DownloadJuly 13, 2009 issue
Pastors gather before convention
Trinitarian Is missional, pastors told
By Paul SchragPage:
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COLUMBUS, Ohio — Two hundred fifty Mennonite Church USA pastors got a lesson in practical theology June 30.
An expert on congregational mission told them to be more Trinitarian. And also not to fear change.
“The church that is not changing is probably not being led by the Spirit,” said Craig Van Gelder, a professor at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., and author of several books on the “missional church.”
Van Gelder was the keynote speaker for Pastors Day, which took place before the opening worship sessions of MC USA’s biennial convention.
A member of the Christian Reformed Church, Van Gelder told the Mennonite pastors that understanding God as three persons can motivate Christians to share their faith.
He described two ways Trinitarian theology leads to mission.
First is an understanding of the three-in-one God as a sending God: The Father sends the Son; the Father and Son send the Holy Spirit; the Spirit sends the church to transform the world.
“God is a sending God, so the church is by its very nature created to be missionary,” Van Gelder said.
Second, Van Gelder said, Christians should see the interaction between the three persons of the Godhead as the model for a relational church.
“God exists as a social community,” Van Gelder said. Therefore, “we are communities of reconciled diversity. We welcome the other.”
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