The Send Institute has formulated a manifesto to serve as a rallying point for God’s church to effectively honor him in his kingdom advance.
We make statements every day. Most are quite unassuming—small facts needed to navigate life, maintain a healthy marriage, or keep our jobs. Other times we make greater claims. We pledge lifelong marital fidelity, we affirm oaths of national allegiance, or we attest to our salvation in Christ through baptism. These greater claims have life-altering implications.
Great claims are made in public—providing accountability to those making the claims as well as openly declaring a deep resolve to embody the very substance that the claims articulate. Great claims become a public declaration of personal participation in a reality that transcends other obligations. It drives a stake in the ground, avowing what we truly believe and how that belief will affect our behavior.
Our day is one in which almost anyone can make bombastic, public pronouncements regarding any big issue from the comfort of their favorite coffee shop. With a few smartphone keystrokes, we can broadly pontificate about politics, theological preferences, sexual ethics, race relations, or any other topic that draws our ire or interest.
The downside to such access is that it’s difficult to discern credibility amid the innumerable capricious voices raging on any given subject. Many who hear the public cacophony either resolve to listen to those voices that correspond to their predispositions or they grow disheartened by the contradictory array of “truth” being purported – and back away altogether.
That’s why we at the Send Institute thought it wise to make a public statement regarding the mission of church planting in North America. Our day is complex, and many boldly declare prescriptions of what we should or should not be doing.
from
http://feeds.christianitytoday.com/~r/christianitytoday/ctmag/~3/IoakHvI8n_8/why-we-need-church-planting-manifesto.html
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