Leaning Both Ways at Once. Jeffrey A. Conklin-Miller

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СКАЧАТЬ in initiatives and programs, institutions and structures, that are simultaneously larger than and smaller than the contemporary congregation. We will consider some of these embodiments in a brief conclusion.

      The Hope for This Work

      In his foreword to the re-release of Julian Hartt’s book, Toward a Theology of Evangelism, Stanley Hauerwas suggests that to find a book about evangelism written by a theologian might come as a surprise. This is the case, he says, because

for some time those concerned about evangelism, as well as those writing about it, have not been theologians. They have been sociologists or people that specialize in marketing . . . [and] if the church is to recover a proper sense of evangelism, that is, an understanding of evangelism that is not equated with church growth then a book about evangelism written by a theologian will be a crucial resource.31

      This study exists as a contribution to the conversation about the ecclesial identity and the practice of evangelistic mission in the Methodist tradition, and particularly, The United Methodist Church in North America. Even though this study arrives at a moment of division and potentially the fracture of United Methodism, I offer it as an engagement in these conversations with an unmistakable concern for the development of a robustly Wesleyan theological voice in the determination of ecclesial identity and evangelistic mission. To that end, I hope that it joins many others emerging in this field, to serve together as “crucial resources” in this important conversation. How can we continue to speak into the intricate work of discerning the particular needs, the possible adhesions, necessary renunciations, and potential alliances in the textured space where pastors and congregations, where leaders and institutions, where Christians live—namely, at the intersection of Church and world? Our work in answering this question begins now.

      1. Peachey, “Toward an Understanding,” 27.

      2. Bryant, “Invitation,” para. 2, 11.

      3. Bryant, “Invitation,” para. 2, 11.

      4. Powell, “Cathedral Faces Criticism,” para. 5–10.

      5. See “Ashes to Go”; Shaffer, “Too Busy for Church?”

      6. See Conger, “Are Ashes to Go a Protestant no-no?”; Sniffen, “Ashes to Go or Not to Go.”

      7. Specia, “God Save the Cathedral?,” para. 15.

      8. Alper, “From the Solidly Secular,” para. 3.

      9. Lipka, “Closer Look,” para. 3.

      10. Sociologist Mark Chaves reports that “involvement in American religious congregations has softened over recent decades. Aggregate weekly attendance at worship services is either stable or very slowly declining since 1990, but it clearly declined in the decades before that, and the percent of people who never attend is steadily increasing. Moreover, each new cohort of individuals attends religious services less than did earlier cohorts at the same age, and each new generation of Americans is less likely to be raised in a religiously active family than were earlier generations” (Chaves, “Decline of American Religion?,” 3).

      11. With the term “evangelistic mission,” I mean to bring attention to evangelism’s location inside the broader frame of the missio Dei, God’s creative, redemptive, reconciling activity throughout all creation. With such a placement, I show agreement with Dana Robert, who has argued that “the relationship of evangelism to mission is like the relationship of the heart to the body” (Robert, “Evangelism as the Heart of Mission,” 4). The term “evangelistic mission” hopefully keeps this relationship before us.

      12. Jackson, Offering Christ, xii–xiv.

      13. Jackson, Offering Christ, xiv.

      14. Jones, Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor, 121.

      15. Jones, Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor, 124.

      16. Jones, Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor, 128–32.

      17. Jones, Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor, 131.

      18. Jones, Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor, 132.

      19. Jones, Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor, 195–96.

      20. Jones, Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor, 194–96.

      21. Jones, Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor, 198.

      22. Jones, Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor, 198, 200–201, 203.

      23. Jones, Evangelistic Love of God and Neighbor, 191–203.

      24. Chapman and Warner, “Jonah and the Imitation of God,” 43. See also Warner, Saving Women.

      25. Jones, “Practice of Christian Governance,” 117.

      26. Heaney, Redress of Poetry, 3–4. I am indebted to Jones, “Practice of Christian Governance,” 117, who mentions Heaney.

      27. Heaney, Redress of Poetry, xiii.

      28. Heaney, Redress of Poetry, xiii; Weil, Gravity and Grace, 92.

      29. Weil, Gravity and Grace, 92.

      30. Weil, Gravity and Grace, 92.

      31. СКАЧАТЬ