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Tag Archives: missionaries

The Way to the Future is through the Past

In preparation for our Emotionally Healthy Leadership Conference I spent a lot of time reading of about the impact of social media/technology on our formation in Christ along with the importance of learning from other spiritual traditions outside of contemporary evangelicalism to root us deeply in Christ. What are the lessons I learned? 1. We need to learn from Roman Catholics, Orthodox churches and church history. Remember, Luther was anti-Semite. Calvin drowned an Anabaptist for believing in baptism by immersion. Jonathan Edwards had slaves. Azusa Street, in 1906, split on racism.  While my church historian friend, Dr. Scott Sunquist, reminds me that the roots of evangelicalism in the 18th and 19th century was marked by a generous spirit towards other traditions, that is not the case today.  We are often deeply judgmental and narrow. Our church family genogram since Pentecost has many riches and warts. By studying this history, we can see better what. Read more.

Lessons from Church History 1600's to Today

At NLF a few weeks ago, we had a one day course with my good friend, Scott Sunquist a global church historian from Pittsburg Theological Seminary. He focused on implications and lessons from the past for today, beginning with the Protestant missionary movement of the 17th century and then moving to the church in Africa and the Pacific.  It was an outstanding day, one that left us with much to ponder as we consider our mission for Christ. The following were my top applications: 1. Earliest Protestant missionaries were from the margins of the church, that is common people, not professional clergy. The Moravians, the Methodists, the Baptists (e.g. William Carey) were common people with passion and zeal for Jesus.Their stories filled me with great excitement and vision to challenge our own people to “Expect great things from God and attempt great things for God.” 2. One of the applications that came out of. Read more.