
world. I think that these ideas will continue to grow in importance as the
church of the South continues to grow.
Sunday, November 9, 2014
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Definition of Missions
I think that Bosch’s definition of
mission is so broad because there are so many ways to do mission for God’s
kingdom. God gave each person unique talents and abilities, which leads to the
conclusion that he has a unique design for each person to fulfill his mission.
Different personalities and skill sets will be effective in different places
and ways, but can work together to further God’s kingdom. Some people will excel
in evangelism, while others will have a passion for justice or liberation.
Christians that love to serve will do so, and those who can effectively plant
churches will. My personal definition of missions is similar. Missions is
anything that Christians do in the will of God to affect others positively in
his name.
Which has more value, Cross or Resurrection?
The cross is an important part of
the salvation story, but without the resurrection, the cross would have been in
vain. Acts focuses more on the resurrection because Christianity is a gospel of
hope and life. These aspects are only available if Christ not only died, but
rose again. By Jesus dying, he was sacrificing himself in our place of sin. By
his resurrection, he showed the victory he had over sin and death. The true
battle of sin was not won merely by Jesus on the cross, but by his resurrection
and conquering death itself. This is the power of the gospel, which is
demonstrated throughout the mission stories of the book of Acts.
Sunday, November 2, 2014
Honest Photography - part 2
I chose these pictures because a lot
of this trip was about service to the missionaries of the community. The
intentional message is that we did a lot of physical “dirty work.” The possible
unintentional message might be that we had no interaction with the people of
the nearby village. The so called heroes of these pictures are both of us
working. It shows that we did a lot of cleaning and labor. The pictures do not
show the time we spent with the people of the country, but they show the focus
of our trip, to help the missionaries better serve the people they were trying
to reach.
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