This morning I read a letter I wrote to my church, Austin City Life. Here it is in full. If you’re part of ACL, please take the time read and reflect and act on it.

To my fellow saints of Austin City Life,

It has been an immense joy to be the church with you over these past couple of years. Through your love for Christ and one another, I have fallen in love with the church all over again. Thank you.

This is no naïve infatuation. I have been consistently challenged by my own sin and shortcomings, as well as yours, but through our common hope in the gospel I have grown fonder of you, and what we are all becoming in Christ.

Together we are experiencing a low-level hum of gospel renewal. Some Christians are rediscovering the gospel all over again. Other Christians are discovering it for the first time, and still more of you, who held no claim to “Christian” at all, have discovered just how beautiful and essential Christ truly is. This is leading to more and more community and mission. For this I praise God.

In Philippians 2:5, Paul told the church to “have this attitude which was in Christ Jesus.” What attitude?

though he was in ​the form of God, did not count equality with God ​a thing to be grasped, but ​made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, ​being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by ​becoming obedient to the point of death, ​even death on a cross. (Phil 2:6-8)

As I labor to see Christ formed in us, I long for us to be “obedient to the point of death”, death to comfort, convenience, and importance, in order be servant-formed communities that give life to others and our city. This is a matter of faith and it is a matter of obedience. Will you join me in having this attitude, which was in Christ Jesus by:

• Caring for the children of our church family by showing them Jesus, keeping them safe, and loving them well. If you aren’t serving our kids, I’m asking you to start serving them right away unless you have a good reason not to.
• Look for new ways to be obedient to the point of death and serve others. As we continue to press into gospel renewal, God is calling us keep less and give more. To embrace sacrifice over convenience in an expression of love for one another, our neighbors, and our city.
• Pray with me for God’s provision for a new Sunday gathering space. Our last day in the Parish will be March 14. The staff have been searching and praying faithfully. Please join us in this.
• Pray for God to provide like-minded elders to join me in shepherding our church. In order to grow with biblical integrity and health, we need more than one elder. Ask God to raise them up.

These are all ways that we can have the attitude of Christ Jesus. They require a persevering belief in the gospel, an abiding commitment to being family, and a dedication to see all of life as mission. We will do it imperfectly, but let us do it boldly.

With you in Jesus,

Pastor Jonathan

Whose Religion is Christianity?: The Gospel Beyond the West
A Book Review

Summary

Professor of Missions and World History at Yale University, Lamin Sanneh, is one of the leading missiologists today.Among other works like Translating the Message and Disciples of All Nations, Sanneh’s book Whose  Religion is Christianity: The Gospel Beyond the West has won several awards. In addition to Sanneh’s fine academic analysis of contemporary issues in missions, his Gambian perspective offers the reader a unique perspective on Christianity.  Using his experience as both a professor of Western students and a student of African culture, Sanneh uses this book to raise a range of questions that explore the impact of the global shift of Christianity from the Post-Christian West to a Post-Western Christianity. The present growth of Christianity in the 2/3rds world alone (24,000 converts a day in Africa) should be enough to pique our interest.

Contributions

Sanneh’s contributions come both in form and content. Using a dialogical form of presentation, Sanneh softens the impact of his exploration of volatile theological and missiological issues. However, the reader is left to question whether or not the questions, purportedly originating with Sanneh’s students, have been printed verbatim? Nevertheless, his content is bold and at times brow-raising, forcing the reader to deal with missiological, theological, and hermeneutical issues that otherwise would be easily passed over. The convergence of Sanneh’s hermeneutical, theological, and missiological statements not only serve to address relevant topics, but also to model an integrated way of thinking about missiology and the world in general.

Learning Theology from the Non-Western World

In question #8 Sanneh asks: “What is the significance of the growth of World Christianity for the West?” To which he replies:

The West can encounter in World Christianity the gospel as it is being embraced by societies that had not been shaped by the Enlightenment, and so gain an insight into the origins that shaped the NT church.

Such statements argue for a more reciprocal approach to mission: teaching and being taught. This is an excellent rebuttal to parochial mission and theology. We have much to learn from the Majority World, not only because of the fresh gospel encounters with culture that mimic the New Testament, but also because of the fine, prophetic theology and powerful mission done in a pre-Enlightenment part of the world. However, at times, Sanneh appears to blockade the blessings the Western church seeks to bring:

The tradition of exegesis that has been practiced in the West seems to have run its course.

Should we, as Sanneh suggests, discard the hermeneutical contributions of the “post-Christian West”? Should we not open our ears to exegesis from across the nations, to discern an orthodox center of gravity that includes centuries of theological wisdom from the West?

Learning Mission from the Non-Western World

Sanneh points out four key reasons for the explosive growth of the church in Africa:

• The end of colonialism
• Bible translation
• Use of vernacular names of God
• Local cultural renewal

What would it look like for the Western Church to focus on parallel issues to advance the mission of the gospel? What if…

• We took a prophetic stance against Consumerism, calling for more sacrifice and less comfort for the sake of the gospel?
• Looked for fresh ways to communicate the Scriptures in our ever-changing technological landscape?
• Creatively used 21st vernacular to contextualize the gospel in the wide-array of cultures and sub-cultures in the U.S.?
• Sought local urban, suburban, rural renewal instead of trying to conform to globalized pop culture?

We have much to learn from Sanneh and the Majority World. Let’s learn from the gospel’s explosive and powerful work beyond the West so that we can release its power once again in our very own states and country.