Strike the Match with J. D. Payne

Writing and publishing expands your influence in the present and extends your influence into a future (Lord willing) beyond yourself.

In part one of this two-part podcast, I address my approach to the ministry of writing and publishing. I share my philosophy on writing and practical methods.

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Elders are the most influential people when it comes to churches going to the nations. However, such pastors are busy and often so focused on established church ministry they do not take time to develop the needed apostolic imagination.

In this episode, I share 14 thoughts to help church leaders develop an apostolic imagination for themselves and their congregations. Part of the challenge in reaching the nations is not for pastors to give up their ministries, but rather for pastors to remain pastors and lead with this biblical perspective.

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Lesslie Newbigin once stated, “there is no higher priority for the research work of missiologists than to ask the question of what would be involved in a genuinely missionary encounter between the gospel and this modern Western culture.” While Newbigin’s words and work led the Church to claim the “West is a mission field,” they did not produce the paradigm shift for needed apostolic work. Much of Newbigin’s missiology became filtered through a pastoral imagination and implemented through established church structures.

In this episode, I address the need for the apostolic imagination to be applied to the Church in the Western world and how this imagination influences her use of finances.

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The Church has been told to go into all the world and make disciples. The world is a big place. Where should she begin her apostolic work? How does the apostolic imagination relate to the Great Commission and geography?

Most mission work occurs among reached people groups. But with 7000 unreached peoples in the world, should there be a prioritization? I address these and other matters in this episode that continues the apostolic imagination series.

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I return to the discussion of the apostolic imagination in this episode. The majority of evangelicals do not subscribe to an evangelistic priority when it comes to the Church’s missionary activity. The priority is no priority.

This is a recent development in history. As twentieth century theologians returned to the Scriptures, the definition of mission (and missions) became broad and general. But is there a biblical priority and emphasis not connected to the modern concepts of mission and missions? If so, then then time has come to change our language and rethink the priority of no priority.

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One of the most influential U. S. missiologists was David Hesselgrave. After serving in Japan for several years, he was a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Some of his writings include Planting Churches Cross-Culturally, Communicating Christ Cross-Culturally, and Paradigms in Conflict. Hesselgrave passed away in 2018.

Prior to his death, he and his granddaughter, Lianna Davis, collaborated on his last book which was recently published: We Evangelicals and Our Mission: How We got to Where We are and How to get to Where We Should be Going. In this episode, Lianna and I discuss this writing and what it was like to collaborate with her grandfather.

Lianna is the author of Keeping the Faith: A Study in Jude and Made for a Different Land: Eternal Hope for Baby Loss. She may be found at Liannabdavis.com and on Twitter @liannadavis and at IG @liannabdavis.

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How many apostles are in the Bible? Twelve? Twelve plus Paul? More than that? What about Jesus “the apostle and high priest?” Did apostles cease to exist after the first century or remain today? In this episode, I continue with The Apostolic Imagination series addressing fixed and fluid categories of apostles found in the Scriptures. In addition to this, I discuss the primary functions of apostles and the need to expect these expressions for our primary global disciple making labors.

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Mission language forms our ideas and actions. Talking about such language is not a waste of time. Uncertainty abounds when it comes to the language of mission. Definitions are found in the eye of the beholder. Missionary activity is defined as everything from church planting among an unreached people to putting a roof on a building to creation care. Today, missions occur even if the gospel is never shared!

Mission, missions, missionaries, and missional are contemporary terms with the Church. Yet, these words are not found in the Bible, but developed from the 16th century as a mixture of theological, political, military, and economic understandings. Protestants adopted the language in the 18th century with it becoming widespread in the 19th century.

If such terms are unable to be found in the Scriptures, then society and context will determine how the Church understands her global responsibilities and actions. Such language and actions become relative to time and history. The Church needs to return to the Scriptures for the language of global disciple making–a return to the apostolic language and practices.

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With the publication of Transforming Mission (1991), David Bosch acknowledged the Church’s activity in mission has transitioned through several paradigms. His conclusion at the end of the twentieth century was the new paradigm had not arrived but was in the process of development. We are still in this liminal state.

What is a possible way to navigate this transition and position the Church for future mission? In this podcast, I discuss the apostolic imagination that challenges us to rethink ten aspects of contemporary missions: 1) Language; 2) Purpose; 3) Identity; 4) Function; 5) Strategy; 6) Location; 7) Resources; 8) Sending Structures; 9) Partnerships; and 10) the West.

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The topic of climate change makes the news everyday. Yet, few within the missions community are talking about this matter. John Ferch is an exception.

I recently attended the annual Evangelical Missiological Society where I listened to John give a presentation on his experience in Alaska. He provided a fresh and unique perspective, one I thought you needed to hear. Regardless of the causative factors of climate change, things are changing. And some changes are greatly affecting communities and ministries.

John kindly agreed to come on this last episode of season five. Here are a few of the questions we discuss:

Why should missionaries be concerned about climate change?

What is the church’s responsibility toward people displaced by climate change?

How is climate change impacting life in rural Alaska?

How might the church succeed where governments have failed in responding to climate crises?

John provided me with a copy of his Evangelical Missiological Society Paper. I posted it HERE.

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