Ecclesial Futures最新文献

{"title":"Roxburgh, Alan J., and Robinson Martin. 2018. Practices for the Refounding of God’s People: The Missional Challenge of the West","authors":"Christopher B. James","doi":"10.54195/ef12056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.54195/ef12056","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":151321,"journal":{"name":"Ecclesial Futures","volume":"507 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130878606","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Moynagh, Michael. 2017. Church in Life: Innovation, Mission, and Ecclesiology","authors":"Patricia Todjeras","doi":"10.54195/ef12055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.54195/ef12055","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":151321,"journal":{"name":"Ecclesial Futures","volume":"106 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115157324","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Missio Dei as Flourishing Life","authors":"Nelus Niemandt","doi":"10.54195/ef12050","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.54195/ef12050","url":null,"abstract":"The idea of flourishing life has become one of the most important concepts in theological discourse, understanding human flourishing as at the heart of the Christian gospel. This literature and document-based research links the concept of flourishing life with the missio Dei and presents it as a contextually relevant theological interpretation of the missio Dei. The Church’s participation in God’s mission includes contributing towards flourishing life, and it concludes that such participation is of particular importance to ecclesiology. Missional ecclesiology is interested in everyday life and in faithful presence in everyday communities. The research follows an incarnational approach and argues for a Christian lifestyle focussed on the rhythms of everyday life in a way that appreciates the importance of the material life. It proposes attending to created life, sustained life and consummated life. The connection between flourishing life and the missio Dei underscores the important role of the Church in earthkeeping and affirms the Church’s calling to take responsibility for creation. The Church participates in sustaining life through four principles: conservancy, safeguarding, fruitfulness and Sabbath rest. In terms of consummation, the expectation of the end influences the here and now and how the church acts in everyday life.The research demonstrates that the connection between the missio Dei and flourishing life does have important implications for the Church’s public theology and the challenge to articulate a positive vision of life. It proposes a pluralistic social vision focussed on diversity, unconditional love, Jesus Christ as the light of the world, the moral equality of all human beings, and freedom of religion. The research concludes by attending to faithful presence as a way to translate the missio Dei into church praxis. Ecclesial life is located within the mutual concerns of the neighborhood. Faithful presence includes practices such as listening to the narrative of your place; enacting God’s peace in neigbourhoods; serving justice and reconciliation, allowing truth to flourish; and faithful reciprocal relationships with the created world.","PeriodicalId":151321,"journal":{"name":"Ecclesial Futures","volume":"32 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114153514","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Free for Mission","authors":"S. Hagley","doi":"10.54195/ef12054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.54195/ef12054","url":null,"abstract":"Working at the intersection of ethnographic and missional theology, this essay argues for the central role of fieldwork for discerning missional identity in congregations. Recent developments in ecclesiology and ethnography have clarified the embodied nature of theological knowledge, disclosing the practical wisdom and cultural locatedness of the researcher and congregation. While ethnography has been used to help congregations understand their context and discern a missional vocation, the ongoing theological and formational nature of such practices are often undertheorized in relationship to missional church. Drawing from Robert Jenson’s notion of the Spirit as God’s freedom, liberating God and creature for God’s future, this essay suggests ethnographic fieldwork as a liberative practice for the congregation, freeing it to participate in the boundary-crossing and sensemaking work of missional church. In working with congregations, I’m often greeted by some version of the question: “Are we (meaning, the congregation I’m working with) missional yet?” The question comes loaded with curiosity and concern. What, they ask, is a missional church, and would we know one if we saw it? Even more significant: how will we know when the work we are doing to renew our theological imagination and develop partnerships with our neighbors will pay off? The question comes from a good place, but it also leads into a deceptive trap, for any answer will betray the dynamism that “missional” tries to name (Guder 1998, 3–5). And yet, the question also unveils a theo-practical ambiguity at the heart of the missional church. The problem is not just that missio Dei theology holds together unreconciled tensions between the God-church-world relationship, but that the boundary-crossing practices that shape the missional vocation of a congregation are viewed instrumentally, as a means to a missional end. Congregations, seeking to identify as “missionary by [their] very nature,” and reorient congregational life through practices of missional discernment, can be forgiven for thinking of “missional” as a fixed arrival point (Guder 2015, 9). In what follows, I explore the theological significance of ethnographic practices for missional congregations. A staple of many approaches to missional renewal and missional church plants, church leaders and steering committees regularly employ the basic tools of ethnographic fieldwork to better understand their own community and their context or neighborhood (Croft and Hopkins 2015; Roxburgh 2011). In descriptive terms, these practices equip congregants for deep listening, attentive observation, and disciplined curiosity. They also place congregants in new places and with new people, drawing these experiences into congregational reflection and discernment. While neither professional ethnographers nor academic theologians, congregants are given through these practices new connections to neighbors and offered new vantage points from which to ref","PeriodicalId":151321,"journal":{"name":"Ecclesial Futures","volume":"114 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116466901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Stories that Shape an Understanding of God’s Mission in the World","authors":"Kristine M. Stache","doi":"10.54195/ef12052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.54195/ef12052","url":null,"abstract":"Stories collected through interviews with thirty visionary leaders in the ELCA give us a glimpse at how leaders understand God at work in the communities they serve and the way they lead. Through these stories, a theological claim is heard loud and clear: God is up to something in the world and we are called to participate in God’s mission in some form as faithful, hopeful ministry leaders. These sacred stories, filled with faith and doubt, hope and fear, courage and vulnerability push and pull the leaders interviewed into a life with Christ to be a transformative presence to and with others. These voices describe a different picture of church than much of the current data showing a decline in denominational adherence. Findings from two of the themes explored in this project will be share in this article: community and leadership.","PeriodicalId":151321,"journal":{"name":"Ecclesial Futures","volume":"38 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122727901","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Missiological Perspectives from Germany","authors":"Michael Herbst","doi":"10.54195/ef12053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.54195/ef12053","url":null,"abstract":"This article argues for innovation and mission in the Lutheran Churches of Germany. The authors approach this topic by drawing on research on innovative and missional projects in rural areas in Germany. The authors are looking at rural areas where few people would expect innovation. Presenting a study called “Landwards” and the evaluation of exemplary projects in rural areas in Eastern Germany, it is possible to review key factors for innovative and missional church development. One of the most intriguing factors is that, compared to international studies on missional church development (like fresh expressions of church in the Church of England or pioneering places in the Protestant Church in the Netherlands), it can be shown that lay leaders do not play the dominant role in starting the initiatives. However, lay people organized in teams do seem to be the engine of on-going innovative initiatives in rural areas. This raises different questions regarding the training of leaders, for example, or the collaboration of such initiatives with established churches. The “Landwards” study points out the possibilities of innovation in rural areas in and adjacent to the Lutheran structure of being a “Volkskirche.” This is a rather original way to deal with the challenges of being a state-like church in Germany.","PeriodicalId":151321,"journal":{"name":"Ecclesial Futures","volume":"140 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115814426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Paas, Stefan. 2019. Pilgrims and Priests: Christian Mission in a Post-Christian Society","authors":"Patricia Todjeras","doi":"10.54195/ef12057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.54195/ef12057","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":151321,"journal":{"name":"Ecclesial Futures","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121206364","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Towards the Acceptance of Diversity","authors":"S. Müller","doi":"10.54195/ef12051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.54195/ef12051","url":null,"abstract":"During the past fifteen years, the self-understanding of the Church of England, a traditional state church with its parish structure has changed. The mother church of the Anglican World Communion claims since 2004 to be a mixed economy church; one that supports and recognises innovative ecclesial spaces (fresh expressions of Church) as church, as well as parish churches. It is the goal to have an innovative diversity of churches in a pluralistic society. At the same time these churches should be recognisable and contextual. It is the concept of the mixed economy that manages a fair cooperation between parochial and fresh expressions of Church. In the meantime, the concept of mixed economy is not only received in the UK, but rather in different national and free churches in continental Europe. As of late the concept is taken up by the CPCE (Community of Protestant Churches in Europe).","PeriodicalId":151321,"journal":{"name":"Ecclesial Futures","volume":"44 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124238008","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Gauntlett, David. 2018. Making is Connecting: The Social Power of Creativity, from Craft and Knitting to Digital everything","authors":"Steve Taylor","doi":"10.54195/ef12058","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.54195/ef12058","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":151321,"journal":{"name":"Ecclesial Futures","volume":"132 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115900075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}