Pragmatism in Missions? But the rules…
July 1, 2009 – 3:25 pmIf you have studied missions and missiology for any amount of time, you know that there are a few cardinal rules that you must adhere to when writing, speaking or thinking about missions:
- Make sure you know the latest jargon, or you will be out on the missiological curb.
- Don’t criticize what is working, somewhere, to bring people into the kingdom.
- Don’t be too hard on the Catholics. They help us Christians maintain the majority in the world. And, certainly don’t give the Charismatics grief for their sensitivity to the Spirit.
- Don’t narrow your definition of the gospel or of what it means to be Evangelical too much (i.e. as they are biblically defined), or you will really be in the minority.
Well, if you have been to the SGI conferences, read MM posts or other writings we have been given the opportunity to pen around here, you know we don’t worry too much about the rules of popular missiology.
I read an article in the new 9marks ejournal that I want to commend to you in this regard. It is by the Missions Pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Andy Johnson, and it is titled Pragmatism, Pragmatism Everywhere. He goes after rule #2 a little, and I couldn’t agree much more with what he said.
