The Mission of the Church

I am nearly finished with N.T. Wright's "Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church." The scholarship is tremendous and Wright's application to the church has the potential to shift some paradigms! At least, that's my hope.

Wright claims that, in light of God's Kingdom project (i.e. the new heaven and new earth that we read about in Revelation 21 & 22 and Jesus' main mission of announcing and inaugurating the Kingdom of God) that the church's work is this: justice, beauty, and evangelism.

I love it! Justice, beauty, and evangelism. The framework that Wright is proposing advances us beyond the old liberal/conservative, evangelism vs. social gospel debates of the last 150 years. He takes the gospel imperatives found in both Matthew 25 and Matthew 28 (some of us have had this conversation before!) and combines them into a clarion call for the church.

Justice, beauty, and evangelism.

Glorious!

There is so much more to write but I've got to set-up a computer w/pictures for a funeral.

I very much want to hear what you think about this!