Sent

Seeking the Orphans of God

Dean Eaton

• Publisher: Lutheran Church of Australia
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9780980472691
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Sent Seeking the Orphans of God is for anyone concerned about how to participate with God in sowing the gospel and reaping the harvest.

Many books on missional living describe how to form missional communities and the people within them, but this book goes beyond this to describe how a missional community does relational evangelism together.

It provides small group Bible studies and activities at the end of each chapter, introduced through online video interviews with experienced evangelists. These activities facilitate dialogue and discernment about how to approach the task of relational evangelism amongst your relatives and friends.

Plus, there are two supplementary bonus resources included in this book.

RENEW Love Life Communities: an eight week small group Bible study designed to enable the formation of a team who engages in relational evangelism within your congregation or church planting team.

RENEW Missional Leadership: ten devotions for congregational leaders designed to set up a structure for making disciples who make disciples and facilitate training and support for the church to reap and receive the harvest

Believers feeling confused or apathetic about reaping the harvest will discover here a practical resource which is an encouragement to see, hear and become involved in what God is already up to in people’s lives.

Dean Eaton is a faithful guide who gives us concrete ways to join God in helping to bring people into God’s family in everyday kind of ways. This book reflects a missional theology that will help you cultivate an inclusive loving community that invites all to live into the divine dance of the Father, Son and Spirit. J.R. Woodward, National director, V3 Church Planting Movement. Author, Creating a Missional Culture, Co-author, The Church as Movement

Sent Seeking the Orphans of God and the accompanying Love Life Community studiesare quite possibly the spark that could bring your church alive. Dr Andrew Menzies, Principal Stirling Theological College - University of Divinity.

If you hear God calling you to bring Jesus to your friends, neighbours and workmates, then this is a must-read book for you. Dr Steen Olsen. Director for Mission for the Lutheran Church in South Australia and the Northern Territory former Bishop of the Lutheran Church of New Zealand.

Dean Eaton is an experienced church planter, missional trainer and mentor. He has participated with Christ in church plants in rural, suburban and urban settings in Australia and Japan. Formerly the Principal of Tabor College Australia he is keen to train a new generation of evangelists.

Chapter 1

GOD: Saves

God the Father, Son and Spirit is drawing every human being into their eternal circle of love. This is because God loves all people and desires all to be saved (John 12:32; 1 Timothy 2:4; Psalm 67:1–2). In the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ the full expression of this love of God is seen as the Father judges our sin in the body of His Son. ‘Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners to bring us safely home to God’ (1 Peter 3:18, NLT). Mission is therefore a saving movement from God to the world. To paraphrase Christopher Wright, the only concept of mission into which God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit fits is the one in which they are the beginning, the centre and the end.¹

Evangelism is then the proclamation of this invitation to life within the eternal love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We are asked by Jesus to participate in giving this invitation.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you (Matt. 28:18–20, NRSV).

This makes evangelism a facet of the overall mission of God, which can be expounded as involving the following elements:

•Evangelism²

•Discipleship

•Planting and structuring new churches

•Social justice

•Healing of mind and body

•Giving and receiving the benefits of creation (Bingham, 1999)³

Mission is therefore everything the Church does in obedience to the gospel, including evangelism. ‘It is not the Church that has a mission of salvation to fulfil in the world; it is the mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that includes the Church’ (Moltmann, 1997).⁴ Jesus used a wonderful image to describe what participating in this saving mission of God (Missio Dei)⁵ looks like in everyday life.

God in Christ has called us into the family business the renewal of all things

You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14–16, MSG)

God in Christ has called us into the family business—the renewal of all things; to ‘keep open house’, so that people may open up to God; to be ‘generous with your life’ so that people may discover ‘this generous Father in heaven’. However, defining what evangelism is doesn’t necessarily help us determine what successful mission looks like.

Measuring success

How does God judge success in mission? How can we measure success in evangelism? Is it by the number of people who respond to the invitation of the gospel (converts) or something else? Bryan Stone in Evangelism after Christendom⁶ contends that in the New Testament we observe that it’s about being a faithful gospel witness, which may not result in conversions but quite the opposite–rejection and possibly persecution. So whether we see God at work in miracles of healing and conversions or experience no results and even persecution as we engage in mission, a faithful gospel witness is careful not to glory in what we experience but in what Christ does. If we glory in what we do, we may start to slip into relying on our own plans, strength or ability. ‘God reveals himself most clearly in the cross’ of Jesus Christ and we therefore experience ‘God’s presence and work in our humanity and weakness’ (Olsen, 1995).⁷

So then how do we measure being a faithful witness?

Stone argues that we cannot judge the faithfulness of our witness by measuring the extent to which it is accepted or rejected; we can, however, judge our faithfulness by measuring the reach rather than the spread. The reach is the universality of our invitation—that is, whether it is offered to all or only to some. If evangelism can be measured at all, perhaps it can best be measured by how well a community is socially inclusive and invitational to all people with the good news about Jesus (Stone, 2006).⁸

This inclusive and invitational community that we are called to become is seen in the nature of the relationship between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.⁸ In the 8^th Century a follower of Jesus called John of Damascus described the inner life of God as a constant movement of relational love between the Father, Son and Spirit. Like his namesake John the Apostle, who opens his Gospel proclaiming that ‘…the Word (Christ) is God and eternally co-existed with God…’ (John 1:1), John of Damascus saw that Father, Son and Spirit are constantly and eternally honouring and giving gifts to one another.

One of the greatest theologians North America has ever produced is Jonathan Edwards. Paraphrasing the last paragraph of his unpublished essay on the Trinity, ‘…the purpose of all things is that the Father wanted to give to His Son a Bride (Edwards, 2015).¹⁰ This stunning summary of why we are here is immense in its implications for our faith. It tells us that our creation and redemption are the product of an eternal love relationship between the members of the Trinity.

The French Reformer John Calvin used a wedding metaphor to further expound how this relationship links to gospel proclamation. ‘Whenever we proclaim the gospel, it is as if Christ is once again saying his Wedding vows to His Bride’. This saving God is drawing, wooing all people home and the door of salvation is now set open (Rev. 3:8).

The purpose of all things is that the Father wanted to give to His Son a Bride

Small Group Activity

Small Group Gatherings: Preparation & Format

PERSONAL PREPARATION (15 minutes): During the week prior to each small group gathering watch the next introduction video - www.lca.org.au/sent. The videos are on average 5 minutes. Reflect on the main ideas, biblical passages and concepts described.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• 1. God: Saves
• 2. God: Seeks
• 3. God: Sends
• 4. Sent: Discover the Orphans of God
• 5. Sent: Walk with the Orphans of God
• 6. Sent: Live with the Orphans of God
• 7. Sent: Communicate with the Orphans of God
• 8. Sent: Talk with the Orphans of God
• 9. Sent: Grow with the Orphans of God
• 10. Us: Sent to build up the Church
• 11. Us: Sent to grow Love Life Communities
• 12. Us: Sent to develop Missional Leadership