Is the church’s mission just overseas or is it in our backyard as well? Are all Christians missionaries or do missionaries just go to a foreign culture? These are the kinds of questions that Mark Driscoll tries to answer in The Radical Reformission. His answer is that we are called to do both. He says, “What I am advocating is not an abandonment of missions across the globe but rather an emphasis on missions that begin across the street, like Jesus commanded (Acts 1:8)” – p. 18.Helpful Lessons
There were several helpful lessons in The Radical Reformission, but let me name four.
First, a healthy understanding of the relationship between the gospel, local church, and culture. In order to be effective in our mission as a church, Driscoll argues that we need to pay attention to all three. When we neglect one of these components, our mission becomes distorted. One of the most helpful parts of the book is how Driscoll illustrates what happens when we ignore either the gospel, church, or culture.
Gospel + Culture – Church = ParachurchWhat is your tendency as a follower of Christ? What is our tendency as a church? Do we do a good job of holding the gospel, church, and culture close together?
Culture + Church – Gospel = Liberalism
Church + Gospel - Culture = Fundamentalism
Second, in order for the church to reach the culture with the gospel, we must understand our culture. His point is that we must cross the cultural barriers that tend to separate the church from those who need to hear the gospel, just like Jesus crossed those barriers.
“One of the underlying keys to the reformission is knowing that neither the freedom of Christ nor our freedom in Christ is intended to permit us to dance as close to sin as possible without crossing the line. But both are intended to permit us to dance as close to sinners as possible by crossing the lines that unnecessarily separate the people God has found from those he is still seeking” – pp. 39-40.Third, we must find ways for the gospel to speak the language of our culture. His point is the gospel applies to every culture. We need to ask what are the unique idols, temptations, and pains of our culture to which the gospel speaks. What characterizes our culture? Is it broken homes and unkept promises? Lack of community and isolation? Sexual promiscuity? Self-indulgence? How does the gospel meet our unique culture?
Fourth, it is also essential to understand our culture’s thoughts, values, and experiences in order to reach them with the gospel. We must see that “the thoughts, values, and experiences of the culture present both opportunities and obstacles for the gospel. It is where our church culture meets the world’s culture that the opportunities and obstacles for the gospel exist. I think Driscoll would argue that we change everything except the gospel so that the values of our life together bridge the values of the culture we are seeking to reach. There seems to be something challenging here, but there seems to be something frightening here as well.
Critique
Even though I don’t agree with everything Driscoll says, he challenges my own understanding, engagement, and faith to reach our culture with the gospel. The one thing that turned me off about The Radical Reformission is Driscoll’s style. He has a relentless style of sarcasm and humor that tends to grate on you after a while. At points his attempt at sarcasm and humor seem dishonoring to God and unnecessarily hurtful to other people. It is certainly not like Jesus. Despite his need to joke about most things, The Radical Reformission is thought provoking, challenging, and very helpful in understanding how the gospel, local church, and culture work together in our mission.
