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Martin Luther's Mission Theology
For those struggling to understand how transformation is consistent with traditional Lutheran practice, Dave Daubert, the ELCA Executive for Renewal of Congregations, has drawn from Martin Luther's writing a clear understanding of Luther's call for mission. Find his article in a Word document here:
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Quoting Daubert, "Luther's agenda to reform the church assumed that a high percentage of those officially connected and institutionally churched people in his time were functionally non-Christian. The object of his reforms was to transform the institutional church in order that people might be confronted by the true gospel of Jesus Christ and come to believe in a God of mercy and unconditional forgiveness that few in Luther's time had ever encountered."
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Many of my traditional Lutheran friends look askance at what Walt Kallestad is doing in Phoenix at the Church of Joy, and what Mike Foss is doing at Prince of Peace in Minneapolis, and say, "That's not Lutheran." I find Dave Daubert's article is compelling evidence that Luther would once again come down on the side of the reformers.
I was at a retreat looking at the church in the 21st century a couple of years ago with Don Saliers. Don teaches liturgy at the the Candler School of Theology at Emory in Atlanta. (His daughter Emily, by the way, is one of the Indigo Girls.) Don said, "For all those who say, 'We should respect the traditions of the church,' I just wish those traditions extended back further than 50 years in time. I wish we would respect the traditions of the first century, of the third century, of the Reformation."
For those of you encountering similar resistance to ideas of transformation in your midst, download this article and read it over, and give it to your leadership. Spend half an hour at your next leadership gathering in dialog about what we could learn from Luther about our need to focus on Mission.
Posted by: Gregg Burch at October 25, 2004 08:48 AM
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