Luke Geraty

The Spirit empowered Church for the sake of God's Mission

The Vocation of the Spirit: What’s your job?

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Perhaps the finest book on the Holy Spirit, apart from what we read in Scripture, is Clark Pinnock’s Flame of Love: A Theology of the Holy Spirit. I consistently find myself recommending it to people in my church, at conferences, and pretty much anywhere else I go. Yes, it’s that great, practical, and easy to grasp. (Did you click the link and purchase it yet?)

One of the challenges that Pinnock raises concerning the nature and calling of the Church is related to how the Spirit impacts our vocation, our “job,” so to speak. [Read more…]

The Church’s Mission According to Barth and Pinnock

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Karl BarthThe following are some goldmine quotes related to the Mission of the Church, which is tied to the Mission of God. One is from Karl Barth (Church Dogmatics) and the others are from Clark Pinnock (Flame of Love). Peep game:

“The Christian community is not sent into the world haphazardly or at random, but with a very definite task. It does not exist before its task and later acquire it. Nor does it exist apart from it, so that there can be no question whether or not it might have or execute it. It exists for the world. Its task constitutes and fashions it from the very outset. If it had not been given it, it would not have come into being. If it were to lose it, it would not continue. It is not, then, a kind of imparted dignity. It exists only as it has it, or rather only as the task has it. Nor is it a kind of burden laid upon it. It is the inalienable foundation which bears it.” – Barth

and

“The church, filled with the Spirit, is agent of God’s coming kingdom and sacrament for the world. God touches the world when the church speaks the truth, proclaims good news, performs Jesus-actions, identifies with pain, builds community, shares and forgives… Mission is a Spirit event—it is God’s mission, not ours.” – Pinnock

and

“The Spirit comes in power through sacrament and charism to enable the church to participate in God’s mission of mending creation and making all things new. The church is placed at the disposal of the Spirit and commissioned to serve the kingdom in the world. The Spirit is present in order that the world might be touched by divine grace. We have been called out of darkness into marvelous light to declare God’s mighty deeds (1 Pet 2:9).” – Pinnock

and

“God did not pour the Spirit out for us to exult in it as a private benefit. The purpose was (and is) to empower witnesses to God’s kingdom (Acts 1:8). God justifies and saves individuals only to give them a vocation in the service of the kingdom. He awakens a knowledge of the truth in people in order to conscript them into the service of mission. God wants a community that, like Jesus, gets caught up in the transformation of the world. The church is the provisional representation of God’s call to humanity, and like Jesus it exists for the world and nonmembers of the church.” – Pinnock

Yes yes yes and yes. #Missiology and #Ecclesiology and #Pneumatology all hanging out together. Me likey.